Free Republic

The American people favor legal immigration, control of the border, ending illegal immigration with an emphasis on employer responsibility, immediate deportation of felons who are here illegally, a requirement to return home to become legal temporary workers, assimilation of those who sincerely want to become American, and a sophisticated, technologically advanced temporary worker system. SPECIFICALLY: ★ The American people want to increase the number of visas for highly-educated immigrants or those with special skills, the so-called H1B and H2B visas. (63 to 29) ★ The American people believe border control is a security issue. Terrorists are trying to enter the...

SAN DIEGO -- — The U.S. Border Patrol is installing razor-sharp concertina wire atop border fencing between San Diego and Tijuana, marking a major shift in approach along a frequently violent stretch of the frontier. The triple-strand wire, meant to keep smugglers from attacking agents, will stretch five miles when completed this summer -- the longest expanse of this type of wire ever used on the Southwest border. Federal authorities in the past have avoided using fortifications with such negative symbolism. Hundreds of miles of barriers going up in other areas have had to meet "aesthetically pleasing" federal design standards....

There is an unwritten rule in Congress that the appropriations process should not be used to pass major legislation. So when the Senate Appropriations Committee makes an exception to this rule, you can bet that they are doing so only to deal with some burning crisis. For the Senate Appropriations Committee to break with tradition, the interests at stake must be so compelling that circumstances demand that the cumbersome legislative process be bypassed and that the issue be dealt with immediately. And when the legislation gets tacked on to not just any old appropriations bill, but an emergency supplemental appropriations...

Members of the Texas Border Coalition yesterday said Department of Homeland Security officials "lied" about reaching out to Texas landowners over the U.S.-Mexico border fence, and filed a class-action lawsuit against Secretary Michael Chertoff demanding he give landowners more say before the fence is built. Under the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, the group of border mayors, county judges and community leaders said the federal government violated the rights of landowners and intimidated them into signing away, for a $100 payment, rights to come on their land and prepare for building the fence. "What's being forced upon...

Folks, join us on Freedom Radio and welcome to Blog Talk Radio, Mayor Lou Barletta of Hazelton, PA, now running for the US House of Representatives in PA. We need folks like Lou Barletta folks: "We need him on that wall, we want him on that wall" Drop everything Sunday night and help us make history! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedom 8 pm est. Sunday May 18, 2008 ____________________________________________ The way to breath life into the conservative movement is to rebuild it from the bottom up, To that end visit: http;//www.loubarletta.com and donate to a man of courage. Donate if you are so lead....

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein has changed her tune about using Iraq war spending bills to provide temporary legal status for illegal farmworkers.She used to think it was a bad idea. Not anymore.Next week, the full Senate is expected to consider an emergency spending bill that includes Feinstein's agricultural guest worker plan. If it survives, the guest worker package would offer temporary legal status to 1.35 million illegal immigrant farmworkers."This is an emergency situation," Feinstein, D-Calif., told Senate Appropriations Committee colleagues Thursday, adding that "agriculture needs a consistent work force. Without it, they can't plant, they can't prune, they...

The Mexican peso was commonly used in early America. By a decree of July 6, 1785, the value of the United States dollar was even set to approximately match the peso. The first U.S. dollar coins were not issued until April 2, 1792, and the peso continued to be officially recognized and used, along with other foreign coins, until February 21, 1857. Since that period, the peso has at times taken on Banana Republic characteristics. Embarassingly, the U.S. dollar is now falling in value against the peso...

Last month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement got a call from elected officials in Mission Viejo who wanted help cracking down on day laborers they said were a public nuisance. Brian DeMore, ICE's acting field office director for detention and removal in Southern California, told officials that federal agents focused on major, not petty crimes. But he suggested that local deputies could cite laborers who caused any trouble on a local violation and book them into the county jail, where their immigration status would be checked by ICE-trained personnel. That's precisely what anti-illegal immigration advocates wish law enforcement agencies would...

DETROIT - A former federal agent who pleaded guilty to faking a marriage to gain U.S. citizenship and improperly searching FBI databases was sentenced Tuesday to pay $975 in fines and other fees, but will serve no prison time. U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohn said Nada Nadim Prouty, 38, "erred in judgment" 19 years ago when she lied to enter the U.S. in 1989 from her native Lebanon, but has provided "exemplary service to the country" as a federal agent. Cohn also signed an order revoking Prouty's citizenship, but Prouty's attorney Thomas Cranmer said after the hearing she will...

California Senator Dianne Feinstein is trying to use a must-pass Iraq war spending bill being debated in Congress to advance an agricultural guest worker program she's long advocated. Feinstein sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which voted 17-12 to add her farm workers amendment to a multi-billion-dollar bill to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Plans by the Border Patrol to check the immigration status of people fleeing a hurricane could slow the county's evacuation process, or scare people from buses sent to rescue them, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos said Wednesday. But Border Patrol spokesman Dan Doty said the screenings can be done quickly and are necessary for national security. "We do not want the possibility of someone wanting to do our country harm of getting through the checkpoint," Doty said Wednesday. As emergency officials continued a two-day hurricane drill, Cascos said he has serious questions about plans by federal agencies to do immigration...

From newtimesla.com Originally published by New Times L.A. Jun 20, 2002 ©2002 New Times, Inc. All rights reserved. Border Buster Critics say L.A. lawyer Peter Schey is ruining America by helping hordes of illegal immigrants stay here. Schey says his work's far from done. By Susan Goldsmith Peter Schey was raised on the story of the Nazis marching into Paris during World War II. His gentile mother and communist Jewish father escaped from France on one of the last planes to England. They were German refugees and knew what France's Jewish community was in for. In London, Schey's father...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Texas mayors and business leaders filed a class-action lawsuit Friday alleging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hoodwinked landowners into waiving their property rights for construction of a fence along the Mexican border. Members of the Texas Border Coalition said Chertoff did not fairly negotiate compensation with landowners for access to their land for six-month surveys to choose fence sites. The coalition of mayors and business and community leaders is seeking an injunction to block work on the fence. They also want a federal judge to rescind all the agreements with landowners and to order Chertoff to start...

The nation's largest single immigration raid, resulting in nearly 400 arrests earlier this week, violated the constitutional rights of workers at a meatpacking plant, a federal lawsuit says. The lawsuit accuses the government of arbitrary and indefinite detention. It seeks to prevent the government from moving the arrested workers out-of-state as their cases wend through the system. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said he couldn't comment on the lawsuit filed Thursday on behalf of about 147 of the workers rounded up Monday at an Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant. The lawsuit was filed against the Immigration and Customs...

Press conference denounces Utah raid On May 13, pro-immigrant organizations held a press conference and emergency rally to protest the ongoing raids and deportations targeting undocumented workers across the United States. Community leaders and organizers demanded that the raids and deportations be stopped and called for immediate and comprehensive immigration reform. The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on May 12 in Postville, Iowa, at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse, is a prime example of these racist attacks against the working community. About 700 workers, more than half of the plant’s workforce, were arrested in the raid. As...

WASHINGTON — President Bush's attempt to win $560 million in aid this year to assist Mexico's anti-narcotics efforts has run into a rebellion from some Texas Republicans worried about corruption, inefficiency and now defections among Mexican police officials. Wednesday's disclosure that three Mexican police chiefs are seeking asylum in the United States prompted the Texans to push Thursday for congressional hearings on the bloody border war among Mexico's drug cartels and a reassessment of U.S. anti-drug assistance to the country. "Our first priority must be to secure our own border and equip our own personnel before we even discuss sending...

Since Arizona’s local law enforcement began enforcing illegal immigration laws and an employer sanctions law went into effect, illegal immigrants have been fleeing the state in large numbers. The effects have been far-ranging. Commuters are reporting fewer vehicles on the freeways, shortening their rush-hour commutes. What had become a serious transportation problem in Arizona is losing its urgency. English Learner Language (ELL) students started dropping out of school. This helped end a confrontation between the state legislature and a liberal federal judge who had ordered the state to spend more money on ELL classes. Fewer illegal immigrants are using hospital...

As expected, Sheriff Joe Arpaio threw a tantrum when he found out Governor Janet Napolitano was cutting his allowance. After first reading of the cuts to his immigration enforcement efforts in New Times, Arpaio held an impassioned, late-afternoon news conference on Tuesday to protest the governor's move with his political buddies, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, Arizona House Speaker Jim Weiers and Mesa state Representative Russell Pearce. The story of two powerful Arizona politicans battling over the hot-button immigration issue has now made headlines from here to New York City. You can watch raw video of the news conference on...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Josue Vega was one of thousands of immigrant workers who flocked to New Orleans in 2005 in hopes of finding a rebuilding job in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He worked seven days a week and earned more than twice his normal earnings. But with work now down to three days a week, the 20-year-old is planning to go home to Honduras. "My goal is to be here until November, and then never come back," he said. "I've had enough." The stops and starts of the post-Katrina rebuilding effort, often due to bureaucratic delays in funding,...

More than a dozen suspected members of a ruthless Norteño street gang allegedly responsible for four murders, several attempted murders and assaults in San Jose are behind bars, the result of a 1 1/2-year police investigation. A five-week grand jury proceeding culminated Tuesday with indictments being issued against 13 suspected members of El Hoyo Palmas, described by police as a multi-generation gang that has operated in San Jose for about 30 years.

At yesterday's markup of the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee committed an outrageous act of disrespect for our men and women in uniform and to the citizens of this country by adopting an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that gives amnesty to illegal-alien agricultural workers. The copy of the amendment obtained by NumbersUSA indicates a maximum of 1.35 million illegal aliens, plus their families, could obtain "emergency agricultural worker status" for a five-year period. However, the amendment also provides for an adjustment of status, which paves the way for permanent legalization. The committee also adopted other...

Italian police began a nationwide round-up of nearly 400 illegal immigrants from the Balkans and North Africa yesterday in the midst of a series of arson attacks on Roma gypsy camps in the suburbs of Naples. The first step in a drive on crime promised by the new centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi targeted temporary encampments on the outskirts of cities from Naples to northern Italy. Some 118 people held in the operation were ordered to be expelled immediately for offences ranging from drug dealing and robbery to prostitution. Firemen hose down a camp of Roma people that was set...

This November McCain will win the election. I am certain McCain will be our next president. McCain will win because he will get about 54% of the Hispanic vote ( Bush got 44%). The Democrats can not overcome that large of a margin going to McCain. This will be fatal to their party. McCain will get such a large percentage of the Hispanic vote because of his support for immigration and because of the natural unreported tension that exist between the Black and Hispanic populations. At the same time, Hispanic will split their vote and vote Democratic for Congressional election....

LOS ANGELES — Jamiel Shaw Sr. never gave much thought to the immigration status of gang members in his South Los Angeles neighborhood. With his military wife deployed to Iraq and two sons to raise, there were football practices to manage, shoes to buy, college applications to consider. But in the two months since his older son, Jamiel Jr., was gunned down by a man the police say is a gang member who was here illegally from Mexico, Mr. Shaw has been able to think of little else. “I don’t care about illegal people who are working here and taking...

Federal authorities charged that a methamphetamine laboratory was operating at the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and that employees carried weapons to work. The charges were among the most explosive details to emerge following the massive raid Monday at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa. In a 60-page application for a search warrant, federal agents revealed details of their six-month probe of Agriprocessors. The investigation involved 12 federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the departments of labor and agriculture. According to the application, a former plant supervisor told investigators that some 80 percent of the workforce...

Since Arizona's local law enforcement began enforcing illegal immigration laws and an employer sanctions law went into effect, illegal immigrants have been fleeing the state in large numbers. The effects have been far-ranging. Commuters are reporting fewer vehicles on the freeways, shortening their rush-hour commutes. What had become a serious transportation problem in Arizona is losing its urgency. English Learner Language (ELL) students started dropping out of school. This helped end a confrontation between the state legislature and a liberal federal judge who had ordered the state to spend more money on ELL classes.Fewer illegal immigrants are using hospital emergency...

From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA Date: Thursday 15MAY08 4:30 p.m. EDT "Senate committee adds amnesty for 1.2 million illegal ag workers to Iraq spending bill -- PHONE NOW DEAR FRIENDS, On a 17-12 vote this afternoon, the Senate Appropriations Committee added Sen. Feinstein's ag amnesty to the Iraq supplemental spending bill. This bill could come up for a vote before the full Senate tomorrow. Every phone of every Senator should be ringing off the hook as soon as I click SEND on this alert. Please pick up your phone the minute you read this and call: 202-224-3121 Call the offices...

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday added to an Iraq spending bill a controversial provision to help pave the way for undocumented agriculture workers to win legal status, a move that may reopen the divisive immigration debate on the Senate floor. The so-called Ag-Jobs amendment, sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho), would create a process that allows undocumented workers to continue to work on farms. Without the amendment, Feinstein warned that the U.S. would lose $5-9 billion to foreign competition, tens of thousands of farms would shut down and 80,000 workers would be transferred to Mexico....

A federal agent testified this morning that he has learned since the fatal Cottonwood, Minn., school bus crash that the woman accused of causing the accident was not alone in her van. Olga Franco's boyfriend was with her in the van at the time of the Feb. 19 crash, said Jeremy Christenson, a special agent with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement. Four schoolchildren died in the accident. Christenson said he learned this through interviews he conducted. "I did learn that, yes," Christenson said under cross-examination from Franco's attorney Manuel Guerrero. Guerrero asked the court to depose three witnesses so he could...

The new president of the state's community college system has planted himself in the doorways of the system's 58 campuses, barring illegal immigrants from seeking degrees. Scott Ralls' stance may be politically popular -- both major-party candidates for governor favor a ban -- but it's neither necessary nor humane. North Carolina should stand for something better than having one of the nation's toughest policies on educating illegal immigrants. So let the community colleges reopen their doors to the relatively few people involved in this needless dispute. And get on with the job of upgrading our state's workforce and broadening the...

NEW ORLEANS — Josue Vega was one of thousands of immigrant workers who flocked to New Orleans in 2005 in hopes of finding a rebuilding job in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He worked seven days a week and earned more than twice his normal earnings. But with work now down to three days a week, the 20-year-old is planning to go home to Honduras. "My goal is to be here until November, and then never come back," he said. "I've had enough." The stops and starts of the post-Katrina rebuilding effort, often due to bureaucratic delays in funding, still...

So, whatever happened to immigration as a presidential campaign issue? In the early caucus and primary states – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina – the media assured us that immigration was foremost on the minds of voters. You couldn't watch a Republican debate without the issue dominating a good chunk of the discussion. And when Hillary Clinton appeared to endorse a proposal in New York state to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, it was considered a major stumble, and the senator spent weeks trying to clarify her remarks. The public, we were told, was fed up with illegal immigrants,...

A federal employee from Henry County, and his wife, will face federal charges in connection with an alleged immigration scheme. Hasmukh C. Patel, 52, of McDonough, was formally charged Tuesday, with conspiracy to encourage aliens to remain in the United States illegally. Authorities say over a period of more than two years, Patel and his wife, Nitigna, 46, facilitated unlawful acquisitions of visas. The alleged conspiracy began in March 2005, while Hasmukh Patel worked as a business interface representative for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The 10-page indictment states Hasmukh Patel received money from a foreign national, in exchange for...

States, locals swamp immigration programBy Daniel C. Vock, Stateline.org Staff Writer States and cities that want to speed up deportations of criminals and suspects who are illegal immigrants by using a popular but controversial federal program face waiting up to three years to join the enforcement effort, because the federal government can’t keep up with the demand.   Political pressure for stricter policing of illegal immigration has propelled the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s 287(g) initiative from a little-noticed experiment two years ago to one of the hottest ideas for local and state officials to deal with immigration, as...

<p>While listening to McCain's policy speech, Sen. McCain incredibly stated the following regarding illegal immigration. I repeat this is not a joke.</p> <p>MODERATOR ADDITION - CRITICAL CONTEXT WAS MISSING FROM THIS POST. CONTEXT HAS BEEN ADDED IN ITALICS. POSTER'S ORIGINAL TEXT WILL RESUME AFTER THE ITALICS.</p>

EL PASO, Texas - A U.S. Border Patrol Agent is under arrest charged with helping run a massive human smuggling ring out of El Paso. Jesus Miguel Huizar, 28, made his first appearance before a federal magistrate Wednesday afternoon. Emeterio Sigala-Favela and Luis Carlos Chacon-Rubio, both of Chihuahua, Mexico, are also charged in this case. The federal indictments were unsealed Tuesday. They paint the picture of a complex, well-organized and highly lucrative operation that may have helped as many as 100 undocumented immigrants cross the border. Huizar allegedly allowed the other men to bring undocumented immigrants through the Border Patrol...

More than 60 illegal immigrants, including three toddlers, were discovered at a house in South Los Angeles early this morning by federal immigration agents serving a search warrant as part of an investigation into a human smuggling ring, authorities said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the single-family, two-story home in the 10000 block of South Normandie Avenue about 6:30 a.m.. and found 61 Central and South American immigrants crowded into the house, with trash and rotting food piled 2 to 3 feet high in each room, agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. The immigrants told agents that they had been...

LOS ANGELES — Jamiel Shaw Sr. never gave much thought to the immigration status of gang members in his South Los Angeles neighborhood. With his military wife deployed to Iraq and two sons to raise, there were football practices to manage, shoes to buy, college applications to consider. But in the two months since his older son, Jamiel Jr., was gunned down by a man the police say is a gang member who was here illegally from Mexico, Mr. Shaw has been able to think of little else. “I don’t care about illegal people who are working here and taking...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee are demanding more information from the Homeland Security Department about medical treatment provided to illegal immigrants detained in the U.S. Recent news reports have detailed insufficient — and in some cases negligent — medical treatment for immigrant detainees over the past five years. The reports have sparked renewed interest in an issue that has been raised for years by human rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who has held one hearing on the topic, said details she has heard about detainees'...

In releasing his revised budget Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed deeper cuts to health care and welfare programs for the poor even as his administration calculated that the projected demand for government assistance is growing. The Republican governor proposed $627 million more in cuts to health and human services, making it harder for poor families to qualify for welfare and health coverage. "I know this is going to be very difficult ... this is why I had a hard time to make those cuts," Schwarzenegger said. "But the absolute bottom line is we cannot spend money that we do not...

Obama and his Kentucky cross TRIBUNE-REVIEW By Salena Zito Chris Brody, the senior national correspondent for Christian Broadcast Network (CBN), is reporting Sen. Barack Obama has a flier for next week’s primary contest in Kentucky that shows Obama standing with a substantial-sized cross to his left. Brody writes that Obama “is making a direct appeal to evangelicals with fliers that mention his conversion experience and they highlight a big old cross. Remember (Gov.) Mike Huckabee’s supposed subliminal cross in his Christmas campaign ad? Well, Obama campaign ditches

The lawyer for Olga Marina Franco del Cid wants a change of venue. Manuel Guerrero filed notice with the Lyon County District Court Administrator's office. Franco is charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide for the deaths of four students on February 19. Prosecutors say Franco was driving a minivan on Lyon County Road 24. According to the complaint, she blew through a stop sign and hit the bus. Franco apparently doesn't have a driver's license. Immigration and Customs Exchange officials also say Franco is in the country illegally and used a false identity while in the U.S. During...

Public concern about the impact of new immigration on America has reached a pitch not seen since the early 20th century. Americans have experienced an immigration surge unprecedented in their lifetimes. This is an unsurprising coincidence in light of the fact that our immigrant population of 37 million is, in absolute numbers, greater than it has been at any time in our history. It’s nearly as large a percentage, 12.5%, of the population as it was at its historic peak at 14.5% in 1890. Today, there are more immigrants from Mexico than there were foreign-born residents from all countries in...

WASHINGTON — Three Mexican police chiefs have requested political asylum in the U.S. as violence escalates in the Mexican drug wars and spills across the U.S. border, a top Homeland Security official told The Associated Press. In the past few months, the police officials have shown up at the U.S. border, fearing for their lives, according to Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. "They're basically abandoned by their police officers or police departments in many cases," Ahern told AP. Ahern said the Mexican officials — whom he didn't name — are being interviewed and their cases...

For many conservatives, John McCain is not their favorite Republican. They think he's built a career at their expense, painting them as fools and bigots. They resent his holier-than-thou attitude. And they're not inclined to trust anyone who has been so fawned over by the national media. Curiously, a lot of liberal Democrats feel the same way about McCain. He isn't their favorite Republican either - but it's because they know he'll be tough to beat in November. They would have preferred to run against someone more extreme and easier to demonize. That's not John McCain. I first met McCain...

PHOENIX -- Gov. Janet Napolitano has ordered the state to end an anti-illegal immigration contract with the Maricopa County sheriff so she can pay for a larger effort to track down thousands of felons around Arizona. The sheriff, Joe Arpaio, on Tuesday criticized the governor's decision as a maneuver to thwart his efforts against illegal immigrants. "Dirty politics are at work right now," said Arpaio, who was flanked by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, state House Speaker Jim Weiers and state Rep. Russell Pearce at a news conference. All four men have staked out hawkish positions on illegal immigration...

New Law: Contractors Must Prove Workers Are Legal Suffolk County Passes Legislation Tuesday HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (AP) ― A new law has been passed requiring all of Suffolk County's 17,000 licensed contractors to prove their workers are in the United States legally. Critics claim the legislation -- passed by the county Legislature Tuesday night -- is aimed at thousands of undocumented workers. The proposal builds on legislation enacted in 2006 that requires any company doing business with the Suffolk County government to verify its employees are in the United States legally. Now every contractor, regardless of whether they have government contracts,...

Missouri and at least 19 other states are considering passing laws that would force people to prove their citizenship before they can vote. These bills are not a sincere effort to prevent noncitizens from voting; that is a made-up problem. The real aim is to reduce turnout by eligible voters. Republicans seem to think that laws of this kind will help them win elections, but burdensome rules like these — and others cropping up around the country — pose a serious threat to democracy and should be stopped. The Missouri legislature is, as Ian Urbina reported in The Times on...

DALLAS — A dozen family members spanning three generations were arrested Tuesday in connection with a marriage fraud ring in which foreign nationals paid up to $12,000 each to marry U.S. citizens, authorities said. Eleven people were arrested in the Dallas area and the 12th was arrested in Corpus Christi, officials said. Four others remain at large. Authorities said the marriages allowed the foreign nationals to apply for permanent residency and citizenship. The alleged conspiracy involved various schemes to make the fraudulent marriages appear legitimate. Couples filed applications for permanent residency using fraudulently obtained legitimate documents. Some couples used fake...

One has to admire the Sisyphean tenacity of the Congress as it starts to roll another boulder up the mountain of public opposition to the federal encouragement of illegal immigration. The latest attempt, HR 5515, masquerading under the euphemistic label “New Employee Verification Act” (NEVA) is another unworthy successor to the recently demised “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act” and “Dream Act” in its insolent attempt to procure cheap labor and voting constituencies for the political ruling classes, Democrat and Republican alike. Pushed as replacement for the current E-Verify system (formerly Basic Pilot) by which employers can use the Internet to verify...