Category: Customs and border patrol
Democrats try to pull fast one with Biden-era child migrant’s death — but it doesn’t work
Senate Democrats were caught this week trying to rehabilitate an old grievance and use a three-year-old tragedy to mobilize more opposition to the Trump administration’s enforcement of federal immigration law.
On Tuesday, Democrats on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee shared a picture of 8-year-old illegal alien Anadith Danay Reyes Alvarez, noting she “died in government custody.”
‘It’s really f**ked up how Trump let her die in 2023.’
“She had sickle cell and congenital heart disease but couldn’t access timely and adequate medical care,” said the Democrats’ post on X. “We need to reform immigration detention.”
However, Democrats neglected to mention that Anadith died on the Biden-Harris administration’s watch in 2023, when the southern border was effectively open and border facilities were overwhelmed.
Anadith, a girl with a heart condition who was born in Panama to Honduran migrants, was brought illegally into the U.S. on May 9, 2023. While waiting for a deportation flight to Honduras with her mother, father, and two siblings in a Customs and Border Protection facility in Harlingen, Texas, the girl experienced a medical emergency and died.
CBP indicated that during her intake at the Donna Processing Facility in Donna, Texas, the girl was medically assessed and “did not complain of any acute illnesses or injuries.” Days later, however, she “voiced complaints of abdominal pain, nasal congestion, and cough” and was “prescribed and administered doses of Oseltamivir (Tamiflu), as well as Ondansetron (Zofran).”
RELATED: Ilhan Omar accuses Trump of ulterior motive for ICE raids — and JD Vance shuts her down
Former Biden spokesman Andrew Bates. Photographer: Oliver Contreras/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Following agency protocols, the family was moved to Harlingen, which was used specifically for cases requiring medical isolation. At the Harlingen facility, the girl continued to receive medical attention and medication; however, her condition worsened. After her mother’s unsuccessful requests for an ambulance, the girl suffered a seizure. She was taken to Valley Baptist Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead on May 17, 2023.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee — several of whom have advocated for cuts to Department of Homeland Security funding — claimed in a minority staff report last year that CBP facilities are chronically understaffed and that “the circumstances that resulted in Anadith’s death were unfortunately not an aberration, but indicative of systemic problems with the provision of medical care in CBP facilities and CBP’s broader failure to properly oversee that care.”
Democrats concern-mongered in their report that “more individuals and children may die” under the Trump administration.
As with their January 2025 minority report, Senate Democrats’ Tuesday tweet appears aimed at exploiting a tragedy that occurred under the previous Democrat administration — and under a homeland security secretary Democrats refused to impeach — to condemn the current administration.
One critic, EV Partners founder Robert Sterling, wrote in response to the Democrats’ viral tweet, “Man it’s really f**ked up how Trump let her die in 2023.”
Conservative writer Brian Pfail noted, “I’m not one for party politics, but this is an outright disgusting grievance post to emotionalize views on border enforcement. Low-information liberals will attribute this to the Trump admin, yet it was Biden. To them, none of these deaths are valued beyond political fervor.”
As other critics began to pile on, Biden’s former deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates reflexively worked on damage control, writing, “Not about Democrat or Republican/left or right. Just absolutely wrong.”
Republican operative Tim Murtaugh said in response, “What’s remarkable, Andrew, is the level of pride you must have felt when posting this, completely unaware that it had happened while you worked in the White House yourself. Just remarkable. Top notch work from beginning to end.”
Bates dug in his heels, writing, “I stand by what I said. It’s horrible and shouldn’t have happened.”
“What makes me proud is that the American people are rejecting the cruelty that ICE is forcing on Americans and immigrants, putting all of us in danger,” added the former Biden spokesman, who does not appear to have spoken out at the time of Anadith’s death.
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Minnesota police FINALLY fight back: Cops hit violent anti-ICE mob with tear gas, arrests outside hotel supposedly housing feds
Radicals swarmed a hotel in Maple Grove, Minnesota, on Monday night, working under the presumption that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino was inside. While some in the mob appeared keen at the outset to simply scream, bang their pans, and impotently blow whistles in protest of CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, others decided to get violent.
The Maple Grove Police Department, which responded around 8 p.m. to reports of a protest at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott, demonstrated that it has a lower tolerance for attacks on law enforcement than their local counterparts in Minneapolis — and the proof manifested in tear gas and arrests.
‘These violent anarchists will not deter ICE from carrying out the American people’s mandate.’
“The situation escalated when individuals in the crowd engaged in unlawful behavior,” the MGPD said in a statement. “Property damage occurred, and objects were thrown at officers. At that point, the activity was no longer considered peaceful.”
After declaring the mob action an unlawful assembly, police issued a dispersal order. Footage shows police securing the area around the hotel, standing off with radicals, then systematically driving away the mob.
In addition to using pepper balls, Maple Grove police — who were assisted by the Minnesota State Patrol, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office hours after President Donald Trump had positive calls with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) — apparently utilized tear gas to drive away rioters.
RELATED: Democrats threaten to shut down government over ICE funding: ‘We are not powerless’
Law enforcement stands ready outside the Spring Hill Suites on Jan. 26. Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images.
Police told CNN that approximately 26 people were arrested outside the hotel.
Radicals advertised the anti-Border Patrol rally as a “Goodbye Bovino Noise Demo.”
Blaze News has reached out to the hotel and Marriott for comment.
The evening before the riot in Maple Grove, leftists stormed a hotel in Minneapolis where they believed federal immigration agents were staying. Radicals vandalized the Home2 Suites by Hilton Hotel late Sunday, smashing windows and throwing debris into the lobby.
Footage shows a solitary, bloody federal agent holding his ground at one stage in the evening while radicals assembled in front of the hotel. According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, federal agents successfully cleared that group with the help of chemical irritants.
The Department of Homeland Security indicated that the Sunday hotel attack was “part of a coordinated campaign of violence against law enforcement.”
“These violent anarchists will not deter ICE from carrying out the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst,” added the DHS.
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‘Handcuff ICE’ bid fails: Appeals court overrules Biden judge, restores agents’ power to stop hostile mobs
Anti-ICE activists’ attempts to frustrate federal immigration law enforcement in Minneapolis and elsewhere hit a snag on Wednesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and three Minnesota-based law firms filed a lawsuit on Dec. 17 against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging its agents violated the constitutional rights of several anti-ICE activists, including a Minnesota woman and a Somali-American who were both accused of attacking federal agents.
A federal judge who was nominated by former President Joe Biden ruled last week in favor of the radicals.
‘A liberal judge in Minnesota tried to handcuff ICE agents.’
U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez prohibited federal agents involved in Operation Metro Surge and related operations in the Gopher State from:
- “retaliating against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity”;
- arresting such persons;
- “using pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity”; and
- “stopping or detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles where there is no reasonable articulable suspicion that they are forcibly obstructing or interfering with Covered Federal Agents.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security promptly appealed the Biden judge’s ruling to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. On Wednesday, the appellate court granted the defendants an administrative stay of Menendez’s preliminary injunction.
Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared greatly pleased with the higher court’s ruling.
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“A liberal judge in Minnesota tried to handcuff ICE agents who are enforcing the Nation’s immigration laws and responding to obstructive and violent interference from agitators,” Bondi said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The 8th Circuit just granted an administrative stay HALTING these restrictions, which were designed to undermine federal law enforcement,” continued the attorney general. “This DOJ will protect federal law enforcement agents from criminals in the streets AND activist judges in the courtroom.”
Federal agents didn’t waste any time taking advantage of their restored abilities.
Hours after the ruling, Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol was caught on tape warning a hostile crowd of anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis that gas was coming, then tossing a gas canister their way.
The Department of Homeland Security indicated that “Border Patrol agents who were in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as part of a targeted enforcement operation were repeatedly harassed and blocked by hostile crowds while simply trying to take bathroom breaks.”
“At each gas station where the agents stopped to use the restroom, groups of agitators appeared, yelled at them, stalked them, and even tried to prevent law enforcement vehicles from leaving, creating unsafe conditions,” said the DHS. “At one stop, individuals in the crowd threw food at the agents. At their final gas station stop, someone spit on an agent. When an agent moved to detain the person who spit on him, the crowed tackled and attacked the agents while surrounding them. To safely clear the area agents had to use crowd control measures to disperse the hostile crowd.”
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