Free Republic

Republicans are getting a lot of unsolicited advice about how to recover from last year's defeat, and most of it is either ignorant or coming from people who don't have Republican party victories in their game plan. One of the worst of these bits of advice is that Republicans should join a bipartisan push for immigration amnesty. Amnesty advocates shrink from using the word amnesty and try hard to shroud their message in deceptive words. So let's understand their vocabulary: reform, comprehensive, earned legal status and path to citizenship are all code words for amnesty. At the recent conservative jamboree...

A truck drives on the Mexican-side of the border fence between Naco and the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation area in this 2007 file photo. Two agents assigned to the Border Patrol's Naco station were shot Tuesday morning. One agent died. A U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed and another wounded early today in a shooting near the U.S.-Mexico border. The agents were on duty near Bisbee when the shooting occurred about 2 a.m., according to various wire reports. The wounded agent was airlifted to a hospital. He was reportedly shot in the ankle and buttocks, the Associated Press reported....

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, has spent about $9.8 million to store $44 million in steel that it bought but did not use to build fence along the U.S,-Mexico border, according to a report from the DHS Inspector General.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Newt Gingrich continued to shore up his right flank on immigration Thursday, signing a pledge to build a fence along the U.S. – Mexico border by the end of 2013 if he becomes president. The pledge follows comments he made earlier this week in South Carolina that were also intended to ease concerns among conservatives that Mr. Gingrich is not tough enough on immigration. Those concerns surfaced at a the most recent Republican primary debate during which Mr. Gingrich said he would like to find a path to legality for some of the roughly 11 million...

PHOENIX – Arizona is taking on immigration once again, with lawmakers collecting donations from the public to put a fence along every inch of the state's border with Mexico. It is an unprecedented effort by a state that is the busiest U.S. gateway for both illegal immigrants and marijuana.

At two campaign rallies in Tennessee on Saturday night, the Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said that part of his immigration policy would be to build an electrified fence on the country’s border with Mexico that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally. But by Sunday morning, in a dramatic change of tone, Mr. Cain, a former restaurant executive, said he was only kidding. “That’s a joke,” Mr. Cain told the journalist David Gregory during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where he was asked about the electrified fence. “That’s not a serious plan. I’ve also said...

Drug smugglers are endlessly creative when it comes to inventing ways to move marijuana, cocaine and other contraband from Mexico into the United States. In the latest innovation uncovered by law enforcement, smugglers in the border town of Nogales, Arizona were bringing drugs into the U.S. for the cost of a quarter. The parking meters on International Street, which hugs the border fence in Nogales, cost 25 cents. Smugglers in Mexico tunneled under the fence and under the metered parking spaces, and then carefully cut neat rectangles out of the pavement. Their confederates on the U.S. side would park false-bottomed...

Rick Perry can't get out of his own way. During the presidential debates, he has reviled three immigration issues that Republicans hold dear: passing mandatory E-Verify legislation, rejecting federal and state versions of the DREAM Act, and building a border fence.

According to the survey, which was released Monday, 28 percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support Perry as their party's presidential nominee, with Romney at 21 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is at ten percent, with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who's making his third bid for the White House, former Godfather's Pizza CEO and radio talk show host Herman Cain, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, all at seven percent. The poll indicates that Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is at four percent, with former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at three...

Governing Principle There can be no homeland security without border security, and there can be no higher priority than protecting our citizens. While our focus begins with preventing the worst of the violence currently raging in northern Mexico from spilling over into the United States, the violence is only part of the destruction that can result from a porous border. The free flow of drugs, weapons and people resulting from inadequate security can undercut economic development, education and trade. As such, they can hurt Texas families in every way imaginable, from loss of jobs to the loss of family members...

EXETER, N.H. — Rick Perry is struggling. Republicans in early voting states, once excited about the Texas governor's presidential bid, are openly questioning the strength of his candidacy. High expectations have been met by the sudden national scrutiny that comes with the front-runner bull's-eye. Perry is leading national polls, but he is also facing intensifying criticism from the right and left. Some Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire are expressing doubts, especially after debates in which rivals raised questions about his record on immigration, public health and Social Security. One national immigration group says Perry is finished. Conservatives are slamming...

Like a football team with a faltering ground game, drug smugglers are turning to an air attack in an effort to get their product past the new border fence in Nogales. Lt. Carlos Jimenez of the Nogales Police Department said that due to the increased height and strength of the new barrier, smugglers are having a hard time climbing or cutting through it. As a result, they are coming up with new ways of launching their product over the fence - including tossing football-shaped bundles of marijuana. snip "There were no receivers," he said after noting that no arrests had...

Rep. Ron Paul has a problem with the idea of a U.S. border fence.“The people that want big fences and guns, sure, we could secure the border,” the congressman noted. “A barbed wire fence with machine guns, that would do the trick. I don’t believe that is what America is all about.” “Every time you think about this toughness on the border and ID cards and REAL IDs, think it’s a penalty against the American people too. I think this fence business is designed and may well be used against us and keep us in. In economic turmoil, the people...

And now for a lighter moment from last night’s debate, or at least the weirdest moment. Jim Hoft calls this Ron Paul’s Checkpoint Charlie moment, but it’s really more like an apex of Paul’s paranoid band of libertarianism. In this exchange, Paul opposes building a border fence because he doesn’t believe it represents American values, which is a fair enough argument that one usually hears from Democrats. He then tips over into hilarity when he suggests that the US government might use it to stop Americans from fleeing to, er, Mexico:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO I immediately noted on...

Awful. Just Awful. But not surprising. The corrupt media will do anything ANYTHING to assist failed President Barack Obama, the worst jobs president since the Great Depression, in his re-election campaign next year. Texas Gov. Rick Perry won over some Republican voters at a backyard reception held Saturday at the Manchester home of Chuck Stephen and co-hosted by John Stephen, the former Republican gubernatorial nominee. (Shawne K. Wickham/Sunday News) And, the state-run media is TERRIFIED of Governor Rick Perry from Texas. Yesterday the AP reported this on Rick Perry’s campaign stop in New Hampshire: Speaking to hundreds of Granite State...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says he opposes a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico. Speaking to hundreds of New Hampshire voters at a private reception Saturday afternoon, the Texas governor says a fence would be ineffective and take too long to build. The comments, which produced one angry shout, expose a rift with some conservative voters over Perry's immigration record. Tea party activists in Texas have been particularly upset by his steady opposition to the fence. He also signed a law giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition for Texas universities.

Rick Perry called the idea of a wall across the entire U.S.-Mexico border “ridiculous” today in a stop in New Hampshire. “You got strategic fencing in some of the metropolitan areas – it’s very helpful,” the Texas governor said. “But the idea that you’re going to build a wall from Brownsville to El Paso is just -- it’s ridiculous on its face.” That was in the context of Perry saying how he'd asked Washington for 1,000 National Guard troops and how current efforts at border security are ineffective. Perry swatted at the Obama administration’s assertion that the “border is safer...

Note: article is paraphrased below. For original CNS article click on link above. For Arizona Republic article upon which the CNS article is based, click here. SUMMARY: A new law in Arizona will allow the state to construct its own border fence. The provisos are that it must be funded from donations and must get permission from landowners (both public and private) to allow the fence to be constructed on their land.

PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill into law that authorizes the construction of a fence along the state's portion of the U.S.-Mexico border, either with other states or by itself. She signed the bill Thursday, but her spokesman, Matt Benson, declined to comment Friday on why she signed it or whether she plans to invoke the authority.

The U.S.-Mexico federal border fence negatively affects minorities disproportionately, a study recently published by local university professors found. The environmental effects of the fence on the people of the region, something little focused on amid the heated political debate surrounding it, was investigated by University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College professors Jude Benavides and Jeff Wilson. "We do not want to speculate as to the intent of the government on where it was placed but the results are clear: the wall is in the backyard of those who would be least equipped to negotiate," Wilson, an environmental...

U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) Tuesday introduced bipartisan legislation, the Unlawful Border Entry Prevention Act, to allow for additional infrastructure to be built along the Southwest border. The bill provides the Secretary of Homeland Security with full discretionary authority to build as much as 350 miles of additional infrastructure on the border. The legislation is co-sponsored by congressmen Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.), Vista’s Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.), Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Ted Poe (R-Texas). It follows a report by the Government Accountability Office, stating that only 44 percent of the Southwest border is under operation...

A bill introduced in Congress today could lead to an additional 350 miles of fencing along the southwest border and would require the Department of Homeland Security to report to Congress when apprehension activity climbs 40 percent year over year, if it is approved. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, authored the bill, titled “Unlawful Border Entry Prevention Act,” in response to a Government Accountability Report that found 44 percent of the southwest border is under “operational control” and 15 percent is totally secure. The legislation is co-sponsored by Republicans Brian Bilbray, Solana Beach, Ed Royce, Fullerton, and Ted Poe, Texas, and...

The fence along the 240 km border with Egypt will be completed by the summer of 2012, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on a tour of the area Tuesday, saying he also wants to see a similar physical barrier built along the border with Jordan. Netanyahu helicoptered down to an area along the border, about an hour car drive north of Eilat, where he visited three and a half months ago. At that time work was just beginning on the barrier, while this time he looked out to see a five meter metal fence, covered with barbed wire, being erected...

Do good fences make good neighbours? Not along the India-Bangladesh border. Here, India has almost finished building a 2,000km fence. Where once people on both sides were part of a greater Bengal, now India has put up a "keep out" sign to stop illegal immigration, smuggling and infiltration by anti-government militants. This might seem unexceptional in a world increasingly hostile to migration. But to police the border, India's Border Security Force (BSF), has carried out a shoot-to-kill policy – even on unarmed local villagers. The toll has been huge. Over the past 10 years Indian security forces have killed almost...

Less than 18 seconds. That's how long it took two young women to climb a U.S.-Mexico border fence that costs millions of dollars in taxpayer money. In a video shot by filmmaker Roy Germano, two women show how easy it is to reach the top by climbing the fence's concrete-filled steel pipes in less than 18 seconds, MyFoxHouston.com reports.

The Department of Homeland Security has "largely defined but has not adequately implemented" controls over a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border promised for completion in 2009 and, as a result, the multibillion-dollar project is behind schedule and over budget, a government report says. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in a 63-page report released last week, said the department had failed to effectively manage the project, known as the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet), or give sufficient oversight to its prime contractor — resulting in costly rework and contributing to SBInets "well-chronicled history of not delivering promised capabilities and benefits...

Barbara "Hair on Fire" Espinosa of Scottsdale, AZ is down on the border today along with some 500 other Arizona citizens, at a Tea Party rally in support of Arizona's SB 1070 Immigration Law. Barbara is on private property, just west of Naco, and described her position as about 100 feet from the border fence. She says, "Right across from the border fence where we are, the property belongs to the drug cartel and the area is used to transport drugs and humans into the United States. Senate candidate JD Hayworth is there and has been talking to the ranchers...

While campaigning in Nevada Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told an audience of mostly Hispanic voters: "I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay. Do I need to say more?" Watch the video here:(snip) Reid's racially-charged comments come as the Nevada Democrat is trying to boost Hispanic turnout in his bid for reelection this November. Polls show, however, that Reid's positions on immigration are very unpopular with Nevada voters in general. Reid supports the Obama administration's lawsuit against Arizona over its immigration law, but 63 percent of Nevada voters oppose the lawsuit, according to...

Rep King says that since he is from the construction background, he decided to figure out what it would cost to protect the border with a fence, a concrete wall, and a road. For 2 million per mile, he says he could make it happen and it would still be cheaper than the 6 million per mile we are spending right now in enforcement. I love this guy! see video at link

Immigration: Arizona's governor tells illegals if you want family unity, take your kids home with you. And a Tea Party candidate for the Senate says just being born here doesn't make you a citizen. Anchor babies, away! We've seen the photos of children holding signs at protests that read, "Don't deport my parents." They're called "anchor babies" because they're considered citizens by being born on American soil. You can't break up families, the argument goes, even to enforce the nation's immigration laws. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who had the audacity to copy federal law and then enforce it in cases...

“Gaza border: 2 terrorists killed” By JPOST.COM STAFF 06/01/2010 09:49 SNIPPET: “Two would-be Palestinian terrorists were killed on the Gaza border on Tuesday morning, as the IDF foiled and infiltration attempt. No IDF injures were reported.”

WASHINGTON -- The Senate late Thursday defeated Sen. Jim DeMint's bid to require completion of a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border within a year. The 52-45 vote against DeMint's measure largely followed party lines, with Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio the only Republican to oppose it. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Seneca, S.C., Republican, voted for the DeMint legislation. Four Democrats voted for setting a deadline to complete the border fence: Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, John Rockefeller of West Virginia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana. DeMint, a Greenville, S.C., Republican who helped lead opposition to...

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...

SNIPPET: "Israel Air Force jets attacked three tunnels in the Gaza Strip in a joint Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet operation on Thursday night, several hours after a Qassam rocket hit the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council. Two of the targets attacked were in the southern Strip and one was in the northern Strip. According to the IDF, terrorists were using the tunnels to try to infiltrate Israel. The IDF Spokesperson's Office said the tunnels were located about 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) from the border fence and that the targets were hit. There have been no reports of injuries among...

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing over Arizona’s attempt to enforce our nation’s immigration laws but not much information about how the federal government has dropped the ball. Four years ago, legislation to build 700-miles of double-layer border fence along the Southern border was supported by then-Sen. Barack Obama and signed into law by President Bush. Yet, only a fraction of that fencing is in place today. According to staff at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), only 34.3 miles double-layer fencing has been completed along the Southern border. Most of that fencing, 13.5 miles, is in Texas, while 11.8...

Arizona Rep. John Shadegg (who supports McCain) couldn't stop laughing at McCain's new 'Danged Fence' ad on "Morning Joe".

Illegal Immigration: Los Angeles' city council votes to boycott Arizona for its enforcement of existing federal law. No word yet on how China's human rights violations will be treated. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. The next time the Lakers play Los Suns in Phoenix, traveling fans are advised to bring their own snacks. The L.A. City Council voted 13-1 on Wednesday to economically boycott the state of Arizona for daring to protect its borders against the crime, violence and illegal immigration that recently took the life of an Arizona rancher and has made Phoenix the kidnapping capital of...

The can of worms has finally been opened by the legislators in Arizona regarding the illegal immigrant squatters there. Other states now realize that they too are a mirror image of foreign nationals moving into their communities, without the permission of the US Government or the American people. The fuse has been lite, owing to the building crime wave in Phoenix and other cities, which has encroached across the border. For at least twenty years or more of neglect, millions of illegal immigrants families have chosen to break the law of this sovereign country and trespass on its soil. Now...

Arizona has thrust a proverbial stake in the ground of our Southwest border; choosing to support legal immigration and take a stand against the violence and crime that accompanies the business of trafficking humans across international borders. We have seen numerous protests in response to Arizona’s new Immigration law. However, who is protesting and what are the motivations behind those protests? Are the protesters who we have seen breaking windows, assaulting cops, and carrying torches, just concerned citizens worried about the potential for harassment? Or are they radical Marxists just seizing on the opportunity to create more havoc in support...

Immigration: Arizona moves to protect its citizens from a raging border war, and the administration and its activist supporters cry racism. Why is antelope protection more important than protecting American lives?

Illegal Immigration: An Arizona rancher is murdered while patrolling his ranch. A gaping hole in the border fence and footsteps back to Mexico tell the tale. When will we put the National Guard back on the border? Robert N. Krentz Jr., 58, scion of one of the best-known and oldest ranching families in southeast Arizona, was found shot to death March 27 on his vast, remote ranch after radioing to his brother that he was checking out someone he believed to be an illegal immigrant. Krentz was found slumped over his ATV on his 35,000-acre ranch about 35 miles northeast...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has put the brakes on SBInet, the $3 billion plan to build a virtual fence along the U.S. border with Mexico. “Not only do we have an obligation to secure our borders, we have a responsibility to do so in the most cost-effective way possible,” Napolitano said in a statement Tuesday. “The system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border known as SBInet has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines.” With that in mind, Napolitano is withholding funding for the program’s first deployment until a review she ordered in January is finished....

Illegal Immigration: The government puts the brakes on a problem-plagued "virtual" fence on our border with Mexico. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned kind? If ever there was a shovel-ready project, this is it. The much-ballyhooed "virtual" fence that was supposed to monitor and control illegal immigration doesn't work and is being scrapped as we evaluate alternatives and rely on existing technology. After years of delay and billions of dollars already spent, Secretary Napolitano on Tuesday halted work on SBInet. The system involves cameras, sensors and radars designed to let a small number of dispatchers watch the border on computer monitors...

Border: The 2006 Secure Fence Act mandated the "possible" construction of a long wall to protect our frontier. Four years later, no wall, just a new seven-year delay. This is an embarrassment. It was almost a prelude to the Tea Parties now sweeping the nation. Millions of Americans, reacting to brazen demonstrations on U.S. soil by illegal immigrants, mobilized themselves to rouse Congress to do something about millions of illegal immigrants pouring into the U.S. Citizen activists shut down the Capitol Hill switchboard with their calls, formed border watches and marched in the streets. As a result, a shaken Congress...

USA Today - Link and headline only http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-02-04-border-security-budget_N.htm

Saudi Arabia, amid heavy fighting with Shi'ite rebels, has begun erecting another security fence along its border with Yemen. Saudi military sources said the Defense Ministry has overseen a fast-track project to construct a barbed wire fence along most of the 1,600-kilometer border with Yemen. The sources said the project reflected an urgent requirement for a physical barrier to block the flow of thousands of Shi'ite rebels and their supporters from Yemen to the Saudi kingdom. "The infiltration has reached massive proportions," a Saudi source said. "Thousands are crossing into the kingdom."

WASHINGTON — After several years of fighting the U.S.-Mexico border fence, a coalition of Texas elected officials is working with the Obama administration on ways to improve border ports and facilitate trade while fighting drug smuggling. The Texas Border Coalition's involvement with policymaking comes after a bitter tangle with the federal government over construction of the fence that Congress and the White House approved, but border business leaders and human rights groups opposed. “We've got to work together,” said Chad Foster, Eagle Pass mayor and the coalition's chairman. “But that is where the wheels came off the cart — when...

If you listen to the mainstream media, the swine flu pandemic, at least in the United States, is being spread by tourists and college students returning from spring break. Little or no mention is made of the thousands of illegal aliens streaming across our border from Mexico, some undoubtedly bringing with them more than a desire for a better life. Nearly two years ago we warned that one of the consequences of illegal immigration was the reemergence of diseases long thought to be vanquished. Among the infections being spread were a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis and an outbreak of dengue...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Members of Congress have stripped a provision requiring 300 more miles of tall fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border from a Department of Homeland Security appropriation bill, saying the funds needed to build the barrier would be better spent on alternative security measures. If the amendment by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint had remained in the bill, tall fencing to stop illegal immigrants and smugglers on foot would have been installed along 700 miles of border — a plan that many officials and residents along the Southwest border have opposed.

Appropriators dropped a requirement in the 2010 Homeland Security spending bill to rush the construction of a fence at the Mexican border, disappointing conservatives who pushed the project as a way to slow illegal immigration. The conference report for the $42.8 billion appropriations bill left out language in the Senate's version that required the installation of 700 miles of the border fence by the end of next year. The fence requirement was inserted in July as an amendment sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). It was adopted with the support of most GOP senators and 21 Democrats. But the conference...