Israel Attacks Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley For First Time Of War, 100km From Border
Israel on Monday unleashed a wave of airstrikes on a location in eastern Lebanon which had yet to be targeted in the war. Several attacks were conducted on the outskirts of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley. This area hasn’t been struck by Israeli fire since the 2006 war.
The Bekaa Valley has long been considered a Hezbollah stronghold and Israel choosing to attack it signals a definite expanse and escalation of the ongoing conflict far beyond the south Lebanon border region, given it lies a full 100km from said border. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed in a statement that it struck “Hezbollah terror targets deep inside Lebanon.”
Targets hit reportedly included a convoy of trucks and sites connected to Hezbollah’s areal defense systems. At least two people were killed in the attacks, Reuters reports. The two had been working in a food warehouse run by Hezbollah.
Earlier in the day an Israeli drone was downed by Hezbollah over Lebanon. Israel’s military said the fresh Bekaa operation was in response to the earlier launch of a surface-to-air missile by the Iran-backed paramilitary group.
Social media videos reportedly from one of the strike locations in Bekaa Valley shows a damaged and burned truck and SUV amid an expanse of rubble strewn across a roadway.
Hezbollah has unleashed large waves of missiles on northern Israel throughout the day, with one missile having fallen near a synagogue close to Nazareth.
Specifically Hezbollah sources said that in response to Israel’s Bekaa attack its militants fired at least 60 rockets at an Israeli army headquarters in Golan Heights.
Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah announced of the Israeli strikes reaching far into Lebanese territory, even near the Syrian border that “Its aggression on Baalbek or any other areas will not remain without response.”
Israeli bystanders filmed the following dramatic video as rockets rained down…
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that even if a deal with Hamas is achieved in the Gaza Strip, this doesn’t mean fighting with Hezbollah will stop:
“If a temporary pause is reached in Gaza, we will increase the fire in the north separately, and will continue until the full withdrawal of Hezbollah [from the border] and the return of Israeli citizens to their homes,” he said.
Israeli Golan base targeted by massive missile barrage, sending personnel scrambling for bomb shelters…
As of last week (Feb.18), Israel had begun to strike deeper into Lebanon, expanding its strikes far beyond the border region in the south. Large airstrikes rocked a town near Sidon, which lies 60km from the border.
The Lebanese government fears the war might at any moment encompass the whole country, as it did in 2006 when Beirut International airport was bombed. Israel has demanded that the government reign in Hezbollah, but it reality it doesn’t have the power or military capability to do so, as the Lebanese Army is ill-equipped.
The State Department is expressing concerns about recent mass arrests of Tibetans in China, after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a sweeping crackdown against the ethnic group over their peaceful protests against the construction of a hydropower dam.
More than 1,000 Tibetans, including monks, were arrested in China on Friday,according to rights group International Tibet Network. The crackdown took place at Derge, a town in Dege County in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province.
According to the rights groups, the dam construction project will forcibly displace residents of two villages and submerge six monasteries.
“The current status of those arrested is currently unknown,” it stated, before adding that those arrested were held at different locations throughout Dege County.
“Deeply concerned by reports of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] mass arrests of Tibetans protesting construction of a dam that threatens displacement of villages & destruction of monasteries,” said Uzra Zeya, undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy, and human rights, in an X post on Feb. 25.
“[China] must respect human rights & freedom of expression and include Tibetans in the development & implementation of water and land management policies,” Ms. Zeya added. “These centuries-old monasteries are home to hundreds of Tibetan Buddhist monks & contain irreplaceable cultural relics.
“[The United States] stands with Tibetans in preserving their unique cultural, religious, and linguistic identity.”
The protests began on Feb. 14, International Tibet Network said, when at least 300 Tibetans protested at Dege County Hall. Arrests began on Feb. 22, when Chinese authorities arrested over 100 protesting Tibetan locals and Tibetan monks, the group added.
Chinese police officers reportedly used water cannons, pepper spray, and tasers to subdue protesters on Feb. 22, according to Radio Free Asia. Some of the arrested protesters were later admitted to a local hospital for medical treatment, the outlet added.
“Outrageous what’s happening in Tibet right now … colonizers stealing everything we have and yet Tibetans continuing to resist by the thousands,” Tenzin Yangzom, advocacy officer at the Tibetan Association of Boston who also works for International Tibet Network, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Feb. 24.
Benedict Rogers, human rights activist and deputy chair of the UK Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, took to X to call China’s repression of Tibetans “appalling and outrageous.”
“Let us not forget Tibet. Let’s #FreeTibet,” Mr. Rogers added.
Tibet
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) invaded Tibet in 1949 and forced upon Tibetans a 17-point agreement to legitimize the CCP’s rule. Despite rosy promises of Tibetan autonomy on paper, China’s communist regime has turned the region into a surveillance state and installed labor camps.
The Dalai Lama, the region’s spiritual leader, went into exile in India in 1959 after the Chinese regime brutally crushed an uprising, killing tens of thousands of Tibetans. Later in the same year, the spiritual leader established a Tibetan exile administration, officially known as the Central Tibetan Administration.
Sikyong Penpa Tsering, president of the Central Tibetan Administration, issued a statement on Feb. 24, saying that “the crackdown on non-violent protests in Derge is beyond condemnation.”
“The Chinese authorities’ disregard for the rights of Tibetans is unacceptable by any measure. The punitive acts demonstrate China’s prioritization of its ideology and interests over human rights,” Mr. Tseringa added.
“We call on the Chinese government to release all those detained and to respect the rights and aspirations of the Tibetan people. The world needs to hear the Tibetans’ voices and confront the truth of Chinese misrule in Tibet.”
The construction of the dam, a 2,240-megawatt power station located in the upper regions of the Yangtze River, will result in the resettlement of about 2,000 locals, according to Tibetan rights group International Campaign for Tibet (ICT). One of the six monasteries affected, the Wonto Monastery, has murals dating back to the 13th century, it added.
Earlier this month, House lawmakers passed the Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act (H.R.533) after a 392–28 vote. The bipartisan, bicameral legislation (S.138) has not been voted on in the Senate.
The legislation aims to “jump-start negotiations” between CCP officials and the Dalai Lama or his representatives, as the two sides have not had formal dialogue since 2010, according to a press release.
ICT Tibet President Tencho Gyatso issued a statement welcoming the passage of the House bill earlier this month.
“Today’s vote shows that U.S. support for Tibet is only growing stronger even after 65 years of China’s control and occupation,” Mr. Gyatso said. China has been playing a waiting game, hoping that the international community would eventually abandon Tibet. Clearly that is not the case.
“The Chinese government should take the hint and restart the dialogue process with Tibetan leaders. We thank Congressman McGovern and Chairman McCaul and all the representatives who helped pass the Resolve Tibet Act today.”
Oil Spreads Soar As Physical Market Screams Tightness While Hedge Fund Press Shorts
Something odd is taking place in the oil market. While on one hand “data” dissembled by Biden’s Dept of Energy and specifically its statistical arm, the Energy Information Administration, has done everything it could to indicate there is a glut of oil, which is understandable – there is nothing Biden’s handlers fear more than an inflationary surge in oil and gasoline prices ahead of the November elections and will do everything in their power to mandate a dataset that has the most adverse impact on oil prices, the physical market is sending just the opposite signal, with spreads showing screaming physical tightness.
Consider the Brent prompt spread which after tumbling to a multi-year low in late December, has exploded higher to a backwardation around 90 cents…
… entrenching its strongest position since late October, while several other timespreads also the firmest since last September. The comparable WTI April-May spread was trading around 50 cents after hitting 75 cents last week.
Commenting on the surge in time-spreads, Citi strategist Max Leyton – who is far less bearish than oil permabear Ed Morse who recently left the bank – says they strengthened on the “perfect storm” of Atlantic Basin supply issues, and notes that supply issues include “ongoing Red Sea vessel diversions, US freeze-offs hitting oil output, worker protests disrupting Libyan supply, UK oil terminal logistics limiting North Sea Forties supply, and buying up of crude cargoes at the Nigerian Dangote refinery.”
“Most of these issues could ease,” and the second quarter “still looks like a surplus quarter for total oil balances, meaning current strength could pause.” Of course, the current strength could very well accelerate if there is even one small geopolitical hiccup in the middle east where nobody expects any surprises, and where all eyes remain on how much more of its bitch Iran can make Biden, before even the US president is forced to retaliate even if it means 4mm barrels taken off the daily market.
The dramatic spikes in prompt timespreads across the crude complex was the Goldman chart of the week just a few days ago, and shows just how dramatically and rapidly the market has tigthened up as a result of sudden scarcity of physical which, however, has barely received any mention in daily discussions about the energy market.
Below we share some more charts from Goldman looking at the most recent indicators in physical markets, starting with supply where Goldman is seeing distinct “firmness”…
… while on the demand side of the equation, recent unseasonaly warm weather has lowered global oil demand by some 300kb/d.
As a result of the tightness in supply, Goldman calculates that total OECD inventories are now about 21mb lower than the company’s end of February balance forecast of 2,765 mb, with estimates pointing to further tightness.
Yet despite this continued decline in supply and inventories, oil prices remain rangebound and seem unable to breakout solidly about the low 80s. Why is that? In a word: financialization, aka “paper oil”, because while the physical oil market is screaming higher, financial players (managed money) continue to aggressively sell and short the sector as shown in the chart below.
This desperate attempt by financial players to keep their underwater positions from getting stopped out and sparking a cascade of margin calls has also translated into a ravenous shorting of energy stocks which as we pointed out a week ago, are the most shorted sector in Goldman’s prime brokerage.
This, in turn, has translated into some of the marquee energy names such as Exxon seeing the highest short interest on record…
… even though the lifeblood of refiners such as the 3-2-1 Crack Spread is now surging higher.
Which begs the question: how much tighter will physical oil have to get before it finally breaks the financial oil shorts?
It is clear to me that we are increasingly being governed by an “Administrative State” instead of by our chosen representatives. Indeed, we are more and more becoming a “Regulation Nation” which is a true threat to our Constitutional Republic.
What do I mean by that?
I mean that we are being governed by regulations and rules issued by administrative agencies, instead of being governed by laws duly passed by our elected officials.
Why does that matter?
Because agencies are run by unelected, government bureaucrats who are beholden to nobody but the person who appointed them. They don’t care what the voters think or want or don’t want. They don’t need to care. They don’t need your vote to stay in power. They only have to appease the politician(s) who appointed them. If they just follow the yellow brick road, they will land on the other side of the rainbow.
Shockingly, some legislators are okay with this, because it allows them to escape any sort of responsibility or blame for an unpopular (or illegal) rule that is implemented by the bureaucrats sitting in the agencies (you know, the ones with no accountability to us voters). But, legislators should not only care, they should actively work to stop the Administrative State, because not only do many of these “regulations” usurp a legislator’s law-making power, but they are wholly unconstitutional!
You will remember from grade school Social Studies class that our government is comprised of three, co-equal branches: the Legislative branch (senators and assemblymembers who make our laws), the Executive branch (governors and the president who are supposed to enforce our laws), and the Judicial branch (judges and courts which adjudicate our laws). Each branch has its own powers and authorities, as bestowed upon them by our Constitution. Any power that is not delineated in our Constitution is reserved for the people. Remember my long-uttered phrase that, the Constitution was written to keep the government in check, not to keep we the people in check!
There is no fourth branch of government. There is no branch called the Administrative State. There is no authority in the Constitution to have agencies that make rules/regulations that employ the force of law. And yet, we see at the federal level as well as at the state level, Executive branches that are chock full of bloated, power-hungry agencies that have given themselves an astonishing amount of never-authorized-by-the-people power. In many cases, those powers are unconstitutional, meaning the agency did not have the authority to make the rule or do the thing they are doing (or trying to do).
Let me give you a few real-life scenarios so it’s easier to digest.
For starters, my quarantine camp lawsuit is a perfect example. For those not familiar with this case, what happened there is that the NYS Department of Health (DOH) issued an “Isolation & Quarantine Procedures” regulation. The head of the DOH is a commissioner who is appointed by the Governor. Everyone that works for the DOH is unelected. They do not need to listen to voters wants and needs. Quite presumably, if the Commissioner or any of the government workers below him don’t do the bidding of their “boss,” then their days at the DOH would surely be limited.
So, what happened in my quarantine case is that the DOH created a wholly unconstitutional regulation (Rule 2.13) that allowed them to pick and choose which New Yorkers they could lock up or lock down. That could have been forced isolation in your home, or they could have removed you from your home and put you into a quarantine facility of their choosing. For however long they wanted. With no notice. With no right to an attorney until after you were locked up. With no procedure for you to regain your freedom once you were incarcerated.
There was no age restriction, so they could have taken you, your child, your grandchild… And they didn’t even have to prove that you were sick, or that you had even been exposed to a communicable disease! Guilty until proven innocent.
The DOH gave themselves this phenomenal power. If that is unclear what I mean there, I will explain. The DOH wanted this unbridled power to be able to control 19 million New Yorkers with the stroke of a pen, but the NYS Legislature wouldn’t give it to them in the form of failed Assembly bill A416 (because the legislators knew it would be political suicide). So, the DOH simply made Rule 2.13 and gave themselves the power they wanted, anyway. No legislative consent given. No voter input had. Zilch. A clear breach of Separation of Powers. A clear affront on our Constitution. A perfect example of the “Regulation Nation” as run by an Administrative State.
This was the most unconstitutional regulation I had ever read in my 25 years of practicing law. It was an attack on the very basis of our freedom, and a dangerous chipping away at the bedrock of our free society…a government by the people, and for the people. Without question, I knew I had to stop it.
So, I sued Hochul and her DOH on behalf of a group of NYS legislators (Senator George Borrello, Assemblyman Chris Tague, Congressman Mike Lawler) together with a citizens’ group called Uniting NYS. Our argument was clear: the DOH does not possess the power to make a law, and this was surely a law, despite the fact that they called it a regulation or rule. It conflicted with the Constitution. It conflicted with NYS law. As Assemblyman Tague said at a press conference we held when we first filed our lawsuit in 2022:
This policy’s aim to forcibly isolate law-abiding citizens is reminiscent of actions taken by some of the ugliest tyrannical regimes history has ever known. It has no place standing as law here in New York, let alone anywhere in the United States. Policies as dangerous as this should be debated and scrutinized in a public setting by elected representatives, not quietly slinked through regulatory approvals.
In July 2022, the Judge ruled in our favor and struck down this stunning display of tyranny. You can read that decision here. Of course Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James appealled the court’s decision so they could try to get back that heinous power. In November of 2023, the appellate court dismissed our case for lack of standing (a true dodging of the merits of a lawsuit if I ever saw one). So, now I am appealing that calamitous decision to the Court of Appeals (our State’s highest court).
I have done numerous interviews about my quarantine lawsuit and this “Regulation Nation” phenomenon, and you can access some of those on my website, www.CoxLawyers.com. One such interview was with Steve Gruber on America’s Voice Live, and can be accessed HERE.
CHARLESTON, S.C.—Republican voters delivered a decisive result for President Donald Trump in the South Carolina presidential primary. The former president demonstrated his command over Republican voters in the fourth and final early primary, defeating the state’s former governor Nikki Haley by 20 percentage points on Feb. 24.
“The people spoke for Trump,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told The Epoch Times, virtually waving a white flag over the Haley campaign, of which he had been a notable proponent.
Ms. Haley has vowed to continue her run for the White House at least through Super Tuesday, March 5, when 15 states will conduct presidential primaries.
Yet the overwhelming support for President Trump in South Carolina, which builds on the momentum generated in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, validates Mr. Norman’s assessment.
Neither legal battles, nor age, nor mean tweets, nor the outcome of previous elections will keep the party from nominating its favorite son.
Republicans want Donald Trump, and nobody but Donald Trump, and many appear immune to any argument to the contrary.
Age and Vitality
Ms. Haley has begun to criticize the former president, albeit gingerly. One line of attack was a veiled reference to his age and the insinuation that he represents an older generation.
Ms. Haley tied President Trump to incumbent President Joe Biden, whose age and mental acuity have become a concern to many voters. Ms. Haley frequently repeated polling numbers suggesting that 70 percent of Americans do not want either man in office, and said that electing either one would be voting for “more of the same.”
Referring to herself as a fresher, more vigorous alternative, Ms. Haley often used the phrase “new generational leader.”
The idea sticks with many Haley supporters, who picture her as a fresher, more vigorous candidate.
“I don’t want either old man in the White House,” Haley supporter Diane Derusha, 75, of Mt. Pleasant told The Epoch Times.
However, the argument failed to persuade President Trump’s core voters in the Palmetto state, most of whom believe he is actually more fit for the job as leader of the free world than Ms. Haley.
Among Republican voters in South Carolina, 69 percent said Trump has the physical and mental health to be president, according to exit polling reported by CBS. Just 62 percent of them said the same of Ms. Haley.
Electability
Ms. Haley’s most direct attack on President Trump centered on his ability to win a general election. “Donald Trump can’t win,” she said in stump speeches. “He lost in 2018. He lost in 2020. He lost in 2022, and he continues to lose.”
Referring to polling data on hypothetical matchups between President Trump vs. President Biden and herself vs. President Biden, Ms. Haley told reporters in Columbia on Feb. 2, “Trump doesn’t defeat Joe Biden … I defeat Biden.”
Indeed, a number of polls show that Ms. Haley would fare better in the general election than would President Trump. The latest, conducted by Marquette University, shows Ms. Haley with a 16 percent lead over President Biden. Other polls show a lead of about 3 percent.
Polls involving President Trump have shown him winning by about 2 percentage points. Others indicate that he would lose to President Biden.
Haley supporters are well-attuned to that polling and are convinced Ms. Haley is the more electable candidate.
“If you look at the big picture, do we want to win?” Melanie Sabelhaus, co-chair of Women for Nikki, said on Feb. 23. “Wake up America! We want to win. The polls are saying … she can beat Joe Biden.”
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has also seen the same opportunity, noting that the GOP results from South Carolina show this is a “three-way race,” thanks to those who won’t vote for President Trump or President Biden.
Tonight’s results in South Carolina proved this is officially a three-way race.
A recent NBC poll showed that in a three-way dead heat, 34% of Americans could see themselves voting for me right now. I have the highest net favorability of any candidate and continue to gain…
Part of Ms. Haley’s favorable polling against President Biden could be that she draws strong support among moderates, independents, and even some Democrats. In the New Hampshire primary, 70 percent of voters choosing Mrs. Haley were independents.
In South Carolina, 53 percent of Haley voters were independents, and 70 percent described themselves as moderates.
“I’ve already voted for Nikki,” Kurt Kehelbeck, 64, of Charleston, told The Epoch Times, having cast his ballot during the early voting period.
But to win the Republican primary, a candidate must have the support of Republican voters. And most of that support has gone to President Trump.
As for electability in the general election, most Republican voters still believe President Trump would fare better than Ms. Haley.
Of Republican primary voters, 83 percent said President Trump was either “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to defeat President Biden in a general election. For Ms. Haley, just 59 percent said the same.
Normalcy
Ms. Haley has positioned her candidacy as a return to “normalcy” after what she described as disorder and unpredictability surrounding President Trump, who pitches his presidency around efforts to “drain the swamp.”
“Chaos follows him,” she told rally goers in Columbia on Feb. 1.
“He’s gotten more unstable and unhinged,” Ms. Haley said of President Trump in a speech at Clemson University on Feb. 20.
After the New Hampshire primary, Ms. Haley added a line to her stump speech about President Trump’s reaction to her 40 percent share of the vote.
“Donald Trump had a temper tantrum on stage. He was completely unhinged. All he did was talk about revenge … and my dress,” she told supporters in Myrtle Beach on Feb. 22.
But two days earlier, when Laura Ingraham asked what revenge meant to him during a Fox News town hall, President Trump was given a chance to respond to the media coverage about his alleged plans for vengeance.
“I don’t care about the ‘revenge’ thing. I know they use the word ‘revenge,’ ‘Will there be revenge?’” he said. “My revenge will be success.”
Ms. Haley’s supporters are apt to use words like “disrespectful” or “arrogant” to describe President Trump. They appear to see Ms. Haley as calmer and more level-headed.
“The most important thing she can do is bring a divided country together. She can reach across the aisle and begin to heal what’s broken,” Mark Wilson, 65, of Mt. Pleasant told The Epoch Times.
Many of President Trump’s supporters, on the other hand, seem more likely to believe that America is in the midst of an internal conflict that needs to be won rather than healed.
Of those who voted for President Trump in this primary, 90 percent said the most important characteristic they look for in a candidate is someone who “fights for people like me.”
“If we don’t take this country back, we’re going to be like Afghanistan or Iraq or Iran or some third world country,” Douglas Benton of Myrtle Beach told The Epoch Times. If things didn’t change, he said, “It’s going to get ugly.”
Lawsuits
As President Trump’s legal problems have mounted over the past year, Ms. Haley has leveraged them as an argument against his presidential candidacy.
“He spent $50 million of his campaign funds to pay for legal fees. Are you kidding me?” she told reporters in Columbia on Feb. 1. “How’s he going to campaign against Joe Biden when he has no money?” she asked, adding that his court cases will continue throughout the year.
To many Trump supporters, the former president’s legal woes have no bearing on his ability to get elected or to govern. Many view the cases against him as abuses of prosecutorial power intended to scare away voters and keep him out of office. As such, his candidacy is cast as a quest for justice.
Michael Large, 62, of Moncks Corner told The Epoch Times he wanted to “show my support for a man that I believe is being politically persecuted and deserves another chance. That’s really why I want him in office.”
Exit polls showed that 67 percent of Trump supporters believed his legal problems don’t matter, and 61 percent said he would be fit to hold office even if convicted of a crime.
Perhaps the most telling finding of the exit pollsters is that Republican voters were largely unpersuadable in the days before this primary.
Most Republican voters had made their choice long before heading to a polling site. More than two-thirds of Trump voters had locked in their choice more than a month before the election.
If the mindset of Republican voters generally mirrors that of South Carolinians, the grail quest for a dozen Republican candidates whose last name is not “Trump” and a significant number of Republican and independent voters in the GOP presidential race appears to be futile.
Voters are saying, there simply is no Republican alternative to Donald Trump.
Since the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, a significant number of vaccinated people have reported various adverse reactions.
Some adverse events are widely acknowledged, like blood clots and myocarditis. Others are less publicly discussed but are still present in the research literature.
The Epoch Times reviewed the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), the United Kingdom’s Yellow Card Reporting system, South Africa’s VAERS database, and numerous peer-reviewed studies, selecting the top reported adverse events with literature support. Their severity determines the order of the events.
It is worth noting that VAERS is a passive reporting system that relies on people to send in reports of their experiences. It may not determine causality but “is especially useful for detecting unusual or unexpected patterns” that might indicate a possible vaccine safety signal, according to the official website.
Some of the adverse events have been previously reported by The Epoch Times. These are supplied with links to past articles with more information.
Spike proteins exist on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that invades cells and causes disease. The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines also induce the body to make spike proteins. The cells that are exposed to the mRNA produce spike proteins and then display these proteins on their surfaces. The immune system then attacks these spike proteins, thereby forming an immunity against them. The cells may also be destroyed.
Other types of COVID-19 vaccines use similar tactics.
However, the spike protein is highly inflammatory and toxic, and clinicians have observed that although people generate antibodies after vaccination, some start suffering from a wide variety of unexplainable symptoms.
Clinicians have put forward six pathways through which the spike protein can cause damage:
Immune dysregulation
Blood clotting and vascular damage
Mitochondrial dysfunction
Mast cell activation syndrome
Autoimmune reactions
Tissue damage through spike persistence
The lipid nanoparticles in the mRNA vaccines may also contribute to reported adverse events. Studies show that lipid nanoparticles activate inflammatory chemicals and affect immune activity.
COVID-19 Vaccine General Adverse Events
The most common COVID-19 vaccine adverse events are those that affect the body generally.
Chest pain may be a sign of myocarditis, but it can also be due to inflamed rib joints, lung inflammation, or neuropathy in the chest—all of which will be explained later in the article.
Fatigue after vaccination is mostly transient. However, some people may experience persistent and debilitating fatigue, where even taking showers or doing a basic chore leaves them exhausted for the remainder of the day. Around 8 percent to 80 percent of vaccinated individuals report fatigue as a side effect, with most cases being mild. However, for some people, fatigue may never seem to get better. A study that followed 498 vaccinated physicians and dentists showed that around 6 percent reported long-term fatigue post-vaccination. One possible reason for the fatigue is mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondria are the body’s cellular powerhouse, present in most cells and responsible for producing energy for the body.
Fever and chills may manifest due to the body’s immune system fighting off the vaccine and are usually transient.
Swelling and pain at the injection site is usually transient. Pain can also happen throughout the body.
Armpit pain may indicate that the body’s immunity is fighting off infections. The armpit area houses a cluster of lymph nodes that contain immune cells. These lymph nodes can become swollen after infection and vaccinations, leading to pain in the underarm area.
Nervous System Disorders
Nervous system disorders are some of the most common adverse events reported. In the Pfizer trials, these disorders were the third most common, coming after general and muscle-related adverse events, while they were the second most common in the Moderna trials.
Animal and model studies have shown that spike proteins can cross the blood-brain barrier. A 2023 preprint study found spike proteins in the brain tissues of deceased COVID-19 patients. The histological brain examinations of the late German pathologist Dr. Arne Burkhardt showed that spike proteins damage blood vessels in the brain.
Spike proteins share structural similarities with proteins present in the human nervous system, and when our bodies attack the spike protein, collateral damage to the nerves may also occur. mRNA vaccines also contain a prion region and have been shown to accelerate the formation of misfolded proteins, which are potentially linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Guillain-Barré Syndrome
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) as a safety signal of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine. A study published in Scientific Reports found that COVID-19 vaccine recipients have a 42 percent increased incidence of developing GBS.
GBS is an autoimmune disease. COVID-19 spike proteins share similarities with over 28 human proteins, including glial tissues and brain growth factors. Therefore, if the body attacks the spike protein, some of the antibodies formed may also attack the brain and the nervous system, potentially leading to neurological disorders.
Dementia
While COVID-19 vaccination has not been directly linked to dementia, it has been linked with cognitive deficits, memory loss, and delirium, all of which are symptoms of dementia.
A study funded by the National Institute on Aging reported delirium the day after vaccination in older people in a nursing home, but it was resolved within two weeks.
The Italian NEURO-COVAX population-based study evaluating over 19,000 people found that almost 2 percent reported cognitive fog after vaccination.
Seizures
In October 2022, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researchers detected seizures as a safety signal for children aged 5 and under who received the mRNA vaccines. A Japanese study that followed 332 people with epilepsy observed seizure worsening following vaccination in 5.7 percent of those who received their first and second COVID-19 vaccines.
Data from the Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN) showed that the first and second doses of the Moderna vaccine were associated with an increased risk of febrile seizures, convulsions in children caused by a fever. The first dose of the Moderna vaccine and fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccine were associated with an increased risk of generalized seizures.
Additionally, the first dose of the Moderna vaccine was also associated with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a type of autoimmune condition that may present as seizure attacks.
Gait Disturbance
One review linked four cases of gait disturbance to the COVID-19 vaccine. Another paper published in Cureus reported four neurological case studies, with one patient developing gait disturbance from Guillain-Barré syndrome and one from meningitis-retention syndrome.
Researchers at the University of Florida followed several Parkinson’s disease patients who experienced worsening Parkinsonian symptoms after vaccination, with gait disturbance being the most common.
Bell’s Palsy
Bell’s palsy manifests as facial muscle weakness or paralysis and has been recognized as a COVID-19 vaccine safety signal by researchers at the FDA. An FDA preprint found that older people who received the Pfizer booster had a higher rate of developing Bell’s palsy.
Data from the GVDN similarly found that the first doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were associated with an increased risk of Bell’s palsy.
Tremors
Tremors may be a sign of brain and neural damage, causing impairment in motor control.
A case study published by clinicians at the Cleveland Clinic reported a man who developed tremors in all four limbs 12 days after he took the second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Additionally, the Italian NEURO-COVAX study found that 1.5 percent of vaccinated individuals reported tremors, and the same amount reported muscle spasms.
Sensory Changes
Sensory changes such as pins and needles, temperature intolerance, pain, and lack of sensation are all indicators of neuropathy. The Epoch Times has reported on neuropathy that occurs after vaccination.
Neuropathy is when sensory neurons in the periphery are damaged. If the neuron is meant to detect heat, then the damage may cause a burning sensation or reduced ability to detect temperature. Damage to the neurons meant to detect touch may result in a pins-and-needles feeling, diminished sensation, or even a feeling of electric shock.
Headaches and Dizziness
Though many people have temporary headaches or dizziness after vaccination, some may also experience persistent and painful migraines that affect daily living. These headaches may be the result of neuroinflammation induced by the spike protein.
Fainting, or a temporary loss of consciousness, can occur due to decreased blood flow to the brain.
Cardiac Disorders
Spike proteins have been shown to damage the endothelium lining of the heart, causing inflammation and fusing the heart muscle cells, as demonstrated by research conducted at the Mayo Clinic. Both processes can harm the heart muscles’ functioning, leading to various conditions.
A German study published in the British Journal of Pharmacology showed that heart cells exposed to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines produce spike protein and exhibit different abnormalities.
Cardiac Arrest
There has only been a few studies linking cardiac arrest with COVID-19 vaccination. Analysis of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) adverse events database showed that the COVID-19 vaccines were associated with an increased risk of cardiac arrest in those older than 75 years of age.
Only one peer-reviewed study has linked cardiac arrest with the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, in which a 59-year-old male with no significant past medical history received a third dose of the mRNA shot and experienced cardiac arrest within seven hours.
Cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy is a condition affecting the heart muscle. The heart cavities may become enlarged, with the muscles becoming thicker or stiffer, causing a weakened heart and even leading to heart failure or cardiac arrest.
A 2022 global review on stress cardiomyopathy cases reported post-vaccination found that, on average, most symptoms occurred around three days after vaccination. The authors concluded that the problem is rare but can be life-threatening. Medical journals documented several cases of cardiomyopathy, including one healthy 63-year-old woman with no cardiovascular risk factors who was admitted to the emergency room one day after her first dose of the Moderna vaccine.
Heart Attack
Spike protein damages blood vessels and is also prone to forming blood clots, which can block coronary arteries, leading to heart attacks. The WHO’s adverse events database showed that the COVID-19 vaccines are associated with an elevated risk of heart attacks in those older than 75.
Reports of myocarditis as a safety signal have been extensively reported in The Epoch Times’ premium reports. Recently, FDA researchers have also detected myocarditis as a safety signal for the latest COVID-19 monovalent vaccines.
It can occur as a result of spike protein damaging the heart muscles. A paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that the Moderna vaccine was associated with a higher rate of myocarditis than the Pfizer vaccine for young men.
Like myocarditis, pericarditis is also a type of heart inflammation, but the outside heart lining is affected rather than the heart muscles. Pericarditis can lead to pericardial effusion, which occurs when fluid builds up around the heart. The Epoch Times has reported on a professional mountain biker who was diagnosed with pericarditis after vaccination and was hospitalized.
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
Cases of POTS have increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. POTS is a condition that causes rapid heart rate when a person changes positions from lying down to standing up, indicating dysfunction between the nervous and cardiovascular systems.
Dr. Tae Chung, director of the Johns Hopkins POTS program, noticed some unusual cases among medical students or physicians who were vaccinated but not infected with COVID-19. Later, a large cohort study identified a possible link between the COVID-19 vaccine and the disease.
In July 2023, The Epoch Times spoke to two women in their 20s who were diagnosed with POTS after COVID-19 vaccination.
Arrhythmia
Arrhythmias occur when there is an electrical malfunctioning of the heart, with heartbeats becoming too rapid, slow, or irregular.
A study published in Vaccine: X found an increased risk for arrhythmias without myocarditis within 14 days of a second dose of mRNA vaccine in adults. The Moderna vaccine presented a greater risk than the Pfizer. A systematic review concluded that “the incidence rate … of cardiac arrhythmia post-COVID-19 vaccination is rare and ranges between 1 and 76 per 10,000.” Another 2023 review said the problem is “not uncommon.”
Atrial fibrillation, the most common type of arrhythmia, has also been reported in the literature.
Hypertension
As the vaccination campaign continues, evidence of possible blood pressure alteration has accumulated. The mechanism is unknown; it may be linked to the reduction of angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptors in the body, as spike proteins bind to ACE-2 receptors to enter cells.
A meta-analysis study published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease examining data on 357,387 vaccinated individuals found that around 3.2 percent reported an increase in blood pressure in post-vaccination reports filed 15 minutes to days after vaccination.
Heart Palpitations
Heart palpitation is a sign of underlying heart disease, though it is typically transient and non-severe.
Blood Disorders
A major side effect reported following vaccination is blood clots. Spike proteins are particularly prone to clotting. While most blood clots require the presence of thrombin and platelets, spike proteins can form clots even in the absence of these proteins.
Early in the vaccine rollout, the now discontinued J&J vaccine was shown to cause blood clotting despite low platelets in the blood. The mRNA vaccines have similar problems.
Spike proteins also change the structure of the proteins inside the clot, resulting in amyloid-like blood clots that are much larger and harder to break down. Multiple studies have shown that spike proteins directly bind to clotting factors in the blood, promoting both large and microclot formations.
Depending on where the blood clots form, patients may develop various pathologies related to the clotting.
“Heightened Risks”: Goldman Points To Leading CRE Indicator That Shows Pain Train Not Over
Commercial real estate is the third-largest asset class, trailing only behind fixed income and equities. Despite the “Magnificent Seven” driving broad equity indexes to new highs, CRE markets are experiencing a worsening downturn, particularly in the office sector. A series of notable CRE loan defaults and regional bank failures underscores this mess.
Goldman’s senior equity research analyst Susan Maklari penned a note for clients on Monday titled“Non-Residential Construction: January Data Indicates Soft Start to the Year” (avail. to pro subs in the usual place).
Maklari cited data from the Dodge Momentum Index, a 12-month leading indicator of construction spending for nonresidential buildings. She found that the index rose 0.1% in January to 184.1 from 183.9 in December but was down 8% from 199.3 a year ago.
“We will continue to monitor readings in the coming months given heightened risks surrounding commercial sub-sectors,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Architecture Billings Index is in contraction territory. Here’s more from the analyst
The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) decreased to 46.2 from 46.5 in December. The commercial/industrial component fell to 47.0, from 47.2 in December, while the pace of institutional decline improved to 48.5 from 47.9 last month. Despite weaker backlogs, we believe the macro backdrop will support activity in certain verticals this year. We note the ABI is a leading indicator of spending for non-residential construction activity, with an average lead time of 9-12 months.
Our guess is that a continued gloomy outlook for CRE construction spending and waning demand for construction products and services will persist this year because of tight financial conditions.
And let’s not forget Morgan Stanley’s latest note explaining that the “greatest headwind” facing the office segment of the CRE market is “years of supply.”
It remains to be seen if upside momentum in the Dodge Momentum Index returns this year as fears of inflation re-accelerating has repriced rates market from 7 to 3 cuts this year. The first expected rate cut has been pushed from March to July.
It’s safe to say the CRE downturn will continue throughout the year.
Price controls lead to shortages. This axiom is as dependable and scientifically absolute as the law of gravity. And it is the case even when the controls are elaborately disguised.
So, when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reacts to the shortages suffered in the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdowns of vital hospital drugs, including those used in chemotherapy like Methotrexate and fludarabine, by launching a probe of distribution companies, it’s like the Federal Aviation Administration searching for ways of blaming the ground for getting in the way of the jetliner that crashed.
To FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan, the solution of shortages is a government investigation that “scrutinizes the practices of opaque drug middlemen.” Presumably, the distribution firms under scrutiny will be Cardinal Health, Cencora, and McKesson, while the collective hospital purchasing firms in the federal viewfinder are likely HealthTrust, Premier, and Vizient.
Demand for these life-saving drugs has been on the increase; no one disputes that. In a market with minimum state interference, such demand would be taken advantage of either by existing producers increasing capacity or by new firms entering the fray to deliver what the buyers are ready and willing to purchase. But when you deny manufacturers the ability to make profits in taking advantage of demand, you make delivery of new supply difficult if not impossible.
Treating health care as a right is a deceptive description of what is actually the removal of the profit motive from the production and delivery of things and services of value. When you do that in any field, you exit the reality of human nature. What, after all, is more valuable than medicines and treatments that maintain your health? And the scientists, physicians, and businesspeople who have the expertise, or even genius, to invent, mass produce, and deliver medical care to patients must expect to be compensated based on market value—which, in bad news for the envious, ends up being many, many multiples of the minimum wage—otherwise they will devote their abilities elsewhere.
In other words, like anything else for sale, health care must be opened to customer scrutiny. When it comes to generic drugs, sadly, owing to the laws on the books, it’s like walking down the aisle at the supermarket and finding all the boxes of cereal or jars of jam identical, except for the price differences. No labels, no brand names, and the brand’s accompanying reputations based on past experience buying them. The healthcare consume—be it a patient, a pharmacist or a hospital—can only make a blind, ignorant-by-design comparison.
The Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984 vastly expanded the production and accessibility of generic medicines by shrinking regulatory delays in the approval of generic versions of patented drugs. Prices of generics plummeted and their use skyrocketed. The main driver was lots of competition among generics.
But sometimes various factors can reduce that competition for certain of the products; narrow profit margins, for instance, can lead to a manufacturer getting out, and—human nature being what it is—the companies remaining finding little reason not to raise their prices, sometimes with the power of a near-monopoly. New suppliers, in the meantime, face massive regulatory hurdles; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a backlog of thousands of applications from generic manufacturers awaiting approval, and the wait time is years. The FDA jealously and outdatedly guards its approval power even though there is no evidence that the drug supply in the United States today is any less safe than that of other developed countries. Approval in those countries should be trusted here when it comes to often vitally needed imported generics, a move that would make more drugs available, lower their prices, and improve the health of Americans.
When in 2022 a labor shortage at Teva Pharmaceuticals caused delay in production of the generic Adderall, a treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s harsh production quotas imposed on rival manufacturers prevented them from coming to the rescue and making up for loss of supply.
Brookings Institution Center on Health Policy senior fellow Marta Wonsinska notes, “The price pressure on manufacturers is tremendous and certain types of drugs, especially generic sterile injectables, are particularly vulnerable.” This artificial environment in which buyers are forced to choose based only on price, not weighing it alongside quality, is not a true market.
The Obama administration reacted to less serious prescription drug shortages by issuing a directive on Halloween of 2011 that, among other things, ordered the FDA to work with the Department of Justice on any findings of shortages being used for stockpiling and price increases. As with the FTC today, government is always seeking a villain and refusing to gaze into the mirror.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) was long ago complaining of a “gray market” taking advantage of shortages, “with the potential for price gouging” by secondary wholesalers, causing “serious concerns for patient safety.” It was also long ago recommended that PhRMA set out to forestall more government regulation by advocating an industry‐wide policy, by brand-name and generic manufacturers alike, to require purchase only from the manufacturers themselves and sales made only directly to pharmacies and hospitals, thus eliminating the effect on prices of a gray market distribution chain. Pharmacies and hospitals would require documents recording a drug’s distribution route. The industry’s motivation for embracing this idea is the higher revenues for manufacturers that would result, and the increased safety of the drug supply chain.
Returning to the matter of human nature, setting a high price for medicines when the situation allows is not always as crass and greedy as it may sound. About 90 percent of proposed medicines that go through testing ultimately fail to be offered to health providers and patients because they are found to be unsafe or not to affect a cure or a proper treatment. Thus, the cost between invention and sale to the public comes in on average at billions of dollars for each drug. That means that these evil, greedy pharmaceutical companies recoup their astronomical investments from the one in ten medicines that do make it to shelves.
When you turn these firms into villains, declare their profits to be obscene, shake them down and force them to cut their revenues, all you are doing is making them again and again not devote the money needed to bring new cures to patients. And this remains the truth in spite of the fact of their being bad actors—gougers, con artists, and the like—to be found in the field of medicine, as they are to be found in any and every other walk of life.
As the Manhattan Institute’s Tim Rice warns, “With too many barriers to recouping their investments, pharma companies will stop taking risks, and innovation will suffer.”
Having government treat health care as a right renders that care a scarce commodity. The way for the maximum number of patients to receive the highest quality of care, including highly expensive, innovative drugs, is to accept the real world of profit and price as necessary mechanisms of distribution in a free society, and keep the heavy, self-serving hand of government out as much as possible.
“California-Proof”: Cybertruck’s ‘Armor Glass’ Thwarts Break-In By Criminals
Tesla’s armored pickup truck, with shatter-resistant windows and ultra-hard stainless steel exoskeleton, appears to be thief-proof and now “California-tested” after a new video shows an unsuccessful break-in by a group of thieves.
“Cybertruck is California-proof. Armored glass beats criminals trying their best to break in – even when jumping on the roof,” X user Arash Malek said in a post.
Tesla’s chief Elon Musk has said the Cybertruck’s “Amor Class,” a combination of ultra-strong glass and a polymer-layered composite, is designed to absorb and redirect impact force and is durable enough to survive Class 4 hail.
One X user said: “Apocalyptic Vehicles now required in Cali… Now all we gotta do is figure out how to electrify the stainless steel skin as a shocking deterrent.”
Apocalyptic Vehicles now required in Cali…
Now all we gotta do is figure out how to electrify the stainless steel skin as a shocking deterrent. ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/hLsyMHC6yN
Given that Democrats in the imploding progressive state fail to enforce ‘common sense’ law and order, the Cybertruck might be the best apocalypse vehicle with security and design to survive the crime crisis.
President Joe Biden took office with a commitment to overturn the previous administration’s immigration policies, calling them “cruel and reckless.” He emphasized that his plan would establish a “fair, orderly, and humane” immigration system while implementing smarter measures to secure the border.
But his administration is now grappling with a historic crisis.
Republicans blame President Biden for eliminating and reversing policies put in place by the Trump administration.
Many people, including those in the liberal media, have also pointed fingers at the Biden administration for the crisis that has now spread to large cities around the country.
Polling suggests that American voters trust former President Donald Trump—the Republican frontrunner in November’s election—more than President Biden on immigration and border-security issues. According to the Pew Research Center, 80 percent of Americans, including 73 percent of Democrats, think the U.S. government has done a bad job of handling the illegal immigrant influx.
The illegal immigrant surge has escalated significantly throughout President Biden’s presidency, shattering record after record. The past six months of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data show it’s getting worse.
As taxpayer expenses pile up, communities nationwide are feeling the strain. And there seems to be no end in sight.
So how did we get here?
2019: The Campaign Trail
President Biden’s pledges to potential illegal immigrants began early in his campaign.
During a Democratic primary debate on June 27, 2019, candidate Biden raised his hand when the host asked if his government health care plan would provide coverage for illegal immigrants.
He raised his hand again when the host said, “Raise your hand if you think it should be a civil offense rather than a crime to cross the border without documentation.”
The host then specifically asked Mr. Biden if someone who is here illegally should be deported if that is his or her only offense.
“That person should not be the focus of deportation,” Mr. Biden responded.
A couple of months later, during another debate on Sept. 12, 2019, Mr. Biden said: “I would, in fact, make sure that there is, that we immediately surge to the border all those people who are seeking asylum. They deserve to be heard. That’s who we are. We’re a nation that says, ‘If you want to flee, and you’re fleeing oppression, you should come.’”
January 2021: Biden Ends National Emergency
To fulfill his campaign promises, President Biden has implemented more than 500 actions on immigration in the first three years of his presidency, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
To better understand the reasons behind the surge at the southern border, critics say, it’s important to review the actions the president took on his first day in office.
On Jan. 20, 2021, President Biden ended President Trump’s national emergency declaration on the border, which called for the construction of a border wall.
President Biden halted the construction, calling it “a waste of money.” He also declared that no more taxpayer dollars would be diverted to wall-construction projects, despite already-allocated congressional funds for the project.
He also reversed a ban on travelers from terror-prone countries. The ban, imposed during the Trump administration, barred people from entering the United States from certain terror hotspots that didn’t provide robust security background checks on prospective travelers. President Biden stated that these bans were inconsistent with American values.
A few months later, The Epoch Times reported that Border Patrol agents had apprehended two Yemeni men who were on the FBI’s terrorism watch list and the no-fly list.
Also on his first day in office, President Biden suspended deportations of illegal aliens for 100 days. The policy applied to almost everyone who entered the country illegally before November 2020. A week later, however, a federal judge in Texas blocked the policy.
With another executive order issued on his first day in office, the president strengthened the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for children who were brought into the country illegally.
On day one, the administration also stopped adding illegal immigrants to the “Remain in Mexico” program. The Trump administration implemented the program, which required asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico until their U.S. immigration court date, at end of 2019. The program has been touted by border-security advocates as the most effective for stemming illegal immigration because it ended “catch-and-release,” the practice in which illegal immigrants are released into the interior of the United States with a court date potentially many years down the road.
On his first day in office, President Biden introduced the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which he referred to as a “comprehensive immigration reform plan.” The bill included an array of changes to existing law that would have made it quicker and easier for those who enter the country legally to gain citizenship and, in a sweeping amnesty, would have provided a pathway to citizenship for millions of people who had entered the country illegally.
The bill offered little to decrease the flow of illegal immigrants into the country apart from requiring the Department of State to “advance reforms in Central America” to address the reasons people are migrating to the United States and to create refugee-processing centers in the region.
President Biden has said Republicans in Congress blocked the bill. But Democrats, who controlled both the House and the Senate in 2021, made no apparent effort to advance the bill, and it died in committee in both chambers, never receiving a hearing.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, slammed President Biden’s U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, calling it “the most radical piece of immigration legislation” and saying that it seeks to reward illegal aliens at the expense of Americans.
In a report, the organization criticized the bill for prioritizing “illegal aliens, smugglers, cartels, and gangs” over border security.
February 2021: New Asylum Policy
Thirteen days later, President Biden signed three more orders, including loosening the criteria for asylum. He announced the restoration of asylum processing at the border and the creation of a task force to reunify any remaining families that were separated during the previous administration.
The new orders on Feb. 2 also included reversing the Trump administration’s public charge rule and developing a strategy to address “irregular migration across the southern border.”
The public charge rule required family sponsors to repay the government if noncitizen relatives received public benefits.
Republicans have blamed the Biden administration for encouraging illegal immigration by signaling a lax border policy through these executive orders.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials announced new interim guidelines on Feb. 18 for handling the arrest, detainment, and deportation of illegal immigrants.
DHS said the three priority criteria—national security, border security, and public safety—outlined in the interim guidelines are effective immediately for all Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions.
Any ICE agent who encounters an illegal immigrant who falls outside of the three categories must get preapproval from his field office before taking any action, a DHS official said, and he must consider the following criteria: the nature and recency of a non-citizen’s convictions, the type and length of sentences imposed, whether the enforcement action is otherwise an appropriate use of ICE’s limited resources, and other relevant factors, including mitigating factors.
The mitigating factors, the official said, include consideration as to whether “someone might be suffering from serious physical or mental illness.”
“We want [ICE agents] to think about ties to the community, whether the individual has family here in the United States, U.S. citizen family members, and other considerations,” he said.
March 2021: Biden’s First Political Test
President Biden promised to develop a more humane and efficient immigration system, but this promise met with a significant test less than two months into his term with a rapid influx of unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally.
In March 2020, the Trump administration began using the COVID-19 emergency measure Title 42 to allow U.S. authorities to quickly expel illegal immigrants.
When President Biden took office, he announced that children would not be subject to the Title 42 health order. A significant uptick in unaccompanied minors was observed soon after that announcement.
Some Democrats and policy experts at the time blamed President Trump for the uptick.
Ruth Wasem, a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at Austin, argued that the spikes were attributable to a migration backlog caused by President Trump’s rigid immigration policies.
“Trump basically shut down our immigration system and ended the laws on the books,” Ms. Wasem told PolitiFact in March 2021. “So there’s going to be a pent-up number of people that were waiting to come, or that were en route.”
Yet, after images of unaccompanied minors in overcrowded shelters appeared in the media, President Biden found himself under fire from all sides.
“The situation we are currently facing at the southwest border is a difficult one,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a lengthy statement in March 2021. “We are tackling it. We are keeping our borders secure, enforcing our laws, and staying true to our values and principles.”
February 2021 saw 9,400 unaccompanied minors, mostly from Central America, being apprehended, almost doubling the numbers from the prior months. By March 2021, the reported number had almost reached 19,000. The Epoch Times reported at the time that the average cost to care for one child in a temporary emergency facility had increased to $775 per day.
The influx of unaccompanied children has persisted in the following years, creating substantial logistical and humanitarian challenges for the administration. Since President Biden took office, the Department of Health and Human Services has received more than 370,500 unaccompanied minors, according to the agency. The department has been sheltering these children until they’re placed with a sponsor in the United States.
A New York Times report last year revealed that the agency had lost contact with one-third of illegal immigrant children since they began living with their U.S. sponsors. Some of them have ended up working dangerous factory jobs in the United States, according to the report.
Some critics argue that President Biden’s policies have also worsened human and drug trafficking. According to a study from the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 60 percent of unaccompanied children are caught by cartels and exploited for child pornography or drug trafficking.
By the end of March, the Biden administration had moved away from sending family units back across the border using Title 42.
The Epoch Times reported at the time that the vast majority (upward of 85 percent) of family units apprehended by Border Patrol after crossing the border illegally were quickly released into the United States.
President Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris as “border czar.” Her role was to lead the effort to stem the flow of illegal immigration by addressing the “root causes” of migration from Central America and Mexico.
April 2021: ICE Deportations Plunge
The number of deportations conducted by ICE in April 2021 reached a historic low despite a surge in illegal crossings.
ICE carried out 2,962 deportations in April, excluding Title 42 expulsions, showcasing the limitations imposed on the agency by the Biden administration. During March, more than 172,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended along the southern border.
June 2021: Migrant Deaths Surge
With the rise in illegal immigration, the number of deaths also increased. In June, 109 bodies were recovered by Border Patrol, up from 61 in May. The majority of deaths over the summer months were due to dehydration and hyperthermia.
During President Biden’s first two years in office, deaths of illegal immigrants hit a record high. CBP recorded a total of 880 illegal immigrant deaths in fiscal year 2022, the highest number of deaths since data became available in 1998. The second-highest number on record was fiscal year 2021, with 566 deaths.
President Biden’s border policies began to strain Border Patrol agents, leading to a significant drop in morale. Some even contemplated quitting their jobs or retiring earlier than planned.
The frustration among border agents escalated in September 2021 after the Biden administration falsely accused several officers on horseback in Del Rio, Texas, of “whipping” Haitian immigrants.
DHS Secretary Mayorkas had evidence that the claim was false, but he didn’t attempt to correct the record during a press briefing at the White House. He called the images depicting the alleged abuse “horrifying” and tied them to “systemic racism.”
President Biden also blamed the horse-patrol agents, calling the incident “outrageous.”
“There will be consequences,” he told reporters. “It’s an embarrassment. But beyond embarrassment, it’s dangerous; it’s wrong.”
