The bidding process for a Southern Border Security Wall is officially announced.  Bid duration ends March 20th 2017 for initial prototype, with pricing due March 24th – and anticipated award contracts Mid-April, 2017:

BIGLY Details Here

The Mexican government is strongly controlling the optics of a visit today by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and DHS Secretary General John Kelly.  [An upcoming press conference live stream is embedded below ]  Mexico fears the projection of U.S. strength will undermine their position.
President Trump is taking a hard-line approach with Mexico’s central policies that have allowed, and in many cases facilitated, vast numbers of economic migrants to travel into the U.S.  Trump’s pending policies are going to be weighted heavily on the feedback he receives from T-Rex and General Kelly’s visit.
Added video from joint press conference:

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We’ll look for expanded video of the visits today by Secretary Kelly and Secretary Tillerson to Mexico and South America.  In the interim thanks to DaveNYviii for this segment of a press conference in Guatemala.
Woo doggies,…. DHS Secretary General John Kelly drops an absolute truth bomb in a joint press conference earlier today.  Speaking with Interior Minister Francisco Rivas the severity of Secretary Kelly’s words are a stunning reflection of the change in approach.
Minister Rivas’s jaw was visibly quivering as every frightened synapse went simultaneously into apoplectic shock mode.  [Pinch me, I’m in heaven.]
Must watch. No, really… MUST WATCH:

John Kelly’s message to Guatemalans (and others)
Your journey north is going to be brutal.
IF you make it you’re going to be returned fast. pic.twitter.com/AN2XSpq4cH

— TrumpTracker (@DaveNYviii) February 22, 2017

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Guatemala City (AFP) – US plans to deport millions of Central American migrants and regional security issues dominated US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly’s visit to Guatemala on Wednesday, his Guatemalan counterpart said.
Interior Minister Francisco Rivas said he and Kelly discussed those issues after the US official, who arrived late Tuesday, held private talks with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales.
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An important development today surrounding the removal of President Obama restrictions and policies protecting illegal aliens.
Today Homeland Security Secretary General John F. Kelly officially ordered federal agents to begin using current administration policy to streamline the immediate repatriation of illegal aliens caught in the U.S.

DHS issued two guidance memos [#1 HERE] and [#2 HERE] which expands the process of apprehension and deportation, again following through on one of President Trump’s chief campaign promises.  The memos cover a large set of immediate initiatives including:

• Prioritizing criminal illegal immigrants and others for deportation, including those convicted or charged with “any criminal offense,” or who have “abused” any public welfare program
• Expanding the 287(g) program, which allows participating local officers to act as immigration agents – and had been rolled back under the Obama administration
• Starting the planning, design and construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall
• Hiring 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and officers
• Hiring 5,000 Border Patrol agents
• Ending “catch-and-release” policies under which illegal immigrants subject to deportation potentially are allowed to “abscond” and fail to appear at removal hearings

The status of young adult illegal aliens “Dreamer or DACA recipients” remains unchanged; however, agents were told there are no longer any other special classes of people that should be considered off limits for deportation.
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Continuing with the absurd politics of a Mexican Presidents’ desperation to keep Mexicans from returning to Mexico:

… President Enrique Peña Nieto recently budgeted about $50 million to the country’s 50 consulates to help pay the costs of defending migrants who are in the U.S. illegally and facing deportation. –LINK–

A bizarre, albeit understandable policy, given the dependency on the Mexican economy created by $25 billion in remittances sent home from Mexican nationals illegally living/working in the U.S.
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There is something uniquely bizarre about the President of a country fighting to provide a better life for the citizens of his country by keeping them out of his country.

Yet that’s exactly what Mexican President Peña Nieto did yesterday, when the government of Mexico announced they would be attempting to keep their own citizens out of Mexico in order to provide them a better life in the U.S.

(Via CNN) […] Earlier Friday, Mexico warned its citizensliving in the United States to “take precautions” and remain in contact with consular officials, following the deportation of an undocumented mother while she was on a routine check-in with US immigration authorities.

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The mostly swamp media (MSM) are twitchy triggered with reports of increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.  Specifically AP (HERE) and Reuters (HERE) are highlighting new ICE crackdowns in several U.S. cities.   The media allude to the latest outcomes as part of President Trump’s enforcement approach toward immigration law.
In the interim, DHS Secretary John Kelly has been touring the border region with ICE and Border officials.  Yesterday he gave a press conference describing what he has seen, and answering questions from reporters.  Well worth watching:

Interestingly, Secretary Kelly is personally going on pre-dawn sweeps (knock and talk) with the ICE officers, and actually going into border tunnels to get a first hand look at the challenges for both DHS units.
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Catherine Herridge files a report for Fox News from Texas where she is traveling with DHS Secretary John Kelly.

TEXAS – In his first television interview as Homeland Security secretary, retired four-star Marine Gen. John F. Kelly told Fox News he wants the U.S.-Mexico border wall finished in two years – setting an ambitious schedule for the project ordered last week by President Trump.

“The wall will be built where it’s needed first, and then it will be filled in. That’s the way I look at it,” Kelly said. “I really hope to have it done within the next two years.”
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Well, it would appear Don McGahn and Don Trump have indeed played the media, left-wing moonbats and the unintelligent GOPe like a Stradivarius.  With bait firmly taken, the trap snaps shut.
Here’s the statement from the White House.

(link)

There are two aspects to the Trump executive order.  ♦ One aspect pertains to a 120-day pause on Syrian refugees. ♦ The second aspect pertains to a 90-day pause on visas for seven countries outlined as “nations of concern” by prior law and Obama’s DHS policy.
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If people had doubts about the Mexican government being influenced and controlled by drug cartels, well, they can put that doubt away.
In a stunning segment on Fareed Zakaria’s CNN broadcast today Mexico’s former foreign minister, Jorge Castaneda, states the Mexican government is willing to counter U.S. President Donald Trump policy by unleashing drug cartels upon the U.S. border.
Watch, and more importantly LISTEN, to his words at 02:10 below:

This is the most politically explosive admission by the Mexican government in the past decade.  Even Fareed Zakaria realized what was being threatened and quickly attempted to redirect the conversation.
Castaneda is openly admitting a willingness to promote drug trafficking.  Additionally, Jorge Castaneda is so proud of the threat, he even posted a video of the discussion on his own YouTube page.
However, don’t expect the video to remain in place too long, because the implications here are so politically explosive, and the admission so brutally obvious and threatening, it could undermine the entire argument of the Mexican government and expose an open secret of collusion they would prefer to remain hidden.
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