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Stephen Dinan

Stephen Dinan

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

Articles by Stephen Dinan

**FILE** U.S. Border Patrol agent Jerry Conlin looks to the north on June 13, 2013, near where the border wall ends as is separates Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego. (Associated Press)

Homeland Security helps smuggle illegal immigrant children into the U.S.

A federal judge has accused the Obama administration of aiding drug cartels, saying that instead of enforcing immigration laws, agents knowingly helped smuggle an illegal immigrant girl into the U.S. to live with her mother, also an illegal immigrant. Published December 19, 2013

** FILE ** An anti-spying protest takes place in the nation's capital on Oct. 26, 2013. (Jose Luis Magana / AP)

Obama’s own panel rips NSA spying on phone calls of Americans

President Obama's internal review panel has accused the government of abusing the Patriot Act and said many of the intelligence community's key tools should be reined in, including the NSA's phone-snooping program. Published December 18, 2013

House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, last week led the charge to undo some of the sequester cuts, replacing them with more spending now, offset by promised fees and cuts in the future. Mr. Boehner is one of a number of members of Congress who have changed their stance on the automatic cuts since the 2011 debt deal that set the sequesters in place. (Associated Press)

John Boehner demands Senate action on House jobs bills

With the budget fight nearly behind them, both Republicans and Democrats are jockeying for the next fight — and House Speaker John A. Boehner wants it to be on the GOP's turf of cutting regulations to spur job growth. Published December 18, 2013

**FILE** Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (center), Vermont Democrat, speaks with committee members and Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (right) of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 22, 2013, during the committee's hearing on immigration reform. (Associated Press)

Top Democrats reject court ruling over NSA spying on Americans

Top Democrats pushed back Tuesday against a federal judge's ruling that the NSA's phone-records collection program violates privacy rights, asking for higher courts to quickly get involved and bring legal certainty to the murky world of intelligence gathering. Published December 17, 2013

Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House oversight committee, is coming under fire from Democrats who say the California Republican has been overzealous in his pursuit of oversight of the Obama administration. (associated press)

White House is obstructing probe on Navy Yard shooter, NSA leaker, Darrell Issa says

House oversight committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa this week accused the Obama administration of trying to "obstruct" a congressional investigation by trying to silence the contractors that help the federal government with security clearances, and he demanded interviews with individuals involved in the process. Published December 17, 2013

** FILE ** In this Feb. 11, 2005, file 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)

Social Security to run 12% deficit for next decade

Social Security has been running in the red for several years and will see a 12 percent gap between the taxes it's collecting and the benefits it's projected to pay out over the next 10 years, according to a report Tuesday from the Congressional Budget Office. Published December 17, 2013

** FILE ** Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, speaks with reporters following a closed-door briefing by intelligence agencies on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (Associated Press)

Feinstein: Judge got NSA ruling wrong

The chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee criticized a federal judge's ruling this week that the NSA is likely violating Americans' rights by storing records about their phone calls, saying Tuesday that the decision flies in the face of Supreme Court precedent and dozens of other court rulings. Published December 17, 2013

** FILE ** Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican. (Associated Press)

Rep. Frank Wolf to retire from Northern Virginia seat

Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, said Tuesday he won't seek re-election next year, ending a career on Capitol Hill that has stretched for more than three decades and seen the tremendous growth of the Northern Virginia region he has represented. Published December 17, 2013

Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House oversight committee, is coming under fire from Democrats who say the California Republican has been overzealous in his pursuit of oversight of the Obama administration. (associated press)

Democrats slam Issa on HealthCare.gov subpoena

Democrats said Monday that the House's top investigator, Rep. Darrell Issa, went too far in using a subpoena to obtain the secret plans for the computer architecture behind HealthCare.gov, and the Democrats warn that having those documents out in the open could be a major cybersecurity threat. Published December 16, 2013

"Our view of the law is that it — if somebody is here without sufficient documentation, that is not reason for deportation," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said in an interview with Telemundo, a Spanish-language network. "If somebody has broken the law, committed a felony or something, that's a different story." (associated press)

Nancy Pelosi calls on Obama to halt deportations

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has joined the call for President Obama to halt deportations, saying that just being in the country illegally is not enough reason for illegal immigrants to be sent home. Published December 16, 2013

FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2013 file photo, Homeland Security Secretary nominee Jeh Johnson testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on his nomination. Democrats begin a drive this week to muscle a half dozen of President Barrack Obama's Republican-opposed nominees through the Senate after clamping shackles on traditional minority party rights in last month's power play against the GOP. Republicans, however, still have some tools for grinding the Senate's work to an excruciatingly slow crawl. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Senate confirms Obama pick Jeh Johnson as Homeland Security secretary

The Senate approved Jeh Johnson as the fourth Homeland Security secretary, giving him the reins at a department that, more than a decade after its creation, is still unstable and trying to figure out its role in the massive federal bureaucracy. Published December 16, 2013

** FILE ** National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen. Keith B. Alexander testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, before the House Intelligence Committee. (Associated Press)

Federal judge says NSA phone program violates Fourth Amendment

A federal judge in Washington ruled Monday that the government's phone records collection program is likely unconstitutional, setting up a major legal hurdle for the Obama administration, which is desperately trying to preserve the intelligence gathering tool. Published December 16, 2013

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi calls for Obama to halt deportations

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has privately urged the Obama administration to halt deportations for some illegal immigrants, saying that President Obama needs to use more "discretion" to reduce the number of people he's kicking out of the country. Published December 16, 2013

** FILE ** Immigration activists gather on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013, as lawmakers speak on the steps of the House of Representatives to appeal for action on an immigration reform bill. A reform bill that could provide a pathway to citizenship for the roughly 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States has languished as the House Republican leadership has not put the bill to a vote before the holiday recess. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Protesters try to shut down deportations in Virginia

Immigrant-rights activists blocked a deportation office in Fairfax County Monday morning in protest of Congress's failure to pass a bill legalizing illegal immigrants and trying to pressure President Obama to stop removing immigrants until Capitol Hill does act. Published December 16, 2013

President Barack Obama turns to the podium as he arrives to speak about the new health care law during a White House Youth Summit, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Federal deficit shrinks 20 percent in fiscal 2014

Federal spending continues to drop and, combined with this year's tax increases, are making a dent in the federal deficit, according to the latest numbers released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office. Published December 6, 2013