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Indications of an increasing migration to Mexico are seen in traditional sending states, bus stations, and vacant homes. From families loaded down with bags and boxes full of their possessions to towns and villages crowded with long-departed residents, one impact of the declining U.S. economy appears to be Mexican immigrants calling it quits and returning to their home country. No definitive studies have been done, but anecdotal information and informal surveys show that both legal and illegal immigrants are returning to the relatives they left behind when they came north.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The Illinois Senate voted to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office Thursday, marking the first time in the state's long history of political corruption that a chief executive has been impeached and convicted. The 59-0 vote followed several hours of public deliberation in which senator after senator stood up to blast Blagojevich, whose tenure lasted six years. And it came after a four-day impeachment trial on allegations that Blagojevich abused his power and sold his office for personal and political benefit. The conviction on a sweeping article of impeachment means the governor was immediately removed from office....

MAVERICK priest Father Peter Kennedy says he will lead a breakaway congregation if Brisbane's catholic Archbishop forces him to leave St Mary's Church.There are fears that exclusion from the historic South Brisbane property will be the final act in a long-running dispute that has reached the Vatican. The dispute has attracted national and international attention because it represents the battle between conservative and less traditional forces within the Catholic Church. There are more Roman Catholics in Australia than any other religious group. Each week, St Mary's attracts large congregations while many more orthodox Catholic parishes struggle to fill pews. In...

FOX News Channel’s (FNC) Alan Colmes will relinquish his role as co-host of Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year. In announcing his decision, Colmes said, “I approached Bill Shine (FNC’s Senior Vice President of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network. Although it’s bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I’m proud that both Sean (Hannity) and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years.” Colmes will...

Reporting from Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke to President-elect Barack Obama this week and would be willing to work for the Democratic administration once his term expires if asked, the Republican governor said in an interview broadcast this morning. "I will help in every possible way the administration to be successful," he told Fox News. "So whatever they need, I'm there." Latest news: Governor Arnold...L.A. Now: Arnold might go to Washington for Obama The only qualification, Schwarzenegger said, would be permission from his wife, Maria Shriver. "Before I make any move, the next move that I make, I'm going...

WASHINGTON (July 25, 2008) — A new analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies of monthly data collected by the Census Bureau shows that the illegal-immigrant population has declined significantly between last summer and May of this year. The study is the first to find quantitative evidence that illegal-immigrants are leaving the country. It also examines the extent to which stepped-up enforcement and the downturn in the economy account for this trend..... The Center will formally release the report at a press conference on Wednesday, July 30th at 2:30 pm in room 1309 of the Longworth House Office Building. The...

After 30 years, Navratilova's Czech again Tue Mar 11, 3:12 AM ET Tennis legend Martina Navratilova said Tuesday she has regained Czech nationality more than 30 years after fleeing communism in the country of her birth to live in the United States. "I lost it at the time I defected. I got it back on January 9," Navratilova told a news conference on a visit to Tokyo. The 51-year-old former world champion said she was maintaining dual nationality and keeping her US passport. Born in Prague, Navratilova fled to the United States in 1975 at the height of the Cold...

Mexican illegal immigrant Lindi sat down with her husband Marco Antonio in the weeks before Christmas to decide when to go back to Mexico. She has spent three years working as a hairdresser in and around Phoenix, but now she figures it is time to go back to her hometown of Aguascalientes in central Mexico. "The situation has got so tough that there don't seem to be many options left for us," Lindi, who asked for her last name not to be used, told Reuters. The couple are among a growing number of illegal immigrants across the United States who...

I will be leaving FR. I will no longer post here and likely will no longer check the news here either. I began to post here a few years ago with updates on my attempts and eventual success at founding teenage republican clubs across New Jersey and the surrounding area. I used to run a ping list about the invasion of Islam into Europe. I ran an FR-based operation to try to change public opinion about the Iraq war using letters to the editor and "stats" e-mails. It seems however that as soon as I began to indicate that I...

After 9 years, 9,217 postings and 158 original threads I have decided to leave Free Republic. I haven't arrived at this decision lightly, FR has been a huge part of my life for a decade. I've learned a tremendous amount from interacting with people here. A lot of my beliefs have been challenged, and I've had to rethink things I on many occassions. There are not too many places where you can learn from sincere people in an atmosphere of open discussion. My reasons for leaving are twofold. First, and most importantly, I think I'm graduating. I've probably gotten whatever...

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee ripped the Bush administration's war against terrorism Friday, delivering a bold and potentially risky speech that could establish the former Arkansas governor as the maverick among top Republican candidates and test his party's loyalty to President Bush. ''This administration's bunker mentality has been counterproductive both at home and abroad,'' Huckabee said in opening a broad indictment of Bush's style and policy. The speech came after several top Republican candidates started distancing themselves from Bush, vowing change on such issues as illegal immigration and federal spending even as they endorsed Bush's foreign policy. By...

MIDI - ELVIRA Elvira...Elvira...say adios to Elvira She sneaked in the country...that's against the law She ripped off someone's SS number...that is what...we saw Then in a church she's hiding...she stayed there for a year Just what part of "illegal" isn't clear? Elvira...Elvira...say adios to Elvira Adios...adios...adios to Elvira She thinks that she's gonna be the brand new Rosa Parks That dog will not hunt, my friends...no, it will not even bark Our country's been invaded...and the bank they are gonna break Open borders is a big mistake Elvira...Elvira...say adios to Elvira Adios...adios...adios to Elvira Elvira...Elvira...say adios to Elvira...

Illegal Immigrant Sues Radio Station For Following Law An illegal immigrant is suing a radio station because it abided by U.S. federal law in requiring her to provide a valid Social Security or tax identification number before giving her a prize she won in a contest. When the Mexican woman, living illegally in Chicago for 15 years, could not provide the proper documents, the station refused to giver her the prize. The woman had won a sports car previously owned by a popular Mexican singer and federal law requires the station to report the Social Security number of everyone who...

Margarita sighs and glances around the home she’ll soon be leaving. There’s the tiny Christmas tree, still perched by the window. Over there are the toys her kids should have put away before going to bed. On the kitchen counter, bamboo shoots and dishes wait to be washed. She doesn’t want to move away from this jumbled place, but she knows she has to. Because this is now the law: Anyone like Margarita who lives in state-funded housing must show identification to their landlord and sign a paper that says they’ve come legally to the country. Like scores of immigrants...

Court Rules American Citizen Son's Rights Won't Be Violated If Mother Is Deported (AP) CHICAGO -- A federal judge struck a blow Friday to the hopes of an immigration activist who has taken refuge in a Chicago church to avoid deportation, dismissing her lawsuit against the government. Elvira Arellano, 31, a Mexican national, had hoped that U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve would rule that deporting her would violate the constitutional rights of her 7-year-old son, Saul, an American citizen. But St. Eve ruled that no one's rights would be violated by deporting Arellano back to Mexico. She...

He had to go - so now he has to go. When cops busted David Rivera Cruzado for urinating on a Queens sidewalk in March, a fingerprint check revealed he had been deported to Peru in 1999 and wasn't supposed to be on Roosevelt Ave. - never mind in the U.S. at all. His weak bladder will cost Cruzado dearly. After pleading guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court to sneaking over the Mexican border into Texas in December 2005, Cruzado is now facing four years in prison before he's booted out of the U.S. a second time. "I want to apologize...

Tue August 15, 2006 'Trying to do it right’ results in deportation By Judy Gibbs Robinson The Oklahoman The grass is mowed but not edged around the yellow frame house in southwest Oklahoma City where Gladis Rios is raising three young daughters single-handedly. Rios does the yard work, keeps the house spic-and-span and works two jobs to pay the bills since her husband, Sergio, was deported in October 2004. She also sends $100 or so a month to Mexico because in the small town in Guadalajara state where Sergio lives, work is intermittent and pays only $40 a week. “I’m...

FIDEL CASTRO'S TYRANNY (House of Representatives - March 14, 1990) [Page: H807] The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I read an article in the Indianapolis Star on Monday of this week by a Ms. Mona Charen regarding Cuba, and I think it needs to be read to the entire American people. It goes like this, Mr. Speaker: The progressive isolation of Castro's Cuba entered a new stage last week when former communist allies Hungary and Bulgaria, with Poland...