Thread: Arizona takes center stage in border security showdown with McCarthy visit

Arizona takes center stage in border security showdown with McCarthy visit




Rafael Carranza, Arizona Republic
Tue, February 21, 2023 at 9:51 PM EST





HEREFORD, Ariz. — Rep. Kevin McCarthy brought the fight over border security to Arizona on Thursday as part of his first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border since his election last month as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Arizona is featured prominently in the efforts by House Republican lawmakers to spotlight what they say are President Joe Biden’s failings on border security and the handling of record number of migrant encounters in the southern U.S. border with Mexico.

McCarthy, R-Calif., joined by four freshman Republican lawmakers, met with law enforcement, elected leaders and residents from Cochise County before concluding his visit with a tour of the border fence south of Sierra Vista.

McCarthy said the decision to visit Cochise County was strategic because of the large number of people attempting to cross through southeastern Arizona while trying to avoid detection from border officials.

“The sad part about what’s happening is, the country of Mexico does not know who’s leaving their country. America, we do not know who is entering the country,” McCarthy said. “But there is one entity who knows who is leaving Mexico and who is coming into America, the Sinaloa cartel, because nobody comes across this border without paying them.”





U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy speaks during a news conference in front of the U.S.-Mexico border south of Sierra Vista on Feb. 16, 2023, in Hereford.

Since taking control of the House in January, Republicans have used their position in the majority to criticize Biden’s border policies, especially going after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who some have vowed to impeach.

“Our border, we don't even have operational control of it anymore. This is why I will continue to investigate what has gone wrong here,” McCarthy said. “And we will hold people accountable. And that includes Secretary Mayorkas. You cannot lie to the American people any longer and tell us this border is secure.”

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McCarthy’s visit to Cochise County further reinforced the role that Arizona is expected to play in their efforts to discredit Biden’s border policies, while playing up their newly secured oversight authority.

Several House committees, now chaired by Republicans, have launched congressional hearings over the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Two held hearings last week on Capitol Hill that featured testimony from John Modlin, the chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, which includes Cochise County, as well as Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels. Dannels on Thursday led the tour of the border.





U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy answers questions from reporters after a news conference in front of the U.S.-Mexico border south of Sierra Vista on Feb. 16, 2023, in Hereford.

On Wednesday, the House Committee of Energy and Finance held a field hearing in Texas on the public health impacts of the situation at the border. Next Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold another field hearing in Yuma that will focus on border security issues.

White House spokesperson Ian Sams responded Wednesday in a written statement to the border field hearings and McCarthy’s visit to Cochise County. He defended Biden’s record on border enforcement and called on Republicans to work with his administration.

“House Republicans should spend less time on partisan publicity stunts and more time working on solutions,” Sams said. “Solutions are what President Biden is focused on, and his plan is working. House Republicans would be wise to join him to work together to strengthen our immigration system and fund border security.”





From left, John Ladd and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy listen to U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani (at center) speak during a news conference in front of the U.S.-Mexico border south of Sierra Vista on Feb. 16, 2023, in Hereford.

Border security versus immigration reform

McCarthy’s visit included four freshman Republican lawmakers: Rep. Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, whose district covers most of Cochise County, plus Reps. Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon, Jen Kiggans of Virginia and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin.

Ciscomani, who helped organize Thursday’s visit, was sworn in last month after he flipped the district's House seat from Democratic to Republican. Since then, his profile has begun to rise within Republican circles. Earlier this month he delivered the Spanish-language response to Biden’s State of the Union address.





U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani speaks during a news conference in front of the U.S.-Mexico border south of Sierra Vista on Feb. 16, 2023, in Hereford.

“There are two people that can really have an immediate impact on the situation in this country, and that's President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas. And they both have failed and they have shown no interest in fixing this issue,” he said.

Ciscomani invited Biden and Mayorkas to visit Cochise County, adding that it was important for them to see the issues that he was familiar with having grown up in the area. Thursday’s visit did not include any Democratic lawmakers.
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When asked about that, Ciscomani said the issue was not about politics, but about finding solutions.

“We're not here talking about immigration reform. We're here talking about border security. These are two different issues and we need to deal with them separately,” he said.

One of the Democrats noticeably absent from the event was Rep. Raúl Grijalva, whose congressional district was modified in the latest round of redistricting to include the border communities in Cochise County. That includes the portions of unincorporated land south of Sierra Vista that McCarthy and the GOP congressional delegation visited.





U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva speaks at the Grand Canyon on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019. Grijalva, D-Arizona, was at the Grand Canyon to announce his Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act, which would permanently ban uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.

Earlier in the day, Grijalva also was in Cochise County, where he met with the mayor of the border city of Douglas and toured the Raul H. Castro port of entry.

Last year, Congress allocated $200 million in funding for a long-sought expansion of the border crossing in Douglas as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The first steps toward modernizing the port would begin in the next few weeks.

Those actions were the types of results that border communities needed because they had a vital economic impact in the region and would also help with border security by stopping a greater number of drugs like fentanyl, which are largely smuggled through legal border crossings, Grijalva said.

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U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy answers questions from reporters after a news conference in front of the U.S.-Mexico border south of Sierra Vista on Feb. 16, 2023, in Hereford.

He said he hoped McCarthy and other Republicans who visit the border take away how complex border communities are, warning of the impact that alarmist rhetoric has in the region he has represented in Congress for decades.

“As long as it’s being slandered, as long as it’s demonized by people such as the speaker of the House of Representatives and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, then that’s the message that goes out to the rest of America,” Grijalva said. “Viewing this part of the world and this part of our nation as a deficit, and somehow outlaw land, different from the rest of the country. It’s not different.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona takes center stage in border security fight between Biden, GOP



https://www.yahoo.com/news/arizona-t...031426405.html

CLAIM: Arizona’s Democrat governor, Katie Hobbs, accused of taking bribes from Mexican cartel through complex real estate scheme

Wednesday, March 01, 2023 by: JD Heyes
Tags: 2022 election, accusations, Arizona, big government, Bribes, Collusion, corruption, drug cartels, El Chapo, elections, falsified documents, fraud, fraudulent transactions, invasion usa, investigation, Katie Hobbs, Maricopa County, Mexico, money supply, national security, Open Borders, Sinaloa Cartel
210VIEWS



(Natural News) A law firm based in California has alleged, without yet offering conclusive evidence, that Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, Runbeck Election Services, and several other election officials, judges, mayors, city councilmen, and county supervisors in the state received bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.
During a hearing before the Senate Elections and Municipal Oversight & Elections Joint Committee last week, Jacqueline Breger, the lead investigator for the Harris/Thaler Law Corporation, presented their claims. She described how an inquiry into money laundering in the Midwest uncovered allegations of corruption in Arizona, The Post Millennial is reporting.
“In 2006, the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa investigated the laundering of drug cartel monies through a complex series of single-family home purchases in those states,” Breger told the committee.
“By 2009, numerous real estate agents, escrow companies and title insurers had been indicted, charged and convicted of racketeering. In 2014, our office was asked to review the case files and to determine whether monies from the sales of the properties had filtered to property purchases in Arizona, specifically in Maricopa and Pima County,” Breger continued, per the report.
The Sinaloa Cartel is a powerful and violent Mexican drug trafficking organization based in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Led by notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán until his capture in 2016, the cartel has developed into one of the most powerful drug trafficking cartels in the world. The cartel is involved in a variety of illegal activities, including drug smuggling, money laundering, and assassinations, and has been linked to numerous violent crimes across Mexico and the United States. As the cartel continues to expand its operations, it has become a major threat to global security.
According to the investigator, it was discovered that a group of real estate agents in Iowa had established a money laundering system in Arizona and subsequently transferred the sales proceeds to Panamanian corporations.
“In 2018, Mr. Thaler discovered, incidental to another matter, a series of trust deeds evidencing that cash laundering through single family residences in Arizona was pervasive and ongoing,” Breger noted further. “With that, a new investigation began with the focus being on money laundering and related racketeering activities in Maricopa County and several other Arizona counties. The Harris/Thaler office currently represents several parties directly damaged by the racketeering activities.”
In a report spanning almost 100 pages, the Post Millennial continued, Breger delved into the entire inquiry, identifying Dawna Rae Chavez, a Mesa resident, and her daughter, Brittany Rae Chavez, as the “main individuals responsible for preparing the documents required to carry out the racketeering enterprises.”
“To date, more than 10,000 falsified documents have been recorded with the Maricopa County Recorder. We estimate that more than 35,000 warranty deeds/trust deeds evidencing fraudulent transactions exist in the database. 11. The number of falsified notarizations exceeds 15,000. 12. Dawna and Brittany’s participation in racketeering activities also includes facilitation of bribes to public officials, tax evasion, payroll theft, bankruptcy fraud, insurance fraud, and extortion,” Breger said.



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Here's why #ArrestKatieHobbs is trending worldwideJohn Thaler of Harris/Thaler Law Firm claims he uncovered absolute proof showing that the Sinaloa cartel (formerly led by El Chapo) bribes high-ranking officials in Arizona including Katie Hobbs, Adrian Fontes, Kris Mayes, etc.… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1629710730214920192…



12:11 AM · Feb 26, 2023

The investigators claimed that the funds from fraudulent home deeds in Midwestern states were routed back to Arizona and given to politicians and election officials. Breger alleged that the election fraud had been taking place since 2004.
Convincing, supporting evidence that would serve as a “smoking gun” in all this has yet to be publicly revealed.
In a Friday interview with Lindell TV host Brannon Howse, Thaler provided additional details as to how the cartel bribes impacted elections in the state of Arizona.
“So are you saying that the cartels are using their billions of dollars to buy elected officials to keep the border open, to keep their businesses going in the United States?,” the host asked.
“That would be precisely what I’m saying,” Thaler responded. “The election fraud comes in [to this] in several different ways. When you have elected and appointed officials who have these kinds of racketeering documents, one of the things we look for at that point is where is this coming in?”
In Arizona, he went on, “the bribe problem is not so much about somebody bringing in a suitcase full of cash. Most of the officials who we have found who have accepted bribes, accepted them very early on. Usually at the start of their career, and oftentimes take the initial position or run for the initial office. So they are bribed, in essence, to become officials, not once they have become officials. And that creates a big problem.”
Sources include:
ThePostMillennial.com
FrankSpeech.com

CLAIM: Arizona’s Democrat governor, Katie Hobbs, accused of taking bribes from Mexican cartel through complex real estate scheme – NaturalNews.com