Free Republic

In the two decades since they slipped out of Mexico and into the shadow world of illegal immigrants, Concepcion Mendoza and his wife, Ibed, have made a passable life in America. They've labored at farms, packing houses, and fast-food joints on both coasts, settling eventually in a rented house in South Jersey. They produced three sons, all U.S. citizens born on U.S. soil. One day last March, with the boys at school, Ibed was at work, cooking and cleaning at a Vineland, N.J., church, when her phone showed a missed call from an unfamiliar number, and three from Concepcion. Apprehensive,...

A middle schooler's science project was so alarming to a Manchester, N.H., man that he called police after the contraption landed on his driveway. Eighth-grader Jack Miron of nearby Walton, N.H., had a grand idea for a science project. The Pine Hill Waldorf student rigged a box that included a video camera, weather recording equipment, flags and a beeping device onto a weather balloon, WMUR reports. He and his mother launched it from Bedford, N.H., to see what it could record.

A federal judge in Miami has ruled that Florida students cannot be charged higher non-resident tuition simply because their parents may be in the U.S. illegally. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore says the rules violate the Constitution. The lawsuit was filed earlier this year by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of students who are U.S. citizens and Florida residents but whose parents cannot prove legal immigration status.

HIDALGO – Law enforcement officials saw five to seven people leave in a vehicle on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande after Border Patrol agents were fired upon Sunday night. Eight to 12 rounds were fired at Border Patrol agents who were patrolling the river on two boats and agents on the bank after 9 p.m. Sunday down river from the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge, said Border Patrol spokesman Enrique Mendiola. Agents immediately took cover and they were not hurt. The agents did not return fire. “They immediately took cover because obviously they were somewhat vulnerable there,” Mendiola said. “They...

.....More may be revealed this week as the Democrats meet in Charlotte, N.C., when the president will be formally nominated as their candidate. Some of the possible second-term goals are ones he set aside in the first when they were too difficult or politically costly. They include a rewrite of immigration laws, efforts to combat global warming and a sweeping change in the tax code beyond the year-to-year extensions of Bush-era tax cuts.... The government faces a “fiscal cliff” of scheduled tax increases and spending cuts at the end of this year. If he and Congress can’t reach a permanent...

SEATTLE -- With the federal government giving young illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children a chance to stay in the country, advocates in Washington state are relaunching efforts to open state financial aid to college students who don't have documents.

SYLVA, N.C. - Many protests have been planned ahead of the upcoming Democratic National Convention in North Carolina and several illegal immigrants are planning to join them. The "Undoc-bus" will bring undocumented immigrants from Arizona to Charlotte. "They're just asking for justice, you know, dignity," said bus driver Juan Lozano. "How would you feel to be identified everyday for being undocumented?" said Natally Cruz. "Everyday we have a bus that leaves from Phoenix to Mexico, deporting, separating a mother, a father -- everyday." Cruz says life as an undocumented person is not easy. "I've been here 16 years...It's hard, being..knowing...

A few Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are bravely challenging President Barack Obama’s brazen attempt to wrest Congressional authority for himself in a Texas Federal Court. The suit filed on Thursday pits ten (10) ICE senior officers against the Constitutional legitimacy of Obama’s recent Executive Order prohibiting the deportation of illegal immigrants who meet an arbitrary set of guidelines, including that they were brought into the country as children.

URGENT: A senior Obama administration political appointee is resigning amid allegations of lewd behavior, FoxNews.com has confirmed. Suzanne Barr, chief of staff to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton, is accused of sexually inappropriate behavior toward employees. "I have been the focus of unfounded allegations designed to destroy my reputation, but of greater concern however, is the threat these allegations represent to the reputation of this agency and the men and women who proudly serve their country by advancing ICE's mission," Barr said in a letter to Morton, which was obtained by FoxNews.com. "As such, I feel it is...

A senior Obama administration political appointee and longtime aide to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano resigned Saturday amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior lodged by at least three Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees. Suzanne Barr, chief of staff to ICE Director John Morton, said in her resignation letter that the allegations against her are "unfounded." But she said she was stepping down anyway to end distractions within the agency. ICE, a division of the Homeland Security Department, confirmed Barr had resigned. The Associated Press obtained a copy of Barr's letter.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior Obama administration political appointee and longtime aide to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano resigned Saturday amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior lodged by at least three Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior Obama administration political appointee and longtime aide to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano resigned Saturday amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior lodged by at least three Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees. Suzanne Barr, chief of staff to ICE Director John Morton, said in her resignation letter that the allegations against her are "unfounded." But she said she was stepping down anyway to end distractions within the agency. ICE, a division of the Homeland Security Department, confirmed Barr had resigned. The Associated Press obtained a copy of Barr's letter. Barr is accused of sexually inappropriate behavior...

Jorge Buenrostro is a recent graduate of Westside High School who wants to go to college and then join the Air Force, but he could be a traffic stop away from being forced onto a bus headed for Mexico.Buenrostro, 17, was among a group of youths at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in Macon on Saturday meeting with an attorney in an effort of gain a temporary reprieve from the threat of deportation.They were applying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a federal initiative recently ordered by President Barack Obama. It allows those who arrived here illegally when they...

Certain characteristics set the Laredo Independent School District apart from most districts in the state. Its western boundary aligns directly with the Mexican border. Nearly all its students are poor, and nearly all are Hispanic. Most rely on the school to provide two meals a day. On the first day of school this week, some showed up without shoes or without parents accompanying them. “It’s hard to work on teaching them about reading and writing and math when they haven’t eaten. It’s hard to really welcome them into their class with their textbooks and their lockers when they don’t have...

A busload of undocumented immigrants illegal aliens has departed for Charlotte, on its way to protest during the Democratic National Convention. The occupants will risk deportation to demonstrate in Mecklenburg County, where sheriff’s deputies check the immigration status of people who are arrested. The group will join hundreds of other illegal immigrants who could march during the convention, protest organizers said.Some 30 men and women left Sunday from Phoenix on a multistate tour that will cut through states such as Alabama and Georgia that have passed some of the nation’s toughest immigration laws. The bus will arrive in Charlotte just...

ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- A Mexican who has been deported three times was in federal custody Wednesday in Escondido on suspicion of fondling himself inside a vehicle while watching children walk to school. Antonio Montoya-Senteno was spotted in the 1200 block of North Broadway about 7:20 a.m. and, based on witness reports, arrested at El Norte Parkway and Escondido Boulevard, Escondido police Lt. Chris Wynn said. U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers at the Escondido police station as part of Operation Joint Effort questioned Montoya-Senteno and determined he had been deported three times, he said

Tonight, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is addressing the Republican National Convention. Why is he being given that honor, you say? That is a good question, since he is at great odds with both the party's nominee, the party's platform, and the American people on the issue of immigration, and continues to insult us on a weekly basis to pimp his pro-amnesty views that we have consistently rejected. At a forum on immigration, Bush said Republicans aren’t going to close the gap with Hispanic voters until they “stop acting stupid” by being too "tough" on "immigrants" (the usual code for illegal...

A federal court on Thursday blocked a controversial new voter ID law in Texas, ruling that the state failed to show that the law would not harm the voting rights of minorities. The three-judge panel in the historic case said that evidence also showed that costs of obtaining a voter ID would fall most heavily on poor African Americans and Hispanics in Texas. Evidence submitted by Texas to prove that its law did not discriminate was “unpersuasive, invalid, or both,” wrote David. S. Tatel, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in the panel’s...

by John HillStand With Arizona In a despicable ruling today, a federal court has blocked a Texas law that would require voters to present photo IDs to election officials before being allowed to cast ballots in November - in clear violation of a U.S. Supreme Court precedent upholding the practice. A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. ruled that the law, overwhelmingly supported by Texas voters and legislators, imposes "strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor" and that "a disproportionately high percentage of African-Americans and Hispanics in Texas live in poverty". This ruling is an outrage on several fronts....

Federal court rejects Texas voter ID law Updated 11:14 a.m., Thursday, August 30, 2012 WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal court has ruled against a Texas law that would require voters to present photo IDs to election officials before being allowed to cast ballots in November. A three-judge panel in Washington ruled Thursday that the law imposes "strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor" and noted that racial minorities in Texas are more likely to live in poverty. The decision involves an increasingly contentious political issue: a push, largely by Republican-controlled legislatures and governor's offices, to impose strict identification requirements on voters.