Thursday, February 19, 2026
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Thursday, February 19, 2026

Milwaukee Press Club 'Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism' 2020 & 2021 Award Winners

Border Patrol to Release Foreign Nationals En Masse Into Communities as Title 42 Ends

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An estimated 13,000 are expected to arrive a day when Title 42 ends, officials have estimated, or roughly 4.6 million within a year.

Instead of U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehending, detaining and deporting people who’ve illegally entered the U.S., they will be implementing a plan decided on last year to release them en masse into local border communities.

The public health authority Title 42, which has given Border Patrol agents an additional tool to deport certain individuals, was slated to end last May. On May 20, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana enjoined the repeal of Title 42 in a case filed by 24 states, issuing a nationwide injunction.

The federal court order was the only thing that stopped CBP from enacting its policy of releasing foreign nationals en masse into local border communities. The federal injunction imposed last May halted the administration from ending Title 42.

After President Joe Biden ended the national public emergency implemented under the Trump administration to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Title 42, which can only be utilized during a public health emergency, will expire Thursday (May 11).

While Fox News reported on Tuesday that CBP and Border Patrol made a decision Monday night to “authorize all Border Patrol sectors to begin ‘safe’ street releases of migrants to communities across the border *if* NGO shelters and CBP facilities do not have the capacity to hold them,” this isn’t a new plan.

It’s been a plan in place for over a year, which The Center Square first reported on last September. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody uncovered the plan as part of discovery in a lawsuit Florida filed against the administration over its “catch and release” policy.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez also told local Texas law enforcement last December she was working with local municipalities to learn where foreign nationals should be released into their communities when shelters, NGOs and nonprofits assisting them were at capacity. A recording of her remarks was provided to The Center Square, which broke this story ahead of her giving testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in February.

In a May 19, 2022, memo, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz instructed Border Patrol agents to release “processed noncitizens in the vicinity of nongovernmental organizations” and coordinate with NGOs in advance as to the specific locations where they’d be released, “paying particular attention to the availability of services and transportation options.”

“If safe locations are not available” to release illegal foreign nationals, instead of processing them for removal, Ortiz said agents would “engage with nearby cities and local governments to identify alternate safe locations for release.”

Foreign nationals were also instructed to be released into the U.S. in a “safe, humane and orderly manner,” not “late at night in an unpopulated area or in circumstances in which the individual would face a known safety risk.”

On Dec. 20, 2022, Chavez told local law enforcement that she was coordinating with local mayors and NGOs to move people into the U.S., saying the NGOs “are phenomenal.” She was learning of “particular areas they [mayors, local officials] want us to drop them off at.”

Many Texas border counties first issued declarations of disaster in early 2021 after their communities were inundated with people committing crimes and burdening local taxpayers with services they didn’t have the resources to provide – including thousands infected with COVID-19 who were released into local communities even while Title 42 was in place.

By July 5, 2022, the first county judge and later judges and commissioners of over 40 Texas counties declared an invasion, arguing Mexican cartels are bringing in drugs, terrorists and criminals through the southern border using “migrant warfare” and “nonconventional warfare” to do it. The amount of fentanyl being seized by law enforcement in single vehicles over 100 miles from the border in Texas, Arizona and California is enough to kill entire populations of small cities and towns. The amount of fentanyl Texas Operation Lone Star officers have seized since March 2021 is enough to kill everyone in the United States.

More counties are likely to issue disaster and invasion declarations as the Biden administration continues to facilitate “legal pathways” for people from all over the world to illegally enter the United States. An estimated 13,000 are expected to arrive a day when Title 42 ends, officials have estimated, or roughly 4.6 million within a year.

Bethany Blankley
Go to Source
Reposted with permission

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(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction spent $368,885 to hold a four-day standard setting event in June 2024 at a Wisconsin Dells waterpark, according to a new report.

The event included 88 expert educators who were subject to non-disclosure agreements related to the workshop, according to records obtained by Dairyland Sentinel.

The publication fought for more than a year to obtain records of the meeting through Wisconsin Open Records law and attributes the Monday release of 17 more pages of documents to the involvement of the Institute for Reforming Government.

“The agency did not provide receipts for staff time, food, travel, or lodging,” Dairyland Sentinel wrote of the event at Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells. “Taxpayers are left to wonder how much of that $368,885 was spent on resort amenities, alcohol, or water park access for the 88 educators and various staff in attendance.”

There are no recordings of the event, DPI told the outlet, and meeting minutes were not sent as part of the public records response.

DPI was found by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty to have lowered school report card cut points in 2020-21, changed the labels on those in 2023-24 and lowered the cut points again that year as well.

In response, DPI formed a committee, held meetings and adjusted standards again last year.

WisconsinEye Back On the Air With Temporary State Funding; Bill Heard

(The Center Square) – WisconsinEye was back on the air broadcasting legislative hearings at Wisconsin’s capitol Tuesday, starting with a hearing on a bill to send long-term funding assistance to the private nonprofit that broadcasts Wisconsin state government meetings.

WisconsinEye received $50,000 in funding through the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization to go on the air during February.

Assembly Bill 974 would allow the network to receive the interest from a $9.75 million endowment each year, estimated to be between 4-7% or between $390,000 and $682,000. The network would have to continue raising the rest of its budget, which board chair Mark O’Connell said is $950,000 annually.

He spoke during a public hearing in the Assembly Committee on State Affairs on Monday. A companion bill in the Senate is not yet filed.

“We’ll need some kind of bridge,” O’Connell cautioned, saying it will take time for the trust fund granted in the 2024-25 budget to earn interest and get it to the network.

O’Connell also said that he hopes the legislation can be changed to allow for the Wisconsin Investment Board to be aggressive while investing the fund.

O’Connell noted that WisconsinEye raised more than $56,000 through donations on GoFundMe since it went off the air Dec. 15 and that there are seven donors willing to give $25,000 annually and one that will donate $50,000 annually if the legislation passes, which he said would put the network in a “relatively strong position in partnership with the state.”

O’Connell noted that many states fund their own in-house network to broadcast the legislature and committees.

“This legislation will fund only about 1/3 of what we need,” O’Connell said.

The bill has four restrictions, starting with the requirement that appointees of the Assembly Speaker, Senate Majority Leader, Assembly Minority Leader and Senate Minority Leader that are not members of the Legislature be added to the WisEye board of directors.

WisEye will be required to focus coverage on official state government meetings and business, provide free online access to its live broadcasts and digital archives and that WisEye provides an annual financial report to the Legislature and Joint Finance Committee.

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(The Center Square) - A bipartisan Assembly bill that would re-start live stream operations of Wisconsin government from WisconsinEye is expected to receive its first committee discussion during a public hearing at noon Tuesday in the Committee on State Affairs.

The bill proposes granting WisconsinEye funds from $10 million set aside for matching funds in an endowment so that WisconsinEye can resume operations now, something that WisEye President and CEO Jon Henkes told The Center Square in November he was hoping to happen.

WisEye shut down operations and removed its archives from the being available online Dec. 15.

The bill, which is scheduled for both a public hearing and vote in committee Tuesday, would remove the endowment fund restrictions on the funds and instead put the $10 million in a trust that can be used to provide grants for operations costs to live stream Wisconsin government meetings, including committee and full Assembly and Senate meetings at the state capitol.

The bill has four restrictions, starting with the requirement that appointees of the Assembly Speaker, Senate Majority Leader, Assembly Minority Leader and Senate Minority Leader that are not members of the Legislature be added to the WisEye board of directors.

WisEye will be required to focus coverage on official state government meetings and business, provide free online access to its live broadcasts and digital archives and that WisEye provides an annual financial report to the Legislature and Joint Finance Committee.

“Finally, under the bill, if WisconsinEye ceases operations and divests its assets, WisconsinEye must pay back the grants and transfer all of its archives to the state historical society,” the bill reads.

There is not yet a companion bill in the Senate. The bill must pass both the Assembly and Senate and then be signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers.

WisconsinEye has continued to push for private donations to meet the $250,000 first-quarter goal to restart operations with a GoFundMe showing it has raised $56,087 of the $250,000 goal as of Monday morning.

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