Free Republic

NASA / GSFC: Using the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), NASA has sampled the galactic wind that has traveled from outside our solar system. Four types of atoms were found to be different from what we have in our Solar System.

Without a new kidney, Jesus Navarro will die. Although the Oakland man has a willing donor and private insurance to pay for the transplant, he faces an additional hurdle in the race to save his life: He is an illegal immigrant. That fact prompted administrators at UC San Francisco Medical Center to refuse to transplant a kidney from Navarro's wife because they cannot be sure he will receive adequate follow-up care. Their decision taps into the tension between health care and immigration policies in the state and the role medical professionals should play in trying to save the lives of...

"Fran Drescher believes she was abducted by aliens. "In an interview with The Huffington Post, the "Nanny" and "Happily Divorced" star said she and her ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson both had a close encounter when they were teenagers. "Maybe this finally explains Drescher's one-of-a-kind laugh?"

A man on Texas' death row for the 1997 killing of a Kerrville rancher is asking a judge to set aside his capital punishment, arguing his constitutional rights would be violated if he's put to death because he is intellectually disabled. Appellate lawyers for Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas made the request Wednesday at a hearing in San Antonio before U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez. In September, Rodriguez turned down Hernandez-Llanas' request for habeas corpus (a type of appeal), but his lawyers Wednesday asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that Rodriguez made his decision based on incorrect information provided by a clerk who...

DALLAS - A 14-year-old Texas girl who has been missing since 2010 was mistakenly deported to Colombia by immigration agents and is now sitting in a detention facility waiting to come home. According to CBS affiliate KHOU Jakadrien Turner ran away from home in the fall of 2010 following her parents divorce and the death of her grandfather. She ended up in Houston, where she was arrested for theft. The girl gave police a fake name, which apparently belonged to a 22-year-old illegal immigrant from Colombia, who had warrants for her arrest.

This holiday season, activists in California are urging the state’s undocumented population to be particularly vigilant. That is because, at this time of year, law enforcement sets up driver’s checkpoints, attempting to ferret out intoxicated motorists. Activists warn that this can be a particularly dangerous situation for immigrants, whether or not they hold valid drivers licenses, since police officers are likely to use this opportunity to check the legal residency status of those individuals suspected of being undocumented.This holiday season, activists in California are urging the state’s undocumented population to be particularly vigilant. That is because, at this time of...

A mysterious metal ball reportedly fell from space , landing in a grasslands area of the African nation of Namibia. So far experts claim the object is not of alien origin. It has two bumps on each end, appears to be hollow and weights about 13 pounds. Namibia's National Forensic Science Institute Director Paul Ludik said the sphere is 3.6 feet around and is made out of a "sophisticated" alloy that is not unknown to modern science, although it has no identifying markings to link it with a country or a company. So far that's about all we're told. But...

Barak+Obama+Family+Roots+Western+Kenya+COxcROxK8oHl In 2006, Senator Barack Hussein Obama and wife Michelle visited his family and his birth place in Kogelo, Kenya. The Kenyan government dedicated Obama’s birth place and made it an official national landmark. His Kenyan family and government all acknowledge that he was born there in Kogelo Prior to his visit, the people of Kogelo had dedicated their small 4 room school to the US Senator, naming it the Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School. The school had been built on land that Obama’s paternal grandfather had donated for the school. When the senator saw the conditions of the school,...

Unlicensed drivers without prior convictions would be given the chance to avoid having their vehicles impounded under new rules outlined Tuesday by the Los Angeles Police Department. The proposed changes to the impound procedures are a potentially explosive issue because LAPD Chief Charlie Beck designed the reforms to remedy what he believes is the unfair burden that impounds place on illegal immigrants. Since immigrants who are in the country illegally cannot get driver's licenses in California and most other states, they make up the majority of the drivers who have their cars impounded for the infraction. Beck contends that the...

Some children didn't write to Santa with their most heartfelt wish this holiday season. Instead, more than 5,000 sent letters to the nation's political leaders, asking them to stop a wave of deportations that is tearing immigrant families apart. On Thursday, dozens of children brought the letters to President Barack Obama and Congress as part of the "A Wish for the Holidays" campaign, organized by the coalition We Belong Together

President Obama is determined to push through a foreign ambassadorship for a controversial figure whose close ties to a spy from a terrorist-sponsoring nation derailed a similar post for the same aspiring diplomat in the Clinton Administration. The tale actually dates back to the late 1990s when Bill Clinton nominated Puerto Rican activist Mari Carmen Aponte, a former board member of the leftist National Council of la Raza (NCLR) and Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), as ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Aponte had worked as a volunteer in the White House personnel office and helped raise campaign...

PHOENIX (AP) — Authorities in Arizona have arrested a suspected human smuggler who has been deported from the country 14 times, the most recent being last week from Colorado.

A Batesburg-Leesville man is in jail and accused of stabbing his nephew in the leg, a wound that turned out to be fatal. Juan Perez-Jeronimo, 42, of Two Notch Road, is charged with murder and possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Perez-Jeronimo also is being detained pending action by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as he is from Guatemala and in the country illegally. Lexington County Sheriff’s deputies were notified around 1:49 a.m. Sunday that a man named Diego Alonzo had been stabbed in the thigh. Alonzo, whose age has not been determined, also was from...

MISSION — The recent suicide of an illegal immigrant fanned the flames of a controversial measure to legalize certain students who were sneaked into the country as children, prompting, among other things, a Friday morning ceremony in Los Angeles and a proclamation on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. But in the 11 pages of suicide notes that Hidalgo County investigators released to the family of Joaquin Luna on Friday, there is not a single mention of immigration or of the failed Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, as was mistakenly reported by various news...

A convicted child sex offender and illegal immigrant who was charged with breaking into an Elgin home in June where a 13-year-old girl hid in the basement has skipped bail, according to police. Salvador Sarabia, 28, has served time for two burglaries, drug-related charges and criminal sexual abuse of a minor and has been deported twice. He had been free after posting the required $10,000 of his $100,000 bail.Sarabia, of the 800 block of Ford Avenue, did not show up for his court date on Nov. 21, and a warrant was issued for his arrest, according to Elgin police. Although...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- U.S. Justice Department officials said Monday that they have gotten more than 1,000 calls or emails reporting problems immigrants are having living under Alabama's immigration law. Tom Perez, assistant attorney general of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, and other Justice Department and U.S. Labor Department officials were in Birmingham on Monday to continue gathering information and listening to stories about the impact the law is having on immigrants and looking for possible civil rights violations. "The more we hear, as we do our listening, the more concerned we are about the impact of...

AMHERST - Winning the endorsement of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry echoed his stance on illegal immigration today in the Granite State, saying he would support a federal law to "detain and deport every illegal alien that we apprehend." During a morning campaign stop at Joey’s Diner, the presidential candidate said he would end the current catch-and-release policy that cuts loose nonviolent illegal immigrants. Calling the policy "horrific," Perry said the future of America depends on the security of its borders. If elected, Perry said that one year after his inauguration the border with Mexico...

NBC News has confirmed with a source familiar with the matter that Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, will endorse Rick Perry this week. Arpaio will campaign with Perry in New Hampshire this week, the source said. The Arizona sheriff is known as a vehement backer of tough immigration laws and was a vocal supporter of his own state's controversial enforcement laws. Perry critics have described him as soft on immigration since the Florida debate, when he called opponents "heartless" for deriding his policy of in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants in Texas. .

Finally, there is a voice of reason on immigration among the front-runners for the Republican nomination, who until last week's debate seemed to be competing with one another to see who could take the craziest stand against Hispanic immigrants. Newt Gingrich, the front-runner of the moment as conservative Republicans seek an alternative for ideologically zigzagging second-place contender Mitt Romney, broke with the pack in the Nov. 22 CNN debate of Republican hopefuls by stating an obvious: It is realistically impossible, economically risky and ethically wrong to seek the deportation of all 11.2 million undocumented immigrants in this country. Gingrich said...

A 23-year-old man charged with killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter appeared before a judge Friday. Police arrested Fredy Alexander Chingo Riz, of Willimantic, on Thanksgiving Day. State police began an investigation Wednesday night after the victim, 3-year-old Athena Angeles, was taken from her home at 112 Hope Street in Willimantic to Windham Memorial Hospital in cardiac arrest. She died at the hospital. Thursday, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner concluded the toddler died of blunt abdominal and chest trauma and ruled the death a homicide, police said. Chingo Riz, an illegal immigrant here from Guatemala, admitted to police he...

A mummified elongated skull found in Peru could finally prove the existence of aliens. The strangely shaped head - almost as big as its 50cm (20in) body - has baffled anthropologists. It was one of two sets of remains found in the city of Andahuaylillas in the southern province of Quispicanchi.

Online Poll: Are undocumented workers (illegal aliens) necessary for our economy? Thank you for participating in our poll. Here are the results so far: Yes. They work low paying but necessary jobs. 84% No. They take jobs away from citizens. 14% I don't know.

President Obama’s illegal alien half-uncle argued in court today his arrest on a drunken driving charge this summer violated his constitutional rights and he wants evidence suppressed and the case thrown out. Onyango Obama’s lawyer filed a motion to suppress in Framingham District Court today, claiming he questions the legality of the illegal alien’s Aug. 24 arrest on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol and whether the arrest violated Obama’s Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure. The motion is to suppress the entire traffic stop by police that night, on claims Obama was not committing...

"The driver involved, Elgio Ramirez-Aguilar, 27, of 264 Blatchley Ave., New Haven, allegedly had a blood-alcohol content that was about three times the legal limit at the time of the crash. Ramirez-Aguilar was charged with driving under the influence, failure to grant right of way at an intersection, operating a motor vehicle without a license and failure to insure ... "

Advocates for open borders and illegal alien amnesty must be pleased. President Obama has accomplished almost everything on their Wish List, short of a massive amnesty bill. But the president’s checklist achieves almost the same thing, of course without Congressional approval. Public demand for secure borders and interior enforcement has been ignored while Congress’s constitutional authority to regulate immigration has been simply bypassed. To date, the scope of President Obama’s immigration to-do list is shocking and nearly complete: Enact backdoor amnesty - Accomplish administratively what is not possible legislatively. - Issue new ICE memos radically changing deportation policies. - Create...

DALLAS - A woman who has been living in North Texas illegally for more than 20 years has filed a lawsuit in federal court because immigration officials forced her to wear an ankle monitor. Maribel Arellano gets emotional just thinking about deportation. The 37-year-old mother of seven had to wear an ankle monitor for eight months so U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could keep track of her. “My kids sometimes tell me, ‘Mom, I love you. Don’t go back to Mexico,’” she said. “I need to stay here for my kids.” Arellano left Mexico in the 1990s and is...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday he's encouraged that some states are allowing the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public colleges. As an example, Duncan pointed to Rhode Island, where this fall the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education unanimously approved in-state tuition for illegal immigrants starting in fall 2012

ALBERTVILLE, Alabama -- A three-day workshop that has brought together more than a dozen groups concerned about Alabama's crack down on illegal immigrants ends this afternoon in Albertville. Elizabeth Brezovich, with the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said that the event was sponsored by the Southeast Immigrants Rights Network and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, in collaboration with the coalition. About 60 people from six groups outside the state and eight Alabama-based groups participated, she said. The groups are working to see Alabama's new immigration law overturned or repealed. Brezovich said the event was a combination of training on...

A couple weeks ago, TDMN reporter Wendy Hundley wrote a brief blog item on what initially sounded like one of many arguments-turned-fatal in Oak Cliff. On Monday, victim Jesse Benavides' brother contacted us, asking us to look closer into the history of the accused killer, Santana Gaona. He was right. There was much more to the story. Here's the top of our article in Saturday's paper (sub required). Seven weeks before he allegedly shot a man to death at a family birthday party, Santana Gaona was in a Dallas County jail cell -- accused of raping his wife and red-flagged...

BURLINGTON, VT (WPTZ/CNN) - Vermont's governor has released a new immigration policy for state police, which is being dubbed the "look the other way" policy. Gov. Peter Shumlin says state troopers should not try to arrest people just for being in the U.S. illegally. Back in September, a state trooper made a routine traffic stop and asked one of the passengers his immigration status. He suspected that person of being an illegal immigrant and called Customs and Borders Patrol, who arrested the man. The arrest sparked protests from the migrant worker community, who says the trooper should never have asked...

The fight over the California Dream Act, controversial legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown to help illegal immigrant students pay for college, is not over. Earlier this week, State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Hesperia, started gathering signatures for a referendum that would eliminate part of the act. He wants to overturn Assembly Bill 131, which Brown signed on Oct. 9 allowing illegal immigrant students to apply for state-funded scholarships.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry says America should extend work visas to allow illegal immigrants to move freely between the U.S. and their home countries _ but opposes a path to citizenship.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Utah man dodged prison with an unusual ploy - he claimed to be an illegal immigrant and got himself deported to Mexico. Prosecutors say 27-year-old Jaime Alvarado told Salt Lake City police and immigration officials in 2010 that his name was Saul Quiroz and he had come to the U.S. illegally from Mexico. At the time, he faced felony drug distribution charges, but based on his false identity, authorities sent him back to Mexico.

Report: Over 1,000 Kids in L.A. County Foster Care Have Capable Parents Who've Been Detained/Deported. Arguably two of California's most controversy-plagued government factions -- immigration enforcement and child protection -- team up for double the incompetency in today's "Shattered Families" report by the Applied Research Center. The heartbreaking new data shows that 1,178 children in Los Angeles County alone are only in foster care because... ... their illegal-immigrant parents are caught up in deportation proceedings. "It's one more problem," says Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. "What you've got is two hugely dysfunctional systems, and when...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House subcommittee on Wednesday authorized a subpoena against the Homeland Security Department for information about illegal immigrants who have been identified but not deported. The authorization cleared the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration policy and enforcement by a 7-4, party line vote. Democrats voted against the measure, saying it was premature to issue a subpoena because Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is cooperating with the committee. House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, says the subpoena authorization is necessary because the Obama administration hasn't responded quickly enough to his request, which was made in...

State lawmakers are working to pass a group of bills against illegal immigrants known as, the National Security Begins at Home Legislation. Stolen jobs, and a burden on tax paying Pennsylvanians are just two of the reasons State Representative Daryl Metcalfe (R) 12th District, is trying to pass a package of Illegal Immigration bills in Pennsylvania.

A 23-year-old Carrollton man is in custody on a murder warrant in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 10-year-old girl visiting from Oklahoma, Carrollton police said Tuesday. Jasmen Gonzalez's body was found Sunday, hours after police say she was abducted from a Carrollton apartment. She died from a stab wound to the chest, the Dallas County medical examiner's office reported Monday. Jose Sifuentes, who had been in custody on an immigration hold, is a relative of Jasmen's by marriage, said Lt. Doug Mitchell of the Carrollton Police Department. Search warrant affidavits indicate that Jasmen was shirtless and that her...

MARIETTA, Ga. — Families of three teens killed by a drunk driving illegal immigrant are mounting a campaign to keep him from being paroled and deported. The families believe if Sergio Montelongo-Sanchez is deported back to Mexico he will come back to the U.S. and cause the same type of crash that killed their loved ones on Sandtown Road near Booth 11 years ago. They're also not happy he could be released after serving less than a third of his sentence. "He served just a little over 10 years. That's not very long for killing three beautiful young people," Delores...

An apparent carjacking attempt described as a random act of violence has taken the life of a 45-year-old Albion woman and led to the capture of an illegal immigrant charged with her murder, Orleans County sheriff's officials said Monday. Kathleen I. Byham was walking toward her car in the Walmart Supercenter parking lot in the Town of Albion shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday when she was accosted and stabbed multiple times, Sheriff Scott D. Hess reported. She was taken to Medina Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 7:40 p.m.

STAMFORD -- A Stamford man was arrested Friday and charged with trying to sexually assault a 14-year old female relative, police said. Jose Francisco Mendez, 28, of Stamford, was charged with criminal attempt at second-degree sexual assault for an incident that occurred with the girl earlier this week and two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault from incidents that occurred when the girl was aged 10 and 11, Youth Bureau Sgt. Dedrich Hohn said. He was also charged with risk of injury to a minor, and is being held in lieu of $50,000 bond. An immigration detainer has been placed upon...

A one-vehicle accident on rural Highway 141 on Monday triggered a search through the desert for passengers and eventually led to the arrest of one man for suspicion of human smuggling and the pending deportation of four of the passengers. Juan Denys Hernandez Varenez, a Cuban national, has been charged with four counts of smuggling of humans, a class 3 felony. The San Miguel Sheriff’s Office suspects that he was smuggling four undocumented foreigners to the Denver area when the sedan he was driving crashed. All of the passengers, including a 20-year-old female from Grand Junction whose involvement is unknown,...

(CNN) -- The family of an illegal immigrant paralyzed in a workplace accident says hospital officials have eased their pressure to send him back to Mexico because he is unable to pay for his care. Francisco Martinez broke his neck in a fall from the roof of a shrimp packing business in Galveston, Texas, in August. "He thought he was going to die" said Brandi Cullen Valderrama, Martinez's common-law wife. "He could not even breathe." Martinez was taken to the University Of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he received life-saving treatment but remains paralyzed from the chest down. Cullen...

SALT LAKE CITY — The intersection of faith communities and undocumented immigrants boils down to a basic Christian tenet, said the Rev. Steven R. Mitchell of the First Congregational United Church of Christ of Rock Springs, Wyo. "Jesus never turned anyone away. Neither do we," the Rev. Mitchell said. Mark Kadel, director of World Relief Spokane, said the issue must be framed in terms of "real people." "In God's eye, no one is illegal. They may be undocumented but they're not illegal," said Kadel, who directs programs that work with refugees, immigrants and victims of human trafficking. The two men...

To slash deportations and arrests for traffic offenses or lacking identification, law enforcement agencies in a major U.S. county are accepting Mexican consular cards—determined by the FBI to be unreliable and highly susceptible to fraud—as valid ID. The move comes just a few days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) union official told Congress that agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens who don’t have criminal convictions, even when they’ve been deported by a judge. Chris Crane, president of a union that represents ICE officers, revealed the mandate while testifying before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration...

GALVESTON, Texas—by Doug Miller/KHOU TV 11 News & khou.com - An illegal immigrant who was paralyzed in an accident says officials at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston are pressuring him to go back to Mexico. Francisco Martinez is a Mexican immigrant laborer who is in the United States illegally and now needs constant, expensive medical care. KHOU 11 News spoke with Martinez Tuesday outside UTMB’s John Sealy Hospital. He was accompanied by his 7-month-old son and his common-law wife, Brandi Cullen Valderram. Martinez has been at UTMB ever since a workplace accident three months ago left him...

A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been sentenced to two years in prison for improperly lifting the arms of a suspected 15-year-old drug smuggler while handcuffed — in what the Justice Department called a deprivation of the teenager’s constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force. Agent Jesus E. Diaz Jr. was named in a November 2009 federal grand jury indictment with deprivation of rights under color of law during an October 2008 arrest near the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass, Texas, where he and other agents had responded to a report that illegal immigrants had...

GALVESTON - Francisco Martinez wasn't happy about the free trip back to Mexico offered to him by a social worker at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Martinez, 37, of Bacliff, broke his back Aug. 17 after falling off a ladder while working on the roof of a bait shop where he was employed. UTMB doctors saved his life, but he is paralyzed from the chest down, can barely move his hands and needs special care.

BIRMINGHAM — It was just another schoolyard basketball game until a group of Hispanic seventh-graders defeated a group of boys from Alabama. The reaction was immediate, according to the Mexican mother of one of the winners, and rooted in the state's new law on illegal immigration. "They told them, 'You shouldn't be winning. You should go back to Mexico,'" said the woman, who spoke through a translator last week and didn't want her name used. She and her son are in the country illegally. Spanish-speaking parents say their children are facing more bullying and taunts at school since Alabama's tough...

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador's president says he will ask Washington to halt deportations of Salvadorans and extend a program that allows those who are in the U.S. illegally to stay.

ADELANTO • Authorities arrested an Adelanto man for allegedly molesting a family member for the last eight years, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Adelanto station officials said. Rene Viramontes, 41, was arrested late Wednesday night for continuous sexual abuse of a child and was also placed on an immigration hold. Wednesday afternoon, the 14-year-old victim’s mother went to the Adelanto station to report she had just discovered her daughter was being sexually abused by a family member, according to a release.