Free Republic

The Houston school district is under fire after a student without legal status ended up in immigration detention following his arrest by a school police officer for an altercation with a female student. A lawyer for Dennis Rivera Sarmiento, 19, said his client was bullied by the 15-year-old girl and retaliated only after she taunted him with racial slurs, threw a full bottle of Gatorade at him and confronted him. "He's very fearful of being deported to Honduras," said Rivera's attorney, Brandon Roché. On Wednesday, students at Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston staged a lunch hour walkout to...

Piers Morgan has continued with his gun-bashing. Here's his latest, Deport Me?Morgan makes a number of huge mistakes and misrepresentations in his assault, not unlike Jason Alexander's rant against the AR-15.Here are key points where Morgan (and other gun control nuts) go unbelievably wrong: [M]y anger turned to blind rage when I saw the reaction to this hideous massacre in America. … Sales of the specific weapon used, an AR-15 military-style assault rifle, rocketed …. And … Brownells said it sold more high-capacity bullet magazines in three days than it normally did in three-and-a-half years.What is behind this apparently...

Sen. Lindsey Graham has long been a thoughtful and constructive legislator. But the South Carolina Republican made a statement last week that showed why Washington is losing the public's trust and his party in particular is losing its sense of duty. Graham had joined with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to present a well-reasoned outline for immigration reform that, while not as historic as the health care bill just passed, may have as much impact on who we are as a country. Then Graham threatened to walk away from his own proposal. "If the health care bill goes through this weekend,...

Federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 49 foreign nationals in central and western Wisconsin during the past week, targeting aliens with criminal records. The arrests were announced jointly on Friday by ICE and the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Special agents from DOJ and officers from the U.S. Border Patrol assisted in the arrests. The ICE operation began on Feb. 18 and ended on Feb. 24. Arrests were made in Sauk, Wood, Portage, Clark, Trempealeau, Shawano, Waupaca, Marathon, Eau Claire, Monroe, Dunn and Langlade Counties. Of the 49 arrested, 20 were arrested based on criminal histories, with...

In general, how does this country handle illegal immigrants? Too harshly Too leniently About right

A wild chase involving illegal immigrants ends in a massive fire and over a dozen suspected aliens scattering from the scene. The blaze sparked up right off Saratoga near Greenwood. The chase actually began near Farm Road 43 and State Highway 286 around seven o'clock Wednesday night. The pick up ran a stop sign which triggered the chase. Fifteen People in all were crammed into the pick up truck. The chase eventually ended in a field near Greenwood when the truck ignited a massive brush fire. Three people were apprehended including the driver and a fourteen year old boy. The...

Tonight, a mom is grieving after police say the person who was supposed to be taking care of her child may have caused his death. Ethan Gibbs would've celebrated his second birthday at the end of March. On Wednesday, his mom says she dropped him off at his baby sitter's apartment, but the baby sitter left Ethan with the man who police say severely beat the little boy. WBTV's Michael Handy sat down with Ethan's mom who says she blames herself more than anything. -------- "He didn't kill my son, he tortured my son," said Amanda Gibbs, who is the...

ISSUE: Haitian president wants temporary protective status for Haitians in America. Haitian President René Préval has finally asked the U.S. government to extend temporary protective status to Haitians. The designation is long overdue, and President Bush would do well to grant Préval's request. Haiti, already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was further devastated by last year's Tropical Storm Noel, the latest in a string of natural disasters that have rocked the country in recent times. TPS would temporarily protect Haitians already in the United States -- many of them parents of U.S. born children -- from deportation. TPS...

Published Monday | July 23, 2007 Muslims draft complaint against Swift meatpacking plant THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tension came to a head at a Grand Island meatpacking plant in June, when Jama Mohamed said his desire for 10 minutes to pray at sunset was met with shouting. After he left the production line and began praying, Mohamed said, supervisors took his prayer mat, pulled him up by his collar and sent him crying to a lead supervisor, who fired him. "I told him, 'Look, I know I am in America and I know in America there is a freedom of religion...

When figuring ways to shape public opinion, the first thing any savvy strategist does is craft phrases that will elicit a desired response. Want people to have a more positive reaction to dead Iraqi civilians? Call them "collateral damage." Want to get Americans to feel good about government spying? Name your law "The Patriot Act." If you can control the words people use, you can frame the issue. In effect, you control the way people view it. That is exactly what is happening with the immigration debate. To avoid dealing with complex problems in our nation - crumbling public schools,...

LONDON (Reuters) - Militant Islamists will continue to attack Britain until the government pulls its troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, one of the country's most outspoken Islamic clerics said on Friday. Speaking 15 days after bombers killed over 50 people in London and a day after a series of failed attacks on the city's transport network, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed said the British capital should expect more violence. "What happened yesterday confirmed that as long as the cause and the root problem is still there ... we will see the same effect we saw on July 7," Bakri said....

Rush Limbaugh Program - January 7, 2004 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT 1:07 PM ET RUSH: Let's just get straight into this. We're not going to wade in, we're going to dive into this immigration business here, ladies and gentlemen. [AP:] "A plan being proposed by President Bush would give legal status to foreign workers, including millions already toiling in America’s underground economy, removing the fear of deportation but not putting them on a fast track toward permanent U.S. residency. In a speech today at the White House," it will happen at 2:45 this afternoon, Eastern time, "the president will ask Congress..." Four...

Ramiro Cruz doesn't know who Homeland Secretary Tom Ridge is. But he appreciated what Ridge said last week about legalizing undocumented immigrants. "The man is right. I hope he can do something for us," said Cruz while he waited for a drive-by job offer on South Ninth Avenue Monday morning. Gonzalo Mendoza, who was waiting on the street which serves as an unofficial day laborer hiring site, agreed with Cruz who was about a block away. "I can't believe that someone in the United States government would say something like that. It seems that the politicians in Mexico and the...

COMING TO AMERICABush: No blanket amnestyfor illegals But wants policy linking 'willing employer with any willing employee' Posted: December 16, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Responding to recent comments by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, President Bush said yesterday he is against offering an across-the-board amnesty to illegal workers living in the United States. President Bush at news conference yesterday (White House photo) Last week, Ridge told a town hall meeting in Miami, Fla., the U.S. should give illegal immigrants legal status. At a news conference in Washington, Bush replied, "I have constantly said that we need to have an immigration...

Something I often see missing in the news about illegal immigrants, is what they bring to America. We all know about the financial drain on health care, and welfare, but what about the culture shock to American citizens? Have you seen how some of our cities are looking lately? Illegals are coming over in such great numbers that we are starting to live in their cultural standards. My neighborhood is now filled with people that think the front yard is a parking lot, and that standing in the front yard drinking Bud Light and partying after work is OK. Businesses...

<p>Thousands of Latinos throughout California Friday protested Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's repeal of a state law that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses.</p> <p>From Los Angeles, where the push for a boycott originated, to Ukiah in Mendocino County, where a protest was held, Latinos skipped work, stayed out of school and refused to patronize businesses, but the turnout was modest, given the state's large Latino population.</p>

Celestina Gregorio of Encinitas said she gave up a day of work yesterday to protest the repeal of a state law that would have allowed undocumented immigrants like herself to apply for a driver license. The 18-year-old restaurant cook was among Latinos who participated in rallies here and across the state in support of a one-day boycott of stores, schools and work places to protest the Legislature's action last week. "It's worth it because we want to be driving legally. We don't want any problems," Gregorio said. She was among 100 people who demonstrated near a Wal-Mart store in Vista....

<p>Roosevelt School in Tulare appeared to be the only elementary school affected by today's planned statewide boycott by Hispanics.</p> <p>"We have almost 200 kids out," Principal Barbara Xavier said, noting the campus has the most Hispanic students in the Tulare City School District.</p>

<p>Hundreds of people angered by the repeal of a law allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses took to the streets of cities around the state Friday to kick off a daylong boycott.</p> <p>The protest came in response to the Legislature's action last week and as part of an effort to highlight the economic contribution of California's Hispanic community, the nation's largest. The protest was planned to coincide with the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe.</p>

Illegal immigration is an enormous problem for the United States, and one that is growing, with nine to eleven million illegal aliens currently estimated to be in the U.S. While most efforts to halt illegal immigration have focused on our southern land border, the difficulties are spread throughout the immigration system. Spotty or haphazard efforts to end illegal immigration cannot succeed. In order to compose an overall, cohesive plan, FAIR sponsored an experts' study that resulted in the report Ten Steps to Ending Illegal Immigration. It is important to realize that the proposals outlined below are not separate, but...