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High expectations: Mitch McConnell has many challenges ahead. He will have to find a way to work with the White House, Senate Democrats and the conservative wing of his own party. (Associated Press)

Mitch McConnell, new Senate majority leader, equipped to succeed in tough job

At some point Tuesday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden will turn to Sen. Mitch McConnell and recognize him as "the majority leader," fulfilling a lifetime goal for the Kentucky Republican and marking him as the key figure in determining what gets done in Washington over the next two years.

January 5, 2015
Vice President Joe Biden administers the ceremonial Senate oath to Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., during a ceremony in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014. Scott's mother Frances Scott holds the bible. Earlier, Scott was officially sworn in by Biden of the floor of the Senate. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Atheists urge lawmakers to reject Bible for swearing-in

The Secular Coalition for America asked members of Congress to reject using religious texts such as the Bible or Torah to swear into office Tuesday, urging them to instead use the Constitution — or nothing at all.

January 5, 2015
FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2014 file photo, people chant during a demonstration in front of the White House in Washington as President Barack Obama announced executive actions on immigration during a nationally televised address. The US judge assigned to rule in the lawsuit over President Barack Obama's changes to immigration rules last year accused the Obama administration of participating in criminal conspiracies to smuggle children into the country by reuniting them with parents living here illegally. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Feds say illegals who aid others in crossing won’t be eligible for amnesty

The Obama administration said Monday that illegal immigrants already in the U.S. who try to aid their relatives in sneaking across the border won't be eligible for the president's new deportation amnesty, as federal officials try to head off a new surge of illegal immigrants hoping to take advantage of lax enforcement.

January 5, 2015
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine agent peers out of the open door of a helicopter during a patrol flight near the Texas-Mexico border. (AP Photo)

700 miles of U.S.-Mexico border still insecure, congressional investigators say

Less than 3 percent of illegal immigrants will ever be deported, and more than 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border remained unsecured as of 2014, according to Sen. Tom Coburn's final oversight report released Saturday morning, which found the Homeland Security Department failing in several of its top missions.

January 3, 2015
Nathan Emery, Homeland Security Investigations agent in charge, stands next to a poster of Jeremiah Malfroid, a 33-year-old California man whose name and image were transmitted by the "Operation Predator" app in connection with a child pornography sting. (AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins)

ICE using ‘Predator’ app to catch child pornographers

The federal government's "Operation Predator" app was credited last month with helping nab yet another man accused of trafficking in child pornography after a 33-year-old man surrendered in California, just days after federal authorities posted his image and story to Facebook and sent it to the more than 100,000 users who have downloaded the application.

January 1, 2015
After critics decried Ferguson, Missouri, police using Defense Department-donated heavy artillery against rioting protesters, some law enforcement agencies are returning military-grade weaponry back to the Pentagon. (Associated Press)

Military hardware still flowing to local police after Ferguson

The federal government shipped nearly 4,000 more assault rifles to local law enforcement agencies in the three months following the Ferguson riots, marking a huge surge in the amount of lethal firearms being doled out to police and sheriff's offices.

December 30, 2014
The Homeland Security Department is experimenting with GPS-enabled ankle bracelets to track illegal immigrants in the U.S. (Associated Press)

Illegals immigrants from border surge knowingly released by Homeland Security

The Obama administration's failure from this summer's border surge looks even worse in hindsight, according to an analysis released Monday by the Center for Immigration Studies that found the Homeland Security Department knowingly released most illegal immigrants into the community where they absconded, blending into the rest of the illegal immigrant population.

December 29, 2014
Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois G. Lerner has been at the center of a scandal involving her erased hard drive and missing emails. (Associated Press)

IRS employees biased against conservatives: report

Internal Revenue Service employees charged with scrutinizing tea party groups' nonprofit status applications showed a marked antipathy to the organizations, with one examiner calling a group "icky" and others saying they were searching for ways to deny the requests, according to a congressional oversight report Tuesday.

December 23, 2014
Guards escort a Guantanamo detainee carrying a book at the Camp 4 detention facility's open-air common area at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Nov. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) ** FILE **

Obama signs defense bill that keeps Guantanamo Bay open

President Obama signed the annual defense policy bill into law Friday, but once again protested the provision that prevents him from closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where suspected terrorist detainees are held.

December 19, 2014
Immigrants who have been caught crossing the border illegally are housed inside the McAllen Border Patrol Station in McAllen, Texas where they are processed on Tuesday, July 15, 2014. More than 57,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended at the southwestern border since October, more than twice the total this time last year, many through the Rio Grande Valley. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Rick Loomis, Pool)

Illegal immigration up, deportations down in 2014: Homeland Security

The number of illegal immigrants crossing the border rose in 2014, while deportations dropped, according to new statistics Homeland Security released Friday in a pre-holiday data dump that signaled potential problems on both sides of the immigration enforcement equation.

December 19, 2014
President Barack Obama sits next to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, as he speaks about Ebola during a meeting with his national security and public health teams on Dec. 12, 2014, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Feds release anti-rape rules for illegal immigrant children housing

Health and Human Services released long overdue guidelines Friday ordering facilities that house illegal immigrant children to set up sexual abuse prevention programs, and to be prepared to deal with tricky cases such as transgender or intersex children.

December 19, 2014
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson speaks at the Professional Services Council Thursday about his department's implementation efforts related to President Barack Obama's action on immigration, and his need for a fully funded budget. (Associated Press)

Jeh Johnson pleads for Homeland funding as Obama defends amnesty amid lawsuits

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson pleaded Thursday for Congress to pass full-year funding for his department, saying that if it becomes ensnared in a prolonged debate next year it will hurt his ability to pay for more border security or to cover the bills he ran up during last summer's illegal immigrant surge.

December 18, 2014
Lois G. Lerner, who was head of the IRS division that scrutinized the tea party applications until she retired while under investigation in 2013, suffered a computer hard drive crash that cost potentially thousands of emails that should have been part of the record. (Associated Press)

IRS tea party targeting decision appealed by True the Vote

True the Vote, one of the conservative nonprofits targeted for intrusive scrutiny by the IRS, filed a notice of appeal Thursday signaling it will ask judges to throw out a lower court's ruling that found the IRS's targeting had already stopped, and tossed their case.

December 18, 2014
FILE-This Jan.9, 2013 file photo shows Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaking with the media in Phoenix. Arpaio known for arresting hundreds of immigrants in the country illegally on charges of finding work using fake or stolen identities is planning to close the controversial squad that investigates such cases. Arpaio's decision to disband the criminal employment squad will end his last major foothold in immigration enforcement after the courts and federal government have gradually reined in his powers in recent years. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin,File)

Sheriff Arpaio disbands illegal immigration ID fraud unit

Sheriff Joe Arpaio told a federal court in Arizona last Wednesday that he has disbanded his criminal employment unit and will stop enforcing Arizona's identity theft laws against illegal immigrants, in a move that Hispanic advocacy groups said was a major victory for them.

December 18, 2014