Free Republic

Several gun battles between Mexican military forces and drug traffickers prompted U.S. authorities to temporarily shut down two international bridge crossings on the Southwest border last week. The two bridges are located at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) port of entry in Eagle Pass, Texas –connecting Eagle Pass, Texas, to Piedras Negras in Coahuila, Mexico. In an e-mail to CNSNews.com, Douglas Mosier, a spokesman for CBP in El Paso, confirmed that the bridges were closed “in response to violent activity occurring in Piedras Negras, Mexico and as per coordination between the Government of Mexico, the Eagle Pass Police...

by John HillStand With Arizona Finally a state is stepping up to stop the fleecing of social service programs by illegal aliens. A Kentucky Senate panel unanimously approved a bill Thursday that would require applicants to government welfare programs to provide official proof of U.S. citizenship or legal residency. Federal law prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving most forms of welfare, including Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, public housing and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. But that hasn't illegal aliens from stealing tens of billions of these services across the nation. Illegal alien advocates such as La Raza, MALDEF and the ACLU...

House Race Shows Democrats' Improved Prospects In Inland Empire Longtime Riverside County supervisor, a Republican, might once have easily won a seat in Congress, but Democrats hold the edge in his district. New residents and political boundaries have shaken things up. By Phil Willon March 16, 2012 For the first time in 20 years, a Republican running for Congress in Riverside needs help. John Tavaglione huddled with supporters in the mirrored back room of a local Coco's on a recent rainy evening, laying out a ground game for his first crack at federal office. As a Republican and political heir...

by John HillStand With Arizona It has been nearly a year since Janet Murguia, the President of National Council of La Raza ("The Race") bragged that thanks to their boycott of Arizona, the state's "copycat wave" of immigration laws had "stopped cold". Well, La Raza's failed boycott was stopped cold last year after failing miserably. But the "wave" of states emulating Arizona-style immigration laws goes on, and on. And now we are about to add Mississippi to that list, as the state House on Wednesday passed H.B. 488 by an overwhelming, bi-partisan margin (70-47, with 10 Democrats crossing party lines...

Tess Vigeland: This week as part of our election coverage, The Real Economy, we're hearing from people across the country about the issues that matter most to them. Today, San Diego resident Nancy Parker argues illegal immigration hurts the economy -- more than helps it. Nancy Parker: It's time we did something about illegal immigration in the United States. I always hear talk about the economic benefits of illegal immigration -- cheap labor and all -- but it also has economic costs nobody seems to mention. Many who work here illegally don't keep the money they earn in this country....

In today’s Rattle, we cover everything from the Obama administration’s continued dismantling of border security and immigration enforcement, to the trivialization of the Civil Rights Movement by the open borders left, to congressional oversight into Attorney General Eric Holder’s obstruction of justice in the Fast and Furious probe. But first, we look at the increasingly misnamed Southern Poverty Law Center, which continues its progressive slide into buffoonery with a report into the national security threat posed by purportedly misogynistic weblogs. As Mark Krikorian explains in The Corner, the SPLC has adopted new hate objects now that its demonization of patriotic...

The State House okayed the changes the Senate made to HB 934 -- the rational, reasonable bill requiring voters present identification albeit not necessarily photo identification -- yesterday, March 15, and Gov. Tom Corbett signed it into law a few hours later. The Democrats strongly fought the bill and are pledging legal challenges to it.

Stop me if you've heard this joke before. A Saudi, a Cuban, and an American political group walks into a room -- and the American political group asks them to tell the US to be more fair about its voting practices. Haven't heard this one? You may get a chance to see it in action if you go to Geneva and watch the UN Human Rights Council and the NAACP at work:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO The United Nations Human Rights Council is investigating the issue of American election laws at its gathering on minority rights in Geneva, Switzerland.....

The Obama administration has blocked Texas’ new law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, saying it would suppress Hispanic voter turnout, and the United Nations is now investigating the fairness of such laws in Texas and other states. But voters in this country still overwhelmingly support voter ID laws and don’t think they discriminate. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 72% of Likely U.S. Voters believe voters should be required to show photo identification such as a driver’s license before being allowed to vote. That’s in line with findings from December but remains down...

In so-called March in March protests, thousands of students in California universities recently demonstrated in outrage over spiraling tuition costs. At both the California State University and University of California multi-campus systems, tuition hikes in recent years have far exceeded the national average. Meanwhile, universities slash classes, cut key research, and rely even more on exploited and poorly paid part-time lecturers and graduate-student teaching assistants. Yet against whom, exactly, are these cash-strapped students demonstrating? After all, their college faculties are unionized, largely liberal, and sympathetic to their plight. Campus administrators likewise want more state money for universities. But, unlike the...

by John HillStand With Arizona America has witnessed an stunning rise in drunk driving fatalities committed by illegal aliens - many of whom had previous criminal records and even prior DUIs - yet remained free in this country to drink, drive and kill Americans. This has always been a problem - with both Federal officials and local law enforcement dropping the ball. But thanks to new, relaxed deportation guidelines of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the numbers have increased to record levels in the past two years. Above: A life of service destroyed in an instant: Sister Denise Mosier and...

Months after a new Kansas policy cut food stamps going to thousands of children, some lawmakers are mounting efforts to help those families. But they’re finding it’s difficult when the issue involves families with some members who are living in the country illegally. Legislative leaders don’t appear eager to tackle any illegal immigration issue in an election year. Earlier this week, senators in Topeka proposed an amendment to the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services budget that ultimately could have restored some aid to the children who are U.S. citizens but whose parents are illegal immigrants. But on Wednesday, the...

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat who’s become a leading advocate for undocumented immigrants, will be in Charlotte today to shine a spotlight on the case of a S.C. father of two – both of them U.S. citizens – who faces deportation. The reason Gabino Sanchez could be kicked out the country: Nine misdemeanor convictions, in South Carolina and Georgia, for driving without a license or driving an unregistered vehicle. Illegal immigrants sometime don’t try to get a license for fear of exposing their status. Gutierrez plans to appear at the first deportation hearing for Sanchez, 27, of rural...

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to sign one of the nation’s toughest voter identification laws less than eight months before the presidential election, although a court challenge is also expected to the measure that handily passed the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives today.

KARNES CITY, Texas — A 608-bed facility unveiled Tuesday in Texas represents what federal officials say is a centerpiece of the Obama administration's pledge to overhaul America's much-maligned system for jailing immigration offenders.

A 35-year-old south Charlotte man has been charged with statutory rape after a 14-year-old girl gave birth to his child this weekend, according to police. Jail officials say Juan Martinez Hernandez, who is believed to be in the country illegally, has run afoul of police and immigration agents before, following a 2010 drunken driving arrest. It’s unclear what became of Hernandez between his release to immigration agents in 2010 and the rape charges on Sunday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials couldn’t be reached for comment Monday. On Sunday, the 14-year-old gave birth to a baby in the bathroom of an...

Reporting from Durham, N.C.— Two weeks ago, Uriel Alberto interrupted a state legislative hearing in North Carolina and declared himself an undocumented immigrant. "I am undocumented and I am unafraid," Alberto, 24, told a North Carolina House of Representatives immigration committee in Raleigh. "I refuse to be bullied and intimidated by this committee and choose to empower my community." Now, thanks to an online petition campaign, Alberto is a rallying point for supporters of the Dream Act, which would give permanent resident status to undocumented students brought illegally to the U.S. by their parents. Supporters have launched a Facebook page,...

You’ve just tripped and fallen down a rabbit hole. You now find that up is down, left is right, nothing is as it should be. Are you looking through the looking glass in Alice’s Wonderland? Nope! You’re in Wisconsin, my friend. Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker was elevated to his position upon his promise to clean up the state, reduce the stranglehold of the public workers’ unions and balance the budget. He has kept his promise. Proving once again that no good deed goes unpunished, he’s now the subject of a recall petition. One of the bills he signed into...

The Justice Department blocked Texas’ new voter-identification law Monday, arguing that it targets the state’s Hispanics — and igniting yet another clash between President Obama’s administration and a GOP-run state. Texas is the second state to have its voter-ID law rejected by the Justice Department, which has cast a critical eye on Republican-controlled legislatures as they move to combat both illegal immigration and voter fraud. Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said he was using the federal government’s power under the Voting Rights Act to block the state’s law. He said the data show that Hispanics could be twice as...

It’s election time so that means Democrats rolls out one of its favorites weapons: the “Hispanic vote bogyman” threat. The script goes this way: The Democrat supporting Hispanics dictate a demand list to Republicans then watch them squirm and pander. To add some salsa to the threat they promise retaliation at the polls if Republicans dare to ignore them. This kind of knuckling under has never gone well for Republicans. Endless concessions and saying things like, “We’ll give your cousin amnesty. We’ll give your kids our kids’ college classroom seats – and throw in our jobs food stamps and ignore...