Mamdani’s one-word border answer said it all

"Have you ever been to the U.S.-Mexico border?” “No.”One word. That may have been the most revealing moment of New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent interview with the New York Times.Sanctuary policies are easy to defend from a podium at New York City Hall. They are much harder to defend before communities that have already paid the price.Mamdani defended his city’s sanctuary policies, which he reinforced after taking office by signing an executive order reaffirming them.The problem is not so much that Mamdani has never visited the border. It is that he seems unwilling to understand why communities that lived through the border crisis reached a very different conclusion.That lesson is visible far beyond the Rio Grande.Consider Goliad County in South Texas. The rural county has about 7,000 residents and sits roughly 160 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, Sheriff Roy Boyd described how the crisis transformed the community he serves.Boyd’s office averaged 77 arrests a year during the five years before 2021. From 2021 through 2024, that average jumped to 413. Deputies discovered 16 cartel stash houses, and pursuits involving suspected human smugglers became routine.Residents began hearing voices and movement on remote properties after dark. Many no longer felt safe alone in their own homes.Those facts expose what Mamdani’s answer overlooks. The border crisis did not remain at the border. Cartel activity and illegal immigration reached inland communities that lacked the personnel and equipment to confront them. Former Border Patrol agent and Texas Public Policy Foundation senior fellow Ammon Blair calls cartels “hybrid threats.”As Blair puts it, “Cartels don’t just smuggle. They destabilize.” Boyd has described them as “contractors and subcontractors” in a network moving migrants and drugs from the border into Texas’ largest cities.That reality changed Texas’ response. In 2021, as illegal crossings surged under President Joe Biden, Goliad became one of the first inland counties to declare a local disaster. Boyd suggested giving local law-enforcement agencies flexible grants for overtime, new officers, patrol vehicles, and other equipment.Those grants became part of Operation Lone Star.According to Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, Operation Lone Star has produced more than 535,700 apprehensions and referrals, 57,400 criminal arrests, and 47,500 felony charges. Texas law enforcement has also intercepted more than 779 million lethal doses of fentanyl.RELATED: The revolution will not be televised — it will be livestreamed in 4K Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty ImagesBoyd later launched the Operation Lone Star Task Force, which allows local agencies to share deputies, intelligence, and resources across jurisdictional lines while targeting human smuggling, cartel activity, and organized crime.New York has felt the downstream effects too. Former Mayor Eric Adams warned that the migrant crisis would “destroy New York City.” Mamdani nevertheless continues to defend sanctuary policies that impede cooperation with federal immigration authorities.Goliad’s experience carries a national lesson. Criminal organizations do not recognize state boundaries. The same networks that move people across the border traffic drugs, weapons, and money into communities nationwide. They exploit ports of entry, the northern border, and weaknesses far from either frontier.The farther those networks spread, the more Americans discover that border security is not someone else’s problem.Mamdani may be proud of New York City’s sanctuary stance.His one-word answer showed more than where he has never been. It revealed what he refuses to see.Sanctuary policies are easy to defend from a podium at city hall. They are much harder to defend before communities that have already paid the price.

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Mamdani’s municipal bond mess will only get worse as mayor prioritizes anti-Israel policies over NYC’s fiscal health

New York City's municipal bond prices continue to decline as Mayor Zohran Mamdani doubles down on his Marxist Third-Worldism, every minute of every day, it seems.

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'Scared?' Furious Dem dares Trump admin to look victims' children 'in the eye'

An angry Democrat dared the Trump administration to look the children of men killed by immigration officers in the eye — but suggested they might be too scared. Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) slammed the Trump administration for failing to attend a public hearing on deaths caused by its Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers — and called out his suspected reason why. "They're afraid, he said. "They are scared." Walkinshaw appeared on MS NOW Saturday morning to address what "The Weekend" host Eugene Daniels described as the "lying" and "untruths" about how two fatal ICE shootings "went down." Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was killed in Maine on July 13 — just days after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot dead in Texas, reports show. The Virginia Democrat had recently returned from Houston, where Araujo, 52, was killed by ICE and falsely accused by the FBI of possessing illegal drugs. As U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) confirmed Friday, the construction worker had electrolytes to help him keep hydrated. Walkinshaw felt compelled to go to Houston that same day, he said. "I wanted to... be able to look into their eyes and see and feel that that pain that they're experiencing," said Walkinshaw. "And bring it back with me to Washington and try to communicate it to my colleagues, especially our Republican colleagues."But Walkinshaw argued Republicans would rather "pour salt in the wounds" of families whose loved ones have died in ICE's hands, pointing to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two American citizens shot dead in protests, as proof. "It is disgusting what this administration is doing to families like this," he said. "It's character assassination." Walkinshaw then shared information from a closed-door briefing he held with ICE officials last week. Data show that out of 22,000 ICE officers, just one has faced disciplinary action. "There is no accountability in ICE right now," he said. "And it comes from the very top. In the Oval Office."This is why Walkinshaw professed himself outraged the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI "flat out refused" to send a representative to Friday's public hearing. Walkinshaw argued they didn't have the guts to face the children of the men ICE agents had killed. "They are afraid to to face communities like the community in Houston," he said. "After what has happened, I don't think they want to have to look Lorenzo and Ronaldo in the eye and see what they have done."

Trump Tries to Blow Up Canada Bridge Deal After Opening Ceremony Drama

President Donald Trump is suddenly reneging on the terms of the Gordie Howe Bridge project after he claimed Ottawa “disinvited” U.S. officials from the Michigan–Ontario crossing’s grand opening.“Canada disinvited the United States of America to the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge, which is fine, considering they are paying substantial TARIFFS to the United States, but the original Deal on the Bridge, which was terribly negotiated by a previous Administration, no longer stands,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday. “We changed the terms of the Deal so that the United States of America now gets 50 percent of the Profit.”The Gordie Howe Bridge was the creation of a very different period in U.S.-Canadian relations. The international bridge was first proposed in the early 2000s and agreed upon by the two nations in 2012. Under the terms of that agreement, Canada would fully pay for the bridge to get the project moving forward and only share toll revenue once it had recovered its initial costs.At the time, President Barack Obama was revered by America’s northern neighbors, and diplomatic relations between the two countries were good. But Trump has worked hard to undo that long-standing goodwill. Over the last year and a half, the U.S. president has repeatedly attacked Canada, punishing its people with enormous tariffs, baselessly accosting its government, and even threatening to invade its land to make another U.S. state.The latest insult came earlier this week, when Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on a wide range of Canadian products worth $20 billion. Canada rescinded its invitations to U.S. officials for the bridge’s grand opening ceremony shortly thereafter, and moved the ribbon-cutting ceremony from the international border line at the center of the bridge to a nearby inspection plaza.“In light of trade action threatened by the United States earlier this week, it would be inappropriate to proceed with a celebratory event between the two countries,” the office of Canada’s infrastructure minister said, in a statement obtained by The New York Times. “The Gordie Howe International Bridge remains a vital infrastructure project that reflects years of hard work and will be a major economic driver.”Now Trump is threatening the bridge by claiming that the two countries will split the revenue 50-50, which was not what was agreed upon nearly 15 years ago.It’s not the first time that Trump has meddled with the bridge. In February, Trump promised that he would block the grand opening unless Canada “fully compensated” the U.S. “for everything” and give him “at least half” ownership of the bridge.It was not clear, even then, what Canada needed to compensate Washington for. Canada footed the bill for the Gordie Howe International Bridge. The project created new American labor and was constructed with U.S. supplies to boot.Trump’s take was an unexpected backtrack from how he felt about the bridge during his first term: Trump seemed to wholeheartedly support the endeavor in a joint statement issued in 2017 by himself and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, claiming at the time that the bridge would “serve as a vital economic link” between the two countries.

Invitees ditch the White House Correspondents' Dinner, 'Nobody wants this'

The White House Correspondents' Dinner is expected to draw minimal attendance amid journalist fatigue and concerns over President Donald Trump's hostile relationship with the press, according to Politico. One anonymous White House reporter said, "Nobody wants this other than Donald Trump," while another admitted the event was "just exhausting." Journalists cited Trump's frequent attacks on media outlets as a primary reason for skipping the event, including his administration's issuance of subpoenas to reporters, threats of jail time against journalists, and lawsuits against news organizations. A prominent veteran journalist told Politico, attendees were "pretty unhappy about being there" due to growing "tension and unease." Additional factors include competing personal commitments, such as vacations and family events. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed concerns, attributing absences to scheduling conflicts and claiming Trump's speech will be "entertaining" and "unifying yet vicious."“Leavitt said the speech changed little from the version Trump planned to give in April,” Politico wrote.Watch the video below. Your browser does not support the video tag.