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<p>Five illegal immigrants armed with at least two AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifles were hunting for U.S. Border Patrol agents near a desert watering hole known as Mesquite Seep just north of the Arizona-Mexico border when a firefight erupted and one U.S. agent was killed, records show.</p>

The president, in a push to get out the Latino vote, says Republicans in Congress have been a stumbling block. A recent poll showed Latinos generally unenthusiastic about the coming elections. In an effort to energize Latino voters, President Obama defended his administration’s efforts to work for a comprehensive immigration plan, while adding that he was frustrated by the failures of Congress to deal with the issue. In an interview with Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo, recorded when Obama was in Los Angeles last week, the president blamed Republicans for refusing to work on the needed legislation. As he has in the...

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., on Sunday told Fox News he and his colleagues are trying to determine whether the administration has seriously considered mass legalization for illegal immigrants based on a newly discovered memo outlining ways to grant legalization without going through Congress. The draft memo, first obtained by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley's office from the U.S. Customs & Immigration Services, outlines ways the administration was exploring to legalize swaths of illegal immigrants "in the absence of Comprehensive Immigration Reform," according to Fox News. "Then this 11-page memo has gotten out, and it's not alleged anymore," Vitter told Fox...

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that the Obama administration supports “no enforcement” of immigration law as he defended Arizona’s controversial statute that gives police new powers to question people they suspect are in the country illegally. The Justice Department is suing to block the statute, claiming it illegally preempts federal law. “It should come as no surprise that any number of people who advocate open borders and advocate no enforcement of the law, including this current administration, are trying to throw up these roadblocks,” Hayworth said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.” Hayworth is challenging Sen. John...

WASHINGTON — Religious leaders and lawmakers traded Scripture passages Wednesday at a congressional hearing on whether there's an ethical imperative to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. Arguing for a comprehensive immigration package with a guest-worker program, Richard Land , the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission , quoted from Matthew, Leviticus and Micah in pressing for action on the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S.

A Virginia lawmaker looking to enact an immigration law similar to Arizona's is challenging the Obama administration to come at his state with a lawsuit, too, saying he hopes the Justice Department has "so many targets" they can't focus. Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart told The Washington Post that the Obama administration's lawsuit against Arizona will probably fall flat. He claimed Arizona is on "firm footing" and encouraged other jurisdictions to follow Arizona's lead.

The White House invited four of the country’s top evangelical pastors to attend President Obama’s speech this morning calling for immigration reform. ... The Rev. Leith Anderson, President, National Association of Evangelicals. NAE is the nation’s largest evangelical group and has long sought to be a moderate evangelical alternative to the Christian Right. Dr. Richard Land, President, Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. ... worries that conservatives will burn bridges with the country’s fast-growing Hispanic bloc if they take a hard anti-immigrant line. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Council. Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of the...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will give a major speech Thursday calling for action to fix America's broken immigration system, though few observers believe any major reform can pass this year. Obama will speak at American University in Washington in an effort to ignite new momentum behind the massive and politically problematic drive to secure US borders and deal with millions of illegal immigrants. "He thought this was a good time to talk plainly with the American people about his views on immigration," White House deputy spokesman Bill Burton said on Wednesday. "He thinks this debate is about accountability --...

Several Senators have learned of a possible plan by the Obama Administration that would provide a mass Amnesty for the nation's 11-18 million illegal aliens. Led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), eight Senators addressed a letter to the President asking for answers to questions about a plan that would allow DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to provide an amnesty if they can't secure enough votes for a bill in the Senate. The letter that was sent to Pres. Obama earlier today asks the President for clarification on the use of deferred action or parole for illegal aliens. The executive actions are...

Secure Communities strategy prioritizes immigration enforcement actions against convicted criminal aliens RICHMOND, Va.- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Secure Communities was activated as of last week in every county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This biometric information sharing strategy enables ICE to identify any alien booked into local law enforcement's custody for a crime. This capability is part of ICE's comprehensive strategy to improve and modernize the identification and removal of criminal aliens from the United States. Formerly, during the booking process, arrestees' fingerprints were checked for criminal history information only against the biometric database maintained by the...

"We can Help... Sec. of Labor, Hilda Solis: "Every worker in America has the right to be paid fairly, whether documented or not." 1-866-487-9243

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- Mexico condemned the shooting of a 15-year-old boy by a U.S. Border Patrol agent Thursday through diplomatic correspondence and an angry phone call to the Homeland Security secretary. Some Mexican politicians called for the agent's extradition to face Mexican justice.

Security: After letting Mexico's president trash Arizona's immigration law and his immigration enforcement chief say he won't enforce it, the president wants to send a token National Guard contingent to the border. There's something disingenuous about the president's plan to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops to the Arizona border to help the Border Patrol catch illegal aliens. His director of immigration and customs enforcement, John Morton, has said he might not enforce immigration crimes reported by Arizona officials, though the state's new law merely copies federal law. Morton is director of ICE, not chief justice of the Supreme Court. He...

Immigration: An Arizona official asks a good question: If California wants to boycott Arizona over the way it enforces federal law, what about the electricity California gets from there? The problem with righteous indignation is that when others call you on it and tell you to put your money where your mouth is, it can cause an embarrassing leak in your hot air balloon. Gary Pierce, a commissioner on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission, has done just that, calling the bluff of the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Pierce wrote Villaraigosa a letter saying in essence that...

WASHINGTON -- Confronting soaring frustration over illegal immigration, President Barack Obama on Wednesday condemned Arizona's crackdown and pushed instead for a federal fix the nation could embrace. He said that will never happen without Republican support, pleading: "I need some help." In asking anew for an immigration overhaul, Obama showed solidarity with his guest of honor, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who called Arizona's law discriminatory and warned Mexico would reject any effort to "criminalize migration." The United States and Mexico share a significant economic and political relationship that stands to be damaged the more the nations are at odds over...

ABC News' Karen Travers reports: During First Lady Michelle Obama's visit to an elementary school in Silver Spring, Md., Wednesday, a second grade female student brought up immigration reform in a very personal way. The student shyly raised her hand and said, "My mom ... she says that Barack Obama is taking everybody away that doesn't have papers." Mrs. Obama replied:"Yeah, well that's something that we have to work on, right? To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That's exactly right." The girl then said quietly, "But my mom doesn't have any...

Many people on the left believe that they are tolerant because they are pro-choice, favor gay marriage and are generally socially liberal. But that is not tolerance. Tolerance is putting up with viewpoints and behavior that you don’t agree with. Liberals and leftists have a very hard time with that. For the second time in two years, agreeing with a majority of Americans is verboten at the Miss USA beauty pageant. In 2009, Carrie Prejean

“I want you to instruct your, whatever the communication is -- the people, some of them, oppose immigration reform are sitting in those pews and you have to tell them that this is a ‘manifestation of our living the gospels.’ Our patron saint of San Francisco, St. Francis of Assisi, he said, ‘Preach the gospel - sometimes use words.’ We need the words to be said because it isn’t being picked up automatically,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at the Catholic Community Conference.

The text of the story is from the Associated PressWatch the Youtube video

President Barack Obama has endorsed one of the more inventive efforts to protest Arizona’s new immigration law, taking note of special jerseys that the NBA’s Phoenix Suns are wearing that call the team “Los Suns.’’ “I know that a lot of you would rather be watching tonight’s game —the Spurs against `Los Suns,’ from Phoenix,’’ the president told a crowd celebrating Cinco De Mayo at the White House on Wednesday evening. The Suns decided to wear the jerseys after Arizona’s governor signed legislation aimed at reducing illegal immigration to the state. Suns owner Robert Sarver, reflecting the anger of many...

With immigration reform back on the front page thanks to Arizona's new controversial law, it's going to be very interesting to see how the Obama-loving press report what he did concerning this issue when he was a junior senator from Illinois in 2007. For instance, David Broder's "How Congress Botched Immigration Reform" published in Thursday's Washington Post didn't even mention Barack Obama's name. This seems particularly odd given this paragraph (h/t Jennifer Rubin): But once the bill hit the floor, it was attacked from both flanks. The most conservative Republicans -- Jim DeMint of South Carolina, David Vitter of Louisiana...

What a difference 24 hours makes. Yesterday President Obama appeared to close the door on addressing immigration reform this year, saying, "We've gone through a very tough year, and I've been working Congress pretty hard. I know there may not be an appetite to dive into another controversial issue." But today, Democrat leaders in Washington announced a new effort just days after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill that enables her state to enforce illegal immigration. The reaction to the Arizona law has ranged from condemnation by Obama to the sometimes violent protests by illegals who don't want to...

August 2006: "We live in a country of laws. We don't do things sort of based on one person's situation no matter how painful."

Obama Administration Considers Challenges To Arizona Immigration Law Federal attorneys are examining legal options to prevent the strict new rules from taking effect this summer. Richard A. Serrano and Peter Nicholas, Tribune Washington Bureau April 29, 2010 A team of top government lawyers has quietly begun studying legal strategies for the Obama administration to mount a challenge to Arizona's new illegal immigration law, including the filing of a federal lawsuit against the state or joining a suit brought by others who believe the bill unfairly targets Latinos. President Obama and Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. have denounced the law,...

A recent report by the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), a division of the U.S. Justice Department, downplays the threat of terrorists crossing the U.S.-Mexico border even as it paints a picture of a border wide open to the smuggling activities of Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), whose poisons and criminal co-conspirators are now found in every region of the United States. The NDIC’s National Drug Threat Assessment for 2010, released on March 25, twice appears to assert that there have been no documented cases of terrorists illegally entering the United States across the Mexican border, an assertion contradicted by...

The Justice Department is reportedly moving toward challenging the Arizona law. If true, it would be a rare case where the United States directly challenges a state law as opposed to waiting to intervene as an amicus. Given the increasing number of cities and citizens planning to challenge the law, there is no paucity of plaintiffs requiring such a challenge. I will be discussing this issue tonight on Countdown. An early challenge by the Justice Department would indicate that it is not going to wait to create an “as applied” challenge based on actual enforcement. That would make it more...

Concerns are mounting that Senate Majority Leader Reid might try to advance a hastily drafted immigration reform bill to satisfy demands that legislation is introduced by May 1. Sources said such a move would be disruptive to business and labor groups, which resumed delicate negotiations Wednesday to find compromises on several issues, including how to bring workers into the country to meet labor needs. Talks had broken down last month but resumed in hopes of producing a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would be introduced by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Reid and congressional Democratic leaders are...

Ariz. Immigration Law Puts Obama In Tight Spot By Earl Ofari Hutchinson 04/24/2010 President Obama wasted no time in denouncing Arizona's hard-nosed anti-immigration law. He called it misguided, irresponsible and a threat to civil liberties. Obama's right. The bill is wasteful, unenforceable, and more ominously virtually a license for police to engage in racial profiling. But it's also popular in Arizona and judging from polls and underground sentiment of millions of Americans on immigration, popular with them too. Arizona officials claim they had to act in large part because the federal government has dithered, stalled, and back pedaled countless times...

PHOENIX - Gov. Jan Brewer ignored criticism from President Obama on Friday and signed into law a bill supporters said would take handcuffs off police in dealing with illegal immigration in Arizona, the nation's busiest gateway for human and drug smuggling from Mexico. With hundreds of protesters outside the state Capitol shouting that the bill would lead to civil rights abuses, Brewer said critics were "overreacting" and that she wouldn't tolerate racial profiling. "We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act," Brewer said after signing the law. "But decades of inaction and misguided policy have...

Washington (CNN) -- The push for immigration reform may be on the front burner for congressional Democrats, but sources say that ultimately, they believe the issue is unlikely to have enough votes to pass. Democrats say the goal is to try to take it up in the Senate before discussing the Supreme Court nomination this summer and spend the rest of the session before the midterm election on the politically potent issue of jobs. One big reason for the immigration reform push, sources say, is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in a brutal battle to win re-election in...

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday warned that without federal immigration reform the door would be open to "misguided efforts" such as a new Arizona law that has raised questions of civil rights. Obama pressed for immigration reform at a White House Rose Garden ceremony in which 24 members of the U.S. military originally from China, Mexico, Ethiopia and other countries became American citizens.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama criticized Arizona's tough immigration bill as irresponsible Friday and said his administration is examining whether it would violate civil rights. Obama said the federal government must act responsibly to reform national immigration law—or "open the door to irresponsibility by others." "That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe," Obama said.

President Obama on Friday said Arizona's proposed law making it a state offense to be an illegal immigrant represents "irresponsibility," and said he's directed his administration to examine the law and see if it violates civil rights.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Friday harshly criticized a proposed law in Arizona to crack down on illegal immigration and said his administration would examine the measure to see if it is consistent with federal law. Speaking at a naturalization ceremony for active-duty members of the military, Mr. Obama also made a fresh pitch for comprehensive immigration legislation, which Democratic congressional leaders have said they will try to move this year.

Calling a proposed crackdown on immigrants in Arizona "misguided," President Barack Obama said Friday the federal government will closely monitor the situation in the state for possible civil rights violations. A bill approved by the Arizona legislature would make it a crime not to carry proof of legal status and would empower police to ask about a person's immigration status if they have doubts. The bill has not yet been signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican. Obama said the legislation "threatened to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between...

President Obama urged Congress on Friday to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, saying that inaction would lead to "misguided efforts" and "irresponsibility by others." The president also said an immigration bill currently on the Arizona governor's desk was "misguided," and said he has ordered his staff to "closely monitor the situation" to make sure the measure will not violate people's civil liberties. The bill, already passed by the state House and Senate, would require authorities in Arizona to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are in the country illegally.

Border states have become frustrated beyond all patience with the federal government’s inability — and reluctance — to enforce immigration laws. In Arizona, voters passed a law authorizing local and state police to investigate potential immigration violations, a measure that had overwhelming and bipartisan support in the state. Instead of acknowledging the failure of several administrations to deal with immigration violations, including his own, Barack Obama lashed out at the state’s voters instead — and threatened to pursue civil-rights legal actions against them:

A congressman from the president’s home state is threatening that he will urge Latino voters to stay home this November if the Democratic Party does not make a concerted effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Ill.) is arguably President Barack Obama’s biggest Democratic critic in Congress. And he’s not fond of Obama’s top advisers at the White House, either. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) member has strongly criticized the administration’s policy on deportation and questioned its commitment to far-reaching reform. Some Democrats have felt little urgency in pursuing the controversial issue, partly because they see no risk...

The Department of Homeland Security has just reported that during 2009, they issued 1,130,818 new Green Cards to foreign nationals, allowing them to work legally in this country. That number represents the fourth highest number of cards issued in one year.

750,000 of the new Green Cards were given to the families of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

The top four recipient nations are as follows:

-Mexico…164,920 
-China…receiving 64,238
-Philippines…60,029
-India…57,304 

In Feb. 2009, the financial institution Merrill Lynch announced that the nation’s actual unemployment rate had reached 13.9 percent. A year later, that number had risen to 17.3 percent. This figure represents Americans...

Senator Harry Reid retreated today from having the Senate move quickly on immigration law changes, saying any overhaul would have to wait.“We won’t get to immigration reform this work period,” Mr. Reid, Democrat of Nevada  and the majority leader, told reporters after the private weekly luncheon of Democratic senators.Over the weekend, Mr. Reid raised the hopes of immigration advocates by suggesting at a rally in Las Vegas that he was ready to put immigration on the legislative front burner now that health care legislation was out of the way and Congress was returning from a two-week break.“We’re going to come...

Las Vegan Antonio Manriquez stood on the steps of the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse holding an American flag. Manriquez was one of nearly 3,500 immigration reform supporters who attended the Rally for America Saturday afternoon in downtown Las Vegas, which was hosted by Reform Immigration for America. The 45-year-old from Mexico City said he's an illegal immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years. He said he attended rally to push for comprehensive immigration reform, support others who are in the country illegally and to no longer live in fear of being separated from his three children, all...

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, told an exuberant crowd at an immigration rally Saturday in Las Vegas that Congress would start work on immigration overhaul as soon as lawmakers return this week. “We’re going to have comprehensive immigration reform now,” he said in a speech to more than 6,000 people, mostly immigrants. “We need to do this this year,” Reid said, drawing cheers from the crowd. Reid told the crowd he believes he has 56 Senate votes in support of the legislation. He outlined legislation that would include border security measures and a temporary guest worker program. To gain...

(snip) The Tucson paper's editorial board noted that he represents a border state affected by Washington's inaction. "Yes. Yes. I do. But so does the senator from New Mexico and the senators from California and all the border states all along. But it seems to me that the proposal should come, it's the obligation of the president of the United States to come forward with what he thinks is a proposal and then maybe we can all work together and get it resolved," he said. "So what have I done?" he added. "Not enough."Still, McCain said he expects to hold...

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, are believed to be on the cusp of introducing a new bill in the Senate on Comprehensive immigration reform. The Schumer/Graham initiative combines enforcement with earned legal status for immigrants who are out of status or came in illegally. Washington sources say they are ready to introduce the bill "any day now."

Supporters of an amnesty for illegal aliens are desperately scrounging for another Republican backer in addition to liberal Republican Lindsay Graham. With Republicans holding 41 seats in the Senate, plus several working class Democrats who will vote against an amnesty, another Republican backer is needed to make the amnesty appear ‘bipartisan.’ Even Graham appears to be reluctant to be the lone Republican supporter of the bill. "I urge the President to write a bill and see if he can get another Republican, see if he can convince the 16 Democrats who voted no the last time," he said during a...

Eliseo Medina, international executive vice-president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) made the following comments at a June 2009 Washington conference for America's Future Now!: Medina said that during the presidential election in November 2008, Latinos and immigrants "voted overwhelmingly for progressive candidates. Barack Obama got two out of every three voters that showed up." "Can you imagine if we have, even the same ratio, two out of three? Can you imagine 8 million new voters who care about our issues and will be voting?" Medina asked. "We will be creating a governing coalition for the long term, not just...

FRESNO, Calif. – Paula Medrano shifts uncomfortably on the doctor's examination table, holding out a wrist inflamed and swollen by arthritis. The 78-year-old has no health insurance, lives below the federal poverty level, and can't pay for the medication she needs. Just days before her appointment, President Barack Obama signed, with much fanfare, a historic bill to extend health care access to 32 million currently uninsured people.

The illegal immigration issue now boiling up as an overarching president and a Democrat Congress tackle the prospect of giving amnesty to 20 million illegal immigrants is merely a thinly veiled attempt register new Democrats for the 2010 and especially 2012 elections. Granting illegals amnesty is thought to be the way the liberal left will assure their ascendancy to an American socialist dictatorship. Anchor baby chain One correction ignored for decades is ending the anchor baby chain migration by which pregnant women come to America to deliver babies who automatically receive America citizenship. This then allows these babies to be...

The opening minutes of “The Senators’ Bargain,” a documentary film appearing tonight on HBO2, show Senator John McCain at a congressional hearing in 2006, reading out loud from a newspaper article describing the death from desert broiling that befalls many immigrants trying to cross the border illegally. “The brain cooks and the delirium starts,” the Republican senator from Arizona reads somberly, explaining why he will join Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, one of the most liberal Democrats, to sponsor a bill to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants. The documentary, directed by Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini,...

Like the movie villain Jason Voorhees who seems dead at the end of every movie but comes back for the next horror show, amnesty for illegal aliens isn't dead. It's back! Some people thought amnesty was dead when the people rose up against the Bush/Kennedy/McCain amnesty bill and kept it from becoming law. But they were wrong. The far left never gives up on a bad idea. They just keep bringing it back until they can either implement their mischief piecemeal, or have enough scumbags in congress to ram it through. To them the will of the people, like the...