Free Republic

Mexico won't pay for it. Democrats hate it. Border-state Republicans don't like it. Congressional Republican leaders would rather not undertake it. There could be an avoidable government shutdown over it. And yet President Trump's budget director is pushing Congress to spend $1.4 billion to start building his wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The political tension could backfire for the president. Trump's insistence on a wall is increasingly doing what some had warned it would do: It's undermining his relationship with Congress, it's putting Republican leaders in a no-win scenario on whether to fund it and it could potentially derail the...

A fight over whether to fund a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border could shut down the government next week. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on Thursday that money for President Trump's proposed border wall must be part of the spending bill Congress must pass by April 28 to avoid a shutdown of the federal government. Democrats, however, aren't going for it. The former South Carolina congressman said in an interview with the Associated Press that the wall is a "tremendous priority" for the Trump administration and will be a top request on the White House wish...

The White House said Thursday that it wants to see money for President Trump’s border wall included in the spending bill Congress must pass next week — a demand Democrats said sours negotiations and makes a government shutdown more likely. The demands mark a reversal for the administration, which had been saying it found enough money to build prototypes this year and wouldn’t need a major infusion of cash until next year.

The Oakland City Council voted unanimously this week on a resolution that asks cities based there to create "sanctuary workplaces" for immigrant workers they may employ. The resolution asks businesses to abide by the resolution, which “calls upon employers to establish sanctuary workplaces, where workers are respected and not threatened or discriminated against based on their immigration status.” The issue is a particularly fraught one in industries long reliant on immigrant labor, such as the service industry, manufacturing and construction.. The resolution was written as a way to protect workers who may be worried about an increased crackdown on immigrant...

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reports that the burden of illegal immigration on taxpayers in Tennessee for both state and local expenditures jumped from $285 million in 2007 to $547 million in 2013, according to a FAIR 2013 study. To add to that burden, proposed legislation that would grant eligibility for illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition is being considered this session by legislators at the Tennessee State Capitol. In most cases, the discount for in-state tuition is roughly 50%, leaving Tennessee taxpayers with half the cost of tuition for each illegal alien student. State Senator Todd Gardenhire’s...

A California federal judge on Friday strongly questioned the U.S. Justice Department over whether to suspend an order by President Donald Trump to withhold federal funds from so-called sanctuary cities for immigrants. U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick III questioned the purpose of the president's order as he heard arguments from two large California counties and the Justice Department in San Francisco federal court. Both counties have asked for a nationwide preliminary injunction to the order. As part of a larger plan to transform how the United States deals with immigration and national security, Trump in January signed an order...

President Donald Trump has won the first major battle in his war on illegal immigration and he did it without building his wall. The victory was announced last week by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which released figures showing a 93% drop since December of parents and children caught trying to cross the Mexico border illegally. In December, 16,000 parents and children were apprehended; in March, a month in which immigration typically increases because of temperate weather, the number was just over 1,100. It was a remarkable decline – steeper than the 72% drop in overall apprehensions – but...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions joined syndicated Boston radio host Howie Carr on his broadcast Thursday, laying out the new path his Department of Justice is charting in the Trump era. New measures to crack down at the border were of particular focus in light of Sessions’s sweeping announcements in Nogales, Arizona Tuesday. Talk also turned to Sessions’ efforts to rebuild a Justice Department still largely staffed with holdover Obama-era appointees and career civil service employees, most of whom worked under the previous administration. Sessions’ continued crusade against so-called “sanctuary cities” made up the final portion of their conversation. “I’ve been...

The crackdown measures on illegal immigration Attorney General Jeff Sessions unveiled in Noagles, Arizona Tuesday continue to draw intense reactions spanning from abject horror to welcome relief. Professor and Washington Post contributor Daniel W. Drezner began the day by issuing a sincere apology for touching off a viral fake news scandal. Immediately after Tuesday’s announcement, Drezner tweeted that the Attorney General had described all “illegal immigrants” as “filth.” The tweet was quickly retweeted thousands of times and contributed to an outpouring of misdirected outrage at Mr. Sessions over his use of the word. In fact, as Drezner’s apology on the...

President Donald Trump has won the first major battle in his war on illegal immigration, and he did it without building his wall. The victory was announced last week by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which released figures showing a 93 percent drop since December of parents and children caught trying to cross the Mexico border illegally. In December, 16,000 parents and children were apprehended; in March, a month in which immigration typically increases because of temperate weather, the number was just over 1,100. It was a remarkable decline - steeper than the 72 percent drop in overall apprehensions...

MIAMI - Uruguay’s banking crisis had already claimed Rosana Araujo’s savings when she and her family, tourist visas in hand, boarded a Miami-bound plane in Montevideo. She stayed in Miami after her visa expired, supporting herself on random jobs, cleaning homes or babysitting. “I feel lucky because I got here in a plane,” she said. “I feel lucky because I didn’t have to cross a desert.” While the national discussion on immigration focuses on securing the U.S.-Mexico border with a multibillion dollar wall, travelers such as Araujo who overstay their visits have become the main source of illegal immigration in...

PHOENIX -Marco Tulio Coss learned heartbreaking news for his family Wednesday afternoon. He walked out of ICE headquarters in downtown Phoenix knowing his days in the United States were numbered. Thirty to be exact. "I don't have a criminal record,” he said. “I'm clean." His story is like many others: He has been here for 18 years, he has no criminal history other than a minor traffic stop, and he works on a permit issued by the same department that has now decided to kick him out of the country. His scheduled deportation date is May 12 at 10 a.m....

The battle for the White House in 2020 has begun, but this time, the keys to the front door rest in the hands of illegal immigrants. There is a systematic campaign underway across the US that seeks to ensure that it will be easier than ever for illegal aliens to be able to cast a ballot in the presidential elections. The ideas of the Left have been measured and found wanting; the next step is to cheat. Over the last several years there have been low-level efforts to get illegals voting in key constituencies. here are some examples: The Fairfax...

A conservation group and an Arizona congressman have filed what they say is the first federal lawsuit against the proposed border wall. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Tucson by the Center for Biological Diversity and U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, a southern Arizona Democrat. Wildlife conservationists say the wall would be detrimental to rare animals such as jaguars and ocelots that are known to traverse the international line. The lawsuit seeks to require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to put together a report on construction of the wall and the environmental impact of expanded operations on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The FBI announced Wednesday it added an alleged gang member and illegal immigrant wanted in connection with a gruesome killing in New Jersey to its “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list. Walter Yovany Gomez and another man murdered fellow MS-13 gang member Julio Matute inside a Plainfield home in 2011, striking him in the head with a baseball bat, stabbing him 17 times in the back and slitting his throat with a screwdriver, law enforcement officials said. The killers may have suspected Matute was getting too close with a rival gang. When police tried to arrest Gomez, a Honduran national, he...

Jose Morales, a 23-year-old from Guatemala, allegedly shot and killed 20-year-old Mariano Gonzalez-Lopez after a fight outside the OK Corral night club, with two more men involved in the incident. Investigators say that the four men first started fighting over parking spaces, with Morales and others in his car leaving the parking lot while Gonzalez-Lopez and individuals in his car followed them. While the two cars full of men drove away, they each started throwing bottles and other objects at each other, before pulling over and physically fighting. That is when investigators say Gonzalez-Lopez hit beat Morales’ vehicle with a...

A 40-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico who had been deported from the U.S. was arrested Friday in Virginia on sex abuse charges involving a 12-year-old girl. Oscar Perez-Rangel faces charges including felony aggravated sexual battery. The abuse allegedly occurred between October and December 2016, Fox 5 reported. The girl was abused while at a daycare center operated by Perez-Rangel’s girlfriend, investigators said. “Perez-Rangel was previously removed from the U.S., and has felony convictions for attempted robbery, use of a firearm during the commission of a felony and illegal re-entry after removal,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement to...

The battle for the White House in 2020 has begun, but this time, the keys to the front door rest in the hands of illegal immigrants. There is a systematic campaign underway across the US that seeks to ensure that it will be easier than ever for illegal aliens to be able to cast a ballot in the presidential elections. The ideas of the Left have been measured and found wanting; the next step is to cheat.

A study by Mexico’s top university has revealed that at least 800 species of wildlife will be adversely affected by President Trump’s planned 2,000-mile border wall with Mexico. Research published by ecologists from the Mexican National Autonomous University has shown that an impassable physical barrier placed into ecosystems inhabited by jaguars, black bears and bighorn sheep will so disrupt patterns of migration as to cause a “natural catastrophe.” “The U.S.-Mexico border is made up of mountains, jungle, coastline and many other diverse ecosystems,” Professor Gerardo Ceballos, who led the investigation published last week, told Fox News. “Wildlife has populated these...