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Articles by Stephen Dinan

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent patrols near the Texas-Mexico border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Border-jumpers enticed by legalization debate in U.S.

The debate over legalizing illegal immigrants was "a primary cause" of last summer's surge of Central Americans jumping the U.S.-Mexico border, the Government Accountability Office reported Friday, citing surveys of U.S. officials on the ground in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

March 1, 2015
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks to the chamber as the House failed to advance a short-term funding measure to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded past a midnight deadline, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday evening, Feb. 27, 2015. Conservatives in Speaker Boehner's own party fought against three-week funding measure because it would not overturn Obama’s actions on immigration. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Congress averts DHS shutdown with one-week infusion of funds

Agreeing on little else, Democrats and Republicans managed to come together late Friday to pass a short-term bill to keep the Homeland Security Department running one more week — though they made little headway on solving the underlying fight over President Obama's deportation amnesty.

February 27, 2015
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio leaves the House chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, after the House voted to go to conference committee on a long-term "clean" spending bill for the Homeland Security Department hours before a shutdown was to begin. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House rejects Homeland Security funding

Conservatives rebelled in the House Friday afternoon, joining Democrats to defeat a bill to keep the Homeland Security Department open past a midnight shutdown deadline and leaving funding in doubt as all sides continued to fight over President Obama's deportation amnesty.

February 27, 2015
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Senate drops objections to Obama amnesty, clears ‘clean’ homeland bill

Senate Republican leaders retreated on the homeland security spending fight Friday morning, voting with Democrats to delete provisions that would have stopped President Obama's deportation amnesty in order to avoid a partial shutdown of the Homeland Security Department at midnight.

February 27, 2015
Attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch appears on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 28, 2015. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Loretta Lynch AG nomination clears committee with GOP votes

The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared Loretta Lynch on Thursday to be the next attorney general, virtually guaranteeing she will be confirmed in the full Senate next month, even as Democrats intimated that Republicans who opposed her were guilty of racism.

February 26, 2015
In this Feb. 17, 2015 photo, a group lights candles at a rally for immigration reform in front of Devine Redeemer Presbyterian Church sponsored by the Texas Organizing Project in San Antonio, Texas. Immigrants across the country expressed disappointment Tuesday after a federal judge put a hold on President Barack Obama's plan to protect more than 4 million people living illegally in the U.S. from deportation. But many said they haven't lost hope. (AP Photo/The San Antonio Express-News, Bob Owen)

Civil rights commissioner warns of illegals voting under Obama amnesty

Civil Rights Commissioner Peter Kirsanow warned Congress on Wednesday that President Obama's deportation amnesty program, which will allow illegal immigrants to get Social Security numbers and driver's licenses, will make it much easier for them to register and vote in U.S. elections — despite being ineligible to do so.

February 25, 2015
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held at the Gaylord Hotel, National Harbor, Md., Friday, March 7, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

CPAC/Washington Times straw poll tests 17 GOP presidential candidates

Seventeen potential candidates — including current and former governors, senators and political outsiders — are part of the 2015 GOP presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which opens Wednesday and runs through Saturday just outside Washington.

February 25, 2015
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, in his office in the Rayburn House Office Building on April 4, 2014. (Eva Russo/Special to The Washington Times) ** FILE **

Republicans to roll out immigration enforcement bills

House Republicans will introduce four new immigration enforcement bills this week and plan to begin pushing them through committee next week as the GOP sets up the outlines of what the post-shutdown showdown immigration fight will be.

February 25, 2015
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who held a press conference to highlight other dangers of letting the department's funding to lapse, said "The clock is ticking." (Associated Press)

Obama amnesty contract quietly canceled as White House struggles to comply with ruling

The Homeland Security Department quietly canceled one of its major amnesty contracts after a judge's ruling against the program last week, but officials have struggled to explain how they are complying otherwise even as the administration filed an appeal Monday asking that it be allowed to begin processing applications immediately.

February 23, 2015
President Obama's proposal for a new authorization for the use of military force would leave in place a 2001 war resolution authorizing the fight against al Qaeda. The president already has been using the 2001 resolution to justify six months of airstrikes and other combat operations against Islamic State fighters. (Associated Press)

Obama Islamic State war powers beyond congressional control, research service finds

President Obama could still use ground troops in Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State and the next president could extend the war beyond the three-year limit no matter what Congress passes, lawmakers' research arm said this week in a legal brief that undercuts many of the key restrictions that Capitol Hill is demanding.

February 23, 2015
Illegal immigrants sit in a group after being detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents in McAllen, Texas. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Feds ask appeals court to restart amnesty

The Obama administration on Monday filed both an appeal and a request for an immediate stay of last week’s court ruling halting the president's deportation amnesty, arguing that if it can't grant illegal immigrants work permits and Social Security numbers it cannot enforce other laws properly.

February 23, 2015
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen (Associated Press) **FILE**

IRS taxpayer information sharing probe stiff-armed by White House

The White House told Congress last week it refused to dig into its computers for emails that could shed light on what kinds of private taxpayer information the IRS shares with President Obama's top aides, assuring Congress that the IRS will address the issue — eventually.

February 22, 2015
American Airlines airplanes are parked at their gates at JFK International airport in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

JFK Airport officials filter fecal matter in search for drugs

The federal government is looking for doctors to help monitor suspected smugglers' bowel movements at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, in a solicitation that sounds like it could be something out of the Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" program.

February 22, 2015
"The district court's order was abundantly clear: The federal court enjoined any and all aspects of the illegal amnesty order," said Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican. "If the Department of Homeland Security continues moving forward, that on its face is in violation of a federal court injunction." (Associated Press)

Ted Cruz warns Obama to stop spending on amnesty plans for illegal immigrants

Sen. Ted Cruz warned the administration Wednesday that it needs to stop even planning for an eventual amnesty for illegal immigrants, saying a federal judge's broad injunction means it would be illegal for the Homeland Security Department to spend any money on President Obama's immigration plans.

February 18, 2015