Stephen Dinan
Articles by Stephen Dinan
Feds bust border extortion ring involving kidnapping, rape and demands for cash
Federal prosecutors announced the arrest Tuesday of three people accused of a grisly extortion scheme against illegal immigrants trying to make their way into California that involved kidnapping, rape and exorbitant demands for cash to secure the migrants' release. Published June 9, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Border surge sends prices soaring; smugglers can earn $200,000
Victoria Perez spent 10 months as a migrant smuggler. When agents finally caught up with her, she told them she had made $200,000 over that time, working two days a week, driving migrants through a Border Patrol highway checkpoint near El Paso, Texas. Published June 8, 2021
5-year-old girl abandoned by smugglers at gap in border wall: ‘Exploited for financial gain’
Border Patrol agents said Tuesday they rescued yet another young child abandoned at the border by smugglers near a gap in the border wall. Published June 8, 2021
DHS chief Mayorkas says he’s bringing ‘dignity’ to undocumented immigrants
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday that his decision to ban use of the term "illegal alien" was about restoring dignity to undocumented immigrants, saying their unauthorized presence in the U.S. should not be their defining characteristic. Published June 8, 2021
DHS to issue new deportation rules, DOJ tells federal judge
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will issue new rules in early July governing who can and can't be arrested or deported, the government told a federal judge Monday. Published June 7, 2021
Arizona AG challenges ICE over detaining illegal immigrants in Scottsdale residential area
In a letter last week to ICE and its overseers at Homeland Security, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich objected to plans to turn a hotel in a residential area of Scottsdale into a short-term processing center for the illegal immigrant families who are streaming into the country during the current border surge. Published June 7, 2021
Supreme Court unanimously rejects border jumper’s demand for path to citizenship
The Supreme Court on Monday shot down an attempt by an immigrant who is in the U.S. illegally to claim that he is entitled to a pathway to citizenship because he was granted a deportation amnesty under the Temporary Protected Status program. Published June 7, 2021
‘This can really backfire’: Kamala Harris seeks to defy history with diplomatic mission
Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first foray into international diplomacy on the border situation this weekend, heading to Central American to do some nation-building with a promise of $4 billion in American cash, hoping things can improve enough to keep people at home. Published June 6, 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Sly smuggler uses Border Patrol for free trips home
In the category of not all crooks are stupid, one accused migrant smuggler figured out an ingenious way to cut in half the time it took him to get back to Mexico from the U.S. to prepare for his next load of people: He turned himself in to the Border Patrol. Published June 3, 2021
‘Babies washing down the river’: Congressman hears of migrant misery at the Darien Gap
For migrants making the land trek up the spine of the Americas to the U.S., there's one spot that consistently proves the most dangerous -- the Darien Gap, a jungle wilderness that covers the boundary between Colombia and Panama. Having been to Texas to see what was arriving at the U.S. border, Rep. Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin Republican, figured he'd get a first-hand look at what was coming through the Darien Gap. Published June 2, 2021
Cost to house migrant kids ‘skyrocketing,’ GOP says
House Republicans' lead investigator demanded Wednesday that Democrats convene a hearing to look at the "skyrocketing" cost for hundreds of illegal immigrant children still surging across the border each day and said the Biden administration is using semantics to downplay the ongoing crisis. Published June 2, 2021
DHS officially ends ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday officially nixed the Trump policy that had allowed illegal immigrants to be pushed back across the southwestern border into Mexico immediately, a tactic that had helped solve the previous border surge. Published June 1, 2021
Nearly one-third of Biden appointments are immigrants or their children
Nearly a third of the 1,500 appointments President Biden has made to political jobs in the federal government have gone to immigrants or their children, the president said Tuesday as he proclaimed June to be National Immigrant Heritage Month. Published June 1, 2021
Higher immigration doesn’t mean better standard of living, study shows
One of the biggest questions about immigration policy is whether it enriches the receiving country -- and, more important, whether it enriches those already here. Published June 1, 2021
Scammers make billions off of pandemic assistance funds
When a name such as disgraced football coach Joe Paterno, dead for nearly a decade, shows up on documents applying for a pandemic loan, it's a pretty good red flag there's something fishy going on. Published May 31, 2021
Nancy Pelosi’s punishment for violating security screening, mask mandates faces legal test
Republicans looking to challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's fines for violating her security screening and mask mandates may have gained ammunition this month when the sole Democrat to face a fine -- Rep. James E. Clyburn -- had his penalty expunged. Published May 29, 2021
Biden budget ‘betrays’ promises, too harsh on migrants, civil rights, immigration activists say
Immigrant rights groups lashed the administration for a missed opportunity in President Biden's new budget, which cuts ICE's detention capacity and imposes new accountability checks but otherwise leaves the government's immigration enforcement apparatus largely intact. Published May 29, 2021
DHS eyes deleting gang questions from green card application
Homeland Security is moving to cut questions about gang affiliation from the application migrants file to get green cards, in a change that one former employee says could mean dangerous criminals will have an easier time getting through the process. Published May 27, 2021
GOP Sen. Rick Scott to block DHS nominees until Joe Biden visits border
Sen. Rick Scott said Thursday he will block top Homeland Security nominees until President Biden makes a trip to the southern border to get a firsthand look at the situation. Published May 27, 2021
Taxpayers to foot bill for asylum claims from border surge
President Biden will ask taxpayers to foot the bill for processing asylum applications and cutting into the backlog of other immigration cases at Homeland Security, the department's chief told Congress on Wednesday. Published May 26, 2021