Free Republic

SIERRA VISTA, Arizona — Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels doesn’t mince words. He’s angry that local law enforcement and the citizens who call the Southwest border home have been left out of the decision making process when it comes to security and immigration reform. Dannels has lived along the border since 1984. He remembers when the dangers from smugglers circumventing the rocky, mountainous terrain were few and far between. Now, he says, a different breed of narcotics traffickers has amassed weapons, technology and small armies of death; threatening not only the stability of Mexico but U.S. national security as well....

A sudden influx of illegal immigrants from Mexico requesting asylum is overwhelming immigration agents in San Diego, forcing agencies to rent hotel rooms

Constitution Free Zones are what The Department of Homeland Security has established. The federal agency isn’t really securing the borders, but they are extinguishing the Fourth Amendment rights of nearly 197 million American citizens within 100 miles of the border….and the ocean.(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Before I begin, isn’t this really what “Freedom of the Press” is supposed to be about? Doesn’t it exist to keep elected officials and things they do in check and expose corruption and lawlessness? Yeah, I thought so too, but we aren’t hearing this on the evening news, are we? Anthony Gucciardi reports on these “Constitution Free Zones”...

NAHARIYA, Israel — The 3-year-old girl cried “Mama, Mama” over and over as a stranger rocked her and tried to comfort her. She had been brought from Syria to the government hospital in this northern Israeli town five days earlier, her face blackened by what doctors said was probably a firebomb or a homemade bomb. In the next bed, a girl, 12, lay in a deep sleep. She had arrived at the pediatric intensive care unit with a severe stomach wound that had already been operated on in Syria, and a hole in her back. Another girl, 13, has been...

The Homeland Security Department has lost track of more than 1 million people who it knows arrived in the U.S. but who it cannot prove left the country, according to an audit Tuesday that also found the department probably won’t meet its own goals for deploying an entry-exit system. The findings were revealed as Congress debates an immigration bill, and the Government Accountability Office’s report could throw up another hurdle because lawmakers in the House and Senate have said that any final deal must include a workable system to track entries and exits and cut down on so-called visa overstays....

Rep. Karen Bass meets with constituents to discuss measures being debated in Congress; the crowd is sharply divided. Keith Hardiner, 57, said he is the descendant of slaves. "They were separated from their families, but we had to fight and struggle," said the Silver Lake resident. "And now I feel like we are being set back and the country is being kind of stolen from us."

A Lake County property where two men allegedly kept a Los Angeles-area girl in a metal box and sexually abused her had been under federal investigation for the previous 18 months, court documents said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been investigating a 680-acre property in a remote section of Lakeport since December 2011.

by John HillStand With ArizonaOpen-borders fanatic Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) tells us that illegal aliens are "just trying to do the jobs Americans won't do".  Does that include rape and murder?Border Patrol agents arrested this week two previously deported men -- one a convicted child rapist and the other a convicted murderer -- trying to illegally enter the U.S.On Tuesday, Border Patrol agents assigned to the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station apprehended three people who made an illegal entry near Sunland Park. Investigation revealed that one of the them, identified as 66-year-old Valdemar Rodriguez Chaidez of Mexico, was convicted of...

It seems we are destined to have immigration reform at the forefront of the political discussion in America. What we should be doing is enforcing our current immigration laws, but that doesn't seem to be in the works. Many of our politicians believe we need a massive piece of legislation to overhaul the entire system. President Obama believes he can use executive orders to rewrite the way the system works. Consequently, he has already ordered DREAMER status to be given to any illegal immigrant claiming to be brought to America when they were a child. According to Chris Cane, President...

Murders in Tamaulipas jumped more than 90 percent and kidnapping reports more than doubled over last year to the highest rate among any state in Mexico, a new travel warning issued Friday by the U.S. State Department says. The State Department maintained its stance that U.S. citizens should defer all non-essential travel to Tamaulipas, as carjackings, armed robberies, gun battles and grenade attacks continue to pervade the region, including The data on kidnappings and murders in the Mexican state that borders South Texas sheds light into a state where such information is typically difficult to obtain from local officials. “These...

No Republican should vote for legislation that perpetuates amnesty for more than 11 million people illegally in our country, leaves our southern border open for even more illegal immigration and stifles economic growth. That is why we were two of the 68 senators who voted for the immigration bill that takes the most dramatic steps in history to secure our border, end perpetual amnesty and encourage job creation.

Rafael Cruz, the father of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, invigorated the crowd during tonight’s FreedomWorks Free the People event. Describing his own personal journey escaping Cuba and working hard to build a life for himself in the U.S., the elder Cruz noted comparisons that he believes exist between Fidel Castro’s governance and President Barack Obama’s executive actions. Upon rising to power, he said that Castro, like Obama, spoke about hope and change. While the message sounded good at the time, it didn’t take long for socialism to take root in his home country. And he paid the price.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the agents of the Gulf cartel claimed to be a police officer and handcuffed the man. The victim’s wife thought police had taken her husband, but when she called the local Texas authorities, she discovered that they had not arrested her husband. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the victim was beaten, blindfolded, gagged, and bound in duct tape. He was taken by the agents of the Gulf cartel to a nearby ranch on U.S. soil. Only then, say authorities, did the kidnappers realize they had taken an innocent man and that the victim was...

House Speaker John Boehner is sticking to his position: The House will not vote on the Senate-passed immigration bill. “I’ve made it clear and I’ll make it clear again, the House does not intend to take up the Senate bill,” Boehner said Monday. “The House is going to do its own job in developing an immigration bill." “The American people expect that we’ll have strong border security in place before we begin the process of legalizing and fixing our legal immigration system,” Boehner said. “We’re going to have a conversation with our members on Wednesday on how we would move...

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recently released a report, "Transnational Organized Crime in Central America and the Caribbean," that identifies both Mexican cartels and street gangs as conduits for individuals from Africa and Asia entering the U.S illegally. The report identifies the Islamic terrorist haven of Somalia as being one of the nations from which the illegal U.S. bound border-crossers are originating. The UN Threat Assessment--which refers to illegal aliens as “irregular migrants”--states: Central Americans are not the only ones being smuggled through Mexico to the United States. Irregular migrants from the Horn of Africa (Eritrea,...

My original commentary on the issue to spur thoughts about solutions. In all things concerning Politics, it comes down to "the Narrative." Nobody understands and utilizes this better than Democrats (much to our horror and dismay) To control the narrative, they have tried to discourage use of "illegals" preferring "undocumented workers". I read somewhere that the Obama Administration floated use of "customers" (but that one is a dud.) For our purposes I think "Trespassers" is far more powerful and direct to the point. Trespassing is a crime, not a pathway! I've been "tweeting" that for a while now. I hope...

Thanks to the last-minute “border surge” amendment tacked on to the Gang of Eight immigration-reform bill, the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) stands to nearly double its membership. They must be thrilled. Right? Not exactly. “I’m not sure where this idea came from, but we didn’t support it, and we didn’t ask for it,” Shawn Moran, the NBPC’s at-large vice president, tells National Review Online. “No one consulted us prior to this coming up. We don’t even have the infrastructure to handle 40,000 agents right now.” The NBPC is an AFL-CIO–affiliated union representing more than 17,000 border-patrol agents and support...

Businesses won a victory in the Senate immigration bill through measures to boost access to foreign workers. Now, they are moving to protect those provisions as they face a much tougher sell in the House. The lobbying push started even before the Senate on Thursday passed its sweeping rewrite of immigration laws. Businesses in the agriculture, manufacturing, high-tech and other sectors are arguing that they need legislation to alleviate labor shortages restraining their own growth and their local economies. "What we're struggling with is convincing lawmakers that there's not a line of individuals waiting to get on our job sites,"...

Wall-E-Like Farming Robots Could Replace Undocumented Workers and Save the US Billions Despite advancements in mechanization within US agriculture, some menial jobs are still best left to human workers. Problem is, federal crackdowns on undocumented laborers have decimated that workforce. The Harvester automaton could provide a cheap, readily available labor force without the threat of raids by the INS. The US agriculture industry is worth about $300 billion annually—half from livestock production, the other half from crops. However, some of the most basic jobs in this industry still have to be performed by people. Jobs like offloading potted plants from...

This is a by-party breakdown of the vote.Measure Number: S. 744 (Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act )Measure Title: A bill to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes. Bill passes 68-32. Democrats for (52): Baldwin (D-WI) Baucus (D-MT) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Blumenthal (D-CT) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Coons (D-DE) Cowan (D-MA) Donnelly (D-IN) Durbin (D-IL) Feinstein (D-CA) Franken (D-MN) Gillibrand (D-NY) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Heinrich (D-NM) Heitkamp (D-ND) Hirono (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kaine (D-VA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Landrieu (D-LA) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Manchin (D-WV) McCaskill...

Wednesday was blowback day. On Monday, 15 Republicans voted with every Democrat to END DEBATE on a phony "Border Surge" amendment which had been released just 72 hours before, and had ZERO hearings or hours of debate. It was disgraceful. It reeked of the same process by which ObamaCare was shoved down our throats by Pelosi & Co. And worse still, the promises of "700 miles of border fence" and a "massive deployment of force" to our border were soon revealed to be complete and utter LIES, as DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has unlimited discretion NOT to build fencing and...

Obamacare poses a tricky problem for supporters of the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill. It would be too politically toxic to give illegal immigrants amnesty and taxpayer subsidies under Obamacare, so the Senate bill prohibits "registered provisional immigrants" (individuals who are now residing illegally in the United States granted legal status under the bill) from receiving Obamacare subsidies. But in so doing the Senate's immigration bill would create a big financial incentive for some employers to hire non-citizens granted legal status over American citizens.As the Washington Examiner's Philip Klein recently reported: "Under Obamacare, businesses with over 50 workers that employ...

Republicans (and red state Democrats) used to tell voters amazing things about their opposition to amnesty. Then they got elected and supported legislation that actually weakens border security and puts people on a path not just to legalization, but to citizenship, before ever securing our borders. 1. Rubio: “I would vote against anything that grants amnesty because I think it destroys your ability to enforce the existing law and I think it’s unfair to the people who are standing in line and waiting to come in legally. I would vote against anything that has amnesty in it.” 2. Corker: “We...

Via the Corner, he’s a little cranky today. McCain goes after Neb Sen Deb Fischer on border security: "She's so ill-informed…I don't know where to begin."— Todd Zwillich (@toddzwillich) June 25, 2013 I’m not sure what she said to warrant that but I’ll update when I do. Maybe she said we should “build the danged fence�? You know how much McCain hates that.This “Berlin Wall� talking point is a clever one for two reasons. One: It signals to amnesty shills that McCain and the Gang of Eight are still on their side, even though they’ve grudgingly agreed to extra border...

The bipartisan push to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws took a major step forward Monday evening when the Senate endorsed a proposal to substantially bolster security along the nation’s southern borders as part of measure that would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country. Republicans and advocacy groups opposed to the bill also offered loud complaints: that the legislation was drafted behind closed doors by a small group of senators; that the bill was too long and not given ample time for discussion; that the legislation needed to be stronger when it came...

(BREITBART) — Legendary Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward criticized the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill process, and the new rush to pass the repackaged bill with the amendment. Woodward added that “when you pass complicated legislation and no one has really read the bill” then “the outcome is absurd.”

As the countdown continues to Obamacare taking full effect in 2014, and while senators wrestle with details of an immigration overhaul that seem to change daily, California officials are having their own meetings. They’re figuring out how to break the key promise that Obamacare would not be used to pay for the health care of millions of people living in the country illegally. That’s according to an article in Friday’s New York Times, though it doesn’t quite put it that way. Making the case for the Times article is Daniel Zingale, a top executive with the California Endowment, a health...

Analysts looking through the new border security deal in the Senate say it includes waivers that would let Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refuse to build any new fencing or install the new technology the plan lays out in close detail. The senators who struck the deal late this week said they were trying to take the decision-making away from the Obama administration and ensure that new fencing and technology would be deployed, but the latest version gives Ms. Napolitano or her successors the ability to waive or ignore those requirements. ... A number of Republicans said they didn’t trust...

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) blasted the Senate's border security amendment to its immigration bill, touted as a breakthrough for the controversial legislation. Sessions alleged that it does not hire any new border agents until years after its presumed passage. Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and John Hoeven (R-ND) gave reassurances on Thursday that their amendment would enact tough border security provisions before any legalization of new immigrants could occur. Corker and Hoeven stated on Fox News Friday that their amendment would bring a “surge” to border security. The provisions of the amendment include 20,000 additional border patrol agents, 700 miles of...

Two brothers who worked as Border Patrol agents were sentenced to at least 30 years in prison each for smuggling hundreds of immigrants into the United States, crimes that the judge termed a threat to national security. U.S. District Court Judge John Houston sentenced Raul Villarreal on Friday to 35 years in prison for being the ring leader and ordered him to pay a $250,000 fine. His brother, Fidel Villarreal, was sentenced to 30 years for managing the illicit business. The sentences are among the longest given to border law enforcement officials for corruption.

Marco Rubio is likable. That likability is his chief asset. Even as he champions a wildly unpopular bill among his own base, his numbers remain high. It’s not just magic. Rubio is everywhere. If you tune in to Univision, you can hear him promising legalization. If you watch FOX News, you’ll hear him express disappointment in his own bill, almost sounding as he might not vote for the very thing that he has staked his entire career on. There are many Rubios. At times it seems as if there are as many Rubios as there are Obama. A flock of...

It’s simply baffling that the House Republican leadership has now changed the subject to granting amnesty to millions of people who are illegally in the country. My constituents know I have always been an advocate of legal immigration. The United States is a melting pot of various nationalities, and this has contributed to our overall success as a nation. The Senate’s Gang-of-Eight immigration bill goes about immigration reform exactly backwards. First they seek to legalize at least 11 million people illegally here now and then trust the Obama administration to secure the border later. We should have learned our lesson...

Eric Boling interviews Ted Cruz regarding the border amendment in the immigration legislation.

Thursday night on Fox News’s "The O’Reilly Factor," host Bill O’Reilly came out in full-scale support for the immigration reform bill currently making its way through the Senate. Despite its border security shortcomings, O’Reilly said, “it looks like the secure border is in reach – at least somewhat.” He continued, “Talking Points supports immigration reform, even though I well understand the new law will be somewhat chaotic…will be a magnet for more people to come here illegally, which is why we need stepped up security around the border.” He concluded, “I hope this bill does become law.” Multiple Republican senators...

A “deal” on border security may get attached to the Senate immigration bill, but not everyone is in love with it. While the new amendment has been hailed as a “deal” that will bring new votes on board with reform, Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and David Vitter, R-La., doused the idea in cold, border-security-first water Tuesday afternoon as Corker and Hoeven were unveiling it. “I do not think this amendment is going to touch many of the objections that I spoke about,” Sessions, R-Ala., told reporters after a news conference hosted by conservative senators and the group Tea Party Patriots....

The shameless dishonesty emanating from the proponents of the Gang of Eight Bill is remarkable even by Washington standards. Today they’re touting an epic “tough border security” amendment that’s supposed to rally sufficient support to give the bill unstoppable momentum going into the House. It’s a lie wrapped in a sham inside a farce. I repeat once again: There is NO border security in the bill. Read the language pertaining to the bill’s border security. It’s easy to do. It’s in English, with passable grammar and appropriate punctuation. To appreciate just how insultingly meaningless the “tough border security” amendment is,...

Last week, government watchdog Judicial Watch issued a report that showed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) abandoning ordinary background checks due to a surge in amnesty applications as a result of President Obama’s executive action last year. If DHS cannot manage a few hundred thousand temporary amnesty applications, it is scary to think about how it will handle 10 million or more amnesty applications that would occur as a result of the Senate’s immigration reform bill. Under the Senate’s immigration bill, S. 744, the vast majority of the estimated 11.5 million unlawful immigrants would be given registered provisional immigrant...

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) has a problem with the Senate’s sweeping immigration overhaul proposal: it “disadvantages women.” In a conversation with The Washington Post’s Brook Silva-Braga on The Fold, the freshman senator decried the bill for moving immigration policy to a two-tiered system that reduces people to points. Awarding foreigners for their level of education or work experience “institutionalizes and sets in concrete the unequal opportunities that women have in these countries,” she said.

Early Thursday morning, the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators will announce an agreement to strengthen border security.

Washington Examiner‘s Conn Carroll compares the text of Cornyn’s amendment with the language it replaces–and it turns out that the amendment isn’t as bad as feared. It’s worse! Specifically: 1) It keeps the basic “legalization first” structure of the Gang of 8. That is, illegal immigrants are near-immediately given “provisional” legal status. Only then do promised enforcement improvements kick in. If Cornyn conditioned legalization on enforcement, he might actually come close–as close as he could come–to a “guarantee” that the enforcement measures would in fact be carried out. Instead, it’s “Give us legalization and we’ll give you enforcement in the...

The Cornyn amendment does not substantially change the border control metrics in the Gang of 8’s bill—in fact, it uses the same 90% apprehension-rate measure that is easily manipulated. The Gang of 8 bill requires “persistent surveillance” of the entire border and a 90% “effectiveness rate” (defined as deterring or apprehending 90% of illegal crossings). Cornyn’s amendment requires “situational awareness” (meaning having surveillance in place) and a 90% “apprehension rate.” There is no meaningful distinction between these metrics...

Felons Freed Over 2000 Dangerous Illegal Release By Obama Admin Borders Wide Open Documentary Reveals Potential Amnesty Issues!! - Wake Up America Border 'In' Security Dangerous Illegals Freed After White House Safety Push

We say, of course, that this will be the very last, very final, never-again, we're-not-kidding-this-time amnesty. The problem is that we say exactly the same thing with every new reform. And everyone knows it's phony. What do you think was said in 1986 when we passed the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration reform? It turned into the largest legalization program in American history — nearly 3 million people got permanent residency. And we are now back at it again with 11 million more illegals in our midst.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said late Tuesday that he supports securing the United States border with Mexico with a double-tiered fence but voted against an amendment to the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill that would have required exactly that. Rubio and his fellow Gang of Eight Republicans helped the Democrats kill an amendment from Sen. John Thune (R-SD) that would have required the double-tiered fence be built, as current law requires, before amnesty was granted to America’s at least 11 million illegal immigrants. The only other Republican to vote against the amendment was Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). “I support Senator...

About 8 million immigrants living unlawfully in the United States would initially gain legal status under sweeping legislation moving toward a vote in the Senate, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday, adding the bill would push federal deficits lower in each of the next two decades. The eagerly awaited report by Congress' non-partisan scorekeeping agency said the legislation would increase federal spending in the form of benefits for those gaining legal status, but those expenses would be more than offset by a rise in the labor force, increasing revenues.

Update 10:58pm Eastern: Yeah, I’m watching C-SPAN. The motion to concur in the House amendments to HR2764, the omnibus spending bill, just passed…76-17, with 1 present. More here. Update 10:20pm Eastern. Sen. Jim DeMint is on the Senate floor right now blasting the omnibus bill for gutting the fence, removing the ban on sanctuary cities, and funding illegal alien lawyers. Hear, hear. Update 1:20pm Eastern. Omnibusting links the section of the bill containing the border-gutting. Update 10:20am Eastern. The fence gets robbed, but the spending bill gives $10 million in “emergency” funding for attorneys of illegal immigrants?!!?! *** Fence? What...

Sen. Barbara Boxer plans to push for Washington to provide $250 million and perhaps more to help local and state governments pay the cost of healthcare to uninsured immigrants who seek legal status under legislation now before the Senate. Officials from Los Angeles County--home to an estimated 1.1 million people in the country illegally, one-tenth of the nation's total--have expressed concern that local taxpayers will be “left holding the bag” to pay for the healthcare costs.

Why is it necessary to legalize the roughly 11 million currently-illegal immigrants in the U.S. before newly enhanced border security and internal enforcement measures are in place? Sen. Marco Rubio, the leading Republican on the Senate’s Gang of Eight, says part of the reason is that the federal government can’t afford to secure the border on its own and needs financial help from the immigrants themselves, in the form of fines paid when they are legalized. Rubio made the statement during a radio interview after he voted against an amendment from Republican Sen. Charles Grassley that would have put off...

Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Chuck Schumer admitted it will take "years and years and years" to secure the border. The chief negotiator behind the Gang of 8 immigration bill was speaking against an amendment offered by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). The amendment would have blocked legalization of current illegal immigrants until the border was certified as secure for 6 months.

Rep. Steve King, a Republican from Iowa and the House's leading immigration hawk, complained Thursday about young immigrants who had shown up to protest his bill that would defund President Barack Obama's deferred action program. King wrote on Twitter that "20 brazen self professed illegal aliens have invaded my DC office. Obama's lawless order gives them de facto immunity from U.S. law." The congressman sponsored a measure to defund Obama's 2012 executive action that gave young unauthorized immigrants relief from deportation and a work permit if they attend or graduate high school and have no criminal record. One of the...