Month: January 2026

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Department of State has instructed U.S. embassies located in Western nations to report human rights abuses occurring there due to mass immigration, according to a Dec. 30 thread on X.

The embassies will “analyze government policies that facilitate mass migration or privilege migrants over citizens,” the department said.

“The United States urges governments to protect their borders and defend their citizens against the human rights abuses caused by mass migration. The United States stands ready to work alongside nations across the Western Hemisphere to end the global crisis of mass migration.”

According to the United Nations’ International Migrant Stock report published in January 2025, the total number of international migrants worldwide in 2024 was 304 million.

Europe hosted 94 million of these individuals, which is “more international migrants than any other region” in the world, the report said.

In second place was North America, which hosted 61 million migrants, followed by Northern Africa and Western Asia with 54 million people.

Between 1990 and 2024, Europe saw the largest increase in international migrants, with 43 million foreigners flowing into the region. North America added 34 million people during this period.

In its X post, the State Department said the United States has seen millions of migrants and massive amounts of deadly drugs flowing into the country on transnational routes operated by terror groups.

“Mass migration has endangered American citizens, threatened the economic security of American workers, and strained America’s asylum system,” it said, adding that the “narco-terror organizations that facilitate mass migration routinely engage in child trafficking, forced labor, sexual assault, and other heinous human rights abuses that threaten the citizens of nations throughout the Western Hemisphere and undermine the rule of law.”

On Nov. 21, the State Department said in a thread on X that it had directed embassies to report on any human rights implications and public safety impacts of mass migration, calling it an “existential threat to Western civilization” that also undermines the stability of key American allies.

“In the United Kingdom, thousands of girls have been victimized in Rotherham, Oxford, and Newcastle by grooming gangs involving migrant men,” the department said. “Many girls were left to suffer unspeakable abuse for years before authorities stepped in.”

The department also noted rapes of teen girls in Sweden and Germany by migrants.

In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has arrested and deported “hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens” under the Trump administration, including drug traffickers, rapists, gang members, and kidnappers, the department said in a Dec. 19 statement.

“Seventy percent of those arrested by ICE are criminal illegal aliens who have been charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” DHS said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized 39,984 pounds of drugs under President Donald Trump, a 10 percent jump from the same time in 2024, the department said, adding that Coast Guard seizures of illegal narcotics have surged 200 percent since January 2025.

Living on Benefits

As part of strengthening immigration practices, DHS issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on Nov. 19 to amend the Public Charge provision regarding the admission of immigrants into the country, triggering opposition from lawmakers.

Under the provision, authorities can deny the application of an immigrant applying for a visa, admission, or adjustment of legal status in the United States who is likely to primarily become dependent on government benefits.

On Dec. 19, more than 100 lawmakers sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph B. Edlow, urging them to withdraw updates to Public Charge rules, saying it would harm immigrant communities, according to a Dec. 23 statement from the office of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).

“The Trump Administration’s proposal would rescind the clear 2022 public charge regulations and replace them with vague, undefined standards, leading to arbitrary decision-making, fear, and widespread confusion,” they said.

“Past public charge expansions have driven families, including those with U.S. citizen children, away from lawful access to health care, nutrition, and early childhood programs.”

In its proposed rulemaking notice, DHS said that the regulations must be updated.

The existing rules are “inconsistent with congressional intent, unduly restrictive, and hamper DHS’s ability to make accurate, precise, and reliable determinations of whether certain aliens are likely at any time to become a public charge,” it said.

DHS wrote that rescinding these rules would restore “broader discretion to evaluate all pertinent facts and align with long-standing policy that aliens in the United States should be self-reliant and government benefits should not incentivize immigration.”

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he’s pulling National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland. 

“We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact,” he wrote on Truth Social, adding that federal forces will “come back” if crime spikes again. 

Earlier this month a federal judge in California blocked the Trump administration from deploying members of the California National Guard in Los Angeles, and also directed the administration to return control of the Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom – until an appeals court paused the latter. 

In a Tuesday court filing, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking a pause in that part of the order. That paves the way for the California National Guard troops to fully return to state control after Trump federalized the Guard in June.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the development a “major litigation victory” in a press release Wednesday. -AP

In October, however, a federal appeals court allowed Trump to deploy the Oregon National Guard to Portland as a legal challenge progresses – however in November, a judge permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there following a three-day trial.

The decision to pull troops also comes a week after the Supreme Court refused to allow the admin to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area to aid in ICE efforts to remove illegals. The order was not a final ruling, but marked a rare setback by the SCOTUS in regards to Trump’s efforts. 

“Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in,” Trump’s post continues. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!”

In November, US Northern Command said it was “shifting and/or rightsizing” operations in Portland, Chicago and Los Angeles, but that there would be a “constant, enduring and long-term presence in each city.” 

Trump has made a crackdown on crime a centerpiece of his second term, and has teased the use of the Insurrection Act to stop Democrats from using the courts to block his plans.