Free Republic

by John HillStand With ArizonaThe Alabama Legislature scored a huge victory on Friday, as Gov. Robert Bentley reluctantly signed immigration law H.B. 658 - after legislators refused to "moderate" provisions Bentley (and open-borders activists) had complained were too "harsh" against illegal aliens. Alabama's immigration law H.B. 56, patterned after Arizona's S.B. 1070, passed in 2011, and has been called the toughest state immigration law in America. But several issues were causing legal Alabamans longer lines to obtain state documents and foreign executives issues with being detained, and those provisions were fixed in the new bill. But H.B. 658 (PDF) also...

Illegal immigrant students and members of the House sued the Senate this week to try to overturn the upper chamber’s filibuster rule, arguing that the 60-vote supermajority requirement violates the Constitution and is blocking important legislation such as legalization for illegal immigrants. If successful, the lawsuit, filed Monday, would rewrite the way the Senate operates — though courts generally have been reluctant to meddle in internal congressional rules.

In its quest to implement stealth amnesty, the Obama Administration is working behind the scenes to halt the deportation of certain illegal immigrants by granting them “unlawful presence waivers.” The new measure would apply to illegal aliens who are relatives of American citizens. Here is how it would work, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcement posted in today’s Federal Register, the daily journal of the U.S. government; the agency will grant “unlawful presence waivers” to illegal aliens who can prove they have a relative that’s a U.S. citizen. Currently such aliens must return to their native country...

Reporting from Washington— ­The Obama administration is proposing to make it easier for illegal immigrants who are family members of American citizens to apply for legal permanent residency. On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security will post for public comment an administrative change intended to reduce the time illegal immigrants would have to spend away from their families while applying for legal status, officials said. The current system requires the applicant to first leave the U.S. to seek a legal visa, but under the proposed change illegal immigrants could claim the time apart from a spouse, child or parent would...

On January 1, 2011 a law banning certain “ethnic studies” classes went into effect in Arizona. The law makes it illegal for a school district to teach courses which “promote the overthrow of the US government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ‘ethnic solidarity’ instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” (1) But it was not the ever-compassionate, ethnicity-conscious left which wrote and implemented legislation making it a crime to teach violence and racism. Rather, the law was passed by the Republican controlled...

by John HillStand With Arizona The U.S. economy is suffering its worst bout of sustained unemployment since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans are out of work and hurting. They struggle to pay their bills, pay their rent or mortgage, and find work to feed their families. Meanwhile, millions of illegal aliens take jobs that Americans need , undercut wages, steal identities of Americans to sustain their employment fraud, and illegally collect welfare and social services to which they have no right. As American incomes decline, the amount of cash illegals send back to their home countries is at a...

In an interview with Univision Radio, President Obama said that he has 'five years' left in his presidency to figure out issues like comprehensive immigration reform. Striking a confident note about his reelection prospects, Obama assured a largely Hispanic audience that he has not given up on getting an immigration bill done — one that would provide a pathway to citizenship. "My presidency is not over," Obama told Univision's Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo "I’ve got another five years coming up. We’re going to get this done." Obama also said that Hispanic voters would ultimately face an easy choice in deciding between...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is starting to shut down a program that deputized local police officers to act as immigration agents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have trained local officers around the country to act as their agencies' immigration officers. Working either in jails or in the field, the officers can check the immigration status of suspects and place immigration holds on them.

The federal government will pay $350,000 to a group of illegal immigrants and permit them to stay in the country pursuant to a settlement reached in a lawsuit they filed after they were arrested. The immigrants claimed the government violated their constitutional rights when federal agents raided a “Latino” neighborhood in New Haven, Conn., in 2007. Their reward for refusing to obey American laws is the largest settlement ever in a case involving an immigration raid. The leftist legal team is celebrating their success in frustrating the enforcement of immigration law, but the settlement is no surprise given the Obama...

McALLEN — Another reminder of why we need a secure border emerged this week, as U.S. Border Patrol officials confirmed three Afghan nationals were detained in the Rio Grande Valley - an increasing "hot zone" of cartel invasion and violence against American ranchers. Border Patrol confirmed the detentions, but would not say where or when they occurred. Enrique Mendiola, assistant chief Border Patrol agent for the Rio Grande Valley sector, said that human smugglers see moving people besides Mexican nationals as a "business opportunity." "Average smuggling rates for other-than-Mexican nationals far exceed those of Mexicans and Central and South Americans,"...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — President Felipe Calderon on Thursday unveiled a “No More Weapons!” billboard made with crushed firearms and placed near the U.S. border. He urged the United States to stop the flow of weapons into Mexico. The billboard, which is in English and weighs 3 tons, was placed near an international bridge in Ciudad Juarez and can be seen from the United States.

by John HillStand With Arizona The inmates are running the asylum. This Administration has served notice on every illegal alien invader across America: do not be afraid - you are above the law.Eleven illegal aliens who claimed ICE agents "violated their rights" in 2007 raids on their New Haven neighborhood have won a $350,000 settlement from the U.S. government, which also agreed to halt deportation proceedings against the plaintiffs, their attorneys said Tuesday. New Haven is American's most notorious "sanctuary city"- the first in the nation to offer identification cards to illegal immigrants, and critics including the mayor have contended...

by John HillStand With ArizonaDespite being persecuted by the Department of Justice, despite a Federal judge's Kafkaesque order prohibiting his office from arresting illegals "based solely on the suspicion that they’re in the country illegally", Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his staff continue to work hard every day to keep illegal aliens out of Arizona - and every other state in the union. The frontline war in Maricopa was particularly intense over the past several days, as 20 illegal aliens have been arrested by MSCO on smuggling charges. Most recently, MCSO Human Smuggling detectives arrested 12 illegal aliens while...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans are looking to deny child tax credits to illegal immigrants — refund checks averaging $1,800 a family — in an effort that has roused anger among Hispanics and some Democratic lawmakers. The proposal, which would require people who claim the federal credit to have Social Security numbers to prove they're legal workers, is being offered as a way to help pay for extending the Social Security tax cut for most American wage-earners. It would trim federal spending by about $10 billion over a decade. .... Says Leticia Miranda, senior policy adviser of the National Council of...

The Barack Obama administration is quietly in the process of rigging use of the US Census of 2010, which deliberately counted millions of illegal aliens, for the purpose of restructuring the apportionment of the US House of Representatives. Accordingly, as candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of one of the negatively affected states (Montana), Mr. Bob Fanning and I have joined with several others in becoming amici curiae in a pending federal lawsuit brought by the State of Louisiana against the US Secretary of Commerce, et al., which was filed January, 13, 2012 in the United States Supreme Court. What...

Pedro moved to the Kansas City area about 13 years ago and has held the same job for 11. Though he sometimes struggles to pay bills, he knows most people think he should receive no public aid. He’s an illegal immigrant. He doesn’t deserve handouts. He understands that. “I’ve never asked for anything for myself,” said Pedro, who didn’t want his last name used to protect his family. “Never. I just work. Work hard.” A new debate swirling around Kansas, though, isn’t about Pedro. It’s about two of his three children. They were born here, and one day they will...

House liberals cheer proposed Obama administration immigration reformBy Mike Lillis - 01/08/12 05:40 PM ET Several senior House liberals are cheering President Obama this week after his administration proposed new rules making it easier for some illegal immigrants to remain in the country while they apply for citizenship. "The President deserves credit for setting in place another essential building block through administrative action – moving us closer to a common sense immigration policy – that puts America, its families and its economy first," Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said Friday in a statement. The...

Fuentes has spent 374 days at Community Regional Medical Center, the longest uninterrupted stay by a patient at the Fresno acute-care hospital, according to staff recollection. Doctors suspect Fuentes, 35, had gallstones that developed into a gallbladder infection, which was left untreated and progressed. The average length of hospital stay for uncomplicated pancreatitis is about two weeks, with a complicated case taking as many as 45 to 65 days, according to the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. But Fuentes' case was far from uncomplicated. Fuentes had 12 surgeries overseen by three trauma physicians -- Drs. Jim Davis, Ricard...

An unpleasant new report claims that many hospitals in major metro areas are struggling with the growing problem of “permanent patients.” What’s a “permanent patient”? According to the New York Times they are mostly illegal immigrants or people who lack insurance or their own housing that the hospital cannot turn away. ((snip)) The fact of the matter is that hospitals in metro areas that host a large illegal immigrant population are unable to turn away patients who have neither insurance nor proof that they are in the United States legally– two things necessary for discharge purposes and reimbursements, said Chui...

URGENT: PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION AT THIS LINK to show you Stand With Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and AGAINST the political witchhunt of Obama's Department of Justice. This Administration and its open-borders allies La Raza, MALDEF and the ACLU, will stop at nothing to try and destroy the most prominent national symbol in the fight against illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe will not back down. Please sign the petition to show we stand behind him. [UPDATE: The ACLU already has a petition calling for Arpaio's resignation with 16,911 signatures, and rising fast as LA RAZA and The People for the American Way...

Excerpt....On Thursday Eric Holder and the Department of Justice filed suit against Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff’s office run by the outspoken and flamboyant Joe Arpaio who’s made it a personal crusade to uphold U.S. immigrations laws when the feds won’t. Eric Holder and the Obama Administration are applying the full weight of the federal government’s resources into trying to stop the new Arizona immigration law, but that’s only one of the multi-front attacks they’ve setup to make sure states are stripped of their ability to enforce U.S. immigration laws. Now the DOJ is suing the most active and largest sheriff’s...

Berks County detectives said Monday that they have arrested a Mexican man who has been living illegally in the United States for nearly two decades on charges he sexually assaulted a girl in her home several times. Francisco Garcia Huerth, 39, of the 800 block of Buttonwood Street surrendered to detectives Thursday, one day after Detective David McQuate obtained arrest warrants on rape, indecent assault of a child and related offenses. When Huerth surrendered, he identified himself as Martin Jaime Silva - the name he assumed when he entered the country illegally 18 years ago, investigators said. Authorities could not...

Illegal immigrants do not have a right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, based in Missouri, rejected an appeal brought by Joaquin Bravo Flores, who was charged with possessing a firearm. Agreeing with the 5th Circuit, the court concluded that the protections of the Second Amendment do not extend to undocumented immigrants. Executing a search warrant in 2010, police uncovered a semi-automatic handgun in Bravo Flores' Minneapolis apartment. A grand jury indicted him for being an alien in possession of a firearm in...

Justice Department Warns Alabama Law Enforcers On Immigration By Pete Williams and Kari Huus The Justice Department has sent a letter to dozens of local law enforcement agencies in Alabama that receive federal money, warning them that they risk losing that funding if they're not careful in how they enforce the state's tough new immigration law. The Obama administration has already sued the state, claiming that the law is unconstitutional. Now it's keeping the pressure on by addressing how the law is carried out. The law, HB56 passed by the Alabama Legislature in June, attempts to combat illegal immigration by...

Established 15 years ago, the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number [ITIN] is a seemingly innocuous administrative requirement that the Internal Revenue Service assigns to anyone who is employed and pays taxes. According to the IRS website, the numbers are used for federal tax reporting only. But since ITINs, as they are commonly known, are issued to wage earners regardless of immigration status, they’ve frequently been abused by the aliens who hold them. Although the real estate crisis is fading from our memory, it’s important to recall that the ITIN was the vehicle used in lieu of Social Security numbers, which then...

The Arizona Daily Star's Tim Stellar is reporting the federal case file against illegal Mexican bandits accused of killing Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, has disappeared. The case against the alleged killers of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has disappeared from federal court records, apparently sealed by a federal judge. In May, federal prosecutors won an indictment against Manuel Osorio-Arellanes and others, and they announced it with a press release. Only Osorio-Arellanes’ name was visible in the indictment, but there were blacked-out words where other defendants’ names go. Osorio-Arellanes was charged with second-degree murder and was not considered the likely...

OAKLAND -- Occupy Oakland protesters are planning a rally today in support of a veteran East Bay activist who faces possible deportation after being arrested during Monday's police sweep of the movement's encampment outside City Hall. Records show that 36-year-old Francisco "Pancho" Ramos Stierle of Oakland is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin because of a federal immigration hold. ... Alameda County sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the jail, said his agency had no control over federal immigration holds. "We don't make that decision," he said. Federal immigration officials did not immediately respond to...

by John HillStand With ArizonaMore than 50,000 Americans have been killed by illegal aliens since 9/11.Think about that. More than 6,000 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since that same date. But nearly ten times that number have been killed right here at home as a consequence of the Federal government's failure to secure our borders and protect its citizens, in direct violation of the Constitution's Article IV Section 4: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application...

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - The State Department of Education is advising school superintendents to hold off on providing enrollment data to the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ had requested Alabama school superintendents provide a list of all students who had withdrawn from schools since the beginning of the school year. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez sent a letter to Alabama school systems wanting to know how many Hispanic students are enrolled in schools and how many have withdrawn since the beginning of the school year. Educators reported the new law caused many Hispanic students to stay home in the...

WASHINGTON -- A group of Mexican senators announced Tuesday they are preparing to meet with state legislators in Georgia and four other states next month, hoping to head off more stringent immigration laws like the one Georgia enacted this year.The senators plan to share information with state lawmakers that shows illegal immigrants generally stay out of trouble and contribute to the economy while they are here. Sen. Carlos Jimenez Macias, a member of the Mexican Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, confirmed those plans Tuesday at a workshop on immigration reform in D.C. at the German Marshall Fund, a nonpartisan public policy...

MARIETTA, Ga. — Families of three teens killed by a drunk driving illegal immigrant are mounting a campaign to keep him from being paroled and deported. The families believe if Sergio Montelongo-Sanchez is deported back to Mexico he will come back to the U.S. and cause the same type of crash that killed their loved ones on Sandtown Road near Booth 11 years ago. They're also not happy he could be released after serving less than a third of his sentence. "He served just a little over 10 years. That's not very long for killing three beautiful young people," Delores...

Police in Texas charged a man Tuesday with the murder of 10-year-old Jasmen Gonzalez, whose body was found over the weekend. Jose Consepcion Sifuentes, 23, was moved from jail in Carrollton, Texas, where he was being kept on an immigration hold, to Lew Sterrett Justice Center in downtown Dallas Tuesday morning. He was questioned Monday as a person of interest in the death of Jasmen, whose family lives in Oklahoma City and was in Carrollton for a family reunion.

As all of Obama’s major voting blocks, Hispanics have begun to drift away from THE ONE. They have come to recognize that they were mistaken to think Obama’s Marxist economics would help them prosper and reach equality in our society. Nevertheless, as a good little socialist nothing stops Barack Obama from lying to anyone, so Hispanics have achieved at least this much: they are being lied to just as everyone else is being lied to by Obama. Lies in the ICE report When fiscal year 2011 ended last month Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton told the world...

President Barack Obama's Homeland Security Department officials released a report that claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a record number of illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year, including an "unprecedented number of convicted illegals with criminal records." However, a closer look at the figures reveals the report is bogus, according to the lawmaker in-charge of immigration oversight. In the 2011 fiscal year which ended last month, ICE officials claim they deported more than 396,000 illegal immigrants nationwide -- the largest number in the agency's history, ICE officials said in a statement released yesterday. Of these, nearly 55 percent or...

President Felipe Calderon on Monday accused U.S. authorities of deporting Mexican criminals to save on judicial costs, a policy that ostensibly "exacerbates" violence. Within the framework of the inauguration of National Immigration Week 2011 in this capital, Calderon said that, for example, U.S. authorities "are deporting up to 80,000 people in a year" into the border cities of Reynosa and Ciudad Juarez. Some of these deported people "are migrants, certainly, probably all of them," although some were "already involved in criminal acts" in the United States. "In the face of the dilemma of pursuing the legal process in the American...

The days of unbiased reporting are well behind us. What we have now are news agencies who are bent on furthering a political agenda. Proof positive comes in the form of a Reuters story with a somewhat confusing title: “Alabama immigration law decried, applauded as some flee state.” (Click here for original story) The title is somewhat ambiguous as to who is “decrying” and who is “applauding” but the article leaves little doubt as to the ideological leanings of the author(s): (Reuters) – A climate of fear and panic has taken hold in Alabama’s immigrant community since a federal judge...

The Obama Admin. shows once again who its REAL constituents are: ILLEGAL ALIENS. The Department of Justice, which is appealing Alabama's outstanding new law, has set up a "hotline" number for illegals to report "civil rights" incidents under the new law. Opponents of Alabama’s new immigration law can now call the Justice Department directly to make complaints about the state’s effort to crack down on illegal immigrants. The Justice Department has set up a hotline and email for the public “to report potential civil rights concerns related to the impact of Alabama’s immigration law.” Clearly the DOJ is trying emotional...

MCALLEN - Cartel members may be living next to you, down the street or in your neighborhood. You might never know unless you see it on the news. Examples include the deadly shooting on Expressway 83 in McAllen three weeks ago. The man who died was a Gulf Cartel operative. The McAllen Police Department won't give us any information about him or show us his picture. They won't even talk about the shooting. The truth is we may never know the exact number of cartel crimes that might be happening in the Valley. What we can tell you is two...

Three illegal immigrants – including one who had previously been deported -- were ordered held without bond Tuesday after they allegedly fired shots at a Georgia State Patrol trooper during a chase, triggering a massive manhunt in Cherokee County.The three Smyrna men are being held in the Cherokee County Detention Center. They had an initial hearing Tuesday afternoon in Canton before Chief Magistate James Drane, Cherokee Sheriff’s Lt. Jay Baker said. Edgar Ortega Maldonado, 35, “was deported from the United States in December 2009 and obviously has returned,” Baker said. He did not know the circumstances that led to Maldonado’s...

by John HillStand With Arizona For months, America has been told by left-wing non-profits like the Alien Criminals Liberation Union (ACLU), La Raza and LULAC, that Alabama's new immigration law H.B. 56, "targets Hispanics" and is "anti-Latino". Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn wisely ignored that rhetoric when she let stand (pending trial) the law's most critical section - having police check immigration status of individuals apprehended in a lawful stop or arrest. Well, the very first such arrest has now occurred since the Judge's ruling. And - surprise, he is not from Mexico, or any other Latino American nation. He...

(CNN) -- The ink had barely dried on the order signed by Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn, allowing most of Alabama's anti-illegal immigration law to go into effect, when fear settled into some in the state's Hispanic community. "We are in panic mode," said Maria Morales, an illegal immigrant living in Montgomery. The law known as HB56 is the strictest in the country, allowing police officers to ask about the legal status of people investigated for a crime, if reasonable suspicion exists, and detain them for immigration authorities. "We cannot even go out and buy food," Said Perla Perez, who has...

Nothing tests our humanity - or our democracy - more than how we respond to tragedy. Our hearts go out to the families of victims of crimes. We are horrified when we learn the details of their suffering. But emotions alone are not a sound basis for making policy, particularly when it comes to keeping our communities safe and free. Recent events involving immigrants accused of committing terrible crimes is the most recent case in point. One such tragedy was the death of a local Milford man, Matthew Denice, who was hit and dragged by a pickup truck driven by...

A protest by opponents of Alabama's tough new immigration law ended shortly before noon without incident outside Gardendale's First Baptist church, where the law's main sponsor, state Sen. Scott Beason, worships. Beason was inside the church at services when about 80 protesters, carrying signs, arrived at the church just off Interstate 65. He left after the service without speaking to the demonstrators and had no comment when reached later on his mobile phone. The demonstration started about 8:30 this morning at Kelly Ingram Park in downtown Birmingham, the scene of many of Alabama's historic civil rights protests and incidents. It...

The Obama administration is escalating its crackdown on tough immigration laws, with lawyers reviewing four new state statutes to determine whether the federal government will take the extraordinary step of challenging the measures in court.

(Judge) Blackburn has decided that some parts of the state's controversial law should not be allowed to become law while the law continues to be challenged in court. Here are the sections of the law which the judge enjoined from becoming law until final judgements are issued in the case: Section 11a: "It is unlawful for a person who is an unauthorized alien to knowingly apply for work, solicit work in a public or private place, or perform work as an employee or independent contractor in this state," Section 13: Prohibits concealing, harboring, transporting, etc., of unlawfully-present aliens Section 16:...

Last weekend President Barack Obama told African Americans to "Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'." Today at a White House roundtable targeting Hispanic voters, the president did some complaining and grumbling of his own. Responding to questions about his failure to deliver the comprehensive immigration reform he promised, Mr. Obama said "This notion that somehow I can just change the laws unilaterally is just not true." So desperate was the president to, as usual, blame others for his failure that he almost complimented his favorite scapegoat, "Only a few years ago, you had some Republicans who recognized that we needed...

Tough-talking sheriffs warned that the Bay State is becoming a “magnet” for illegal aliens and vowed to crack down — with or without Gov. Deval Patrick’s support — during a fiery press conference today that descended into chaos when sign-holding protesters began chanting and shouting counterpoints. “Much like terrorists, they’re looking for a place to go where nobody’s going to notice them,” said Bristol Sheriff Thomas Hodgson. “And if we’re sending out a message that this is where you can basically come and we’re not really going to pay much attention to your status, well, it’s no wonder we’re running...

Police: Illegal immigrant without license hits girl (Link only copy right again Mass ) http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/12005492389519/police-illegal-immigrant-without-license-hits-girl/

The movement to grant amnesty and eventual U.S. citizenship to some 12 million illegal aliens has turned the issue from the sounds of silence to the sounds of entitlement. The entitlement mentality did not begin in America, but it has flourished here in the last century. The American claim on entitlements to health care, retirement income and seemingly any "right" one can conceive was birthed from the womb of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, reared by Kennedy's New Frontier and came of age in Johnson's Great Society. U.S. citizens, fanned by the flames of those who encourage class warfare, are increasing...

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