House GOP passes bill to detain migrants accused of theft
WASHINGTON — The
House on Thursday passed a bill that would require federal authorities to detain unauthorized immigrants who have been accused of theft, as Republicans seized on the recent death of a nursing student in Georgia to rebuke President Biden’s border policies just hours ahead of his State of the Union address.
After 22-year-old Laken Riley, an Augusta University nursing student, was killed last month while on a morning run, Republicans rushed the “Laken Riley Act” to the House floor to coincide with Biden’s annual address.
The legislation easily passed 251-170 with all Republicans and 37 Democrats voting for it. But the bill was designed more to deliver a political point than to enact law and had little chance of being taken up in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
As immigration becomes a top issue in the presidential election, Republicans are using nearly every tool at their disposal — including impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — to condemn how the president has handled immigration. But Biden is also hammering GOP lawmakers for rejecting a bipartisan bill last month that sought to tamp down the number of illegal crossings at the US border with Mexico.
Riley’s death has become a rallying point for Donald Trump, the likely GOP presidential nominee, after authorities arrested on murder and assault charges Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan man who entered the US illegally and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case.
US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said Ibarra was arrested by New York police in August and charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation. Ibarra was released before ICE could ask New York officials to hold him until immigration authorities could take him into custody, ICE said. New York officials have said they have no record of the arrest.
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Hard-right wing of House GOP poised to grow
Super Tuesday dealt another blow to the already shrinking bloc of House Republicans who prefer governance over political performance art, as several below-the-radar races delivered victories for the hard-right faction.
In Alabama, after redistricting thrust two incumbent Republicans into the same district, Representative Barry Moore defeated Representative Jerry L. Carl despite getting outspent by a more than 2-to-1 margin, relying on his ultraconservative credentials to topple Carl’s establishment-backed campaign.
In Texas, GOP primary voters nominated an election-denying first-time candidate who has promoted conspiracy theories to replace retiring Representative Michael C. Burgess, a Texas Republican and a genial doctor who is a member of the establishment-friendly Republican Governance Group.
A state representative with overwhelming backing from local Fort Worth GOP leaders got forced into a runoff election against a little-known businessman touting the endorsement of the state’s controversial attorney general. And Republican Representative Tony Gonzales, who was censured last year by the Texas GOP for dabbling in bipartisan dealmaking in the Capitol, also got forced into a runoff against a firearms manufacturer who now runs a YouTube channel focused on far-right ideology.
And while Representative Steve Womack, an Arkansas Republican, won, he faced his first stiff primary challenge since his initial win in 2010, narrowly edging out a state legislator who was angry that Womack voted against Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican and a MAGA darling, during the House speaker votes in October.
These are not the races that will determine whether Republicans or Democrats hold the majority, so little attention gets paid to them by political operatives and the media.
But, as the past 14 months have demonstrated, these races are very critical in determining whether House Republicans can build a majority that will actually be able to govern in a somewhat normal fashion.
Every time a reliable Republican ally of leadership retires, the door opens for someone to mount an insurgent campaign that has little to do with legislation and a lot to do with theatrical promises of kicking down doors in Congress.
As Republicans discovered in early January 2023, when it took 15 rounds of voting to craft enough unity to elect a House speaker, the party now has dozens of lawmakers who come from safe seats and will happily oppose must-pass bills to get attention from conservative media and social media sites for their ideological purity.
It’s left their conference virtually ungovernable, regularly relying on a vast number of Democrats to bail out House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, whenever he has to pass funding to keep the government open or avoid fiscal calamities such as defaulting on the national debt.
“We are team normal. House Democrats are team normal,” Representative Pete Aguilar of California, the third-ranked Democrat in House leadership, told reporters Wednesday, referencing the former president and now presumptive 2024 presidential nominee as the political engine driving the GOP chaos. “House Republicans and Donald Trump are team extreme.” WASHINGTON POST
Trump ordered to pay legal fees after failed dossier suit
LONDON — Former president Donald Trump has been ordered to pay a six-figure legal bill to a company founded by a former British spy that he unsuccessfully sued for making what his lawyer called “shocking and scandalous” false claims that harmed his reputation.
A London judge, who threw out the case against Orbis Business Intelligence last month saying it was “bound to fail,” ordered Trump to pay legal fees of 300,000 pounds ($382,000), according to court documents released Thursday.
Orbis was founded by Christopher Steele, who once ran the Russia desk for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6.
Steele was paid by Democrats for research that included salacious allegations Russians could potentially use to blackmail Trump. The so-called Steele dossier assembled in 2016 created a political storm just before Trump’s inauguration with rumors and uncorroborated allegations that have since been largely discredited.
Trump sued the company, saying the dossier was phony and Orbis had violated British data protection laws. ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Francisco embraces conservative ballot measures
Voters in San Francisco, a famously liberal stronghold, embraced unusually conservative policies this week as they passed a pair of controversial ballot measures that take increasingly aggressive steps to curb the city’s intertwined troika of troubles: Homelessness, drug addiction, and crime.
The initiatives require drug screening for welfare recipients and give police more surveillance power and less oversight, measures that opponents have panned as rightwing and dangerous. Ballots were still being counted after a dismally low turnout, but the measures, known as Propositions E and F, held a clear majority of support early Thursday.
The city’s Democratic mayor, London Breed, who faces a tight reelection race in November, sponsored the initiatives and claimed victory on election night, saying they were “additional tools that are going to help us deliver some real results for San Francisco.”