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Stephen Dinan

Stephen Dinan

Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Stephen Dinan

In this Feb. 11, 2005, photo, trays of printed social security checks wait to be mailed from the U.S. Treasury's Financial Management services facility in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Bradley C. Bower) **FILE**

COVID-19 pandemic eats into Social Security’s solvency

Social Security's revenue will begin to decline this year, crossing a critical fiscal threshold as the program begins a slide toward depletion of its trust funds in little more than a decade, the program's trustees said in a stark report Tuesday. Published August 31, 2021

Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal to board a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Democrats urge DHS to waive fees for Afghan migrants

A group of Democrats is urging Homeland Security to cancel the fees that normally would have been charged for Afghans who are being evacuated to the U.S., saying they are worried the need to pay will hold up some applications and cost some would-be migrants their lives. Published August 31, 2021

A group of migrants mainly from Venezuela wade through the Rio Grande as they cross the U.S.-Mexico border, Wednesday, June 16, 2021, in Del Rio, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) ** FILE **

Border deaths soar; 2021 could break all-time record

Rogelio Perez Gutierrez probably saw the lights of La Jolla from the boat in the minutes before he and 13 other illegal immigrants were ordered to strip off their life jackets, jump into the water and swim for it. That was as close as he would get. Published August 30, 2021

Farmworkers, who declined to give their names, break up earth, Thursday, July, 1, 2021, near St. Paul, Ore., as a heat wave bakes the Pacific Northwest in record-high temperatures. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard) **FILE**

DHS approved thousands of ineligible immigrants to work in the U.S., audit shows

The Department of Homeland Security approved thousands of noncitizens to work in the U.S. even though its own system tried to flag them as probably ineligible, according to a new inspector general report that paints a grim picture of the government's best tool for weeding out undocumented immigrant workers. Published August 26, 2021

In this Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, file photo, asylum seekers receive food as they wait for news of policy changes at the border, in Tijuana, Mexico. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

Supreme Court signals rough sledding for Biden’s immigration agenda

The Supreme Court's ruling this week reviving a Trump-era border policy sent shockwaves through the immigration debate, signaling that the justices will be a major hurdle for President Biden as he tries to impose his more relaxed approach to immigration enforcement. Published August 25, 2021

In this Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, file photo released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, foreign nationals are being arrested during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens in Los Angeles. (Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP) ** FILE **

ICE arresting two-thirds more serious criminals under Biden

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is arresting 65% more convicted aggravated felons under President Biden than it did last year under President Trump, the agency told a federal judge as it makes the case for its new deportation limits. Published August 23, 2021

In this May 11, 2021, photo, three young migrants hold hands as they run in the rain at an intake area after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Roma, Texas. An official says the Biden administration has begun flying some Central American families deep into Mexico as authorities encounter more families and unaccompanied children at the U.S.-Mexico border. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) **FILE**

Judge grants one-week reprieve to ICE on Biden deportation limits

A federal judge on Monday granted a reprieve to ICE, allowing it to revive its new deportation limits for the next week while the Biden administration asks appeals courts to step in and overturn the judge's ruling from last week. Published August 23, 2021

Migrants waiting to cross into the United States wait for news at the border crossing Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Tijuana, Mexico.  A federal appellate court refused late Thursday, Aug. 19 to delay implementation of a judges order reinstating a Trump administration policy forcing thousands to wait in Mexico while seeking asylum in the U.S. President Joe Biden had suspended former President Donald Trumps Remain in Mexico policy on his first day in office and the Department of Homeland Security said it was permanently terminating the program in June, according to the court record.  (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat) **FILE**

DOJ appeals ruling that stopped Biden deportation limits

The Justice Department filed an appeal Friday a day after a federal judge delivered a withering blow to the Biden administration's anti-deportation policy, ruling the attempt to limit who can be arrested or deported flies in the face of federal law. Published August 20, 2021

In this Tuesday, June 8, 2021, photo, a group of Brazilian migrants make their way around a gap in the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma, Ariz., seeking asylum in the United States after crossing over from Mexico. The Biden administration says it has identified more than 3,900 children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border under former President Donald Trump's "zero-tolerance" policy on illegal crossings. The Border Patrol's Yuma sector recorded the highest number of separations of the agency's nine sectors on the Mexican border. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia) **FILE**

New border asylum policy would strain DHS’s finances

Homeland Security says it doesn't know where it will get the money to handle the surge of border asylum claims it expects under its new plan to shift the work from immigration judges to department bureaucrats. Published August 19, 2021

Central American asylum-seekers arrive at El Ceibo, Guatemala, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, after being deported by air from the U.S. to Mexico and then shipped into Guatemala by land. The Central American migrants were expelled by the U.S. after being denied a chance to seek asylum under a pandemic-related ban. (AP Photo/Santiago Billy) **FILE**

Judge blocks Biden’s attempt to limit deportations

A federal judge issued an injunction Thursday blocking the Biden administration's attempt to limit the scope of illegal immigrants who federal agents can target for arrest and deportation, saying Homeland Security officials failed to give a good justification for the reasons behind the policy. Published August 19, 2021

Lizeth Morales, left, of Honduras, and her son, Alex Cortillo, right, get a hug from Erika Valladares Ponce, center, as they wait to cross into the United States to begin the asylum process Monday, July 5, 2021, in Tijuana, Mexico. Dozens of people are allowed into the U.S. twice a day at a San Diego border crossing, part of a system that the Biden administration cobbled together to start opening back up the asylum system in the U.S. Immigration advocates have been tasked with choosing which migrants can apply for a limited number of slots to claim humanitarian protection. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

DHS announces plan to speed asylum cases

The Biden administration unveiled plans Wednesday to speed up asylum decisions for illegal immigrants who sneak across the border then demand protection, a move that could result in hundreds of thousands more people winning asylum each year. Published August 18, 2021