(The Center Square) – The state of Florida is suing the Biden-Harris administration to obtain information on how many illegal foreign nationals convicted of violent crimes who served time in prison were released into the U.S. instead of being deported.

“Historically, when illegal aliens were brought to the U.S. to be prosecuted for their crimes, it was well understood that the aliens would be deported once they have served their sentence,” Florida’s lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Ashley Moody, states. “That was until the Biden-Harris Administration implemented their shockingly irresponsible immigration policy, pushing unknown numbers of dangerous criminals straight from federal prison into our communities and causing chaos, anarchy, and crime.”

The lawsuit was filed after Florida received no response to a Freedom of Information Act request it submitted in March seeking information about criminal illegal foreign nationals allegedly being released into the U.S. instead of being deported.

It was filed in the U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida Fort Myers Division and names U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Prisons as defendants.

“In addition to flat out refusing to secure the border, reports indicate that President Biden and failed Border Czar Kamala Harris refuse to deport dangerous illegal immigrant prisoners into our communities once they are released from prison,” Moody said. “This administration has made it clear they will not turn over documents showing this dangerous and unlawful scheme in a timely manner. Now, American cities are suffering in a very public way. I will not stand idly by and allow this dereliction of duty.”

When filing the FOIA request in March, she said, “The Biden administration has full knowledge that prisoners from other countries are making their way into the United States through our wide-open border. Now, we are demanding to know reasons why the Biden administration is releasing criminal illegal aliens in U.S. prisons directly into the interior, rather than deporting them back to their country of origin,” saying, “the American people deserve to know.”

The complaint states the administration is “unlawfully withholding records” and by doing so, harming Florida by “continuously denying Florida access to documents that it has a legal right to.” It also states the harm is irreparable until ICE is compelled to follow the law. The lawsuit asks the court to order the defendants to respond to Florida’s request and cover attorney fees.

In the complaint, Moody also alludes to the different processes followed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air & Marine Operations, Border Patrol, and U.S. Coast Guard officials when apprehending an illegal border crosser at a land border versus at sea.

Unlike those illegally entering at the southwest or northern borders by land, who are largely processed into the U.S. instead of for removal, when apprehended at sea, most illegal foreign nationals are repatriated to their country of origin, The Center Square has reported.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_90f9c15a-6a26-11ef-8327-7fc9b12d220a.html

>>21532286

Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris has confirmed her support for $5 trillion in tax increases over 10 years in the Biden-Harris administration’s proposed budget. What should be truly terrifying to any taxpayer is the fact that the total increase is not the worst thing about Harris’ plan.

Among the many and varied tax hikes Harris and running mate Tim Walz endorse is a big increase in the top tax rate on capital gains. “[T]he proposals would increase the top marginal rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends to 44.6 percent,” an explanation of the Biden-Harris budget states. The top tax rate on capital gains held for more than a year is currently 20 percent, for those with taxable income above $518,000. The tax is paid only if the individual sells the assets.

Capital gains taxes are not indexed for inflation, so the tax bite will rise dramatically whenever the Federal Reserve increases the money supply to cover the rapidly rising U.S. government debt, which is inevitable under all believable current scenarios. People will be paying real taxes on imaginary increases in capital gains. That extra tax cost will lower the value of the affected assets. If you own stocks, land, or other valuables, the Harris-Walz tax hike will reduce their value.

Even more egregiously, “The Harris-endorsed budget calls for an annual 25 percent minimum tax on the unrealized gains of individuals with income and assets exceeding $100 million,” Americans for Tax Reform notes. “Once in place, it won’t be long before the threshold is lowered to hit more and more Americans.”

This tax would have enormous consequences for people in all income brackets, not just the super rich. It will do its destruction by causing a massive net reduction in personal wealth in the United States.

Here’s how that will happen if the Democrats’ plan comes to fruition. The Harris-Walz wealth tax will reduce the value of all capital-gaining assets by imposing an unavoidable, government-enforced new cost on them — the annual cost of the tax.

Limiting the tax to the very wealthy is immaterial, because reducing the investor demand for a particular supply of assets will necessarily reduce the prices of those assets — which is their value. When those less-valuable assets are sold to other people, they will bring artificially reduced prices. That is wealth destruction.

The proposed wealth tax would thus decrease the values of stocks; housing and other real estate; bonds; personal property, such as automobiles, boats, some jewelry, and art works; and so on.

“That is how you trigger what you call a downward spiral in asset prices,” said entrepreneur and investor Vivek Ramaswamy. “It’s the best formula for triggering the Second Great Depression, if we ever had one.

As if widespread market crashes were not bad enough, the knock-on effects could be tragic. By crashing the asset markets, the Harris-Walz wealth tax will destroy the retirement nest eggs of the Baby Boomers and Generation X. With the Social Security system already facing insolvency, this asset crash will have a terrible effect on the elderly. Starvation, homelessness, and countless other ills could proliferate.

Meanwhile, the super rich at whom the taxes were aimed will maximize their wealth by trading capital-gains-producing items for other assets with lower gains and hence less economic value. The prices of those assets will rise, of course, creating further economic distortions.

The general movement in the economy will be from high-value uses of resources to lower-valued ones. People will move their money from the most profitable enterprises to those that cost them the least after taxes.

https://thefederalist.com/2024/09/04/the-harris-walz-wealth-tax-would-harm-everybody-except-the-super-rich/