Skip to content
TRENDING:
Donald Trump
Advertisement

Stephen Dinan

Stephen Dinan

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

Articles by Stephen Dinan

President Obama (Associated Press/File)

Obama oversees steep drop in deportations of illegal immigrants

Homeland Security Department officials say the changing face of illegal immigration and the reluctance of "sanctuary cities" to help enforce immigration laws have led to the stunning drop in deportations over the past few years. Published December 21, 2014

Guards escort a Guantanamo detainee carrying a book at the Camp 4 detention facility's open-air common area at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Nov. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) ** FILE **

Obama signs defense bill that keeps Guantanamo Bay open

President Obama signed the annual defense policy bill into law Friday, but once again protested the provision that prevents him from closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where suspected terrorist detainees are held. Published December 19, 2014

Immigrants who have been caught crossing the border illegally are housed inside the McAllen Border Patrol Station in McAllen, Texas where they are processed on Tuesday, July 15, 2014. More than 57,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended at the southwestern border since October, more than twice the total this time last year, many through the Rio Grande Valley. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Rick Loomis, Pool)

Illegal immigration up, deportations down in 2014: Homeland Security

The number of illegal immigrants crossing the border rose in 2014, while deportations dropped, according to new statistics Homeland Security released Friday in a pre-holiday data dump that signaled potential problems on both sides of the immigration enforcement equation. Published December 19, 2014

President Barack Obama sits next to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, as he speaks about Ebola during a meeting with his national security and public health teams on Dec. 12, 2014, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Feds release anti-rape rules for illegal immigrant children housing

Health and Human Services released long overdue guidelines Friday ordering facilities that house illegal immigrant children to set up sexual abuse prevention programs, and to be prepared to deal with tricky cases such as transgender or intersex children. Published December 19, 2014

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson speaks at the Professional Services Council Thursday about his department's implementation efforts related to President Barack Obama's action on immigration, and his need for a fully funded budget. (Associated Press)

Jeh Johnson pleads for Homeland funding as Obama defends amnesty amid lawsuits

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson pleaded Thursday for Congress to pass full-year funding for his department, saying that if it becomes ensnared in a prolonged debate next year it will hurt his ability to pay for more border security or to cover the bills he ran up during last summer's illegal immigrant surge. Published December 18, 2014

Lois G. Lerner, who was head of the IRS division that scrutinized the tea party applications until she retired while under investigation in 2013, suffered a computer hard drive crash that cost potentially thousands of emails that should have been part of the record. (Associated Press)

IRS tea party targeting decision appealed by True the Vote

True the Vote, one of the conservative nonprofits targeted for intrusive scrutiny by the IRS, filed a notice of appeal Thursday signaling it will ask judges to throw out a lower court's ruling that found the IRS's targeting had already stopped, and tossed their case. Published December 18, 2014

FILE-This Jan.9, 2013 file photo shows Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaking with the media in Phoenix. Arpaio known for arresting hundreds of immigrants in the country illegally on charges of finding work using fake or stolen identities is planning to close the controversial squad that investigates such cases. Arpaio's decision to disband the criminal employment squad will end his last major foothold in immigration enforcement after the courts and federal government have gradually reined in his powers in recent years. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin,File)

Sheriff Arpaio disbands illegal immigration ID fraud unit

Sheriff Joe Arpaio told a federal court in Arizona last Wednesday that he has disbanded his criminal employment unit and will stop enforcing Arizona's identity theft laws against illegal immigrants, in a move that Hispanic advocacy groups said was a major victory for them. Published December 18, 2014

Tom Coburn cast his final vote as a senator Tuesday night, and was the first to flee the chamber floor, returning to the citizen part of "citizen legislator." By Wednesday afternoon he was back in Oklahoma, driving to his home in Muskogee. (Associated Press)

Tom Coburn rankles Harry Reid in farewell Senate disputes

It takes a certain kind of senator to single-handedly block a bill that supporters say would save veterans from committing suicide. But that's exactly what Sen. Tom Coburn did last week, facing down withering pressure from veterans groups and insinuations from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that he will have the blood of veterans on his hands because he's refusing to let the bill through. Published December 17, 2014

A member of the group Border Dreamers marches in support of a U.S. open border policy. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

Dreamers tell GOP presidential hopefuls to stop deportations

Illegal immigrants who gained tentative legal status under President Obama's 2012 amnesty for so-called Dreamers have issued a challenge to would-be 2016 GOP presidential candidates, demanding to know whether the Republicans would deport the Dreamers and their parents. Published December 17, 2014

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, says approving the Keystone XL pipeline will top the Senate agenda in January. Congressional Republicans have been pushing for approval of the pipeline for years. President Obama has resisted because of environmental concerns. (Associated Press Photographs)

Senate clears $81B tax-break package

Congress cleared dozens of special-interest tax breaks late Tuesday as senators rushed to finish business and close up for the year. Published December 16, 2014

President Barack Obama speaks to troops at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., Monday, Dec. 15, 2014. President Barack Obama says every American who has served in Afghanistan should be proud of what they've accomplished. Obama is observing the end of combat operations in Afghanistan by visiting U.S. troops at New Jersey's Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. The base has been a launching point for deployments to Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Obama amnesty is unconstitutional, federal judge finds

A federal judge Tuesday ruled parts of President Obama's deportation amnesty to be unconstitutional, with a scathing memo dismantling the White House's legal reasoning and arguing that Mr. Obama tried to steal Congress' lawmaking powers. Published December 16, 2014

Sarah R. Saldana

Obama amnesty to be tested by immigration service nominee

The first major showdown over President Obama's deportation amnesty will come Tuesday when the Senate votes on whether to confirm Sarah R. Saldana, the president's pick to run the interior immigration service, who would be charged with seeing through much of his amnesty. Published December 15, 2014

During an intense grilling session on Capitol Hill, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson disagreed with President Obama's 2010 assertion that amnesty would lead to a new surge in illegal border crossings from Mexico. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times) ** FILE **

Jeh Johnson: Deportation amnesty allows DHS to get serious about border

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Monday that President Obama's deportation amnesty gives his department a chance to get serious about border security, freeing it up to put more resources on the border instead of tracking illegal immigrants inside the U.S. Published December 15, 2014

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee toured the San Pedro Service Processing Center for immigrants in Los Angeles. The facility was briefly shuttered in 2007 due to Army Corps of Engineers concerns over fire hazards, but it later reopened with remaining issues. (Associated Press)

Department of Homeland Security used hazardous building to process illegals

The Department of Homeland Security has been processing illegal immigrants in a dangerous California building for years despite knowing it to be a deadly fire hazard, the department's inspector general said Friday in a memo that said it had ordered the facility shut down immediately. Published December 14, 2014