Free Republic

“I think the massive boom in Mexican immigration is over and I don’t think it will ever return to the numbers we saw in the 1990s and 2000s,” said Douglas Massey, a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and co-director of the Mexican Migration Project, which has been gathering data on the subject for 30 years. Nearly 1.4 million Mexicans moved from the United States to Mexico between 2005 and 2010,

The family of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed almost a year ago by American special forces in a military town in northwest Pakistan, left the country for Saudi Arabia early on Friday morning, the family lawyer told Reuters. The move ends months of speculation about the fate of the three widows and 11 children, who were detained by Pakistani security forces after the May 2 raid. “Yes, they’re being deported to Saudi Arabia,” said Aamir Khalil, the family lawyer. “It is a special flight.” Once outside Pakistan, the family could reveal details about how the world’s...

by John HillStand With Arizona We have chronicled Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) outrageous new directives, instantly removing between 300,000 and 1.4 million illegal aliens from the "enforcement priority" list - in effect granting them indefinite amnesty from deportation, without any authorization from Congress whatsoever. The rationale given for this lawless amnesty from ICE Director John Morton is that he would have a "sustained focus on criminal offenders". Instead we have chronicled one failure after another by ICE to detain or even keep track of criminal illegals and repeat offenders who present imminent risks to the public - such as...

by John HillStand With Arizona He's known as "America's Toughest Sheriff". But we think he should be called "America's Jobs Sheriff". Because every time Sheriff Joe Arpaio conducts a raid, he frees up jobs for legal American workers. Thursday was no exception, as the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office served search warrants at a Phoenix-based vitamin company and arrested 31 illegal aliens working there. Based on a tip, deputies conducted a 5-month investigation of 21st Century Healthcare in Tempe. Deputies were looking for 34 employees at the vitamin warehouse presumed to have used stolen identification to gain employment with the company....

This is a Real Deal petition that someone has started on the Whitehouse.gov web site. https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/resign/SvJr4Q9h#thank-you=p Sign up for an account and SIGN the Petition

The drop recorded in the last three months of 2011 may reflect the administration's plan to focus its deportation efforts by weighing discretionary factors, including whether the person is a veteran, came to the United States as a child or is a college student. The number of deportation cases filed by federal immigration officials dropped by nearly a third in the first three months of the fiscal year, according to a report by the Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The drop recorded in the last three months of 2011 may reflect the Obama administration's plan to focus its deportation...

This is remarkable. A just released Syracuse university study indicates that the government is overstating its enforcement of the immigration laws by a staggering amount. According to TRAC, Syracuse’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has overstated the number of immigration law violators apprehended by a 5:1 ratio. And that’s the good news. Deportations were overstated by 24:1 and detentions by 34:1. TRAC says that ICE has represented, not only in press releases but in congressional testimony, that in 2005 it apprehended 102,034. The records it produced, however, show only 21,339. It further claimed 166,075...

by John HillStand With Arizona Prominent Congressman Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is defending Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio against Justice Department charges of committing "civil rights violations" against Latinos in Maricopa County. Thomas Perez, head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division - and a former board member of Hispanic hate group CASA de Maryland, unexpectedly released the report on December 15. Some observers, including Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, believe the sudden release of results of the 3+ year investigation was timed to distract from the one-year anniversary of the murder of Border Agent Brian Terry, for which Eric Holder's...

by John HillStand With Arizona Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Human Smuggling Unit arrested 17 illegal aliens over 48 hours - including 2 smugglers, in the north valley region. The illegals had paid the smugglers between $1,000 and $2,000 each to be smuggled across the border. Demonstrating how Arizona is a critical gateway for the entire nation, most of those arrested were heading to locations in the east: Mississippi, Virginia, Florida, Georgia and New Jersey. They are now headed to Sheriff Joe's Tent City instead. Way to go, Joe! But the shocking detail of this arrest is the...

PHOENIX (AP) — Authorities in Arizona have arrested a suspected human smuggler who has been deported from the country 14 times, the most recent being last week from Colorado.

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...

The partners and spouses of gays and lesbians should be recognized under the Obama administration’s new immigration policy when deportation decisions are made, say House Democrat leaders. “The recognition of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) family ties as a positive factor is a critical step forward in identifying key family and community ties to implement common-sense immigration enforcement,” say 67 Democrats led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Jerrold Nadler of New York. This backdoor approach to coerce the federal government into recognizing gay marriage was originally alluded to by the Homeland Security Department on Aug. 18...

by John HillStand With ArizonaHow significant was Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn's ruling upholding key sections of Alabama's H.B. 56 immigration law? Well, just ask the New York Times, which flipped out over it in their lead editorial: A federal judge has upheld most of Alabama’s new immigration law, the nation’s harshest and most radical attempt to harness a state’s power to find and punish illegal immigrants. The consequences for Alabamans will be serious — not just for the undocumented, but for their blameless citizen children, for those who are mistaken for unauthorized immigrants and for farmers and other business owners...

On "Mexican Independence Day" in Sacramento, the state capital is routinely turned into a giant Mexican flag for the celebration. Davi Rodriguez of Save Our State did what he so frequently does around California, tows and parks his sign calling for illegal aliens to leave America. That didn't sit too well with the Mexican revelers... VIDEO LINK BELOWDavi is called a racist - big shock there - and also gets a nice little veiled threat from the woman who said they "could" destroy his sign and write all over it, but "we're better than that". How sweet.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he backs immigration reform, announcing last month an initiative to ease deportation policies, but he has sent home more than 1 million illegal immigrants in 2 1/2 years — on pace to deport more in one term than George W. Bush did in two. The Obama administration had deported about 1.06 million as of Sept. 12, against 1.57 million in Bush's two full presidential terms. This seeming contradiction between rhetoric and reality is a key element of debate over U.S. immigration policy, and stakes are high for 2012's presidential election as Obama faces criticism...

Illegal immigration has become a heads-we-win / tails-you-lose proposition in this country. If the supporters of amnesty and open borders could get that codified into law, they would. Since they can't, they support comprehensive illegal immigration reform, with the idea being that the amnesty will occur, but they'll stall and slow-walk the security measures into oblivion. Since the people are onto that ploy and have demanded security first, the latest tactic is just to refuse to enforce the law. We can pass a bill that says we're putting a fence on our southern border, but we can't get the fence...

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) thanked President Obama for circumventing the Legislative branch when it comes to immigration law. Title 8 Section 1325 of the U.S. Code makes it a federal crime to be in the United States illegally. Nevertheless, the Obama administration in August directed federal immigration officials to use "prosecutorial discretion" in deciding which illegal aliens to detain and deport. “We had a president of the United States that recently was speaking at National Council of La Raza who said during his speech, ‘There are those who simply wish me to bypass Congress when it comes to immigration,’ and...

Obama Illegal Alien Uncle Won’t Get Special Treatment, White House Says Friday, September 02, 2011 By Fred Lucas (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama’s uncle, facing deportation for being in the country illegally, will not be treated differently than anyone else under U.S. laws, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told CNSNews.com on Thursday. “I would refer you to ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and DHS [Department of Homeland Security]. It will be handled like any other immigration case,” Carney said. CNSNews.com also asked, “Was the president aware that his uncle was in the United States as an undocumented immigrant?” But...

Bill would freeze Obama administration's power to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants By Jordy Yager - 06/25/11 05:05 PM ET The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is crafting a bill that would temporarily freeze the Obama administration’s power to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants. The measure is in response to a memo issued by the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week that approved a broader breadth of discretion for agency officials when considering whether to deport someone through the Secure Communities program. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who is sponsoring the legislation, blasted the memo. He...

Republicans accused the Obama administration of instituting "backdoor amnesty" after officials announced they would launch a case-by-case review of illegal immigrants slated for deportation in an effort to thin the list and focus resources on kicking out criminals. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, one of the president's toughest critics on border security, said the move amounts to the administration implementing an immigration overhaul "via executive fiat." "The plan amounts to backdoor amnesty for hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of illegal aliens," the Republican governor said in a written statement.

The Homeland Security Department said Thursday it will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria such as attending school, having family in the military or are primarily responsible for other family members’ care. The move, announced in letters to Congress, comes after Hispanic activists and Democrats had urged President Obama to exempt broad swaths of illegal immigrants from deportation while Congress wrestles with the issue. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her department and the Justice Department will review all ongoing cases and see who meets the new criteria on a case-by-case basis....

Obama is talking about needing new taxes and the nasty national financial downgrading by those meanies at S&P. The NYSE -- already down 312 -- just plunged an additional 150 points as soon as he started speaking.

I just got a call supposedly from Mike Huckabee, asking to sign a petition to kick the U.N. out of our country. I did some research and could find nothing about it at all. Anyone else get the call? Also, why have a phone campaign without a simultaneous web campaign? He wants a million signatures if it is true.

One early evening in May, a Boston police officer arrested Lizandra DeMoura for traffic violations and driving without a license. In another city, she might have been booked and released for a court hearing. But in Boston, the 18-year-old was jailed overnight, taken to court, and handed over to federal immigration agents, who hauled her away in chains.Now she is facing deportation to Brazil. “I felt like an animal,’’ DeMoura, who has lived here since she was a child, said in a recent interview in her lawyer’s office in Boston, wearing an electronic monitoring device around her ankle. Her case...

ATLANTA (AP) -- Six young illegal immigrants were arrested Tuesday after they sat down and blocked traffic near the Georgia state Capitol to publicly declare their status and to protest state policies targeting illegal immigrants, the latest in a string of such "coming out" events in Georgia and other parts of the country. The young people were protesting a policy that bars Georgia's most competitive state colleges and universities from accepting illegal immigrants and they were opposing strict new state legislation. A federal judge on Monday blocked two key provisions of that law. The young people, who decided to risk...

Facing a barrage of criticism from some Democratic governors, members of Congress and local officials, the Obama administration is altering a controversial federal program in which law enforcement agencies share fingerprints of suspects held in local jails with U.S. immigration authorities. The Secure Communities program, which was intended to identify and deport convicted felons, wound up also ensnaring minor offenders, victims of domestic abuse and other crimes, as well as witnesses to crimes and people who were arrested but not convicted of offenses. In response, U.S. Homeland Security officials announced Friday that the department had issued new guidelines in an...

Republicans in Congress have launched a major offensive to force several million undocumented immigrants to leave the United States with a bill that would make it mandatory for U.S. employers to electronically verify workers’ legal status. It sounds like a reasonable idea, but the way they want to do it would hurt all involved. Last week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith , R-Texas, and 11 fellow Republicans introduced the so c-called E-Verify bill, which would require employers to use an existing Homeland Security Department database to check the legal status of newly hired employees. According to Congressional sources, it...

Areli Carbajal Escobar, a violent 32-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, had a long rap sheet. Over the years in the sanctuary city of Austin, Texas, police and prosecutors had many contacts with him. Yet Escobar was never deported. Now, immigration problems are the least of Escobar's worries. Last week, a Travis County jury sentenced him to death for the brutal rape and murder of a high school honor student. Texas may lead the nation for executions, but most condemned murderers aren't from Austin, the capital, and surrounding Travis County -- for both are enclaves of liberal Democrats in an otherwise...

The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General plans an investigation of an immigration enforcement program that purports to target "serious convicted felons" for deportation but has ensnared many illegal immigrants who were arrested but not subsequently convicted of crimes or who committed minor offenses, a letter obtained Wednesday shows. The letter from acting Inspector General Charles K. Edwards to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), who requested an investigation late last month, said the watchdog agency had already scheduled a review of the program, known as Secure Communities. Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency launched the program in...

In the latest collusion between the Obama Administration and the leftwing American Civil Liberties Union, Homeland Security officials have suspended the scheduled deportation of an illegal immigrant at the ACLU’s request. The move is part of a bigger plan to perhaps eliminate the federal program (Secure Communities) that identified the illegal alien in the first place. The influential open borders movement—which includes the ACLU—has aggressively pressured the administration to nix Secure Communities, which requires local authorities to check the fingerprints of arrestees against a federal database. The idea is to deport dangerous criminals, many of whom have fallen through...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- An attorney said Tuesday that some Muslim religious leaders wearing traditional Arab garb were humiliated and embarrassed when they were wrongly kicked off two commercial flights as they sought to travel to a national conference. Imams in Memphis, Tenn., and New York were headed to the Charlotte conference when they were asked to leave the planes Friday. The imams had already passed through security at the airports before being stopped by airline personnel.

State and local officials, upset that federal officials simply released an illegal immigrant who had allegedly committed welfare fraud, joined together Monday morning to voice their displeasure. State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-122, said he and the other local officials are not happy with the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials handled the arrest of a man stopped last week by Beaver Meadows police for speeding and found to be an illegal alien. "I am very proud of the work of (Beaver Meadows Police) Chief (Mike) Morresi, and very disappointed in the federal government and how ICE handled the situation," Heffley...

According to Politico, the White House is already plotting out their re-election campaign in 2012. Every good campaign starts with an effective and descriptive slogan, so here are a few early suggestions for Obama — feel free to add your own: –”It’s the stupid, economy!” –”On your Marx, get set, go!” –”Is government better off than you were four years ago?” –”If they could see us Mao!” –”Making Jimmy Carter look good since 2009″ –”Ramen noodles in every pot and a czar in every garage” –”I’m not drunk, just Democrat — Obama ‘12″ –”It’s not socialism; It’s the free market...

A vocal and visible Twin Cities advocate for immigrant rights and immigration reform is himself facing deportation -- to the surprise of those who have worked with him for years. Mariano Perez Espinoza, 41, executive director of the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network, is in jail awaiting deportation for allegedly being in the country illegally after a previous deportation. Espinoza, a native of Mexico, has advocated openly on immigration issues for years. Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for the local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, on Wednesday confirmed that Espinoza is in custody. As of Wednesday afternoon, he had not...

This should get their attention. A measure filed by State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham, Texas) would allow any law enforcement agency that has custody of an illegal immigrant to take the illegal to 'the office of a U.S. Senator or Representative' and leave them there. 1200 WOAI news reports the measure also allows county sheriff's deputies or city police officers to 'request an agent or employee of the United States Senator or United States Representative to sign a document acknowledging the release or discharge of the illegal immigrant at the senator's or representative's office.

An illegal immigrant's frequent arrests in Minnesota over the past 20 years show cracks in a system meant to bar foreign criminals.The guy found passed out in a St. Paul bus shelter near the University of St. Thomas with a drained bottle of vodka in his coat pocket was not just any homeless drunk. Mario Montalban-Ramirez, 61, was convicted of manslaughter in Illinois in 1982, convicted of murder in Texas in 1984 and sent back to his native Mexico three times -- in 1996, 1997 and 2003 -- for being in the United States illegally. He also has been a...

The controversial Secure Communities program may be coming to Colorado. Outgoing Gov. Bill Ritter, who is leaving office Jan. 11, is reportedly ready to have the state participate in the federal program. The Associated Press is reporting that Colorado may implement the controversial plan, with modifications, on Tuesday. It wasn't immediately known what the modifications to the program would be.

A touching rendition, French street music.

"It's breaking the rules to break the record. You don't change the way you do business to meet some quota. Morton said we don't do quotas. But that's what this is." -- Chris Crane, president of the American Federation of Government Employees National Council 118 It’s not Wikileaks but the secret it exposes is just as damaging to the Barry Hussein Soetoro administration as any secrets revealed by Julian Assange. The Soetoro administration is cooking the books in an attempt to make itself look tough on Illegal Immigration deportation as revealed in interval emails and interviews. Andrew Becker of the...

On December 3, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, Nelson Peacock, responding to request from several U.S. Senators, including Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), wrote: “Our conservative estimate suggests that ICE would require a budget of more than $135 billion to apprehend, detain and remove the nation’s entire illegal immigrant population.” In July 2010, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) released the results of a study which examined the costs of illegal immigration at the federal, state and local levels. The study found that U.S. state and local governments shell out $84.2 billion annually in various services...

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — It was just another suburban fender-bender. A car zoomed into an intersection and braked too late to stop at a red light. The Georgia woman driving it, an American citizen, left with a wrecked auto, a sore neck and a traffic fine. But for Felipa Leonor Valencia, the Mexican woman who was driving the Jeep that was hit that day in March, the damage went far beyond a battered bumper. The crash led Ms. Valencia, an illegal immigrant who did not have a valid driver’s license, to 12 days in detention and the start of deportation proceedings...

Nearly 50 workers in South St. Paul lost their jobs Wednesday as a result of stepped-up workplace audits by the federal government trying to ferret out undocumented workers. The union that represents the workers, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189, is protesting the Department of Homeland Security's enforcement strategy, saying the federal government is going after well-paid, taxpaying meatpackers, janitors and factory workers instead of targeting criminals and "bad actor" employers. Wednesday was the last day of work for those who process hides for Twin City Hide who could not provide documentation of their legal status to work. Another...

What does one see when one looks at Luis Perez? A model citizen and role model? A scofflaw? A reminder of just how broken our immigration system is? Let us explain: Perez recently got his law degree from UCLA (pictured), and in so doing became the first “undocumented” immigrant ever to do so. He’s planning on taking the California bar exam in January. But for now, his immigration status prevents him from practicing law and, for that matter, landing a legal-industry job. * * * Perez has got a quick rejoinder to all those who think he’s no better than...

WESLACO, Nov. 23 - Those who attended an RGV Equal Voice Network meeting on Tuesday agreed that the most powerful remarks came from Commander Josemaria Vasquez, of the American GI Forum. The meeting was held to kick start a Valley coalition opposed to the anti-immigrant bills that have been filed in advance of the legislative session that starts in Austin in January. Vasquez, a Vietnam War veteran, explained that last Saturday he attended a seminar at the San Antonio Convention Center that included U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona. During the seminar there was a slide show with photos of Maricopa...

Pedro Ramirez, Fresno State's student body president, is an undocumented immigrant serving in the position without pay. Ramirez, 23, attends school on scholarships and pays in-state tuition. California is one of 10 states that permit undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition -- a position that was upheld by the state Supreme Court this week. After his election last June, he told the administration he would serve without pay -- a $9,000 stipend -- because he could not lie on employment papers. On Tuesday, an anonymous tip to the college newspaper forced Ramirez to go public.

Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel says. In her speech, the chancellor specifically referred to recent comments by German President Christian Wulff who said that Islam was "part of Germany" like Christianity and Judaism. Mrs Merkel says Islam is part of Germany but more must be done on integration While acknowledging that this was the case, Mrs Merkel stressed that immigrants living in Germany needed to do more to integrate, including learning to speak German. In August, Thilo Sarrazin, a senior official at Germany's central, said that "no immigrant group other than...

In a flabbergasting request, a coalition of Mexican lawmakers has asked the United States to stop deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes in American courts. The preposterous demand was made at a recent southern California conference in which the mayors of four Mexican cities that border the U.S. gathered to discuss cross-border issues. The only American mayor who attended the biannual event was San Diego’s Jerry Sanders, evidently because his city hosted it this year at a fancy downtown hotel. Among the cross-border topics that were addressed at the conference was the deportation of Mexican citizens...

America is facing assaults from several fronts, including from our very own government. Look at this astonishing administration. It's loaded with radical homosexuals and leftist affirmative action appointees—certainly not representative of the mostly conservative America! We are also facing an invasion that has been going on for years without most of us realizing it was happening. I'm not talking about the illegal alien invasion, although that is yet another serious assault on our country. I'm talking about the invasion of Islam with its attendant mandate of conquest. Despite what all the suicidal leftists and the beguiled, sleeping Americans would have...

BOSTON (WBZ) ― "President Obama, I'm his aunt, I'm the only person on earth allowed to pinch his ears and smack him. Not his father; not his mother; not his wife or brother - he'll fight with him. But Auntie is a much honored person in African culture."

PHOENIX — Nearly one out of every five cases being brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the whole country are filed in Arizona, according to a report. The Transactional Research Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University found there were 20,818 prosecutions in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. That compares with 109,532 for the entire country. Arizona represents just 2 percent of the national population. More than four out of every five are related to immigration laws. But even within that category, the study shows a clear trend. Five years ago, federal prosecutors brought fewer than 3,200...