This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Leftists on the U.S. Supreme Court are taking their fear of parents who teach children their own religious faith "to a ludicrous level," according to commentary following last week's decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor.
In that case, the 6-3 majority simply said that schools are not allowed to force their own religious beliefs onto young children, through mandatory lessons and a ban on opt-outs, because that infringes on the religious rights of the parents.
The case came out of Montgomery County, Maryland, where school officials adopted that mandatory LGBT indoctrination for children as young as three years old. Originally, schools offered an opt-out for parents who didn't want the school's religious ideologies taught to their children, but the school district, faced with a flood of such demands from parents, soon decided to force all children into the lessons.
A commentary at Federalist notes what the dissenters, Sonio Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Jackson, who famously established her place in history by telling her Senate confirmation hearing she was unable to define "woman," hypothesized.
"The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, sided with the parents, saying, 'A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses 'a very real threat of undermining' the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill … And a government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents' acceptance of such instruction.'"
But, the commentary noted, "That is not how the three leftists see it. In fact, they see parents — especially religious ones — as roadblocks to education."
Sotomayor wrote that schools offer children of all faiths and backgrounds an education "to practice living in our multicultural society."
"That experience is critical to our nation's civic vitality. Yet it will become a mere memory if children must be insulated from exposure to ideas and concepts that may conflict with their parents' religious beliefs," she claimed.
The Federalist explained, "Sotomayor spins this irrational fear to a ludicrous level, imaging a world where religious parents will object to every imaginable lesson, opting their kids out of this and that, until the only option is for schools to teach what parents want their kids to learn."
Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley also expressed concern about the extremism of Sotomayor.
It was her comments that were "the most striking in its apocalyptic take on allowing parents to remove their children from these classes. Despite the fact that various opt-outs have been allowed for parents, this one is deemed a threat to the very essence of public education."
He noted the aggressively anti-Christian school agenda: "The children are required to read or listen to stories like 'Prince & Knight' about two male knights who marry each other, and 'Love Violet' about two young girls falling in love. Another, 'Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope,' discusses a biological girl who begins a transition to being a boy. Teachers were informed that this was mandatory reading, which must be assigned, and that families would not be allowed to opt out. The guidelines for teachers made clear that students had to be corrected if they expressed errant or opposing views of gender. If a child questions how someone born a boy could become a girl, teachers were encouraged to correct the child and declare, 'That comment is hurtful!'"
He said, "Teachers were specifically told to '[d]isrupt' thinking or values opposing transgender views."
TS the fight over the opt-outs developed.
But he said the "most overwrought" reaction was from the three extremists on the bench.
"There 'will be chaos for this nation's public schools' and both education and children will 'suffer' if parents are allowed to opt their children out of these lessons," he noted the leftists claimed.
"She also worried about the 'chilling effect' of the ruling, which would make schools more hesitant to offer such classes in the future."
The trio demanded that "the damage to America's public education system will be profound" and the decision supporting parents' constitutional rights "threatens the very essence of public education."
He noted the attitude was simply reflecting what other officials have claimed:
"State Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Wis.) once insisted: 'If parents want to 'have a say' in their child's education, they should homeschool or pay for private school tuition out of their family budget.' Iowa school board member Rachel Wall said: 'The purpose of a public ed is to not teach kids what the parents want. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client is not the parent, but the community.'"
The effect of the ideology is evident, he said.
"Our public schools are imploding. Some are lowering standards to achieve 'equity' and graduating students without proficiency skills. Families are objecting to the priority given to political and social agendas to make their kids better people when they lack math, science, and other skills needed to compete in an increasingly competitive marketplace. … Schools are facing rising debt and severe declines in enrollment, yet unions in states like Illinois are demanding even more staff increases and larger expenditures."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A state lawmaker in Connecticut who voted to ban one-time use shopping bags from stores has been arrested for shoplifting, and he blames the lack of shopping bags in the store.
It is state Rep. Raghib Allie-Brennan, chief majority whip of the Connecticut House and co-chair of the state's LGBTQ+ caucus, who is in trouble.
He explained in a statement that he was in Target, and "two items in my armload of others were not scanned."
He explains he was "in a rush to bring items to my grandmother in the hospital, the store didn't have bags, and I was juggling multiple purchases."
He said it was an "error" and he's "working through the legal processes."
A report from a local NBC affiliate said it happened in Bethel, and "police say it isn't the first time it has happened."
Police charged he tried to leave the store without paying for $26.69 in merchandise, and "he was also recognized by loss prevention for prior unreported larcenies."
Store security video showed him attempting to leave the store without paying for the items.
Comments on social media were not sympathetic:
"I like the way he threw the hospitalized grandma in there. Nice touch."
"'Guys I accidentally stole for the 30th time I'm just so clumsy.'"
"'I was on my way to feed unicorns. I was helping a 3 legged dog cross the street. My dog ate the receipt.'"
Libs of TikTok on social media confirmed the Democrat voted in 2019 to ban stores from giving single-use shopping bags.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
CNN was forced to make a major correction to its story originally claiming Democrats in Congress were not informed in advance of the U.S. military strikes Saturday against Iran's nuclear sites.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the left-leaning network had to retract its report she called "Fake News," saying Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was spoken to "before the strike," and that U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries "didn't pick up the phone."
Appearing on Fox News Monday morning, Leavitt said congressional members of both parties were informed prior to the military action.
"First of all, we did make bipartisan calls. Thomas Massie and the Democrats – he should be a Democrat because he is more aligned with them than with the Republican Party – were given notice," she began.
"The White House made calls to congressional leadership; they were bipartisan calls. In fact, Hakeem Jeffries couldn't be reached. We tried him before the strike and he didn't pick up the phone, but he was briefed after, as well as Chuck Schumer was briefed prior to the strike.
"So this notion that CNN ran with that the White House did not give a heads-up to Democrats is just completely false. In fact, both Sen. Schumer's office and CNN had to retract that story last night because it was a blatant lie, and we showed them the time stamps from those phone calls."
CNN posted a correction to its online story by Sarah Ferris and Morgan Rimmer, stating: "Correction: This story has been updated to make clear Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was called before the strike, not after as initially reported."
The network noted: "People familiar with the matter initially told CNN that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries received notifications shortly before the public announcement – and after the attack itself.
"But after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt disputed that account, a source conceded that Schumer had been called around 6 p.m. – a little less than an hour before the strikes began – with little detail. He was told of imminent military action without naming the country in which the action was to take place, the source said."
As WorldNetDaily reported, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, also fumed that President Trump didn't "holla" at her to ask her permission to strike Iran.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The Department of Justice recently told Colorado elections officials it wants to review all the data from the 2024 election. And whatever still remains available from 2020.
And state officials have claimed it's a "fishing expedition" to try to help Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk who was convicted and sentenced to years in prison essentially for trying to salvage a copy of the 2020 vote data when faced with orders from a state officials to erase the details.
Peters was a conservative in the far-left state, where the all-Democrat state Supreme Court partisanly tried to remove Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot. Where virtually all of the top state leaders in the governor's office and legislature are virulently anti-Trump.
Where leftists in population centers like Denver and Boulder openly advocate for Americans' rights to be violated in order to protect illegal alien criminals. Where abortion was made a state constitutional "right" and the state constitution's protection for voters against massive overtaxing plans routinely is undermined.
For example, Democrat lawmakers, faced with constitutional limits on raising "taxes," routinely hike them anyway and then simply call them "fees." For example, state residents who license vehicles and pay taxes have to pay a "fee" for roads and bridges. Visitors to the state using the same roads and bridges don't pay that "fee."
It was the Denver Post that recently promoted the "fishing expedition" claim and said Matt Crane, of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said the request for information is unprecedented.
However, it was a report at Complete Colorado that pointed out how the state's election details are now under the spotlight, and how Democrat Secretary of State Jena Griswold doesn't like it, condemning the federal move as an attempt to "push their ridiculous disinformation and lies to the American public."
The report noted the multiple "missteps" by Griswold that now could come under review.
The report explained, "A recent National Public Radio (NPR) report, republished by Colorado Public Radio (CPR) and heavily biased in Griswold's favor, called the request 'an unprecedented amount of election data' driven by Justice Department review of 'cases targeting the president's political allies' and identified the DOJ as catering to Trump's 'desire to exert more power over state voting processes.'"
Explained the report, "The framing of the coverage is unsurprising given that both NPR and CPR have themselves been the subject of headlines as of late as they push back against Trump's ongoing effort to end federal taxpayer subsidies for public radio. However, ongoing problems under Griswold during her tenure appear to be at least as likely a reason for the request."
The report cites Colorado Republican Party Chairwoman Brita Horn explaining how the review is warranted because of Griswold's problems.
"Our secretary of state gaslights voters with her 'Gold Standard' narrative while she oversees leaked passwords. She has no one to blame but herself and her irresponsible team for the investigation. We need the truth about what happens in her department, and in our elections," Horn charged.
The DOJ's request includes "any record required to be preserved under Title 52, Section 20701 of the U.S. code, which covers retention of records for elections involving federal offices" as well as certification that no record required to be preserved has been deleted or destroyed.
And all details on procedures for Colorado's votes.
Griswold, to NPR, claimed the group of "them" is using the federal government "to undermine our elections and our democracy."
"NPR reported that Griswold suspects the request to be tied to the prosecution of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, with NPR calling Peters a 'folk hero' to those who deny the 2020 election results," the report explained.
But it noted left out of NPR's claims were the "inconsistencies and incompetence within Griswold's office," such as her decision to put voting system passwords for the state's systems online, where they were leaked, and that was followed by an attempt "to cover up the leak with no intention of making it public."
Earlier, Griswold had sent postcards to some 30,000 non-residents, telling them how to register to vote.
The notifications said, "Make sure your voice is heard this November" and directed people where to go register to vote. Griswold claimed a formatting error was responsible for the instructions to aliens, some illegal aliens, on how to vote.
"She has also been repeatedly criticized for using her position for political purposes on a national level as well as her inability to keep staff," the report added.
GOP political consultant Dick Wadhams told CBS News in an interview that the 64 count clerks on Colorado are competent, and they run elections. But he said Griswold is "incompetent."
In what may end up being related, Judicial Watch said Griswold's office gave out incorrect numbers for those removed from the state's registration lists due to address changes. The watchdog organization wanted its lawsuit over the dispute reopened because of the wrong numbers, but a leftist judge in the left-leaning federal court system in Colorado refused permission.
Griswold is a veteran political activist who was a "voter protection attorney" for Barack Obama's campaign and she took action against Peters by suing her to prevent her from being able to oversee elections in her county.
Minority Republicans in the Colorado unsuccessfully sought to impeach Griswold over her verbal attacks on President Trump.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
China reportedly wanted to manufacture and send to the U.S. false driver's licenses during 2020 in order to facilitate "tens of thousands of fraudulent mail-in votes" for Joe Biden in that dramatic faceoff with the then-sitting president, Donald Trump, according to a new report that cites a human source's statements to the FBI.
But the FBI ordered a report on that situation destroyed, the report said.
That election, of course, was the one where there have been documented enough "undue influences" to have changed the outcome, which ended up with Biden in the Oval office. One was Mark Zuckerberg's decision to hand out, through foundations, hundreds of millions of dollars to mostly leftist local elections officials who often used the influx of cash to recruit voters in Democrat districts.
The other, which was cited in a polling as probably having cost Trump the election, was the FBI's decision to interfere in the election results by telling media and other organizations to suppress what turned out to be accurate, and damaging, information about the Biden business enterprises found in a laptop computer abandoned by Hunter Biden.
The new details were outlined in a report at Just the News, which said it reviewed a raw intelligence reported containing the details.
That said a confidential human source told the FBI in 2020 China's communist government was shipping faked driver's licenses to the U.S. to be used to create those fraudulent ballots.
Just the News reported that report was one of two sent by FBI Director Kash Patel to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. Originally it went to U.S. intel agencies in August of that election year as "an uncorroborated advisory."
Then the FBI suddenly recalled the report because, officials stated, they wanted to "re-interview" the source. The FBI wanted those original reports erased or destroyed.
The FBI, at the time, said, "This report was recalled in order to re-interview the source. Recipients should destroy all copies of the original report and remove the original report from all computer holdings."
That order, Just the News reported, kept the FBI or any other agency "from fully investigating allegations that Beijing was trying to meddle in the U.S. election to Biden's benefit."
But other agencies' reports affirmed parts of the alleged scheme, revealing U.S. Customs Border and Protection had captured 19,888 of the fake driver's licenses, sourced in Hong Kong and China.
They reportedly were en route to battleground states in the Midwest, where a few thousand fraudulent ballots easily could change the outcome of an election, the report said.
The FBI report had described, "Chinese Government Production and Export of Fraudulent US Driver's Licenses to Chinese Sympathizers in the United States, in Order to Create Tens of Thousands of Fraudulent Mail-in Votes for US Presidential Candidate Joe Biden, in late August 2020."
The FBI had noted that it was information, "raw intelligence," but was not a fully reviewed intel report.
The report delivered to Grassley explained, "In late August 2020, the Chinese government had produced a large amount of fraudulent United States driver's licenses that were secretly exported to the United States. The fraudulent driver's licenses would allow tens of thousands of Chinese students and immigrants sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party to vote for U.S. presidential candidate USPER Joe Biden despite not being eligible to vote in the United States."
Details used on the fake licenses apparently came from TikTok data, the report said.
Grassley said, "The document alleges serious national security concerns that need to be fully investigated by the FBI." His officer said the senator "is requesting additional documentation from the FBI to verify the production, and is urging the FBI to do its due diligence to investigate why the document was recalled, who recalled it and inform the American people of its findings."
Patel told Just the News he was investigating.
WND had reported only hours earlier on Patel's revelations about Chinese plans to create fake mail-in ballots, information that Patel said was never revealed to the public.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A Colorado city that bashed a local church for running a temporary homeless shelter on its own vast property has backed down, allowing the ministry to restore services to the needy.
And it has paid up, agreeing to contribute $225,000 to lawyers' fees for the fight it started.
According to officials at First Liberty Institute, The Rock Church has reached a settlement with the town of Castle Rock, following a recent court ruling that already had enjoined the city from enforcing its will on the church.
The church can now continue to run an onsite temporary shelter ministry, use its own building for emergency shelter, including partnering with the Red Cross, and even operate a coffee shop at cost or for voluntary donations.
The two sides released a joint statement:
On May 13, 2024, the Church of the Rock ("the Rock") filed a federal lawsuit against the Town of Castle Rock, Colorado, in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. The Rock sought and received a court order enjoining the Town from enforcing its land-use laws to prohibit the Rock's operation of its On-Site Temporary Shelter Ministry, through which the Rock provides shelter to those in need in trailers on its property, during the pendency of the case.
Since the Court issued its injunction order, the Rock and the Town have sought to resolve this dispute without further litigation. As part of those efforts, on December 2, 2024, the Town issued a revised Letter of Determination that explicitly permits the Rock to operate its On-Site Temporary Shelter Ministry in the two trailers currently located on the Rock's property and clarifies that the applicable Planned Development zoning regulations do not prevent the Rock from providing additional shelter during public emergencies through its partnership with the Red Cross.
The Town and the Rock now wish to inform the public that they have reached an agreement intended to end the current litigation and settle issues regarding the future use of the Rock's property to provide temporary housing to those in need. As part of this agreement, a new Letter of Determination will permit the Rock to operate its On-Site Temporary Shelter Ministry located in its existing parking lot. The Town has the option to install additional fencing or landscaping to partially screen the location of the units from the surrounding neighborhood in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
The Town acknowledges the Rock's invaluable services to the Castle Rock community through its longstanding efforts to provide support for those members of our community most in need. The Rock acknowledges its responsibilities as a good neighbor and looks forward to working in partnership with the Town while providing those services. The Town and the Rock believe that this agreement is in the best interest of all parties and successfully balances the Rock's religious free-exercise rights with the Town's public interest in enforcing land use regulations and protecting the general welfare, public health, and safety. The Town and the Rock are no longer in an adversarial posture in regard to the litigation and look forward to productive cooperation and potential partnerships on issues in the future.
"This is a welcome resolution that goes far to encourage churches who care for those in need and a good example of the type of cooperation between church and state that every community should welcome," said Jeremy Dys, a lawyer for First Liberty.
"We are pleased that we can continue our church's mission to transform society by loving others as Christ loved us," added Pastor Mike Polhemus. "We love Castle Rock and are committed to working with the Town of Castle Rock to provide assistance to those in need, thus helping to reduce homelessness in our community."
WND previously had reported on the judge's preliminary injunction that prevented Castle Rock's interference in the church program.
It uses an RV and a trailer camper unit on its own property to help shelter those in need.
The judge found the city had created a "substantial burden" on religion because it "prevents participation in a conduct motivated by a sincerely held religious belief."
The church's legal action charged that city officials were violating the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act with their campaign.
It was U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico who had concluded the town did violate the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a law passed by Congress in 2000, which grants religious institutions protections from zoning laws that prohibit free exercise of religion.
The judge said in his order, "The church stresses that by preventing it from allowing the homeless to live on its property, the town is precluding the church from exercising its religious beliefs regardless of whether it might be possible to provide for the needy in some other way. There is no reason to second-guess the church at this point, regardless of how idiosyncratic or mistaken the town may find its beliefs to be."
He continued, "The town does not explicitly argue that it has a compelling interest in enforcing the (Planning Division) regulations as interpreted by the board of adjustment, and the church contends that the town could have no such interest because the church takes a number of precautions to ensure that its temporary shelter is safe. These include having a third party conduct background checks and requiring any RV tenants to sign contracts indicating that they will abide by certain rules."
Further, he said the town failed to identify any safety issues from the church's actions.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A new state law recently signed by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte will eliminate "onerous regulations" for homeschooling families.
"For Montana families who homeschool, HB 778 is more than just a policy update, it's a shift toward recognizing and respecting the unique nature of home education," explained Traci Taylor of Mix 97.1. "By cutting unnecessary red tape and clearly separating homeschools from nonpublic schools, the law supports educational freedom while still ensuring students get a solid education."
A report at LifeSiteNews explains the plan repeals the demand that homeschool parents keep immunization records for their children and submit them to officials.
It also explains that family homes are not required to meet the same health and safety codes as school buildings. Further, it makes homeschoolers and private schools separate categories.
The report noted about 3.1 million students were homeschooled in the United States as of 2022. On average, the National Home Education Research Institute pointed out, they scored on average "15 to 25 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests."
While home schoolers sometimes face little regulation, a common tactic among leftists is to create rules specifically for them, especially among those radicals who hold the mindset that children actually belong to the state.
Radical sexual, diversity and racial ideologies long have been a major concern for parents regarding the content of public school classrooms and libraries.
A recent development has been for extremists to impose transgender ideologies on schools, insisting that boys be allowed to change clothes and shower with girls.
Those factors have been pushing the number of homeschoolers up each year.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A surprisingly positive inflation report for May is fueling "hope" that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year, a move that President Donald Trump openly has wanted.
Inflation was put by federal estimates at 2.4%, up fractionally from the 2.3% from April, but still below expectations.
"President Trump has made no secret of the fact that he would like the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates," Nicholas Hyett, investment manager at Wealth Club, told the Daily Mail.
"On the face of it these numbers should ease some of the inflationary worries… the challenge is that while inflation isn't rising as fast as expected, it isn't falling either," Hyett explained.
Inflation was in the low single digits when Joe Biden took office four years ago, but exploded to as high as 9% percent under his failed economic policies.
Inflation was one of the issues on which Trump campaigned for his second term.
The report triggered a surge in stock market prices.
"Longer term there's still concerns about Trump's tariffs being inflationary but this report was better than expected and it fuels hope that the Federal Reserve will be able to step in with rate cuts later on this year," Robert Pavlik, of Dakota Wealth, told the Mail.
Analysts had been expecting a number closer to 3%.
Numbers from the Department of Labor Statistics surprised some economists who thought Trump's tariff battles, intended to bring American consumers and American businesses both a more fair world trade market presence, would have a more inflationary impact.
Major retailers, like Walmart, have said they are raising prices to cover the tariff costs.
"However, the latest report shows that other major consumer prices are down, including smartphones which fell 1.6 percent and airline fares down 2.7 percent from the month before," the report said. "Traders now believe there is a 75 percent chance the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by September, compared to 60 percent yesterday, Bloomberg reported."
The White House took a victory lap, "Since President Trump took office, inflation has come in below economists' expectations every single month."
Trump has said it will be the "new Golden Age with lower costs, higher pay, and economic opportunity for all."
The White House said, "Under President Trump, core inflation has tracked at just 2.0% on an annual basis – levels not seen since the first Trump administration, when prices were low and stable. … In May, real wages for production and nonsupervisory workers saw the highest monthly increase in nearly a year — rising each month since President Trump took office and up nearly 2% over last year. The average private sector worker is on track to see their real earnings increase by around $1,200, adjusted for inflation."
Responses from the networks:
CNN's Matt Egan: "We got ANOTHER month of positive inflation news. Despite these historic tariffs, the latest numbers do show that inflation remained relatively tame in May … This was better than expected … We did see a drop in energy prices. In particular, gas prices were low."
CNBC's Mike Santoli: "There's no way to look at these numbers and say they're not welcome news."
Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo: "That is much better than expected."
The consumer price index is a broad measure of the prices of everyday goods.
"The inflation data this year has been terrific — a welcomed change from the prior four disastrous years," EJ Antoni, chief economist for the Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. "This bodes very well for the overall economy and indicates that we're headed to the 2.0% inflation target of the Federal Reserve. The Trump administration deserves tremendous credit here because their efforts to reduce government spending while increasing future energy production have reduced input prices throughout the economy, putting downward pressure on consumer prices. What a difference a president can make!"
The CPI report comes after the U.S. economy added 139,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in May, slightly above economists' expectations — while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.2%, the BLS reported on June 6.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is demanding an explanation for why there was a two-hour delay for Los Angeles police to respond when ICE officers came under attack.
The federal agents were serving warrants and making arrests as part of a cartel crime investigation when the leftists in Los Angeles allowed rioters to attack and assault them.
Police took hours to respond, and the riots, vandalism, looting, and attacks have been going on ever since.
A report at Fox confirmed Issa now is calling for an investigation into reports the officers "did not promptly respond" with the help needed.
He's on the House Judiciary Committee and announced he wants a "full and complete Congressional investigation" into the response time of the LAPD assisting the ICE officers who.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed, on Saturday, what happened Friday night when the riots started, "Last night, over 1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted ICE law enforcement officers, slashed tires, defaced buildings, and taxpayer funded property."
"It took the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) two hours to respond."
The city's police chief later claimed that "didn't happen."
But he did admit that traffic trouble delayed officers for 40 minutes.
Trica McLaughlin, an assistant DHS secretary, followed up by confirming that the delay was extensive.
"The fact remains that it took the Los Angeles Police Department two hours to respond," McLaughlin said. "During that time, over 1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted ICE law enforcement officers, slashed tires, defaced buildings, and taxpayer funded property. DHS is grateful that now the LAPD is stepping up to help restore law and order."
Issa charged, "We need to know if the political leadership of the City of Los Angeles, the State of California, or anyone else instructed the LAPD to stand down and not respond to the emergency requests of our ICE agents who were under attack by rioters determined to block them, burn them, or even kill them as they bravely carried out their sworn duties."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump has announced a travel ban on people coming from a dozen nations, since the United States simply does not have the ability to properly vet them.
There are new limits on travel from another seven nations because of their unacceptable rates of visa overstays.
Nationals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen are barred, while there are limits on those coming from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
"As president, I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people. I remain committed to engaging with those countries willing to cooperate to improve information-sharing and identity-management procedures, and to address both terrorism-related and public-safety risks. Nationals of some countries also pose significant risks of overstaying their visas in the United States, which increases burdens on immigration and law enforcement components of the United States, and often exacerbates other risks related to national security and public safety," Trump said.
"Some of the countries with inadequacies face significant challenges to reform efforts. Others have made important improvements to their protocols and procedures, and I commend them for these efforts. But until countries with identified inadequacies address them, members of my Cabinet have recommended certain conditional restrictions and limitations. I have considered and largely accepted those recommendations and impose the limitations set forth below on the entry into the United States by the classes of foreign nationals identified in sections 2 and 3 of this proclamation."
Trump had taken a similar action during his first term, prompting leftists to claim it was a "Muslim ban," which it wasn't. The Supreme Court at that time affirmed his strategy.
A commentary at RedState noted that chorus already was in full voice again.
"The move came just days after an Islamic terrorist seeking to 'free Palestine' set several elderly Jewish women on fire in Colorado with Molotov cocktails. Mohamad Soliman had overstayed a tourist visa during the Biden years but was given work authorization in 2023, which ran out weeks before his attack."
It continued, "As you'd expect, the meltdown on the left began immediately. Accusations of racism and xenophobia are already flowing like milk and honey. Ah, yes, America's founders were big on the ideal of importing people from violent Islamic countries on visas. I'm not sure how this hurts our 'global leadership' either. Is the argument that Afghanistan, Iran, and Libya won't respect us anymore? Because I've got some news for Democrats if that's the case."
The commentary pointed out, "It objectively makes America safer not to offer visas to countries that breed terrorists. That's just common sense. To be clear, there's nothing racist about this ban. For one, Muslim is not a race, and not all the countries listed are predominantly Muslim. Two, the countries on the list are home to several different races. Three, I don't think I'm going to take my cues on what is un-American from a Democrat congresswoman who is more concerned about nations on the other side of the globe than her own."
The proclamation noted several of the nations regularly decline to accept the return of their own citizens, indicating a "blatant disregard for United States immigration laws."
Trump noted his restrictions during his first term "successfully prevented national security threats from reaching our borders and which the Supreme Court upheld."
He targeted aliens who "intend to harm Americans or our national interests" and said the U.S. "must identify such aliens before their admission or entry into the United States."
The announcement cited influence of the "Specially Designated Global Terrorist group," the Taliban, in Afghanistan and the fact the nation "does not have appropriate screening and vetting measures. For Burma, it historically refused to cooperate with the U.S. to take back "removable nationals."
Like problems were cited for the rest of the nations, including Somalia.
"Somalia lacks a competent or cooperative central authority for issuing passports or civil documents and it does not have appropriate screening and vetting measures. Somalia stands apart from other countries in the degree to which its government lacks command and control of its territory, which greatly limits the effectiveness of its national capabilities in a variety of respects. A persistent terrorist threat also emanates from Somalia's territory. The United States Government has identified Somalia as a terrorist safe haven. Terrorists use regions of Somalia as safe havens from which they plan, facilitate, and conduct their operations. Somalia also remains a destination for individuals attempting to join terrorist groups that threaten the national security of the United States. The Government of Somalia struggles to provide governance needed to limit terrorists' freedom of movement. Additionally, Somalia has historically refused to accept back its removable nationals."