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Another Report Says CBP, ICE Not Detaining, Removing Inadmissibles Flying into Country
A DHS OIG audit found that a regional CBP and ICE detention and removal processes were ineffective at one major international airport, the OIG audit found. Between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, the report found CBP agents at this airport released at least 383 inadmissible travelers from custody into the U.S. who, under the law, are prohibited from entering the country.
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States Struggle with Unreliable Federal Funding for Making Sure Elections Are Secure
The federal government has sought to bolster election security for years through a popular grant program, but the wildly fluctuating funding levels have made it difficult for state officials to plan their budgets and their projects.
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Modern-Day Outlaws, “Sovereign Citizens” Threaten the Rule of Law
The FBI considers sovereign citizens a domestic terrorism threat. My research into sovereign citizens has found they have long been active in the U.S. and other countries. At the core of their beliefs is the denial of the government’s legitimacy. They commonly do not register their vehicles, acquire driver’s licenses or car insurance, or pay taxes. And they pose a significant threat to the public.
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Election Administration Performance Linked to Counties’ Economic, Racial Makeup
“The federal government and states may set general directives about how elections are to be administered, but a lot of those actions are carried forth by county-level governments.,” says Professor Michael Ritter, lead author of a new study on election administration.
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Voter Advocacy Groups Ask Feds to Step in After Texas Allowed Some Voters’ Ballots to Be Identified
The request comes as state and local officials undermined ballot secrecy in their bids for election transparency. After Texas lawmakers changed several laws to increase transparency, researchers demonstrated that the secret choices voters make in the voting booth can be identified using public, legally available records.
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Is China Exporting Its Political Model To The World? A New Report Says Yes.
Debate has raged for decades over whether Beijing is actively exporting its authoritarian system abroad, but a new report based on a trove of previously unexamined government documents shows how China is experimenting with spreading its model to other countries.
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Banning Fake News Traffickers Online Improved Public Discourse
When Twitter banned more than 70,000 traffickers of false information from its platform in the wake of the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the impact went beyond the silencing of those users. A new study found that the crackdown by Twitter also significantly reduced the number of misinformation posts by users who stayed on the platform but had been following those who were kicked off.
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Joint Efforts Needed to Combat Disinformation
The spread of fake news is destabilizing societies and fueling anti-democratic movements around the world. Collaborative efforts are needed to tackle the problem, says a new report.
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Reports: Russian Physicists Being Denied Entry to U.S.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the US government attempted to make it easier for Russian scientists to enter the United States. But there are reports that it has actually become more difficult.
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2020’s ‘Fake Elector’ Schemes Will Be Harder to Try in 2024 – but Not Impossible
Electors will gather across the United States in December 2024, just weeks after the election, and formally cast votes for president and vice president. They will send their votes to Congress, which will count them and determine who received the most votes. Typically, the casting of electoral votes is little more than a ceremonial process. But the last time this process happened – in 2020 – it was anything but typical.
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Biden’s Immigration Order Won’t Fix Problems Quickly – 4 Things to Know About What’s Changing
Biden’s executive order prevents everyone who crosses the U.S.-Mexico border without a visa, and not passing through an official port of entry, from seeking asylum. It goes into effect when the number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border each day exceeds an average of 2,500. Effectively, this is a ban on asylum.
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How Secure Is Gene Synthesizing Research?
Critics warn that the benefits of gene synthesizing research are undermined by security measures which are not sufficiently tight to prevent such research form being used by bad actors to do harm. One expert writes: “The problem is that governments don’t mandate security across the industry — and even though it’s a crime to ship DNA sufficient to generate the entire infectious 1918 influenza, there’s no law against shipping pieces of it.” The International Gene Synthesis Consortium disagrees.
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Texas Tells Local Election Officials to Stop Releasing Information That Exposes How Some People Vote
Texas’ top election official issued emergency guidance to counties aimed at protecting ballot privacy. The emergency guidance from the secretary of state comes after reports in Votebeat and The Texas Tribune confirmed the choices some voters make can later be identified through legally available records.
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New Voter Registration Rules Threaten Hefty Fines, Criminal Penalties for Groups
Lawmakers in several states have enacted a variety of voter registration laws over the past four years. The measures add new requirements around registering and communicating with voters and threaten hefty penalties for violations. The stated goal of the new laws is to prevent fraud, but some voting rights groups contend their real purpose is to dampen participation by likely Democratic voters.
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“Fight Until Victory”: Speakers & Guests Declare Full Support for Terrorism at “People’s Conference for Palestine”
The “People’s Conference for Palestine,” held in Detroit, MI on 24-26 May, offered insight into the strategies and goals of the most influential forces driving a movement that has gained increasingly widespread and mainstream support as the Israel-Hamas war has dragged on.
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The long view
Sweden’s Deadliest Mass Shooting Highlights Global Reality of Gun Violence, Criminologist Says
“We in the United States don’t have a monopoly on mass shootings,” James Alan Fox says, “though we certainly have more than our share.”
Memory-Holing Jan. 6: What Happens When You Try to Make History Vanish?
The Trump administration’s decision to delete a DOJ database of cases against Capitol riot defendants places those who seek to preserve the historical record in direct opposition to their own government.