Free Republic

WASHINGTON – A Goldman Sachs executive has been named the first chief operating officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division. The market watchdog says Adam Storch, vice president in Goldman Sachs' Business Intelligence Group, is assuming the new position of managing executive of the SEC division.

PHOENIX | The man who likes to call himself "America's toughest sheriff," Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., is planning a Friday showdown with the feds. The sheriff has announced he will defy the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by doing a street sweep for illegal immigrants one day after the expiration of the agreement that has permitted him to conduct such operations for the past three years. The sheriff has said he expects the deal not to be extended, though federal officials have remained publicly noncommittal. Deputies, and Sheriff Arpaio, will stake out an intersection somewhere in the Phoenix...

Over the past two years, Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren has been referred to as a hero, a racist and a few other things unfit to print. That’s because his department’s partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, which allows deputies to detain inmates suspected of being in the country illegally, has stirred the passions of immigration reform advocates as well as citizens who want current immigration laws enforced. **** Since July 2007, 6,386 inmates suspected of being illegal immigrants have been detained for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records provided by the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office. About of...

In December 1917 Bolshevik Russian leaders, including one of the founders of Socialist thuggery Vladimir Lenin, established the Cheka—Russia’s first political secret police. With almost unlimited power, the Cheka implemented “campaigns of terror” against the wealthy, land owners and those who opposed Lenin and Bolshevism. !n 1922, once most of Russia’s opposition to their new absolute rulers had lessened, the Cheka was disbanded. However, under the singularly oppressive Josef Stalin, Cheka was reinstated and ultimately renamed “The People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs” (NKVD) and what would be known as Stalin’s “Great Terror of the 1930s began. The NKVD was used...

Radio Talk Hosts Prepare for Historic Two-Day Broadcast Blitz Live from Washington 50 Talk Hosts Gathering to Support Secure Borders and Continued Immigration Enforcement (Washington DC) The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) announces September 15th and 16th as the dates for its annual Hold Their Feet to the Fire radio rally in Washington, D.C. 50 radio hosts, led by Roger Hedgecock of KOGO-AM in San Diego and Lou Dobbs of United Stations Radio Network and CNN, are scheduled to broadcast live from “Radio Row” on Capitol Hill. As in previous events, talk show hosts from around the nation will...

The US Census has released its employment documents and they are an eye-full. US Census Form D-262 of 23 June 2009 indicates who is eligible for employment as a census taker. To be eligible for the job, non-citizens are eligible if they present One Each from Lists A, or B, plus one from C. List A is the toughest: US passport (expired or unexpired) Permanent Resident or Alien Registration Card Unexpired foreign passport Employment Authorization Document Form I-766, I-688, I-688A, I-688B Then there’s List B: Drivers License or state-issued ID ID card issued by local, state, or federal government School...

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Saturday he ordered his deputies to tape conversations with federal officials after a dispute over who called for the release of illegal immigrants arrested in a crime sweep. Arpaio said a total of 13 illegal immigrants have been released — three on Thursday and 10 on Friday — after federal officials said their arrests didn’t fit new Department of Homeland Security policies and ordered the deputies to release them. The sheriff’s claim over the releases was initially contradicted by a Homeland Security official. In the recording, multiple tracks detail conversations between deputies and ICE...

As Congress moves slowly on immigration reform, President Obama is making numerous policy changes in enforcement and other areas that are designed to shift priorities and boost confidence in the administration as it lays the groundwork for possible legislation. The recent administrative changes include: * New guidelines directing immigration agents to target employers who hire illegal immigrants rather than simply arresting undocumented employees. * A requirement that all local police agencies deputized to check immigration status and turn criminals over for possible deportation sign new agreements pledging to focus on those who pose a risk to public safety. * The...

DOTHAN, Ala. — An Alabama judge set a $20,000 cash bond for a native of Mexico who reportedly has been deported from the United States 28 times. Houston County Sheriff's Sgt. Jackie Smith said he charged Luis Hernandez-Arellano, 38, with felony obstruction of justice...for giving deputies false identification. Smith said deputies stopped a vehicle on Alabama Highway 109 Thursday for running a stop sign. The driver told deputies his name was Caesar Garza. After Garza failed to provide a driver's license or other identification, deputies were able to positively identify him as Carlos Cortez. Investigators later learned through Immigration and...

The city's plans to step up cooperation with federal authorities in efforts to deport illegal immigrants is garnering new debate in the 2009 mayoral contest. Latino advocates have pressed candidates to distance themselves from Mayor Bill White's request that Houston be allowed to participate in two federal programs that, at least within the confines of the city's jails, would put police officers in the immigration enforcement business. While each of the four major candidates generally opposes diverting too many resources to immigration enforcement, they all support the thrust of the city's new effort to screen jail inmates and turn over...

Local police agencies empowered by the federal government to enforce immigration law must focus their efforts on criminals who pose a threat to public safety, with less emphasis on those who commit minor crimes, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Friday. The announcement aims to clarify a controversial program that deputizes police to turn over suspects or criminals to immigration authorities for possible deportation. Normally police do not enforce federal law. The law, known as 287(g), took effect in 1996. Most of the participating police agencies signed up under President George W. Bush, whose administration promoted it as a tool...

(07-02) 22:16 PDT San Diego, CA (AP) -- Authorities say they have found another secret tunnel near a San Diego border crossing. The 53-foot passageway, reinforced with plywood and equipped with battery-powered lights, was discovered Thursday as law enforcement officials were investigating an incomplete cross-border tunnel west of the San Ysidro crossing.

This Backgrounder examines illegal immigration-related document fraud and identity theft that is committed primarily for the purpose of employment. It debunks three common misconceptions: illegal aliens are “undocumented;” the transgressions committed by illegal aliens to obtain jobs are minor; and illegal-alien document fraud and identity theft are victimless crimes. It discusses how some community leaders rationalize these crimes, contributing to a deterioration of the respect for laws in our nation, and presents a variety of remedies, including more widespread electronic verification of work status (E-Verify and the Social Security Number Verification Service) and immigrant outreach programs to explain the ramifications...

Blue-collar workers who voted for Barack Obama may want to reconsider their support in light of current unemployment trends. The president is re-opening a campaign for "comprehensive immigration reform" (some call it amnesty) even as jobless rates keep rising. Legal and illegal immigrants have swelled America's labor force in the recent years. In fiscal 2008, 1.45 million new migrants were granted work permits. Combined with the influx of millions of undocumented workers, this excess supply became the equivalent of the housing bubble -- it was bound to burst. Since 2007, jobless rates have doubled. In the first quarter of this...

By 2008 Agriprocessors, which was being run in Iowa by Mr. Rubashkin's son Sholom, was processing 60,000 chickens and buying 500 cattle a day from area livestock producers. It was the largest kosher meatpacker in the country, employing about 1,000 people. Agriprocessors hired Jewish rabbis to kill each animal to kosher standards. Further processing was conducted by local hires, and when that pool was tapped out, the company turned to immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, Somalia, Mexico, Israel, and most notably Guatemala. An area first settled by German and other European immigrants (Czech composer Anton Dvorak and his family spent summers...

Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego will become the first counties in California to begin checking the immigration status of all inmates booked into jail Law enforcement officials will begin running inmates' fingerprints through federal databases this month to see if they have had any contact with the immigration system. Once the inmates have finished serving their sentences, they will be transferred to immigration custody for possible deportation

Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- Law enforcement agencies in three Southern California counties will soon be able to check the immigration status of arrestees when their fingerprints are taken. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday the so-called "Secure Communities" program is scheduled to begin this month in Los Angeles, San Diego and Ventura counties.

Obama reverses stance on immigration Co-opts policy he once mocked By Stephen Dinan May 8, 2009 On the thorniest of political issues, President Obama has embraced the enforcement-first position on immigration that he criticized during last year's presidential campaign, and he now says he can't move forward with the type of comprehensive bill he wants until voters are convinced that the borders can be enforced. Having already backed off his pledge to have an immigration bill this year, Mr. Obama boosted his commitment to enforcement in the budget released Thursday. The spending blueprint calls for extra money to build an...

On the thorniest of political issues, President Obama has embraced the enforcement-first position on immigration that he criticized during last year's presidential campaign, and he now says he can't move forward with the type of comprehensive bill he wants until voters are convinced that the borders can be enforced. Having already backed off his pledge to have an immigration bill this year, Mr. Obama boosted his commitment to enforcement in the budget released Thursday. The spending blueprint calls for extra money to build an employee-verification system and to pay for more personnel and equipment to patrol the border.

Nineteen new qualified armed posse volunteers will graduate today, Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 6:30PM from the Sheriff’s Training Academy, 2627 South 35 Avenue. Arpaio says he plans to step up his recruiting methods to attract more men and women to join his volunteer armed posse through more public outreach. “The public has a desire to help local law enforcement when times are tough. I am banking on their generosity of time and energy to help my deputies keep our communities safe,” Arpaio says. Arpaio is seeking primarily those who wish to be trained and qualified to carry and use...

Federal officials within weeks plan to start construction on a new "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border. Plans are expected to be formally announced tomorrow. Supporters say the system could almost completely cover the nearly 2,000-mile frontier within five years. The first permanent towers with sensors, cameras and communications gear to detect drug smugglers and illegal immigrants will be built along 53 miles of Arizona. Customs official Mark Borkowski says more towers will follow on the remaining 320 miles of Arizona's southern border. Borkowski says virtual fencing then will go up in New Mexico, followed by California and most of...

Barack Obama’s Hope and Change motto got deployed originally in his run against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential nomination as an argument against a return to the Clintonistas. It hasn’t turned out that way; not only did Obama hire Hillary herself as Secretary of State, but 42% of his appointments have come from Bill Clinton’s administration. It should not surprise anyone, then, that when Obama needed a “czar” for the southern border, he opted for Bill’s: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is naming a “border czar” to oversee issues related to drug-cartel violence along the U.S.-Mexico border and...

Let feds enforce immigration lawsWhen it comes to forcing local police departments to enforce federal immigration laws, Utah Senate Bill 81 is as porous as our borders. Contrary to what contrarian state Rep. Mike Noel might believe, there's a large enough loophole in the law, which takes effect July 1, to allow every police department in the state to escape the responsibility. And they should.

Advocates Want Halt on Immigration Raids to Ensure Accurate Census U.S. Rep. William Clay says he'll ask the Obama administration to suspend immigration raids over the next year, so illegal immigrants don't worry that sharing accurate information with Census workers could somehow expose them to punishment. FOXNews.com Monday, April 06, 2009 Some lawmakers are calling anew for the U.S. to relax its immigration laws -- not to provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants, but to ensure statistical accuracy. The calls come as the Census Bureau prepares to kick off the 2010 Census. Critics argue that unless the government is willing to...

U.S. Rep. William Clay says he'll ask the Obama administration to suspend immigration raids over the next year, so illegal immigrants don't worry that sharing accurate information with Census workers could somehow expose them to punishment.Some lawmakers are calling anew for the U.S. to relax its immigration laws -- not to provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants, but to ensure statistical accuracy. The calls come as the Census Bureau prepares to kick off the 2010 Census. Critics argue that unless the government is willing to relax immigration laws, millions of people -- afraid to their share their personal information -- will...

Report confirms aggravated assault down by 36.5 percent. BY ALYSSA FARAH Following a crackdown on illegal immigration, officials in Prince William County in northern Virginia are reporting their numbers reveal a significant decrease in violent crimes committed. The violent crime rate in Prince William County plummeted 22 percent in 2008, according to new reports. In recent years, the county had experienced a steady influx of illegal immigrants that led to its development of one of the most aggressive immigration policies in the nation.

WHOOOO HOOO!!!! (from a FIRE coalition email I just received) A MUST SEE video. "After all of the abuse the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office takes from La Raza, MALDEF, ACLU, and their Mayor Gordon of Phoenix for enforcing the law, the Sheriff Deputies finally fight back in a press conference of their own!"

The arrest of 28 illegal immigrants at a small engine plant in Bellingham WA in February has ignited a national political firestorm over work-site raids carried out under the Obama administration. The last of the workers have been released from custody and offered work permits.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Central American leaders will push the U.S. to slow a flood of deportations when Vice President Joe Biden meets with them Monday, promising a "new day for relations" with a region that has felt ignored...Costa Rica is the second stop in Biden's Latin American tour...Central American leaders agreed Wednesday to push the U.S. to include Guatemalans in a temporary visa program that is already in place for Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans. They also want the U.S. to soften a deportation policy that sent a record 80,000 people back to the region in 2008 alone. The...

The U.S. Border Patrol plans to poison the plant life along a 1.1-mile stretch of the Rio Grande riverbank as soon as Wednesday to get rid of the hiding places used by smugglers, robbers and illegal immigrants. Although Border Patrol and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials say the chemical is safe for animals, detractors say the experiment is reminiscent of the Vietnam War-era Agent Orange chemical program and raises questions about long-term effects. “We don’t believe that is even moral,” said Jay Johnson-Castro Sr., executive director of the Rio Grande International Study Center. Border Patrol agent Roque Sarinana said the...

The Radical Polarization of Law Enforcement by Patrick Wood, Editor March 18, 2009 Patriots, Christians and concerned citizens are increasingly in the cross hairs of the U.S. intelligence community, and battle lines are being quietly drawn that could soon pit our own law enforcement and military forces against us. A February 20 report entitled "The Modern Militia Movement" was issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) that paints mainstream patriotic Americans as dangerous threats to law enforcement and to the country. Operating under the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the MIAC is listed as a Fusion Center that was established...

While much of the immigration debate has long concerned how to fill “jobs that Americans won’t do,” a report examining one instance of immigration enforcement takes issue with that premise. Jerry Kammer, a senior research fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), wrote a backgrounder released yesterday that examines the impact of immigration enforcement on six meat-processing plants owned by Swift & Co. As a result of heightened screening and a major December 2006 workplace raid, plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, Colorado and Utah lost an estimated 3,000 illegal-immigrant workers to firings and arrests. How did...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Illegal immigrants in Oklahoma prisons for nonviolent crimes would be subject to deportation under legislation overwhelmingly approved by the Oklahoma House. In a rare late-night session tonight, House members voted 90-0 for the bill by Rep. Randy Terrill. The Moore Republican says the bill will save the state millions of dollars in incarceration costs. The measure allows the Department of Corrections to send illegal immigrant inmates to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The bill applies only to inmates who are incarcerated for nonviolent crimes who have served at least half their sentence in state...

Richard Nadler has written an astoundingly myopic defense of his position on repatriation of illegal aliens That such a mess of an essay should appear on the pages of National Review is flabbergasting, and that Nadler takes 4 pages makes writing a rebuttal difficult, yet this piece demands a formal public flogging. Mr. Nadler begins by claiming that the concept of deportation of illegal aliens is a recent idea. Interesting. Then why did the Texas Rangers hang so many gauchos who crossed the Rio Grande after the Texas revolution? Many Mexicans believed they had a right to travel freely on...

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FL -- John's Island, a luxurious waterfront community of more than 1300 properties, is taking its "exclusive" reputation to a new level. Starting February 1st, the John's Island Property Owners' Association launched a new policy requiring anyone who wants to trim hedges, clean houses, or do any kind of business in the neighborhood to "have a valid U.S. Driver's License or ID card." Workers are now asked to show proof of I.D. at the front gate to the development. They're given a copy of the new policy, written in both English and Spanish, which reads: "If you...

As the Border Patrol's ranks have increased in the San Diego area, so have reports of immigration-related traffic stops well away from the border. Since late last year, there have been at least four reports of motorists stopped by immigration officials and questioned in the interior of the county and beyond. The agency has not emphasized interior patrols for several years. Those who favor intensive enforcement of immigration laws long have pushed the federal government to do more, but the patrols are reigniting debate over what criteria agents use when deciding to make a stop. People who are in the...

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The FBI has issued an alert to 350 law enforcement agencies in the southwest and Salt Lake City for potential Valentine teddy bear bombs after a suspicious transaction at a Wal-Mart last month. Law enforcement sources said authorities also were on the alert at airports in case the suspected bear-bombs might be carried onto airplanes on Valentine's Day. The FBI said a clean-shaven male, possibly of Middle Eastern descent, purchased nine Valentine teddy bears, 20 inches tall, and 14 canisters of propane, 9 inches tall, small enough to fit inside the teddy bears. The man...

February 10, 2009 Part Two: Islam in American Prisons By Kathy Shaidle RightSideNews Copyright © 2009 "One in 10 inmates behind bars turns to Islam." It was small story in a local newspaper called the Daily Herald out of Everett, Washington, but it spread quickly around the internet, thanks to that startling claim. The paper's February 2009 investigation declared that so-called "prison Islam" was the fastest-growing religious group in U.S. correctional facilities. Some of those worshippers claim affiliation with the Nation of Islam (NOR), a black separatist movement that was launched and promoted by two convicts, Elijah Mohammed and his...

Legislative efforts in immigration reform have died off since the debate on the Comprehensive Immigra­tion Reform Act of 2007 (S. 1348), but for the past several years, the Bush Administration did consider­able work in advancing immigration reform outside the legislative process. One such effort was to enhance internal enforcement of immigration laws. The new emphasis on enforcement has resulted in a noticeable increase in the detention and deportation of illegal immigrants. However, enforcement still faces several obstacles before all immigration laws are successfully executed. For improved enforcement to be an effective component of immigration reform, the necessary resources must be...

Members of Congress asked the Justice and Homeland Security Departments on Friday to investigate accusations that the sheriff who presides over the Phoenix metropolitan area has engaged in a pattern of racial profiling and other abuses against Latino residents. Four members of the House Judiciary Committee, including the chairman, John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, raised of concerns about the sheriff, Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County. Sheriff Arpaio, a publicity magnet who is a hero to those who campaign against illegal immigration and a pariah to immigration advocates, brushed off the requests as political high jinks.

Government Blocks Release of Documents on Secret IP Enforcement Treaty Despite Obama's Order for Openness, Americans Still Kept in the Dark About ACTA San Francisco, CA - infoZine - The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is withholding hundreds of documents about a secret intellectual property enforcement treaty currently under negotiation between the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries. In a pending federal lawsuit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge are demanding that background documents on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) be released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). But the USTR has...

What part of illegal alien is so difficult to understand? Apparently, there are those who are either too confused, too unwilling or too incapable of understanding the meaning of those simple words. Instead, they'd rather emotionalize any debate on illegal immigration with cries of racism, discrimination and an alleged lack of compassion for our fellow human beings. They choose this course rather than honestly dealing with the established fact we are a nation of laws - laws intended and necessary to preserve civility and order for our common good. I, for one, refuse to be intimidated or influenced by such...

Riverside and San Bernardino counties added more Latino residents between 2000 and 2007 than all but three other U.S. counties, a new analysis of U.S. Census data found. The report, by the nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based Pew Hispanic Center, also found that most Latino population growth is now from new births. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was mostly from immigration. That means no matter what happens to the immigration rate, the Latino population of Riverside and San Bernardino counties will continue to grow steadily, reaching a majority within several years, experts say. Riverside County's Hispanic population surged 60 percent between...

IF YOU THINK the bad economy has “solved” America’s immigration problems, welcome to your end-of-the-year reality check. It’s certainly true illegal crossings from the south are down and that many foreign workers are returning to their native lands as work dries up. But border chaos, haphazard enforcement, massive backlogs and deportation negligence remain the order of the day. A half-million citizenship applications have been pending for more than nine months. Some 700,000 illegal alien absconders — fugitives from deportation like Barack Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango — are free. An estimated 4 to 5 million illegal visa overstayers from around the...

If you were to rely solely on the "press release journalists" at L.A.'s newspapers and TV stations -- i.e., faux reporters who merely reprint or re-broadcast City Hall's press releases and press conferences without any independent analysis -- you might think Villaraigosa has made tremendous progress in reducing crime. Villaraigosa and Bratton have held self-congratulatory press conferences because crime is down 2.5% this year. The press release journalists simply transmit the information and wait for the Mayor to deliver the next item of “news,” like “Arts Month,” for example. If there were a real press corps in this town, however,...

By Michael Webster, Syndicated Investigative Reporter Early this month U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Tucson, Ariz. sector and agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were again fired upon with what appeared to be military type automatic weapons by Mexican drug smugglers dressed in military garb. Agents after observing a Flatbed tow truck on the Mexican side of the U.S. Mexican border backed up to the new international border fence. According to witnesses the tow truck backed up on a newly constructed earthen dirt berm which put the truck almost even with the height of the fence. The tow...

CONTIGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER — The 2nd Battalion, 11th Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement, partnered with Soldiers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, to assist the Iraqi Security Forces in the disruption of smuggling networks in November. The American troops used air assets on a mission that began at the al Hawayza Border Fort. The operation was led on the ground by DBE personnel. “The [Head Hunter Squadron’s] non-commissioned officers have been working to mold the 2-11 DBE men,” said Sgt. 1st Class Loshun Wilson from Killeen, Texas. The American Soldiers, led...

Update - 12/13/08 - the trial date we hear has been postponed to a later date. If someone disagreed with you about an article or story you published and then complained to the police who came into your business and arrested you for disorderly conduct, would that incident be newsworthy? What if the police arrested you for disorderly conduct while you were exercising any other constitutionally protected right because someone did not want you to exercise your right? Would you want to tell the people of Wisconsin how fragile it is to exercise their rights? Once arrested, do you think...

LAPD officers are for the most part prohibited from taking action against illegal aliens under the terms of Special Order 40, a 1979 revision to the department’s regulations. The “Jamiel” of the law’s title refers to Jamiel Shaw, a 17-year-old Los Angeles resident who was shot and killed last March. That a young man should meet such a fate is, sadly, not all that uncommon in some parts of Los Angeles, but what made Jamiel’s murder all the more tragic is the manifest failure of his government, both local and federal, to prevent it from happening. The man accused of...

Alamance County commissioner Tim Sutton has a clear message for immigrants. “If they’re here illegally,” he said, “we’ll certainly accommodate their trip home.” Sutton began immersing himself in the issue more than a decade ago, as the county’s immigrant population exploded and the new arrivals began straining the county’s schools and other services. There is no question, he said, that the county’s tax burden is higher today than it would be otherwise. Ultimately, he realized the federal government wasn’t going to step in. “I just thought, are we going to sit back and let this happen?” he said. Alamance County...