Number 4. Breitbart. Coyotes are smuggling migrants OUT of the U.S.
You really have to love a canny entrepreneur who seizes a new opportunity.
South-of-the-border coyotes — individuals and organizations who promise to sneak non-Americans across the southern border for a fee — have made a good business in the last few years. The price for a single Mexican wishing to enter the Land of Plenty with the help of an experienced traffic consultant may be around $4,000 U.S.
If he is from Europe he can expect to pay $6,000; from Central America $26,000; and if he is at the top of the food chain — an unauthorized Chinese traveler — the price tag can run to $75,000.
With President Trump’s crackdown on border crossings, and with his Chosen Instrument Border Czar Tom Homan chasing down and summarily deporting illegals already in America, the outlook has changed somewhat.
Many who paid to come north where they could obtain the riches unlocked by that most treasured of golden keys, a U.S. Social Security number — on which more later — are now concluding that their days in these United States may be limited.
Depending on their activities while they have been here, they may face arrest, detention and forced repatriation. In the case of those who have practiced wanton criminal behavior, their extradition may involve lengthy prison sentences once they get home.
And that, not in a U.S. prison.
A certain percentage of those who have gained exorbitant wealth in the U.S. — we are not talking about local plumbers or friendly mechanics or neighborhood carpenters, here — have decided the best way to stay free is to vacate the USA on their own terms, rather than face incarceration.
Where could they find someone to help them escape to the south?
Well, they might say… “I know a guy.”
The coyotes who brought them north are now setting up shop to take them south.
Facing a deadly prison term in El Salvador? How about a seaside villa in Costa Rica instead?
It’s a new business model for a new day.
Once again, adaptation and flexibility are the keys to financial success.
What a chump I am.
Here I waited until the magic FRA — Full Retirement Age — to begin claiming Social Security benefits. Little did I know my 6.2%, matched by my employer’s 6.2%, which I dutifully anted up for 40 years, could be accessed much earlier by others.
As one initiative of the hyper-active Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk’s people have set their sights on Social Security fraud in Wisconsin. The article does not say why they chose the Badger State to make this news; a cynic might suggest they broke the story on the eve of a hugely important election there for a state Supreme Court seat.
That vote has national implications in the political power balance in the U.S. House of Representatives. But not to worry, that’s outside the scope of this review.
Nevertheless, Musk’s guy, one Antonio Gracias, has studied Wisconsin data carefully. He revealed a surprising set of statistics this week.
He identified Social Security numbers that have been issued to people who were NOT U.S. citizens. While most of us might see that as unusual, the Social Security Administration does provide a legal path:
If you are lawfully present in the United States and plan to apply for work authorization from the DHS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), you can apply for your SSN on the same USCIS application Form I-765 (Application for Employment Authorization).
So, yes; non-citizens can legally obtain U.S. Social Security numbers.
Mr. Gracias found that in 2021 in Wisconsin, 270,000 Social Security numbers were issued to non-citizens.
In 2024, that number suddenly ballooned to 2.1 million, more than a seven-fold increase. This was in Wisconsin alone.
Of those magic number-holders, over 1 million of the migrants were on Medicaid, and more than 5 million received some type of monetary benefit resulting from their Social Security number.
And… they voted. Random samplings of the immigrants transplanted to Wisconsin showed that they voted — illegally — in local, state and national elections. The Social Security number makes it possible.
In Elon Musk’s words:
The main way that identification is established in the United States is via Social Security. So if you compromise the Social Security system, you can basically get people de facto registered to vote, even if they’re not citizens, and to get a bunch of benefits and milk the system. It’s pretty insane.
Social Security will be insolvent by 2032, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
This is probably a large part of the reason why. I wonder what Wisconsin numbers multiplied by 50 actually look like?
And by the way… I don’t know why we do not have a two-tier Social Security retirement plan in this country. Most large businesses have implemented such a plan in the last 50 years.
At major employers, it works like this: If you’re a long-term employee with, say, 20 years of service, your retirement or pension plan does not change. If you are younger, however, your benefits are modified — lessened — to keep the company from going bankrupt supporting retirees. The newer people who join the company don’t like it — who would? — but at least they know it going in.
So why don’t we say that everyone contributing to Social Security in the U.S. who is over, say, the age of 40, keeps the same plan they have been on. Everyone younger still contributes the same amount through payroll deduction and employer contribution, but say that half of what is collected would be invested in a market fund that is planned to mirror the S&P 500.
Huge amounts of cash would flood the market, funding economic growth. You wouldn’t have young activists complaining; you would have retirees picketing for the higher returns.
I’m no economist, so I’m sure smart people will say it would never work. But then, neither will what we are doing now.
Number 2. Daily Wire. Egg prices plummet after Trump administration implements “Five-Point-Plan”
Elections are always about kitchen-table issues, and nothing in the kitchen has been more talked about than the price of eggs.
The bird flu, H5N1, killed some 148 million birds, mostly chickens, between 2022 and 2025. You can’t put that kind of dent in egg production without consequence. While the flu occurred during Joe Biden’s term, Trump was naturally blamed for it.
That’s how presidential terms work, by the way. Reagan implemented the 401(k) and saw the rise of the dot coms in the 1980s, then Clinton got the credit for enormous economic growth in the 1990s.
Shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration, he tasked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins with finding a solution to the high price of eggs.
Incredibly, she did.
After 2022, retail egg prices increased from roughly $2 per dozen to $8 per dozen by the time Trump came into office. Secretary Rollins got to work as soon as she was sworn in with a 5-part plan including deregulation for producers, repopulating chickens, improved biosecurity (which I take to mean a safer habitat for poultry), importing eggs from other countries, and long term research on how to keep chickens healthy.
In the last 60 days, egg prices have declined to $3 per dozen.
Plan your work, work your plan.
It’s almost scary what happens when you assign competent people to do actual work.
Number 1. Breitbart. Ten years and $7.5 billion later, no new water storage in California.
I would love to see what good I could do if someone gave me $7 billion. I’d probably start with putting a new set of tires on the pickup truck.
Californians got the chance in 2014. Voters there approved Proposition 1, a measure to fund a project expanding the Los Vaqueros Reservoir east of San Francisco. Other projects were also envisioned, and they probably looked great in the PowerPoint presentation.
But now, thanks to what this article calls “environmental concerns and bureaucratic obstacles,” there have been no new dams built in the last decade. In fact, there has been no significant progress on any water storage facilities in California during that time.
To be fair, the Golden State did not spend the entire $7.5 billion appropriated. They still have $450 million left, and are now arguing over what to do with it, now that all the water projects have been abandoned.
Just a humble suggestion: Perhaps those who oversee the water projects could use the money to buy their own passage to South America, and let someone else run California for a while. It might be money well spent.
Wisconsin election news.
And this just in, prior to publication time: PBS News reports that Democrat Susan Crawford has beat Republican Brad Schimel for the high court seat in Wisconsin. The vote, at this early stage, stands at roughly 55 to 45, a decisive margin for the Democrats in a state that Trump won less than 6 months ago.
The liberal 4-3 majority is retained on the Wisconsin state supreme court.
Gotta be a disappointment for Trump and Musk, both of whom backed the Republican candidate.
Although the final count is not yet in, it appears the Democrat margin of victory was around 176,000 votes. I wonder how many of the 2.1 million Social Security number holders voted illegally in that election, and who they might have voted for?
Just curious, I am.
And thanks for joining The Alligator News Roundup for Friday 4 April, Year of Our Lord 2025. Keep up with the news! Go out to breakfast with friends this weekend and order the 3-egg omelet!
Have a good weekend!
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