3RD DAY Senate and House Republicans Play Hardball on U.S. Border FundingSenate/Congress

theepochtimes.com Republicans are ratcheting up pressure for President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats to adopt stricter border policies if he hopes to see more funding for issues like Ukraine. ::: Members of Congress have been debating for weeks over a $105 billion supplemental spending request from President Biden, which ties about $60 billion in new funding for Ukraine to additional military funding for Israel and new money for border personnel and equipment. Many Republicans have balked at the border provision in the spending proposal and said the proper fix for their long-running complaints about border security should come through stricter border and immigration policy enforcement, rather than simply allocating more money.

NOTE Stories about the haggling in the Senate and congress strech over the last couple of days. Here are the story clusters in reverse order from the 6th, from the 5th, and the 4th.

3RD DAY Lukeville, Arizona (population 35) is Overrun with #IllegalAliensLukeville, Az

kgun9.com There's no end in sight to the mass migrant crossings in Lukeville. ::: Now, local Mexicans have come to sell water and food through the wall. ::: — ::: Some are giving it to them for free.

NOTE Stories going back 2 days from the 6th and two from the 5th, the other from the 5th.

Denver, Colorado on High Alert as More Migrants Buses Arrive, the Flu Season Arrives, and Tents Line Streets Outside HotelsDenver

coloradosun.com | Tents line Lenny Maris Gonzalez wanted to come to the United States for her children's sake, she explained as her youngest, 2-year-old Yaxi, scrambled to climb onto her lap beside their tent on a Denver sidewalk. ::: On a chilly December day, the Venezuelan mother described how, after her husband died from COVID, she traveled the rest of the way to the United States from Colombia with her five children and her brother. Now they cook their meals on a tiny grill on the street, wearing donated snow boots and warming up in a tent outside the Quality Inn near the corner of Speer Boulevard and Zuni Street.

denverite.com A few weeks ago Genesis Daniel Perez, a mother from Venezuela, was sleeping in a tent with her children and parents outside a city-run motel. They?d timed out of the shelter as temperatures dropped. Then, she told us, her father was hospitalized when he was exposed to the cold. ::: — ::: Data provided to Denverite from Denver Health show close to a 6,000% increase in ER visits by children from Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras and Ecuador between 2020 and last month - from about 5 kids each month to over 300 in November. Visits made by adults from these countries have also risen significantly.

US gas tankers forced by cartel gunmen to dump loads in Mexican border town (#BorderReportCom), U.S. Rep wants Answers (myRGV)Brownsville/Tx|Matamoros, MX

valleycentral.com Since late October, Mexico has not allowed most U.S. gasoline to be imported south of the border. ::: This is happening as drug cartels in Mexico are increasingly stealing fuel and gasoline there, and it comes after cartel gunmen forced gas tanker trucks to dump their loads in the border town of Matamoros, south of Brownsville, Texas. ::: Two South Texas congressmen say the temporary export ban is hurting U.S. trade and violates the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on exports and imports, which was signed in 2020.

2ND DAY 12,000+ Illegal Aliens on One Day — the Highest Single Day Total Ever RecordedEagle Pass, Tx

amren.com/FoxNews Migrant encounters at the southern border hit the highest total for a single day ever recorded on Tuesday, marking yet another record broken as part of the ongoing migrant crisis which has hammered cities at both the border and across the country. ::: Multiple Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources told Fox News that there were over 12,000 migrant encounters on Tuesday. Over 10,200 of those were Border Patrol encounters of illegal immigrants coming between ports of entry.

NOTE Here is a link to the cluster from yesterday

Texas DPS absolves its leaders of wrongdoing after investigating migrant mistreatment claims (#TexasTribune)Texas

texastribune.org Five months after a Texas Department of Public Safety medic told his superiors that troopers were ordered to push migrants back into the Rio Grande and deny them water, an internal DPS investigation found no systemic wrongdoing by its personnel on the Texas-Mexico border. ::: According to a two-page report summary, investigators with the DPS Office of Inspector General found "no reasonable cause to believe that the South Texas leadership of the department institutionally engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that violated law or department policy."

Chicago's Most Recent Migrant Shelter is Creating Local Objections — And it's not Even OpenChicago

nbcchicago.com | Portage Park While controversial migrant base camps in the Chicago neighborhoods of Amundsen Park and Brighton Park won't move forward, a former Catholic school in Portage Park is set to become a migrant shelter, holding as many as 350 people. ::: According to a press release from 30th Ward Ald. Ruth Cruz, the City of Chicago and the Archdiocese of Chicago have agreed to open a migrant shelter at the former St. Bartholomew Catholic School, located at 4910 W. Addison St., which shuttered earlier this year.

New York City Eric Adams Was in Washington D.C. Again ~Hat in Hand~ -for yes- MoneyNew York City

abc7ny.com New York City Mayor Eric Adams traveled to Washington, D.C., on Thursday for his tenth visit to ask the federal government for more help with funding for migrants. ::: This is the mayor's first trip to D.C. since he cut his trip short last month when federal agents raided the home of his top fundraiser in their investigation into his 2021 mayoral campaign. ::: On Thursday, the mayor met with Congressional leaders, including New York's Sen. Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, to discuss securing more federal funding.

Arizona fears Mass Migrant Releases on the Streets of Tucson and Other Large CitiesArizona

breitbart.com Breitbart Texas observed a constant stream of fully loaded buses carrying migrants from a Border Patrol processing facility to the Casa Alitas Migrant Welcome Center in Tucson. As each bus carrying migrants released by the Border Patrol arrived at the center on Wednesday, a simultaneous flow of buses, taxis, and travel vans shuttled newly released migrants to other destinations farther inland — some destined for the Tucson International Airport to begin their journey to cities across the nation.According to a source within CBP, not authorized to speak to the media, the latest border surge places the Tucson Border Patrol Sector atop the list of those along the southwest border for migrant apprehensions. On Tuesday, 10,400 migrants were arrested by the Border Patrol along the southwest border. On Wednesday, the total number arrested dropped to slightly more than 8,000 bringing the two-day total to 19,000 migrant arrests nationwide.

2ND DAY Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb: Illegal Aliens After Processed get a Free Cell Phone, A Free Plane Ticket, and a $5,000 Gift CardArizona

thethinkingconservative.com | theepochtimes.com Immigrants who illegally cross the border into Arizona are being handed $5,000 in good-as-cash gift cards, along with cell phones and costly plane tickets, all of which are being paid for by the American taxpayer, according to Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb. ::: Mr. Lamb, sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, told The Epoch Times that he had been informed of the lucrative hand-out through his close sources working at the United States border.