Free Republic

EAST LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The 67th Annual Mexican Independence Day Parade kicked off with plenty of fanfare in East Los Angeles on Sunday.

A director at the Homeland Security agency charged with immigration enforcement has publicly guaranteed that illegal aliens arrested by local police and reported to the feds won’t automatically be deported. It may seem preposterous but this is reality in the Obama Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The story comes out of King County in Washington State. Under a federal agreement virtually all illegal aliens held at the county jail are put on immigration holds for up to 48 hours. This presumably gives federal authorities the opportunity to initiate deportation procedures. But lawmakers in the sprawling Puget Sound county of about...

ADELANTO • Local religious leaders have come to the defense of an undocumented immigrant who was arrested in Hesperia and may be deported, forcing him to be separated from his three U.S. citizen children. Hugo Magna Mendoza, originally from El Salvador, was granted a temporary stay on Aug. 26 under the recently approved Parental Interests Directive, but still faces possible deportation. Though members of the activist network Campaign for Citizenship are celebrating what they see as a temporary victory, they remain determined to free Magna, who is currently being held at Adelanto Detention Facility-East. “Hugo has been a resident of...

Labor Rights Week at the Mexican consulate in San Bernardino begins today. The event, being held at consulates across the country, is to inform immigrant workers – no matter what their immigration status — of their rights under U.S. and state law. “We want people to be informed, to be conscious, of their fundamental labor rights,” Carolina Zaragoza Flores, consul for San Bernardino, said in Spanish. The San Bernardino consulate serves Mexicans in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Mexican consulates inaugurated Labor Rights week five years ago. Consulates of several Central American countries and the Philippines are among others that...

Los Angeles police detectives say a 47-year-old man molested at least two girls and possibly many more at his mother's Sylmar babysitting service, where he hid a camera to allegedly create child pornography. Israel Sanchez was charged Thursday with molesting a child under 14 after he was interviewed by LAPD sex crimes detectives following a federal search warrant on his home in connection with suspected child pornography. LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon said Sanchez shares an apartment at 13987 Foothill Blvd. with his mother, who provides babysitting services to local residents. "He has lived with his mother since 1995," Vernon said....

SACRAMENTO -- Twenty-eight of California's congressional representatives are throwing their weight behind state legislation that would make it harder to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally. The representatives -- all Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco -- sent a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown urging him to sign the bill if it reaches his desk. The bill, known as the Trust Act, "establishes a bright line standard between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement" and would "continue California's proud tradition of being a leader on smart and sensible policies," the letter says. The...

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

A public hearing is set for Tuesday as King County considers making its jail the first in the state to refuse to cooperate with the federal government’s efforts to nab illegal immigrants. Supporters of an ordinance before the King County Council say it would protect immigrants accused of minor crimes from overzealous federal agents. However, KING 5 has obtained documents showing that the county’s own prosecutor believes the ordinance would protect illegal immigrants facing serious charges and those with serious criminal histories. The ordinance was drafted by council members Larry Gossett and Joe McDermott after hearing concerns that immigration agents...

AN DIEGO-A group rallied in downtown San Diego tonight voicing their concerns over immigration and deportation. The San Diego Dream Team organized the event that attracted about 50 people. The group started downtown outside The Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and then walked to the federal courthouse holding candles and chanting. “We should not be deporting mothers and fathers,” said Liz Arizona. ”I would like to see an end to deportation.” Members of the group stood up and told their stories. Each one somehow dealing with the immigration issue and hoping for change. Karen Guzman’s father was deported five years...

[Supervisor Antonovich] - With an additional $54 million in welfare payments issued in April to illegal alien parents for their native-born children, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services projects that more than $650 million in welfare benefits will be distributed to illegal alien parents in 2013, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said Friday. The $54 million spent in the month of April alone, consists of nearly $20 million in CalWORKs (welfare) and $35 million in food stamps — representing 20% of all CalWORKs and food stamp issuances in the County. At this rate, the projected annual cost is...

Many of us knew this would happen. Our government has realized that fighting the 2nd Amendment directly is likely a losing proposition. Because of that, they have decided that doing whatever they can to make it hard to impossible to obtain weapons and ammo is the next best thing. After all, if ammo is next to impossible to purchase, what good is a gun? By the same token, if parts of the government keep adding more restrictions to gun manufacturers, that also makes it difficult to obtain guns. In all of this, the 2nd Amendment is technically, left alone. California...

Despite failing in courts across the country, Plaintiffs have continued to file lawsuits alleging that President Obama is ineligible to serve as the American President because he is not a natural born U.S. citizen. However, as set forth above, federal courts cannot grant Plaintiffs the relief sought because the issues which Plaintiffs raise in their pleadings are constitutionally committed to the jurisdiction of another branch of the federal government. If Plaintiffs believe that President Obama has violated the law, their remedy is to alert Congress to the alleged wrongdoing. Congress could then initiate impeachment proceedings with the aid of an...

(Reuters) - Wading into the national debate over immigration, California Governor Jerry Brown is pushing for a faster path to citizenship for the millions of people who are in the country illegally. Brown's is the latest in a chorus of voices from the most populous U.S. state calling for swift enactment of reform - but also demanding that a provision that would delay full citizenship for 10 or more years be removed from the immigration overhaul legislation being considered in the U.S. Senate. The delay is of particular concern to policymakers in California, because it means that the state's mostly...

FRESNO, Calif. — The rumor spread like wildfire via phone calls, text messages and social media postings and has persisted now for more than three weeks:

About a million of California's poorest undocumented immigrants would have access to basic low-cost health care under a plan being pushed at the Capitol. President Barack Obama's federal health care overhaul excludes undocumented immigrants, but some California leaders want to fill that gap by offering a safety net of primary and preventive care that does not consider immigration status. The county-run program would give undocumented immigrants – and legal residents who can't afford health insurance but don't qualify for Medi-Cal – the ongoing opportunity to see a doctor, get tested and receive treatment before minor health problems become severe. Funding...

The 911 caller facing up to 18 months in jail after falsely claiming he was robbed at gunpoint the night Pasadena police shot and killed unarmed teenage robbery suspect Kendrec McDade has been offered a plea deal, his attorney said Friday. Oscar Carrillo, 27, is charged with one count of making a false report of a criminal offense and a second count of reporting an emergency knowing the report was false. In exchange for a guilty plea, his attorney said his client would serve a 90-day jail sentence and community service.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The family of a four-year-old Valley boy murdered in 2009 is now facing another potential tragedy. The murder victim's father may soon be deported, which would leave his wife and six other children behind in Kerman. Luis Mercado is in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to his wife, Mindy Mercado. .

Immigrants detained in Southern California for possible deportation must be given a hearing within six months to determine whether they should be released, a federal appeals court decided Tuesday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s order requiring the federal government to provide hearings to immigrants who are incarcerated in Southern California, including those arrested while entering the country or those with a criminal history. “Contrary to the government’s rhetoric, this injunction will not flood our streets with fearsome criminals seeking to escape the force of American immigration law,” Judge Kim McLane...

Four young men shared their experiences growing up in the United States without legal immigration status Sunday during an Easter Sunday rally advocating for immigration reform. With bullhorn in hand to share their stories, they carried a banner reading, "We will no longer remain in the shadows." The small rally was held by members of the San Gabriel Valley chapter of the Immigrant Youth Coalition at Morgan Park, at Ramona and Baldwin Park boulevards. "I have never been arrested. I have no criminal record. Yet I am considered a criminal for being here unintentionally," said Kevin Flores, 22, of Rosemead....

Kyle Kester loved the local people and the rugged landscape north of Guadalajara, where he had built a sprawling stucco home.Kyle Kester’s parents admit they weren’t thrilled when he built his dream home tucked in a rocky, secluded valley 18 miles north of Guadalajara. They worried for his safety in the isolated Mexican countryside where the nearest neighbor was a half-hour ride down a rutted dirt road, passable at times only by motorcycle, or whether the state-of-the-art 6,000-square-foot stucco house in a poverty-stricken land could make him a target for thieves, or worse. The 38-year-old Apple Valley native reassured his...