The House of Representatives passed this week H.R. 2581, the "Verify First Act", sponsored by Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.). The bill would require government agencies, including the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, to verify the citizenship or lawful alien status of individual claimants before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would be permitted to issue advance payment for credits allowed under the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

On June 2, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) issued a report, "Results of Office of Inspector General FY 2016 Spot Inspections of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] Family Detention Facilities", the results of which have warmed the hearts of ICE officials. Here they are in a nutshell:During our July 2016 unannounced spot inspections of ICE's three family detention facilities, we observed conditions that generally met ICE's 2007 Family Residential Standards. The facilities were clean, well organized, and efficiently run. Based on our observations, interviews, and document reviews, we concluded that, at all three facilities, ICE was satisfactorily addressing the inherent challenges of providing medical care and language services and ensuring the safety of families in detention. (Emphasis added.)

In the time since German Chancellor Angela Merkel unilaterally opened the floodgates of Europe in 2015 by declaring that she would not put a limit on the number of migrants attempting to enter Germany — and therefore, given the European Union (EU) policy of border-free travel in what is known as the Schengen Area, ensuring that virtually all of Europe would be affected — somewhere between two and three million aliens have arrived in the EU illegally. They consist of a diaspora from all over the Middle East, Central Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

What do you do when so much bias is exhibited in a case that one of the parties becomes convinced it's unlikely to be treated impartially? If it's at the federal district court level, then a request for change of venue could be filed if the problem appears to be finding an unbiased jury. If the problem appears to be bias exhibited by the presiding judge, the party can ask the judge to recuse him- or herself, and if he or she refuses, then perhaps file a motion or interlocutory appeal requesting that someone above the judge take a look at the prejudicial statements or conduct to determine if the judge should be removed and substituted.

As I write this, the last day of campaigning is partway over before Britons go to the polls to vote in the snap election called by Prime Minister Theresa May. May's primary opponent in these snap elections is Jeremy Corbyn of the liberal-progressive Labour party, a leftist against whose die-hard views Bernie Sanders dims to a very pale shade of pink. Before the most recent spate of terror attacks in Manchester and London, the focus was primarily on how the United Kingdom (UK) would approach the Brexit talks — a matter of great significance given the threats from European Union (EU) leaders in an attempt to soften official British positions on such key matters as residual rights of migration into Britain (or not) once it separates from the EU.

The Washington Times is one of several outlets reporting on some of the most recent tweets from President Trump. Some recent messages he sent out on Twitter, in which he condemned the dangers of political correctness when they lead to compromises of public safety, may have been prompted by his observation of the multiple terror attacks in Britain in the last several weeks.

Don Rosenberg is the father of a young man who was killed by an illegal alien initially held on criminal charges by police, who chose to release the alien to the streets rather than into the hands of immigration agents who wanted to initiate proceedings to deport him. It was this failure that led to the son's death. It happened in San Francisco, that model of progressive thinking, which has more than once done this with similarly disastrous results to its innocent citizenry.

A melee broke out on the floor of the Texas Legislature the other day (see here and here). The precipitating event was the presence of demonstrators in the gallery of the chamber, a number of them wearing T-shirts and placards proclaiming "I'm illegal and I'm here to stay" and the like. Some allege that they became vocal, disrupting the proceedings. They were there to protest the Republican-dominated legislature's recent passage, and the governor's signature into law, of an anti-sanctuary statute prohibiting officials from refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts.

An old joke comes to mind whenever I see anything about immigration programs with names like "investor" or "entrepreneurial" visas. The story, variously attributed to Groucho Marx, Mark Twain, W.C. Fields, and others, goes something like this:Two people are sitting at an upscale bar having drinks. One individual says to the other, "Would you sleep with me for a million dollars?" The second individual, taken aback, looks carefully into the other's eyes and sees nothing there but seriousness. After a few moments pause, the second individual says, "Yes, in truth, I think I would." The first individual then follows up with, "Would you sleep with me for ten bucks?" The second individual, visibly outraged, says, "No! What kind of person do you think I am?" The first says, "We've already established that, now all we're doing is haggling over the price."

Shortly before President Trump's recent overseas travels to the Middle East and Europe, he was visited by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is known to be both Islamist and authoritarian in outlook. During his visit earlier this month, when Erdogan went to the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C., a brawl occurred between protesters (many of them Kurds, our allies in the war against Islamic State, but in general opponents of his regime) on one hand, and his supporters on the other. (A video of the brawl can be seen here.)