Free Republic

 A Mexican border town has "declared war" on the United States, vowing to clog the U.S. court system with illegal immigrants, because, city officials say, the U.S. Border Patrol is dumping in their town Mexican nationals caught crossing the border illegally. Officials from Agua Prieta, a Mexican city of about 130,000, are also claiming that the U.S. government has repeatedly neglected to inform them about new waves of immigrants before they are routed there from points in the U.S. after capture. Consequently, Agua Prieta leaders are teaching Mexican nationals how to cross into the U.S. and stay there, by instructing...

. PORTLAND - Fictitious Social Security numbers and green cards are cheap and widely available, and getting them is the first step for many undocumented immigrants arriving in Oregon. But workers and federal officials say increased immigration enforcement - such as June's raid at the Fresh Del Monte Produce plant in North Portland and the detention of 167 workers - has pushed some undocumented workers to shift from forgery to identity theft. “Enforcement is deterring people, but it's also having another effect,” said Kevin Sibley, unit chief for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's work site enforcement. “Aliens are finding it...

Backers of a complex and contentious immigration overhaul resorted to a rare parliamentary procedure today to speed disposition of amendments that threaten to derail the bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., introduced a 373-page “clay pigeon” amendment that encompassed 27 separate amendments as a means of moving the chamber toward a final vote on the bill (S 1639) before the Fourth of July recess begins this weekend. Reid is breaking the omnibus amendment into 27 individual parts, with votes on each either before or after tomorrow’s scheduled cloture vote to limit debate on the bill itself. That showdown will require...

This morning President Bush tried to take on critics of his stance on immigration while casually dropping by (along with a big press contingent that set up long before he arrived) a meeting among his key officials dealing with the issue. And, in defending the bill pending in the Senate, he said: “I’ve heard all the rhetoric — you’ve heard it, too — about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you’ve got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that.” At first blush, it looked like some clever political trickery: redefine your opponents’...

The American people stood up and achieved a great victory two weeks ago when the Kennedy/Bush/LaRaza/Big Business immigration “reform” bill was stalled in the Senate. However, as sure as the sun rises ever day, our politicians seem hell-bent on selling our country up the river to cheap, illegal labor and Democratic-leaning immigrant votes. Columnist William Rusher nails the problem on the head that is facing conservative Republicans who want real immigration reform, not necessarily deportation of 12 million people, but real, true reform and border enforcement. He echoes exactly what I have been saying for over a year about this...

Duncan Hunter responds to the President’s offer to spend $4.4 billion on additional border security

PORTLAND, Ore. - Federal agents on Tuesday raided the offices of a food processing plant suspected of employing hundreds of illegal workers who used Social Security numbers that belonged to other people or were made up. More than 165 plant workers were detained to be processed for possible deportation, officials said, and three people were indicted on immigration, illegal documents and identity theft charges. The raid at American Staffing Resources Inc. offices at a Fresh Del Monte Produce fruit and vegetable processing plant was based on an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Social Security Administration that began...

Clear Thinking on Immigration by Andrew M. Yuengert Amid the heated rhetoric and dubious claims made on both sides of the immigration debate – that any concerns about immigration are evidence of racism, that immigrants are ruining the economy – we should all take a deep breath and call to mind the following points: There is a right to immigrate, but it is not absolute. Immigrants are people of great dignity, most of them are very poor, and we should not exclude their interests from our discussions about immigration policy. They have a claim on the generosity of a generous...

Headline only so far...

AGUA DEL ESPINO, Mexico - The two women worked in silence. Laura Teresa Gomez Santos patted a ball of masa and slapped it onto a tortilla press. Her husband's mother, Ignacia Zavaleta Rios, stirred a pot of simmering black beans. They tried to hush the barking dogs and quiet the roosters, afraid they might miss the sound of the phone. Laura's husband, Celestino Garcia Zavaleta, 20, had been caught by Border Patrol while trying to cross into the United States. Two days before, one of his brothers, who lives in the United States, had called to say Celestino had been...

Sierra Vista resident Jim Behnke, left, talks Friday with U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, in Benson. (Bill Hess-Herald/Review) Herald/Review BENSON — U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo says that when it comes to understanding Americans’ anger about the border, the House of Representatives has got it and the Senate doesn’t. And, he said, the American people want the border with Mexico secured and the president enforcing U.S. immigration law. During a morning stop in Benson, the Colorado Republican pointed to the recently passes bill in the House that requires building 700 more miles of wall along the southern boundary, along with...

Death and Deliverance The desert swallows another border crosser, but her father is determined to find her body. By Richard Marosi, Times Staff Writer Arivaca, Ariz. Trudging through a sun-baked expanse filled with cactus and mesquite, Cesareo Dominguez looked into the sky and saw eight circling vultures. For 21 days, he had walked the Arizona desert looking for the body of his daughter, Lucresia. She had left their village in the mountains of central Mexico in June. Led by a band of smugglers, she had crossed the border with her son, Jesus, 15, and her 7-year-old daughter, Nora. The children...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A ragged fence and a canyon called Smugglers Gulch mark the westernmost stretch of the California-Mexico border, a favorite crossing point for illegal immigrants and drug runners.