RFI Sources Sought: Escort Services for Unaccompanied Alien Children

[thorfourwinds]

29 January 2014

Procurement Type:  Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought

Title:  Escort Services for Unaccompanied Alien Children

Classification Code:  V- Transportation/Travel/Relocation

NAICS code:  561612

Primary POC:  Rachel Ali, Contract Specialist/ Rachel.Ali@ice.dhs.gov

Secondary POC:  Tony Ross, Contracting Officer/ Tony.Ross@ice.dhs.gov

A.  Introduction

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has a continuing and mission critical responsibility for accepting custody of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) from U.S. Border Patrol and other Federal agencies and transporting these juveniles to Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters located throughout the continental United States.

ICE is seeking the services of a responsible vendor that shares the philosophy of treating all UAC with dignity and respect, while adhering to standard operating procedures and policies that allow for an effective, efficient, and incident free transport.

The Contractor shall provide unarmed escort staff, including management, supervision, manpower, training, certifications, licenses, drug testing, equipment, and supplies necessary to provide on-demand escort services for non-criminal/non-delinquent unaccompanied alien children ages infant to 17 years of age, seven (7) days a week, 365 days a year.

Transport will be required for either category of UAC or individual juveniles, to include both male and female juveniles.

There will be approximately 65,000 UAC in total: 25% local ground transport, 25% via ICE charter and 50% via commercial air.

Escort services include, but are not limited to, assisting with: transferring physical custody of UAC from DHS to Health and Human Services (HHS) care via ground or air methods of transportation (charter or commercial carrier), property inventory, providing juveniles with meals, drafting reports, generating transport documents, maintaining/stocking daily supplies, providing and issuing clothing as needed, coordinating with DHS and HHS staff, travel coordination, limited stationary guard services to accommodate for trip disruptions due to inclement weather, faulty equipment, or other exigent circumstances.

In emergency situations, the Contractor shall be called on to provide temporary shelter locations (such as trailers) with shower facilities for juveniles who are pending placement with HHS when bed space is unavailable nationwide for extended periods of time.

The Contractor shall provide temporary guard services and other support as necessary during these emergencies.

In addition, the Contractor shall have personnel who are able to communicate with juveniles in their own designated language(s). While this may not require each employee to be fluent in all of the encountered languages, personnel should have access to and knowledge of translation services.
 

B.  ICE Standards/Special Requirements

The contractor is required to perform in accordance with the ICE Performance Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS 2011), all ICE policies related to the transportation of juveniles (see the ICE Family Residential Standards at http://www.ice.gov/detention-standards/family-residential/) as well as the Flores Settlement Agreement, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, and the Homeland Security Act of 2002. In cases where other standards conflict with DHS/ICE Policy or Standards, DHS/ICE Policy and Standards will prevail.

ICE Inspectors will conduct periodic inspections to assure compliance of the aforementioned standards.

Personnel shall have the knowledge and experience to transport individual children with special needs.  Often times, children with special needs may require a transportation method that is time saving and direct, i.e. by commercial airline. Contractor shall also provide for accompanying medical care. Additionally, due to exigent circumstances, the Contractor shall be required to transport juveniles via ground to HUB airports or other staging areas that are not located within the area of initial apprehension.   

The Contractor shall follow a fully developed training curriculum and transporting staff shall have the highest level of competency possible.

Areas of training shall include, but are not limited to the following: Airport rules and regulations for travelers, crisis intervention, child development, working with and transporting youth with special needs, transporting youth with behavioral problems, CPR & First Aid training, non-secured UAC policy and procedures and the implementation of contingency plans in the event of a crisis during transport, which include de-escalation techniques.

Background Investigations and Suitability Screenings will be conducted on all Contract Employees by the Office of Professional Responsibility and Personnel Security Unit (OPR-OSU).

The Contractor shall agree that each employee working on this contract will successfully pass the DHS Employment Eligibility (E-Verify) program operated by USICS to establish work authorization and U.S. Citizenship.

Employees must reside in the United States.

C.  Contract Type

The Government anticipates awarding a five (5) year Fixed Price Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle consisting of a one year base period, and four (4) option years.

The Service Contract  Act is applicable to this acquisition.  All required clauses, provisions will be included in the solicitation and resulting contractual instrument.

The anticipated release date of the solicitation is March 3, 2014.  The solicitation closing date will be thirty (30) days after release of the Request for Proposal (RFP).

Projected Set-Aside:  All business sizes are welcome to participate; however, ICE is trying to determine small business interest, particularly HubZone companies. All information received in response in to this notice will be used to determine the appropriateness of any small business set-aside for this requirement.

D.  Place of Performance: 

Service Area: Throughout the Continental United States (US)

The area(s) or region(s) serviced may occur either with a phased approach over a period of several months to a full year.  Alternatively, the Contractor shall perform the entire transportation function upon full funding.  For example, the following two circumstances may occur:  (1) The contractor could initially provide transportation services only in the Southwest Region of the U.S. for those juveniles who are apprehended in the state of Texas; or, (2) The Contractor may be required to provide transportation services for all juveniles who are in DHS custody throughout the continental U.S.   

E. RFI Purpose/Requirements

The purpose of this RFI is to obtain market information and capabilities for planning purposes and to determine appropriate strategies to meet the Agency's requirements.  This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a commitment for an RFP in the future.

Responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract.  Responders are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this announcement and information submitted in response to this RFI will not be returned. 

Interested parties are instructed to submit the following information: (Note: Please do not exceed 5 pages per RFI submission)

POC information (name, title, phone number, address, email address, etc.)
Socio-economic status
Brief Company Capability statement (to include addressing all special needs as stated above)

F. Submissions and Point of Contact Information

Submit written or electronic submissions via email to Rachel.Ali@ice.dhs.gov by 1:00pm EST on Monday, February 19, 2014. 

--- End of RFI ---

[thorfourwinds]

90,000 illegal alien children could be caught trying to cross US border in 2014
Published June 05, 2014 Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Border Patrol agents could arrest as many as 90,000 children trying to illegally cross the Mexican border alone this year, more than three times the number of children apprehended in 2013, according to a draft internal Homeland Security memorandum reviewed by The Associated Press.

In the May 30 memo from Border Patrol Deputy Chief Ronald Vitiello to the National Security Council's transborder security directorate, Vitiello said Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics estimates that by 2015 the number of children apprehended while traveling alone could grow to 142,000.

The government has previously estimated that more than 60,000 children could be apprehended along the border this year. All the estimates are for the government's fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Children apprehended with their parents are not part of this count of illegal border crossings.

[...]
The Homeland Security department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[...]
Last month the Office of Management and Budget said in a two-page letter to the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee that the increase in the number of children crossing alone would likely cost the government at least $2.28 billion, about $1.4 billion more than the administration had initially asked lawmakers to budget for its "Unaccompanied Alien Children" program.

Rampant crime and poverty across Central America and a desire to reunite with parents or other relatives are thought to be driving many of the young immigrants.

Detained children are supposed to be transferred within 72 hours to HHS to be housed in shelters until they can be reunited with parents or guardians. Officials then begin searching for relatives or other potential guardians in the U.S.

[thorfourwinds]

HHS: 60K Unaccompanied Illegal Alien Children Will Be Caught in '14; Up 815% in 3 Yrs

(CNSNews.com) - The Department of Health and Human Services is estimating in its new budget proposal that the number of unaccompanied alien children who will be caught having illegally entered the United States will rise to 60,000 in fiscal 2014.

That is up about 815 percent from the 6,560 unaccompanied alien children (UAC) who were apprehended in the U.S. only three years ago in fiscal 2011.

"Since FY 2011, the annual number of arriving UAC has increased from 6,560 to an estimated 60,000 for FY 2014," says HHS's "Budget in Brief."

A fact sheet published by HHS's Administration for Children and Families (ACF), whose Office of Refugee Resettlement is responsible for dealing with minors illegally entering the United States without their parents or a legal guardian, indicates that beginning in FY 2012, and continuing in FY 2013, the number of these children skyrocketed.

"On average between 7,000 and 8,000 children are served annually in this program," says the fact sheet. "In Fiscal Year 2012 (October 1, 2011 – September 30, 2012), this number jumped dramatically, with a total of 13,625 children served by ORR that year. In FY2013, this overall increase continued, resulting in 24,668 UAC referrals from DHS for the 12-month reporting period."

"An unaccompanied alien child is a child who has no lawful immigration status in the United States; has not attained 18 years of age; and, with respect to whom, there is no parent or legal guardian in the United States, or no parent or legal guardian in the United States available to provide care and physical custody," says the fact sheet.

According to HHS, the vast majority of the unaccompanied alien children arriving in the U.S. come from Central America—not Mexico.

"Most are over 14 and approximately three quarters of them are boys," says the ACF fact sheet. "In FY 2013, origin of youth in this program was as follows: Guatemala (37%); El Salvador (26%); Honduras (30%); Mexico (3%); Ecuador (2%); and Other (3%). Over the years, the breakdown per country of origin has remained relatively constant."

"Most children are placed into care because they were apprehended by immigration authorities while trying to cross the border; others are referred after coming to the attention of immigration authorities at some point after crossing the border," says ACF. "The average length of stay in the program is currently near 35 days. Of the children served, some 85% are reunified with their families."

ACF lists among the reasons unaccompanied children come to the U.S.: "To escape violence, abuse or persecution in their home countries. To find family members already residing in the United States. To seek work to support themselves, their family, or their own children. Were brought into the United States by human trafficking rings."

The administration says it cannot now predict how many unaccompanied alien children will be discovered in the U.S. in fiscal 2015, which begins on Oct. 1.

"As directed by Congress, ACF is meeting with other government agencies--this has included the Departments of Homeland Security, State, and Justice--in an effort to better understand the reasons for the increase in the number of UAC arrivals and develop strategies for managing rising UAC costs," says the HHS Budget in Brief.

"Due to the volatile nature of this program and ongoing discussions of a long term policy solution, the Administration is not able to reliably predict the number of UAC who will arrive in FY 2015 at this time."

[thorfourwinds]

Arizona Still Struggling with Shipment of Foreign Children from Texas Border

8 June 2014

The federal government is unable to accommodate the flood of illegal aliens that have "overwhelmed" the Texas-Mexico border. As a result, the State of Arizona and its residents must accommodate many of the new illegal immigrants.

Thousands of illegal immigrants were recently sent from Texas to Arizona-based holding facilities, which have become overcrowded. Now state officials have been forced to resort to a makeshift housing center in Nogales, Arizona for hundreds of illegal immigrant children. Arizona officials are in dire need of medical supplies and living materials for the illegal immigrants, according to The Associate Press (AP).


Federal agents began sending illegal immigrants to Arizona after a sharp spike in illegal immigration caused Texas-based facilities to become overwhelmed. Texas' Rio Grande Valley area has seen the most significant increase in illegal crossings in recent months--there, more than 1,000 illegal immigrants are apprehended by Border Patrol agents each day.

The AP reported that children at the new housing center in Nogales are sleeping on plastic cots while officials wait for 2,000 mattresses to arrive at the facility. Portable toilets and showers were also allegedly brought to warehouse, which has a capacity of 1,500. 800 children are expected to be living at the housing center by the end of this weekend, but the AP reported that 1,400 minors will ultimately be brought there.

According to Breitbart Texas' contributing editor and border security expert Sylvia Longmire, the Arizona state government is being forced to accommodate the illegal immigrants since the federal government has not handled the situation appropriately.

"What's most telling about the severity of this situation is the fact that both Republicans and Democrats are criticizing President Obama for the way his administration has been handling this crisis," Longmire said. "US Rep. Raúl Grijalva, probably the most liberal congressman in Arizona, acknowledged to Arizona Public Media that even he wasn't notified about the immigrant transfer to his state, and said the Obama administration was not handling the situation appropriately."

She continued, "By declaring this a 'humanitarian crisis,' President Obama places this situation on the border on equal footing with a natural disaster, especially since he's called in FEMA to assist. But what should the US President be doing in the wake of a strong hurricane, earthquake, or wildfire? He speaks to the American people to provide them with the extent of the damage and explain exactly what their government is doing to help. He visits the disaster areas and meets with the families. He speaks in person with the agencies dealing with the crisis and offers whatever federal help is needed.

However, Obama has not spoken publicly about this situation since he labeled it a crisis almost a week ago, and has not acknowledged the uproar caused by the tragic photos Breitbart Texas released on Thursday of immigrant children packed into Border Patrol stations like sardines."


But Obama isn't the only one who has been silent--DHS officials haven't spoken out on the matter, either.

"This stubborn silence is also being passed down to DHS, which canceled a press conference in Laredo last week mere minutes before a Border Patrol spokesman was about to address the situation," Longmire said. "DHS is also not allowing the press to interview doctors and nurses who are treating sick illegal immigrants at the stations, nor take any tours of the facilities. Either the White House wants this tragedy to expand even further as a way to justify its own immigration reform agenda, or it is demonstrating even more ineptitude in how it's handling this crisis that is largely by its own doing."

Reports state that authorities hope to eventually use the Nogales-based facility as a medical checkpoint for children, who--subsequent to being treated for any illness and infections--would be sent to other processing centers in states like California, Texas, and Oklahoma.

There have already been incidents where apprehended illegal immigrants have passed diseases on to federal agents. As Breitbart Texas reported, several Texas Border Patrol agents recently contracted scabies from contact with detained illegal immigrants. Overcrowding in processing facilities has made it difficult to identify and quarantine infected detainees. Many are concerned that scabies and other illnesses may be passed onto the general public.

Many of the new immigrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are from Central or South America--deporting such individuals has proven more difficult than deporting Mexican crossers. Thousands of such illegal immigrants are simply released onto U.S. soil each week. Some of the released aliens are even criminals--as Breitbart Texas previously reported, more than 36,000 convicted criminal illegal aliens were released by U.S. authorities in 2013 alone.

The sharp increase in illegal immigration shows no signs of slowing down. Word has apparently spread in Central and South America that aliens are being released at a rapid rate--this could be encouraging more families and individuals to make the dangerous trip north.

Nora Griselda Bercian Diaz, a mother from Guatemala who crossed into the U.S. illegally with her 6-year-old daughter, told local media outlet KRGV that the message being spread in her home country is, "Go to America with your child, you won't be turned away."

Texas Senator Ted Cruz recently told Breitbart Texas that the Obama Administration's "lawlessness" is responsible for the recent sharp increase in illegal immigration.

"We need a president who is willing to uphold the law," Cruz said. "On issue after issue the Obama Administration has openly ignored, defied, and unilaterally tried to change the law. With respect to securing the border, the Obama Administration has handcuffed the courageous men and women who serve in Border Patrol. Morale in ICE is at an all-time low because the political operatives leading this Administration are preventing them from doing their job and upholding the law."

[thorfourwinds]

Border Children Reportedly Sickened by Food in US Facilities, Throwing in Trash

HOUSTON, Texas --A tidal wave of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border has caused federal housing and processing facilities to become overwhelmed and overcrowded. As a result, officials have resorted to a makeshift housing center in Nogales, Arizona, especially for the surge of thousands of children who were part of the influx.

They are being transported there via plane. Many of the minors at one facility -- which only opened on Friday -- are reportedly being sickened by the food -- and throwing the food in the trash.

Tony Banegas, consul of Honduras to Arizona, told local media outlet KPHO-TV, "This morning they switched to burritos, but they complained the eggs were cold. They couldn't eat them and even made them sick. They complained they had a burrito but had to throw it in the trash."

He said, "What happened today is they added four showers. Some of the girls were able to take their first shower in 10 days. They're planning to build 60 in the next few days."

According to CBS Houston, "vendors are being contracted to provide nutritional meals." In addition to this, recreational activities and counseling programs will be provided to the children at an unknown cost... 


?

Military Bases: Obama's New Illegal Alien Dumping Grounds
[...]
A makeshift detention center in Nogales, Ariz., is being used as the central clearing station for the latest illegal alien surge. The deluge is a threat to national security, public safety and public health — not to mention a slap in the face to the law-abiding men and women in uniform on those bases and a kick in the teeth to law-abiding people around the world patiently waiting for approval of their visas.

Meanwhile, a law enforcement source in Texas tells me this week that countless illegal aliens are being released into the general public despite testing positive for tuberculosis. "The feds are putting them on public transportation to God knows where," he said.

Another source, working in the border patrol in south Texas, tells me: "Our station, along with every other station, is flooded with women and small children. One lady yesterday had a baby as young as 8 months. And they're coming over with pink eye and scabies. So getting them medically cleared becomes a priority.

They'll be here for almost a week, so we provide them with formula and diapers. We have a catering service contracted to feed them because it's too many for us to feed on our own. And of course, they end up being released because every family housing facility is full. They're supposed to show up for immigration court at a later date, but they don't..."

?

Feds Eye Abandoned Wal-Mart For Child Immigrant Housing, Brockport, NY

Inundated by a surge of illegal child immigrants that have been apprehended at the southern U.S. border, the Department of Health and Human Services is searching the country for large, empty facilities to house them.

The latest property up for consideration is a vacant Wal-Mart in Brockport, New York, near Rochester.
HHS will be conducting an "initial assessment" of the facility, according to U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, who announced the plan on Wednesday, according to WHAM.

According to Collins, the federal agency will inspect the store, which has been vacant for seven years, in order to "to determine whether it may be used as a facility for temporarily housing children who have come into the United States from other countries without an adult guardian."
[...]

[deuem]

1,000 a day. No problems with that boarder? If even kids can get in then who else can? Why would you do this to your kid. Pay someone to dump them? Kid gets in, then applies for family to get it. The numbers will more than triple. They are doing this because of what? Run out of farmers? Run out of lab rats? No other country in the world would let this happen this way. There is a big money issue in question here. Nothing else. Some gov agents are most likely down there handing out free passes with tickets and money to send your kids north.

[thorfourwinds]

30 June 2014

"This is a community
with a border running through it..."

Nancy Pelosi

[thorfourwinds]

"This is not a humanitarian crisis," stated the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers.

"It is a predictable, orchestrated and contrived assault on the compassionate side of Americans."

"Certainly, we are not gullible enough to believe that thousands of unaccompanied minor Central American children came to America without the encouragement, aid and assistance of the United States government," the officers said.


Which is a great seque to this:

Congressmen: Obama using 'Cloward-Piven maneuver'

Two congressmen avowed that the flooding of America's Southern borders with illegal-alien children might derive from a secret strategy to transform the U.S. into a socialist state.

NEW YORK – Two U.S. congressmen tell WND they believe the flooding of America's Southwest border with thousands of illegal-alien children seeking government handouts and citizenship is the intended outcome of policies by the Obama administration derived from a strategy by radical sociologists to transform America into a socialist state.

In the 1960s, professors Andrew Cloward and Francis Fox Piven of Columbia University, Obama's alma mater, devised a plan to provoke chaos by deliberately overwhelming governmental systems and the U.S. economy to the point of collapse, paving the way for state intervention that would ultimately replace America's free-enterprise republic with a collectivist system.

In 2011, U.S. border patrol detained around 6,800 undocumented children. In 2012, that rose to 13,000; last year it was 24,000. Most estimates predict more than 60,000 minors will be detained this year alone.

Here's Why The US-Mexico Border Crisis Is Going To Get Even Worse - Business Insider

More than 50,000 unaccompanied minors have been caught on the U.S.-Mexico border this year. Most are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador,

THE BIG LIE

where spikes in violence and poverty are prompting parents to send their children on difficult and dangerous journeys north.

This also fits nicely here:

These Latin governments should improve their own political economies, so that their people need not ride atop freight trains, ford the Rio Grande, and then dodge Gila monsters en route to better lives.

BORDER CHAOS

The nearly 1,000 illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America crossing into Texas each day is being compared to Hurricane Katrina by overwhelmed officials.

$12,000 x 1,000/day = $12,000,000/day... how many coyotes does it the to move 1,000 people under the noses of the Border Patrol?

$12 million greases many palms...


THE TRUTH

By the way the local media in the target countries are reporting the border crisis, it would seem the US government is complicit in many ways. Judge for yourself.

Instead of discouraging the wave of illegal child immigrants headed toward the U.S. border, major media outlets in Central America are encouraging the phenomenon in recent news coverage.

In a June 9 report, Prensa Libre, one of Guatemala's leading dailies,

reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will not deport minors from countries that do not share a border with the U.S.

Elsewhere, the same newspaper quotes Guatemalan Foreign Minister Fernando Carrera as saying that

his country has an agreement with U.S. authorities that Guatemalan children will not be deported unless they are accompanied by an adult.

In a June 17 report on Vice President Joe Biden's upcoming visit to the Central American country, La Prensa Libre cites Carrera as saying that in two weeks, the country will launch a public information campaign to discourage the child immigrant wave.

According to Carrera, the campaign will be aimed at parents, and will focus on making parents aware of the dangers children face in making the border crossing. Carrera did not mention if the campaign will also include communicating that it is U.S. policy to deport illegal immigrants of any age.

In its June 17 edition, the newspaper also highlights

Democrat-sponsored legislation in New York State that would grant voting rights, health care and university scholarships to the state's millions of illegal immigrants.

The New York is Home Act, sponsored by state senator Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) and state assemblyman Karim Camara (D-Brooklyn) would provide the benefits of citizenship to all undocumented immigrants who can demonstrate three or more years of residence in the state of New York.

On a similar note, the newspaper also reports on Guatemalan President Otto Pérez-Molina's plans to ask the Obama Administration to extend temporary protected status to all illegal immigrants from Guatemala who arrived in the U.S. prior to 2011.

Other major Central American media outlets reporting on the child illegal immigrant wave, such as La Prensa Gráfica in El Salvador and La Prensa in Honduras, have also highlighted the Obama administration's announcement last week of additional "free legal services" for undocumented minors who illegally cross the U.S. border.

The above headline reads:

USA will give legal assistance to children migrating alone

"We're taking a historic step to strengthen our justice system and protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of society," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said upon announcing the aid.

Meanwhile, another major Guatemalan newspaper, El Periódico, reports that among the initial 1,000 Central American minors housed at Lackland Air Force base in Texas, two thirds-are from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, while 12% are Mexican.

About 80% of the minors housed at the base are male, and 83% are over age 14.

Johnson said the administration has dramatically sped up the processing of adults who enter the country illegally, and it is opening more detention facilities. He acknowledged that the unaccompanied children from Central America, some 9,700 taken into custody in May alone, pose the most vexing problem.

Unaccompanied Central American children generally are being released to relatives already in the United States.

That's pretty lame. "Generally" means what percentage?

What happens to the rest of them?

Mothers with their children often are released with a notice to appear later in immigration court.

And most of them never appear...never to be seen again. 

Meanwhile, word of seemingly successful border crossings reaches their home countries, encouraging others to try.

Johnson said the U.S. government is trying to send the message that all people who enter the country illegally will face deportation proceedings eventually. In Central America, he said,

"the criminal smuggling organizations are putting out a lot of disinformation about supposed free passes into this country" that will expire soon.

"We're cracking down on the smuggling organizations by surging law enforcement resources," Johnson said.

That's closing the barn door after the horse has escaped.

It takes tremendous organization to transport ten's of thousands of children across Mexico to the US border to be placed in the hands of the coyote for access to the US.

It also takes the cooperation of the Mexican authorities and permission from the cartels... the same cartels Obama and his thugs gave the weapons to...

It takes tremendous organization to transport ten's of thousands of children across the US border.

These are trying times, to be sure.

BREAKING NEWS!
Sean Hannity just announced on FOX NEWS (10:11 PM - 07 July 2014) that the price for 'coyote transport' across the US border is $12,000 !!!

GTFOH!

We be in the wrong business...

Let's see...$12,000 times 50,000 'unaccompanied children' is (gasp!)

$600,000,000

That be Six Hundred Million Dollars.

Now then. Consider the distance from the weaponized checkpoints at the Mexican southern border with Guatemala and Belize... 1,450 miles.

Which brings up a very interesting question:

Why are the illegals being portrayed as from only from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras?

What about Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama?

Johnson and others are warning of the dangers that immigrants, and especially children, face when the try to reach the United States on their own.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said that children entering the country illegally must be sent home.

If not, Graham said, "you're going to incentivize people throughout that part of the world to keep sending their children here."

[thorfourwinds]

Border Crisis: Dispatches From Mexico, Guatemala | NBC Southern California

The number of children entering the United States without adults after difficult and dangerous journeys from Central America has been rising dramatically.

More than 50,000 unaccompanied minors have been detained on the U.S.-Mexico border this year -- most from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Spikes in violence and poverty are some of the reasons parents send their children north.

NBC4's Gadi Schwartz traveled to Guatemala July 6 to visit the front lines of the border crisis. Follow his journey below and watch for updates on the NBC4 News at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Sunday, July 6
Journey to Central America: As NBC4 prepares to head to the front lines of the border crisis, a local priest who just returned from a trip to Guatemala is speaking about the issues driving people to cross the border illegally. Watch Video

Monday, July 7
Dispatch 1: A look at the immigration issue from the perspective of Mexicans surveyed by a newspaper. Watch Video

[thorfourwinds]

[thorfourwinds]

Published on Jul 4, 2014
A group of about a dozen self-described anarchistic communists started a minor riot at the Murrieta protest against Obama's illegal-alien trafficking on Independence Day, 2014.

One of the communists reportedly crossed the street and slapped a woman on the anti-illegal-immigration side. When the police arrest her, she resists and pandemonium breaks out.

Five communists are eventually arrested in total.

[thorfourwinds]

SOURCE: Feds to Bring in Riot Squad Against Illegal Immigration Protesters

6 July 2014

"HOUSTON, Texas--As illegal immigrants continue to spill across the U.S.-Mexico border, federal authorities are attempting to relocate the migrants from South Texas to housing facilities in states across the nation."


Wait just a second!

One minute, they're "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS."

... then they become "migrants."


"One such facility is located in Murrieta, California, where a large group of protesters recently blocked a bus full of migrants from arriving. The protesters remain there, adamant that illegal immigrants don't get dumped in their town.

But soon the concerned citizens may be forced to step down--Breitbart Texas has learned that federal agents plan to arrive in Murrieta on Monday with riot gear to ensure that another busload makes it to the housing facility."

"Jeremy Oliver, a resident of Temecula, California--a town that neighbors Murrieta--told Breitbart Texas that local police officers warned the protesters that "it's going to get ugly."

Oliver said, "The feds are pissed that they haven't been able to use this facility. Officers out there warned people that federal agents will be in Murrieta on Monday--they are going to get the next bus through no matter what. Riot gear and shields will be used to push the crowd back."

John Henry, a Murrieta resident since 1991, was told the same thing by local officers.

"We're being told that federal Marshals or ICE will be here in the next few days and that they are bringing riot gear," Henry said. "They're apparently going to be blocking off the street with concrete blockades so that no vehicles can get through. The River County Sheriff's Department showed up last night and brought a huge watch tower that shoots up into the air 35 feet."

On Friday, six protesters were arrested in Murrieta. One was apprehended for crossing "the yellow tape that blocked protesters from the Border Patrol station entrance," according to USA Today.

Henry expressed frustration at the fact that the illegal immigrants are being "rewarded" for breaking the law--after illegally crossing the border, they receive a slew of taxpayer subsidized benefits like housing, food, education, vocational training, and legal counsel.

Most are then released onto U.S. soil.

When U.S. citizens break the law, on the other hand, they pay the price. "If any one of us were to roll through a stop sign, we'd be pulled over and ticketed," Henry noted."

On June 4th Breitbart Texas' Managing Director Brandon Darby broke the news that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would be relocating illegal immigrants from Texas to California. Within moments of that story being published, the official Twitter account of the San Diego CBP tweeted at Darby, insisting the report was "erroneous" and asking for it to be removed from the internet.

Days later the San Diego CBP deleted the tweet from their official account.

Subsequent reports, outlining plans to fly immigrants to Southern California, proved CBP had indeed planned the relocation all along.
 
It is unclear how the border crisis will be handled moving forward, especially given that many U.S. citizens oppose the migrants being shipped by the hundreds to their communities. 

[thorfourwinds]

Protests Continue as More Migrants Transferred

An additional transfer of about 100 undocumented migrants from border detention facilities to California brought another round of protests Monday, as well as concern from local officials over the cost to local cities.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol had originally said buses of undocumented immigrants could be transported to the Murrieta processing facility in Riverside County every third day beginning July 1.

But those plans were thwarted by a small group of protesters that blocked the buses' arrival last week.

Near the site of that confrontation, residents continued to turn out to protest the potential arrival of any new transfers Monday. By late afternoon, all the transfers appeared to have been taken to other Southern California facilities, but that did not deter the protesters.

"This is our town and we want to take it back," Sheila Shaw said outside of the U.S. Customs and Border station.

A long-time Murrieta resident, Shaw said she doesn't want hundreds of undocumented immigrants processed in her city, and then released.

[Fruitbat]

That picture about (five posts back) with the two women trying to fit two childeren into that already full cardboard box was horrifying!

FB.

[thorfourwinds]

(Murrieta Police remove the barriers to open traffic after it was determined that the immigrants would not be coming to the U.S. Border Patrol Murrieta Station on Monday, July 7, 2014. Another planeload of detained migrants made their way to San Diego on Monday, but immigration officials again opted not to bring the detainees to Murrieta for processing. — KURT MILLER, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

MURRIETA: With no migrant buses, crowd of protesters thins

JULY 7, 2014 BY SARAH BURGE


A crowd of protesters, police and media gathered again Monday outside the Murrieta U.S. Border Patrol station where more buses carrying Central American migrants detained in Texas were expected to arrive.

Protesters turned away a convoy of buses on Tuesday and there were angry clashes among a large group of protesters Friday. Federal officials have been trying to bring the migrants — mostly women and children — to the Murrieta station for processing. A massive influx of Central Americans crossing the south Texas border has strained resources there.

On Monday, police blocked Madison Avenue to vehicle traffic, but fewer than 100 protesters showed up in front of the station.

As word trickled in before noon that the buses carrying migrants were routed south to the Chula Vista Border Patrol station, police announced there was no need to continue the road closure and began clearing crowd control barriers.

"Maybe we should still hold our ground," one anti-illegal immigration protester with a bullhorn told the crowd, "to make sure it's not in Murrieta."

"Not in Murrieta!
Not in Murrieta!"

he chanted, joined by other protesters.