Tag: border control
#EndorseThis: Conan Goes To Mexico, Faces ‘Extreme Vetting’

#EndorseThis: Conan Goes To Mexico, Faces ‘Extreme Vetting’

On last night’s episode of Conan, the fearless late night host packed a bag and took his show on the road — to Mexico. O’Brien’s goal: Use his comedic platform to build goodwill among our Mexican neighbors.

En route to his “Made in Mexico” special, a dusty O’Brien wheeled his suitcase directly to the border where he is stopped by Mexican border control. “Clearly they’re not sending us their best,” mused one guard as O’Brien showed clips of his show in an attempt to prove he really is a comedian.

In an obvious spoof of Trump’s proposed border control policies, the guards wondered aloud if he is one of those “bad hombres,” and decided that Conan will need to pass their “extreme vetting” test to enter the country.

You won’t want to miss what the guards find in Conan’s bag during their vetting process. Just watch.

Yes, Trump Intends To Build That Wall — Even If Mexico Won’t Pay For It

Yes, Trump Intends To Build That Wall — Even If Mexico Won’t Pay For It

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to begin signing executive orders aimed at curbing illegal immigration on Wednesday, beginning with a directive to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and another to boost personnel needed to crack down on illegal immigrants, congressional aides with knowledge of the plan told Reuters.

In the coming days, Trump is expected to limit the number of refugees admitted to the United States to 50,000 a year, down from 100,000, and to impose a temporary ban on most refugees.

Trump, who took office last Friday, will begin signing the orders at the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday. On Twitter on Tuesday night, Trump reiterated his promise to build the border wall, which was a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and which he has promised to make Mexico pay for.

The border enforcement order includes plans to hire 5,000 more U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents used to apprehend migrants at the border and to triple the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents used to arrest and deport migrants living in the United States illegally.

The Customs and Border Protection agency has already struggled to meet its hiring mandate, with a little more than 19,000 agents on the payroll, out of a congressionally mandated 21,000.

Immigration enforcement away from the border is also expected to be strengthened by seeking an end to “sanctuary cities” where local law enforcement officials refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Trump will call for an end to this practice and may instruct the federal government to stop providing certain funds to cities that refuse to comply.

Later in the week, Trump is expected to suspend the issuing of visas to people from countries where it is deemed that adequate screening cannot occur. Immigration experts expect those countries to include Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Yemen.

A review will be conducted by the Trump administration to determine what screening must occur before travel for citizens from such countries can resume.

(Reporting by Julia Edwards Ainsley; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Franklin Paul and Frances Kerry)

IMAGE: People in Mexico wave at U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border fence near San Diego, California, U.S., November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

5 Things Politicians Think They Know About Ebola

5 Things Politicians Think They Know About Ebola

Ebola

AFP Photo/Inaki Gomez

Three weeks ago, Thomas Eric Duncan became the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. He died in Dallas, TX on October 8 and shortly after his death, two of the nurses who treated him were diagnosed with the virus. This series of events brought the issue of Ebola close to home for Americans, and sparked a strong reaction from U.S. media sources and politicians — regardless of how well they knew the subject.

Whether they were alarmists, whipping up public fear, or using the occasion for their own political advantage, here are five of the noteworthy assertions politicians made about Ebola:


Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)

Rand Paul 427x321

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Rand Paul thinks that the government has not been taking the Ebola virus seriously enough, so he is here to scare the living daylights out of you.

In a CNN interview, Paul explained his theory that “if someone has Ebola at a cocktail party, they’re contagious and you can catch it from them.”

Although this new information flies in the face of the facts that the Centers for Disease Control has distributed (the disease is spread only though direct contact with bodily fluids), Paul would like you to believe him: After all, he’s a (self-certified) doctor. Time to cancel your cocktail parties, folks.


Scott Brown (R-NH)

Photo: Talk Radio News Service via Flickr

Photo: Talk Radio News Service via Flickr

Scott Brown knows the magic cure for Ebola. And it is Mitt Romney.

Brown appeared on Fox News radio last week, and told an anxious nation that if Mitt Romney had been elected president instead of Obama, we would not be dealing with an Ebola outbreak.

According to the former senator, Romney “was right on Russia, he was right on Obamacare, he was right on the economy. And I guarantee you [that if he were president] we would not be worrying about Ebola right now.”


Governor Nathan Deal (R-GA)

Photo courtesy of the city of Marietta.

Photo courtesy of the city of Marietta

Nathan Deal revealed some surprising news that you might not have known about the Ebola virus.

Speaking to The Marietta Daily Journal a week ago, Deal suggested that the disease can be treated simply by washing your hands.

“The most comforting thing that I heard from [Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health] was that water kills the Ebola virus. I’ve never heard that before. I thought it was something that was so contagious there wasn’t much you could do to prevent it or anything else, so her advice was ‘wash your hands.'” Why bother with hazmat suits when you can arm yourself with a standard garden hose instead?

After hearing that water can kill the virus, Governor Deal felt much better about Georgia’s readiness for an Ebola outbreak. “We are in pretty good shape here in Georgia,” he said. Stock up on your bottled water, Georgians.


Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX)

Photo via Wikicommons

Photo via WikiCommons

Representative Blake Farenthold ever so subtly invoked the politics of fear in his statement about Ebola, when he publicly stated that “every outbreak novel or zombie movie you see starts with somebody from the government sitting in front of a panel like this saying there is nothing to worry about.”

NBC’s White House Correspondent Kristen Welker blasted Farenthold for his I Am Legend vision of reality, noting that “some Republican candidates eyeing wins in the upcoming midterm elections are stoking public fears.”


Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)

Photo Via Wikicommons

Photo via WikiCommons

Marsha Blackburn, a U.S. representative from Tennessee, knows that we need to close the border to contain Ebola. She’s just confused about which one.

In a House of Representatives panel on the government’s efforts to keep the contagious virus stateside, Blackburn misunderstood the statement made by CDC Director Thomas Frieden about flight restrictions between the U.S. and African countries.

She interpreted his response, which referred to the porous borders of Liberia, to mean that we need to “worry about having an unsecure southern and northern border. Is that a big part of this [Ebola] problem?”

No, congresswoman, it is not.

AFP Photo/Inaki Gomez

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