Jessica Mcbride

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers working through Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star, continue to arrest “special interest aliens,” primarily men from countries of foreign concern. That includes Iran, a U.S. State Department designated State Sponsor of Terrorism. Texas DPS first sounded the alarm about increasing arrests of SIAs last month, The Center Square first reported . In the past week, DPS troopers have arrested dozens of SIAs, Texas DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez said in a series of social media posts . SIAs are noncitizens who, based “on an analysis of travel patterns,” are “known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism” who “potentially poses a national security risk to the United States,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security explains. Having an SIA designation does not necessarily mean the individual is a terrorist, but their travel pattern “indicates a possible nexus to nefarious activity (including terrorism) and, at ...

  Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters Wednesday that FEMA does not have enough funding to last the rest of the year even as it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on migrants under the Biden administration and more hurricanes could be on the way. DHS oversees FEMA, putting Mayorkas in charge of the emergency relief agency which has recently been focused on helping migrants settle in the U.S. “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mayorkas told reporters. “We are expecting another hurricane hitting. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.” The startling admission by Mayorkas comes as FEMA grapples with the widespread damage of Hurricane Helene, A Category 4 hurricane that ripped through the southeast costing billions of dollars, causing widespread infrastructure damage, food shortages, and more than 100 deaths. Many are still unaccounted for as well. President Joe Biden said earlier ...

The U.S. Department of Defense is under scrutiny for refusing to release records about exactly how spending on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion helps with national security. The Center to Advance Security in America in May filed with the DOD a Freedom of Information Act Request, the legal pathway to obtain government documents. The FOIA sought to find out what DOD officials estimate is the real impact on national security of DEI spending, for which Congress approved $86.5 million in fiscal year 2023. However, James Fitzpatrick, an Army Veteran who leads CASA, told The Center Square that the DOD has confirmed it received the FOIA request but still has not released any documents more than 100 days later. “The Department of Defense has stated that diversity, equity, and inclusion is the American military’s greatest strength but has rarely detailed how,” reads the FOIA, which was obtained by The Center Square. “Given the recent hiring freeze on DEI related positions, it must follow ...

  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is doing something prominent New Mexico politicians have opposed for years: building more border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Department is waiving 26 federal laws to finish a 20-mile stretch of wall in the Rio Grand Valley; it stopped construction there more than two years ago. In a six-page filing with the Federal Register, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the decision. “There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” he wrote, citing sections of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Border Patrol agents working in the Rio Grande Valley Sector apprehended over 245,000 foreign nationals illegally entering the country between points of entry from the start of the fiscal y...

  The Department of Homeland Security has sparked controversy by adding to its Intelligence Board multiple members who signed on to the now-debunked 2020 letter saying the Hunter Biden laptop story was “Russian disinformation.” Now, House Republicans want answers, saying the new additions bring into question the federal group’s credibility and impartiality. “Your decision to appoint members to this group who have demonstrated political bias suggests misplaced priorities,” the letter said. House Committee on Homeland Security Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., and August Pfluger, R-Texas, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, sent the letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the appointees. The appointments in question include former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan, and former Associate Deputy Attorney General for the Department of Justice Tashi...

“With this TPD action, the Biden-Harris Administration has now approved approximately $8.7 billion in student loan discharges for roughly 455,000 borrowers” A federal student loan forgiveness program aimed at helping out public servants is getting an overhaul after media reports exposed major problems with the program. The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program will undergo an overhaul to make sure more public servants, including members of the military, receive taxpayers' funds to help them repay their debts. "This is an entire system who let down our men and women in uniform," said Seth Frotman, head of the Student Borrower Protection Program. The announcement comes just a few days after media reports, including a CBS “60 Minutes” investigation, showed that military members were frustrated with the program for its complex requirements and complicated approval process that prevented many from rec...