Stephen Dinan
Articles by Stephen Dinan
EXCLUSIVE: ICE to scour U.S. communities looking for border absconders
The Department of Homeland Security will deploy teams of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers into communities to track down illegal immigrants the Biden administration caught and released at the border last year and who have since gone AWOL, The Washington Times has learned. Published April 5, 2022
Miles of border left unguarded as Border Patrol struggles with surge
The Border Patrol's Del Rio sector covers 240 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Published April 4, 2022
‘Obamaphone’ company pays $13.4 million to settle fraud claims
A company that the government paid to distribute "Obamaphones" -- the nickname critics gave to government phones given to poor people -- has agreed to pay $13.4 million to settle a case alleging that it doled out devices to tens of thousands of people who didn't deserve them. Published April 4, 2022
States sue to halt Biden from ending border order stopping illegal immigrants
Three Republican-led states filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to stop President Biden from ending the pandemic border-emergency order that had helped block illegal immigrants' path into the U.S., saying he moved too rashly. Published April 4, 2022
Border braces for record chaos as Biden ends pandemic shutdown policy
Sen. Bill Hagerty was with Border Patrol agents Friday when news of the Biden administration's decision to cancel the pandemic emergency and reopen the border to illegal immigrants was announced at evening muster. Published April 3, 2022
Art of the recusal: Supreme Court justices face calls not to hear certain cases
To sit or not to sit -- that is the question Supreme Court justices are suddenly facing. Published April 3, 2022
Romney predicts GOP election wins due to Biden’s embrace of border chaos
Sen. Mitt Romney predicted Friday that Republicans will win Senate seats from Democrats in Arizona, Nevada and elsewhere when voters punish President Biden for ending a pandemic border emergency and inviting a new surge of illegal immigration. Published April 1, 2022
Biden to end border pandemic emergency in May; DHS anticipates a surge of illegal immigrants
The Biden administration announced Friday that it is ending the pandemic border emergency order, known as Title 42, that for the last two years has blocked many illegal immigrants from entering the U.S., sparking fears of a new record-shattering surge of migrants. Published April 1, 2022
ICE force-installed suicide prevention app on employees’ phones
ICE automatically installed a suicide prevention app on employees' government-issued smartphones this week, staffers told The Washington Times, calling it a grim sign of just how far morale has sunk at the immigration agency. Published March 31, 2022
DHS releases 35,000 new slots for summertime guest workers
The Homeland Security Department announced Thursday it will make 35,000 additional visas available to foreign workers for summer seasonal jobs, thrilling summer resorts, seafood processors and landscaping businesses that say they struggle to find Americans willing to do that kind of work. Published March 31, 2022
Pregnant woman dies from apparent fall from border wall
A pregnant woman died after falling while trying to climb over the border wall in Texas, losing her fetus too, Homeland Security said Wednesday. Published March 30, 2022
GOP in new video urges Biden, Dems to visit the border
With the chaos at the southern border deepening, Republicans released a video Wednesday pressing President Biden and his Democrats to visit the area to get a firsthand look at what local communities have been left to deal with. Published March 30, 2022
ICE officers prepare for ‘massive crash’ in immigration system
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees have been warned to prepare for the end of the border pandemic emergency policy as soon as this week -- with predictions that illegal border crossings, already at record levels, could triple. Published March 29, 2022
Illegal immigrant population soars to 11.4 million
The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. soared by more than 1 million last year, reaching 11.4 million as of this January, according to new research released Tuesday that puts new contours on the border chaos under President Biden. Published March 29, 2022
Biden got 255,000 ‘excess’ votes in fraud-tainted swing states in 2020, study finds
President Biden received hundreds of thousands of "excess" votes in Democratic-controlled areas in the 2020 election, according to an academic study on voter fraud that suggests the push to relax voting standards created new opportunities for electoral mischief. Published March 28, 2022
Biden’s new budget would siphon unspent money from border wall
President Biden's new budget would take $2 billion in unspent border wall money and allow it to be spent instead on building roads or cutting down brush along the U.S.-Mexico boundary. Published March 28, 2022
IRS still paying pandemic benefits to dead people: Audit
The IRS is still paying pandemic benefits to dead people, the agency's inspector general has revealed in a new report that identified tens of thousands of erroneous payments. Published March 25, 2022
Supreme Court: Texas must accommodate condemned man, let pastor ‘lay hands’ on him during execution
A Texas man facing execution can request to have his pastor pray aloud and be touching him as the state carries out a lethal injection, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Published March 24, 2022
Biden to welcome 100,000 Ukrainians as U.S. becomes refugee safety valve
The White House announced plans Thursday to welcome 100,000 Ukrainian migrants fleeing Russia's war on their country, the latest in a series of moves to make the U.S. immigration system a safety valve for those fleeing global trouble spots. Published March 24, 2022
DHS finalizes plan to take over border asylum cases
Homeland Security released a final regulation Thursday taking control of decisions in border asylum cases, in a move analysts said is likely to lead to faster -- and more -- approvals. Published March 24, 2022