The Josh Hammer Report

Josh Hammer

Newsweek Senior Editor-at-Large And Host,
"The Josh Hammer Show"

Editor's Note: "The Josh Hammer Report" will be on hiatus next week and return on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024.

Welcome back! On a personal note: I am now a married man! What a celebration it was. I am filled with immense, overwhelming gratitude and am still high on life. I truly feel so fortunate, and so blessed. God is good.

I took the week off from my regular column due to the week-long wedding celebrations (culminating in Sunday night's festivities at Trump National Doral Miami), but here are some other—and comparatively much more mundane!—highlights from this slower past week.

For my most recent podcast episode, I shared thoughts on my then-impending wedding and tried to impart the most wisdom I possibly could to single men and women still trying to find their spouse and soulmate; discussed the terrific scalp that was the resignation of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill following her recent disastrous congressional testimony, and outlined how higher education can begin to very slowly pull itself back more generally from its self-inflicted existential brink; and lambasted President Joe Biden's recent outrageous comments on the Israel-Hamas war, which evince that the commander-in-chief has capitulated (as fully expected) to the Democratic Party's anti-Israel, antisemitic left-wing base. You can listen to that episode on Apple, Spotify, or here. Also, a reminder: My show is now officially in radio! If you are a radio station manager interested in bringing my show to your station, please email Jesse Edwards: j.edwards@newsweek.com.

I had a much slower week due to our extended wedding celebration in Florida, but I did manage to join Gabriella Power on Sky News Australia for a one-off, special-edition episode with a rather self-explanatory title: "HOUSE OF BIDEN CRUMBLES: Mounting scandals set to derail Joe Biden's re-election plans." I think you will enjoy the extended conversation I had with Gabriella.

Our additional highlighted right-leaning Newsweek op-eds from the past week include selections from Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.); Jason Bedrick and Adam Kissel; John Yoo and John Shu; MK Danny Danon; and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Anthony Bellotti.

Thanks for subscribing! Please share the word about this newsletter throughout your social circles. And I wish all my readers a merry Christmas and a happy new year! We'll see you in January.

Spotlight

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The Biden Administration Just Keeps Making Our Border Crisis Worse

For nearly three years, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has overseen, and indeed facilitated, the worst border crisis in American history. The evidence at this point is overwhelming—he has refused to follow and enforce numerous immigration laws passed by Congress, leading to unprecedented chaos and devastation at the Southwest border and across the country.

For example, the secretary has abused section 235(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This law requires that all illegal aliens who enter the country be detained, whether they apply for asylum or not, until they are removed from the United States or found to have a legitimate claim.

Secretary Mayorkas has run roughshod over this statutory requirement. On his watch, more than 1.6 million inadmissible aliens have been paroled by DHS into the interior. Another 1.1 million have been provided "notices to appear" and released on their own recognizance, with the promise they will show up for their immigration court hearing. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Non-Detained Docket has grown from 3.26 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 to more than 5.7 million as of September 2023.

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