Anyone Want To Guess How Many Other Illegal Alien "Refugees" Have Crossed Texas Border?

REPORT: 8 SYRIANS CAUGHT AT TEXAS BORDER

Security hole exposed as Obama threatens to veto GOP refugee bill

Published: 11 hours ago

 DOUGLAS ERNST

U.S. Customs and Border Protection appears to have validated Republicans’ biggest security concerns over Syrian migrants.

Two federal agents working under the authority of CBP told Breitbart News that eight Syrian illegal aliens attempted to enter Texas from Mexico. The agents, speaking on condition of anonymity on Monday, said the Syrians were apprehended by the Laredo Border Patrol.

The Syrians were taken into custody Monday, sources told the news organization.

“Border Patrol agents who we represent have been contacting our organization to voice concerns about reports from other agents that Syrians crossed the U.S. border from Mexico in the Laredo Sector. Our agents have heard about Syrians being apprehended in the area from other federal agents,” Border Patrol agent and NBPC Local 2455 President Hector Garza told Breitbart Wednesday. “At this time, I cannot confirm or deny that Syrians have crossed, for security reasons.”

Reports of the Laredo, Texas, apprehensions coincide with the detention of five Syrian nationals in Honduras who were traveling to the U.S. The individuals were found with stolen Greek passports in their possession, WND reported.

“The group of Syrian men was held late on Tuesday in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa on arrival from Costa Rica and they were planning to head to the border with neighboring Guatemala,” Fox reported. “The passports had been doctored to replace the photographs with those of the Syrians, police said.”

The five are still in police custody.

At least 66 men and women linked with ISIS-related terror plots on American soil have been arrested and charged with crimes, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Republicans in the House and Senate, along with 15 state governors, have voiced strong opposition to President Obama’s plan to accept 10,000 Syrian migrants in 2016 and 100,000 from all countries in 2017. The American SAFE act was drafted by 15 House Republicans to cut off funding for Obama’s Syrian resettlement program, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul plans to introduce a similar bill in the Senate.

Obama has threatened to veto any Republican-backed bill that stymies efforts to process migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.

“This legislation would introduce unnecessary and impractical requirements that would unacceptably hamper our efforts to assist some of the most vulnerable people in the world, many of whom are victims of terrorism, and would undermine our partners in the Middle East and Europe in addressing the Syrian refugee crisis. The administration therefore strongly opposes H.R. 4038,” the White House said in a statement released Wednesday.

The White House has also used social media to try and sway public opinion in favor of Obama’s refugee plan while simultaneously lashing out at Republican critics.

“In the days since the attack on Paris some have taken the narrow view that protecting Americans from ISIL mandates that we turn our back on those most at risk to the terrorist group – the men, women and children forced to flee their homes and families, their schools and communities,” Amy Pope, deputy assistant to the president for homeland security, said on the White House website Tuesday. “The administration rejects the flawed view that we can’t ensure our own safety while also welcoming refugees desperately seeking their own safety. The truth is: America can and must do both.”

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Obama amplified criticism of Republicans by promoting the hastag #RefugeesWelcome on social media.

“We don’t have religious tests for our compassion. #RefugeesWelcome,” the White House Twitter account wrote on behalf Obama Wednesday.

image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/11/Obmaa-refugee-welcome.jpg

President Obama makes a social media push to convince Americans of the need to take in Syrian refugees (Photo: Twitter, White House)

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Will Obama Allow China To Break The Monroe Doctrine?

China to build Panama Canal rival

A Chinese tycoon has managed to push through Nicaragua's congress a bill granting his company the rights to build the country's largest-ever development project. However, experts see huge challenges ahead.

According to media reports, the legislation approved in the National Assembly dominated by President Daniel Ortega's Sandinista Front contains no specific route for the canal and virtually no details of its financing or economic viability. It simply grants the Hong Kong-based HKND Group, owned by Beijing-based entrepreneur Wang Jing, 50 years of exclusive rights to study the plan, build and operate a canal linking the Pacific and Caribbean in exchange for Nicaragua receiving a minority share of any profits. The projected cost of the canal is 40 billions dollars.

However, despite the expected business opportunities, the project bears plenty of risks for both the environment and international relations, said Karl-Dieter Hoffmann, head of the Latin American Studies Institute at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in a DW interview.

DW: Why is Nicaragua attempting to build this canal?

Karl-Dieter Hoffmann: There are mainly economic reasons behind this. Nicaragua is one of Latin America's poorest countries. Initially, the project had been turned down because of its enormous costs. However, Nicaraguan President Ortega now seems to have found in Wang Jing a wealthy investor backed the Chinese government. This has allowed him to push the controversial deal through the Nicaraguan congress and start the search for much-needed income sources.

Hoffmann believes there are geopolitical reasons behind China's decision to finance the canal's construction

With the income generated by the canal, the government expects state finances to swell. It says it will then be in a stronger position to improve the standard of living in the country and tackle its development problems. And I think these expectations are not unjustified. Since the US handed over control of the canal more than a decade ago, Panama has been registering the highest economic growth rate in all of Latin America. The country's GDP grew by ten percent last year and thousands of jobs have been created.

How would China profit from the project?

At the moment, China is the second-largest user of the Panama Canal which is being expanded because of an increase in trade between Asia and the nations in the Western Hemisphere.

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I believe there are not only economic but only geopolitical motives behind Beijing's backing of the Nicaraguan project. China is currently investing more in Latin America than any other country. It has even overtaken the US and Europe as South America's largest trading partner.

So it appears that the Chinese are now extending their economic might into Central America, where some of the countries still have diplomatic relations with Taipei instead of Beijing. So far, the Taiwanese government has managed to maintain such ties by investing heavily in development and infrastructure projects in the region. But Beijing's growing influence might cause this to change, just as in the case of Nicaragua's neighbor Costa Rica.

What effects would this have on global trade?

The viability of the canal project will depend on how maritime transportation develops over the next years. In the case of a global recession the new canal could trigger a cut-throat competition with the Panama Canal, since both of them would be vying to offer the lowest transit fees. Such a development would, in turn, have drastic repercussions on Chinese investment.

On the other hand, a Nicaraguan canal would also have an immediate impact on other forms of transportation such as rail freight, and even drive some companies out of business.

What are the risks involved?

The project bears all sorts of risks. First of all, no studies have been released neither on the feasibility of the canal, nor on its possible environmental impact. There is, for instance, no data on how construction would affect water supply in the region or even on how many locks the canal will have.

But there might also be political consequences. In order to build the canal, engineers would make partial use of Lake Nicaragua, but tapping the outflowing San Juan River could lead to a diplomatic dispute with Costa Rica. The Nicaraguan government seems to have been caught off guard by the project. This hasn't been a transparent process.

Hoffmann believes tapping the San Juan river could lead to a diplomatic dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica

The Panama Canal was completed by the United States. What political message would a Chinese-built canal sent to the world?

Chinese President Xi Jinping returned from a Latin America tour a few days ago, but no word on the construction of the canal had been made public. So far, there has been no official reaction from the US government on the issue, but I believe that particularly members of the Republican Party will be alarmed by the Chinese constructing a canal so close to the US mainland, possibly affecting American interests in the region. For the first time in history, the United States would have a global competitor directly at its doorstep.

The interview was conducted by DW editor Gabriel Domínguez.