Free Republic

More than a dozen suspected members of a ruthless Norteño street gang allegedly responsible for four murders, several attempted murders and assaults in San Jose are behind bars, the result of a 1 1/2-year police investigation. A five-week grand jury proceeding culminated Tuesday with indictments being issued against 13 suspected members of El Hoyo Palmas, described by police as a multi-generation gang that has operated in San Jose for about 30 years.

Students Must Pay To Make Up Difference In Out-Of-State Tuition. Was it a promise kept, or a promise broken? Four years ago in an auditorium at Cole Middle School, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper promised the 300-plus students in attendance that he would find a way to send each of them to college for free. Now, the first group of those students is set to graduate, and some are finding that the mayor's promise isn't adding up. The promise only pays in-state tuition, and state law requires illegal immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition. So undocumented students must make up the difference....

A federal employee from Henry County, and his wife, will face federal charges in connection with an alleged immigration scheme. Hasmukh C. Patel, 52, of McDonough, was formally charged Tuesday, with conspiracy to encourage aliens to remain in the United States illegally. Authorities say over a period of more than two years, Patel and his wife, Nitigna, 46, facilitated unlawful acquisitions of visas. The alleged conspiracy began in March 2005, while Hasmukh Patel worked as a business interface representative for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The 10-page indictment states Hasmukh Patel received money from a foreign national, in exchange for...

ROME (Reuters) - Italian police announced on Thursday the arrest of hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants in a sign of the new right-wing government's determination to clamp down. Police arrested 383 people including 268 foreigners, with 53 immediately taken to the border for expulsion, in a week-long operation stretching from northern Italy to the Naples area. Silvio Berlusconi swept back to power for a third term as prime minister last week promising to get tough on illegal immigrants, blamed by many for crime. He is readying new laws to screen immigrants and jail or expel those breaking the law. Those...

We breathed a sigh of relief the day the Senate defeated the Amnesty Bill, but the USA is still being invaded! We discovered one of the biggest layups we have ever found. This layup is on an 'illegal super - highway' from Mexico to the USA (Tucson) used by human smugglers. This layup area is located in a wash area approximately .5 of a mile long just south of Tucson.

A newly elected mayor near Dallas says his top priority will be ridding his suburb of illegal immigrants, the same focus that has drawn national attention in a neighboring city. But Ron Branson said Carrollton will not simply copy the blueprint of Farmers Branch, where an ordinance barring apartment rentals to most illegal immigrants has been put on hold by a federal judge. "I do not want to rubber-stamp what they did," Branson said in Monday's editions of The Dallas Morning News. "We want to make sure we're not profiling, we're following the law, and take advantage of ordinance opportunities."...

No federal law prohibits North Carolina from admitting illegal immigrants to its colleges and universities, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said today. The statement from federal officials contradicts a letter sent this week by the office of state Attorney General Roy Cooper. The letter from Cooper's office advised the state Community College System that federal law bars the admission of illegal immigrants to public colleges and universities, even if they pay out-of-state tuition. The letter said that the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, was responsible for enforcing the law and offered to ask...

U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they're catching them on the way out.At random times near the Tijuana-San Diego border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been setting up checkpoints, boarding buses destined for Mexico and pulling off people who don't have proper documentation.

Public colleges in North Carolina should not admit illegal immigrants as students, the state Attorney General's Office advised in a letter released Wednesday. If followed, the advice would reverse policies at the state's 58 community colleges and at the 16 four-year institutions in the University of North Carolina system, which allow illegal immigrants to attend. It also damages a movement to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrant teenagers who have attended North Carolina high schools. "It really closes the door of opportunity for a lot of kids," said Andrea Bazan, president of the Triangle Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization, and...

Sheriff Arpaio conducted another crime suppression operation in Fountain Hills on Tuesday. A total of seven traffic stops and fourteen contacts were made throughout a seven-hour patrol period. This resulted in ten arrests, nine of them being of undocumented immigrants, and three felony warrants cleared.

Michelle Malkin has been out in front of this story for quite some time: Finally, as part of his commitment to talking with all Americans during this presidential campaign, the McCain presidential campaign announced that John McCain will attend the La Raza Annual Convention in San Diego on July 14, 2008. Sigh.... I guess we all knew what we were getting in McCain but the reality always bites a bit. The same can be said for Bush. While he is simply outstanding on protecting this country and foreign policy, his immigration policies remain much less then desired. But validating La...

'Don't speak Spanish…can't get the job?' When San Bernardino High School teens Jazanique Jackson, Ashanae Brown and Kimyen Hawkins decided they wanted to work this summer, they left nothing to chance. They knew the rules: plan ahead; role play; be positive; adapt; relate and encourage. So when they hit the streets to start their summer job search they were prepared for virtually every eventuality except one. ¿No habla ingles? Can't speak Spanish.

Today is May 1, 2008. As many of my readers know, today is "May Day" or "International Workers Day" - a day when most of the world has its equivalent of the American "Labor Day" holiday. If this sounds Stalinist to the average American, their instincts would be correct. Americans do, after all, have a nose for this type of thing as, for all true Americans, the very thought of living behind the iron curtain of communism is nothing short of hateful. In recent years, Americans have been given a new reason to hold their nose on May Day as...

Death penalty jurors Tuesday watched Juan Leonardo Quintero demonstrate how he fatally shot Houston police officer Rodney Johnson while handcuffed behind his back. "In the waist," Quintero said on a videotaped interview, while also showing how he pulled the gun from his waistband on his right, cocked the hammer, leaned forward in the back seat of Johnson's police car and shot. He was speaking in English. During the trial, Quintero has worn headphones to hear a translator detailing the proceedings in Spanish. When asked why he had the gun, Quintero, a Mexican citizen who is in this country illegally, said,...

They said that the Carlyle Group, an $81 billion firm which owns hundreds of companies, is using a flawed system to identify and fire workers suspected of being in the country illegally, and that the system has left employees living in fear.

TUCSON, Arizona (AP) -- The government is scrapping a $20 million prototype of its highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system is failing to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings, officials said. The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his approval of the fence built by The Boeing Co. The fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson. Boeing is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, cameras and radar capability,...

MEXICAN LABOR ESSENTIAL to U.S., HE SAYSDALLAS - Mexican President Felipe Calderón defended immigrant workers and their contribution to the U.S. economy before a group of immigrant leaders meeting in Dallas on Tuesday afternoon, but also said Mexico needs to produce the type of jobs that will keep its people at home and end the painful separation of families between the two nations.

California nonnative students showed improving English proficiency this school year, with more than one-third demonstrating a level of fluency that could allow them to take higher-level course work, according to data released today by the state Department of Education. "Becoming fluent in English can open a world of new opportunities for every student. I am pleased to see that more English learners participating in the assessment are making good progress toward English language fluency," said state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell in a written statement. "All children need strong English language skills in order to do well in the...

A man is in the Bexar County Jail, accused of sexually assaulting a child. That child gave birth over the weekend and she says her infant son belongs to him. Police say 44-year-old Juan Manuel Cepeda was arrested Sunday night, after a 15-year-old girl came forward with the claims. Cepeda's arrest affidavit claims the rape happened in August last year. The teenager told police it was the only sexual contact she has ever had. The affidavit also shows the girl gave birth at Santa Rosa Children's Hospital on Sunday. The teen says Cepeda was a family friend who she knew...

Call it one price of globalism. Last year, tuberculosis increased in four of the Bay Area's five largest counties, and the San Jose area in 2006 had the highest TB rate of any large American metro area, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health. San Francisco, after an outbreak of TB among Latino day workers in the Mission district, has the highest TB rate of any...

Rep. Tom Tancredo – who vied for the Republican presidential nomination to make illegal immigration a priority issue – suggested in a House speech yesterday that Pope Benedict XVI is encouraging Latin Americans to come to the U.S. to bolster flagging membership in the Catholic Church.

Our prisons are boiling over capacity with criminals. Convicted criminal immigrants make up a large number of inmates. IF it costs approximately $42,000 per year to house these illegal immigrants, should they be deported? Even small rural towns like mine are having to cough up tax money to build new jails. No one wants to point to the criminal illegal immigrants that are filling the old jail. They just tell us that we need a bigger jail. Yet the papers are filled with names in the arrest column that points squarely to immigrants.

Silvio Berlusconi says illegal migrants are 'army of evil' By Malcolm Moore in Rome Last Updated: 2:47am BST 16/04/2008 Silvio Berlusconi branded illegal immigrants an "army of evil" yesterday in his first day in office after winning Italy's general election. Malcolm Moore: Silvio Berlusconi must rely on Umberto Bossi Mr Berlusconi, 71, who was elected on Monday to serve a third term as prime minister, said that he would "step up neighbourhood police, who can be an army of good, placing themselves between the Italian people and the army of evil". Mr Berlusconi: My throne will be uncomfortable. But as...

EDWARDS, Colorado — A drunken man bit off part of his brother-in-law’s ear after an argument, according to an Eagle County Sheriff’s Office report. Henry T. Benites, 24, bit off part of the ear of Crisoforo Q. Reyes, 27, March 28, the report said. Benites said the fight started after he had slapped the hand of Reyes’ son when the boy dropped a milkshake, the report said. Benites said Reyes then pushed him twice, the report said. Benites also cursed several times and said he had beaten up Reyes, the report said. He said he drank seven beers that night,...

I am looking for help/source material for demonstrating the imapact of illegal alien voting in Oregon. As you may know, Oregon has given driver licenses to illegals, and has encouraged them to register to vote while getting their license. I need some cold facts about illegal immigrant voting in Oregon, please. Thanks!

Melanie Bowers, 13, and her parents walked into Athens High School Monday afternoon to talk to campus police. They were hoping to get some answers. "It never should have happened in the first place. The whole assignment was a silly assignment and they should have contacted us immediately after it happened," said J.R. Bowers, Melanie's father. It was an assignment for history class--to make a protest sign for or against an issue, and Melanie said she chose illegal immigration. Her sign read, "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration." Somehow, Melanie said the sign got passed around lunch and...

If you're one of the estimated thousands of illegal immigrants living in San Francisco, you're now learning via billboards and TV spots that this town is a self-declared sanctuary from federal border controls. You can visit a health clinic, report a crime and enroll your kids in local schools without fear of refusal or deportation. San Francisco, via a $83,000 campaign in five languages, wants this slice of its population to know about these humane policies. Except none of it is really true - or necessary. San Francisco isn't a deep-moated castle protected from federal immigration rules, which trump the...

McALLEN, Texas (CBS News) ― It was 5 a.m. and CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts is with a woman who is nine months pregnant. She's rushed to a south Texas hospital to undergo a C-section - a $4,700 medical procedure that won't cost her a dime. She qualifies for emergency Medicaid. She gave birth to a healthy, 8 1/2 pound baby boy - born in America. His Mexican mother gave him an American name: Eliot. Eliot is one of an estimated 300,000 children of illegal immigrants born in the United States every year, according to the Pew Hispanic Center....

Delegate for Obama quits over remark CARPENTERSVILLE, IL Says when she called black kids 'monkeys,' she was asking them to get out of tree April 8, 2008 BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter/apallasch@suntimes.com Moving to nip in the bud some potential bad press, White House hopeful Barack Obama's campaign persuaded a delegate to step down after she was ticketed for calling her neighbor's African-American children "monkeys." Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, a Carpentersville village trustee, was elected as an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She sports an Obama sign in her front yard. On Saturday, two neighbor children were playing in...

Join HonestConservative and our friend eeevil, as we once again tackle Illegal Immigration and related issue and those that seek to continue to perpetrate this disgrace on the American people. Join us tonight at 8 pm to 10 pm est. http://www.blogtalkradio.com 646 478 5613

A Tucson police officer who shot and killed an illegal entrant during a violent scuffle was justified in using deadly force, according to the findings of a Police Department board of inquiry. Officer Douglas Dreher's actions on Nov. 24, when he shot a man who'd attacked him with his own baton, were found to be within department policy, according to a summary of the incident obtained by the Arizona Daily Star on Friday. Francisco Javier Yanez-Burruel, 35, of Magdalena, Sonora, was shot several times, according to Star archives. Dreher was driving his patrol car west on Irvington Road near Interstate...

Outlook grim for Blue Island, Illinois hospital ST. FRANCIS Mounting losses, lack of buyer forcing St. Francis to close, owner says April 3, 2008 BY MIKE NOLAN SouthtownStar When St. Francis Hospital marked its centennial in 2005, the president of the Blue Island medical center commented on its "bright future." Now, that future might not extend past this summer. » Click to enlarge image St. Francis Hospital, which marked its centennial in 2005, will likely close this summer, the owner said Wednesday. (Joseph P. Meier/Southtownstar) Unable to sell or even give away the hospital for free, the owner said Wednesday...

TIJUANA, Mexico — Undocumented migrants deported from the United States will be eligible for free transportation back to their hometowns and other services under a new program launched by the Mexican government. Migrants arriving in the city of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, will now be offered free tickets home, National Immigration Institute spokesman Raul Zarate said Monday at a ceremony to launch the program. Previously, the government had offered to pay half the cost. The government has also assigned 10 agents to help deportees find temporary shelter and medical care, said Francisco Javier Reynoso, the institute's delegate...

World War II veteran Enos Schera monitors ''the invasion'' from his Miami home in the predominantly Cuban-American suburb of Westchester. Information is the former Marine's weapon. Surrounded by stacks of paper, old televisions, VCRs and radios, Florida's ''grandfather of immigration reform'' -- as other activists have dubbed him -- tracks crimes committed by immigrants, failing public schools and politicians' positions. Schera's Citizens of Dade United is among a growing cohort of anti-illegal immigration groups in Florida trying different tactics to drive out undocumented immigrants. They have turned to legislators in Tallahassee for help in the wake of Washington's inability to...

SORRENTO - A daylong party ended violently Sunday night when an angry mob of revelers kicked and punched a Lake County deputy sheriff and smashed a beer bottle on his head, authorities said. "The only thing I was worried about was someone getting my weapon," Deputy Cliff McMennamy said hours after he was released from Florida Hospital Waterman with a bruised jaw and lacerations on his head and face. "I can take the whuppin', I can handle that," McMennamy said. "I didn't want someone to get my weapon. . . . That's why I got so beat up, because I...

An article in New Jersey’s Star Ledger addresses a major issue where illegal aliens are concerned: the practice of hiring illegal aliens willing to do the work Americans should be doing but are unable to do because the illegal alien workforce is willing to accept substandard wages, no benefits, and often dangerous conditions that in and of themselves are illegal.

As police sped toward West San Jose on Wednesday night where Homer Bejarano Resendez lay fatally shot, the city of San Jose was accelerating through one of its bloodiest stretches in years.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- One frigid March morning last year, federal agents raided a factory in this old whaling town, arresting hundreds of illegal immigrants as they sewed vests and backpacks for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most were shackled and sent to a detention center in Texas, where they faced rapid deportation unless they could post thousands of dollars in bail -- money they didn't have -- to buy time to mount a defense. Then, a mystery benefactor appeared. The anonymous donor ponied up more than $200,000 to spring 40 people from detention. The payments, which until now...

Last week, Stanford University reported thousands of students for illegally downloading music, many of whom will now have to pay thousands of dollars for violating copyright laws. OK, so actually the university did no such thing - but thousands of students panicked nonetheless. On Monday, the Stanford Chaparral, the university's humor magazine, published in its annual "Fake Daily" an article warning students about a new campus policy on copyright infringements. The accompanying Web site received nearly 24,000 hits from students checking to see if they were in imminent danger of being sued, said co-editor and Stanford senior Anthony Scodary. "Under...

Japan to strip Internet for illegal downloaders: report  TOKYO (AFP) — Japanese companies plan to cut off the Internet connection of anyone who illegally downloads files in one of the world's toughest measures against online piracy, a report said Saturday.Faced with mounting complaints from the music, movie and video-game industries, four associations representing Japan's Internet service providers have agreed to take drastic action, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said service providers would send e-mails to people who repeatedly made illegal copies and terminate their connections if they did not stop.The Internet companies will set up a...

Local man facing firearms, moonshine violations Posted: 4:39 PM Mar 14, 2008 (WVLT) A Cocke County man is now facing federal firearms and moonshine violations. 61 year old Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton of Parrotsville is charged in a four count complaint with three federal charges, related to the making, possessing and selling of untaxed whiskey. Sutton also faces one charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. If convicted, Sutton faces up to ten years in federal prison on the firearms count and five years for each of the moonshining counts. He faces up to a $250,000 fine...

A man who says he posed as an illegal immigrant for years to dodge criminal charges was back at home with his family in Central Texas. Saul Espinoza, 36, was detained for nearly two months in San Antonio before being released last night. He was allowed to join his family in Boerne pending a final decision in his case. Immigration officials still haven't recognized him as a U.S. citizen. Espinoza said he duped authorities for years and avoided criminal charges by telling officials he was Joel Garza, an illegal immigrant from Mexico. But Espinoza's attorney said the father of 5...

Say the words "illegal alien," and most New Yorkers think of a cleaning woman from Mexico or a cab driver from Mali. Generally, they don't think of a nanny from Mayo or a bartender from Monaghan. But illegal immigration from Ireland continues – though much diminished from the 1970s and '80s, when thousands arrived, re-populating onetime Irish neighborhoods in Queens and the Bronx. After years of living illegally, many of those immigrants got their green cards, courtesy of the Donnelly visas (1987) and the Morrison visas (1990), which together provided some 62,000 Irish-born people with papers. Those numbers still left...

For years, William Zammer Jr. has relied on 100 seasonal foreign employees to turn down beds, boil lobsters and serve cocktails at the restaurants, golf course and inn he owns on Cape Cod and in nearby Plymouth. This summer, however, the foreign workers will not be returning, and Mr. Zammer, like other seasonal employers across the nation, is scrambling to find replacements. “It’s a major crisis,� he said. “We’re very short on work force. We’ll be looking at opening a little later, closing a little earlier, looking at how we do our menus.� Mr. Zammer is caught up in a...

Santa Clara County - and all other large Bay Area counties - saw a jump in new tuberculosis cases in 2007, even as California saw its overall caseload decline. TB increased substantially in Santa Clara, San Francisco, Alameda and San Mateo counties, which collectively had almost one-quarter of California's 2,726 cases. San Francisco now has the highest TB rate in the state, but Santa Clara County is close on its heels - ranking third.

Missouri House members vote to bar illegal immigrants from public colleges. The legislation would require higher education institutions to verify to lawmakers that they have not knowingly enrolled illegal immigrants before they receive state money. House members gave first-round approval to the bill Wednesday by a voice vote. That came after they defeated an amendment to exempt community colleges from the bill. A 1996 federal law already prohibits states from offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants unless they offer the same tuition break to all U.S. citizens. But at least 10 states have enacted laws providing in-state tuition to illegal...

More than 600 suspected illegal immigrants were rounded up in the Valley within the past week. That means the people with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have their work cut out for them. Vincent Picard with ICE says it is primetime for human smuggling. "January and February were fairly quiet months. The last week, however, we're seeing those numbers go right through the roof whether it's 80 people in a house in Avondale or 50 people in a house in Phoenix." "We're seeing more houses, higher number in the houses, more smuggling on the roads." The latest drop house bust happened...

Immigration - People here illegally see Washington as one way to avoid Oregon's new proof-of-residency rules A month after Oregon's new driver's license rules went into effect, illegal immigrants and their advocates already are seeing ways to skirt the law. Some illegal immigrants and immigrant-rights groups say the most likely approaches are relocating to Vancouver or elsewhere in Washington, where getting a driver's license is easier; carpooling, using public transit or getting rides from friends and family; driving without a license; or remaining in Oregon until current licenses expire, then returning to native countries. Washington state is one of a...

Hispanic immigrant workers who toil on red-clay construction sites and cut flesh from bone on poultry plant lines in northwest Arkansas, helping to fuel the region's economic growth, say they've become targets for local police who are conducting raids once left to a few federal agents stationed here. After changes in state and federal law, local police, sheriff's deputies and state troopers throughout Arkansas can help enforce federal immigration laws. Recent raids in northwestern Arkansas rounded up a handful of illegal immigrants but even those with a legal right to be in the United States face questions. "It feels like...

Francisco Teixeira is up at 6 every morning, taking care of his 7-month-old daughter. The 33-year-old then heads to the Brazilian Convenience Store on Main Street, which he runs with his wife. They keep it open until 8 every night. Teixeira has been in the United States for the past 12 years, including his first eight in Massachusetts. After a four-year stint in Florida, he moved here to take over the store last month. The state has become his second home. After having a child, he said, he isn't considering going back to Brazil, and is looking to buy a...