Free Republic

A bill that would allow U.S. Border Patrol officials to flout environmental laws along the southern and northern U.S. borders may soon be heading to the House, according to news reports. Designed by House Republicans to beef up national security, the bill would grant Border Patrol officials authority to disregard 36 environmental laws on federal land along the Canadian and Mexican borders, according to news reports. Those laws include the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and 33 other federal laws in a variety of protected land, according to the reports.The plan would leave...

Fresh off her veto of her state’s “birther” bill, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says that the White House gave her a “snub” by leaving her off the guest list for a meeting about immigration reform. “I wish I would have been invited,” the Republican said Tuesday night on Fox News. “You would have thought one of the governors would have been invited, since we are on the front lines fighting for security there. It was a little bit of a snub, if you will.” More broadly, she said, the meeting illustrated a disconnect between President Barack Obama’s immigration policy goals...

Indianapolis - Protestors came to the Indiana Statehouse for what they called a "no hate" rally. Their issue is a package of bills similar to the tough new immigration laws in Arizona. One bill requires English-only public meetings. Another would prohibit tax-subsidized tuition for illegal immigrants. Immigration is one issue that seemed to take a back seat to all of the demonstrations for labor and House Democrats currently working in Urbana, Illinois. Tuesday, with the House still in disarray, illegal immigration surfaced again. The rally on the south steps of the Statehouse may be only one indicator of how people...

MANASSAS, Va. — Authorities say a 37-year-old man has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder following a series of shootings in a Virginia suburb of Washington. Manassas Police Chief Doug Keen says Jose Oswaldo Reyes Alfaro is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was ordered deported a decade ago but never left...Two people were fatally shot and two others were hurt about 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Georgetown South neighborhood of Manassas, city police spokesman Sgt. Tim Neumann said. About 20 minutes later, police were called to another home about a quarter-mile away where one person had...

An Arizona rancher who was ordered to pay nearly $90,000 in punitive damages to undocumented immigrants he confronted, with a gun, is going to request a rehearing, his attorney said. “We’ll be filing a motion for a rehearing,” said David T. Hardy, who is representing Roger Barnett. “He feels he got screwed. I have some sympathy for that view.” The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld a lower court verdict ordering Barnett to pay the damages for the 2004 incident, in which the plaintiffs claimed that he approached them with his dog and said he’d shoot them...

Press Release Feb. 1, 2011 Jackson, MS SB 2255 Border Fence Fund Bill passed through the Senate Judiciary A committee at about 4:45pm central time. This bill will fund the border fence by imposing a fee on money sent to foreign countries (remittances) from people unlawfully present in this country and in cooperation with other States. If only half the States participate, they could raise $1.2 billion annually for the border fence with an average remittance fee of 5%. The vote was 5- 5, the tie was broken by the committee Chair and author, Senator Joey Fillingane. The next step...

They may not burst into workplaces wielding guns and dogs, but the effects are no less devastating. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) is increasing immigration controls that have a serious impact on immigrants in the workplace using a different—and quieter—tactic. Recently, eight workers were arrested after they chained themselves together in an act of civil disobedience inside a Chiplotle Mexican Grill restaurant in Minneapolis. The action was part of a protest over the firing of between 350 to 700 immigrant workers from the restaurant chain’s 50 restaurants without notice in December. The workers were dismissed after ICE perused I-9 forms. Chipotle...

Congress ordered the high-tech fence along the border with Mexico in 2006 amid a clamor over the porous border, but it yielded only 53 miles of protection. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the lesson of the multimillion-dollar program is there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution for border security. Napolitano said the department's new technology strategy for securing the border is to use existing, proven technology tailored to the distinct terrain and population density of each region of the nearly 2,000-mile U.S-Mexico border. That would provide faster technology deployment, better coverage and more bang for the buck, she said. Although it...

Conservatives dominated the DREAM Wars of 2010. The DREAM Act amnesty was defeated on three separate occasions (once in September, twice in December) in the U.S. Senate. The larger push for "comprehensive immigration reform" was derailed in March when Sen. Lindsey Graham used the passage of Obamacare as an excuse to change his position on immigration. Republicans who have supported the DREAM Act in the past were cowed into submission by grassroots conservatives organizing through the Tea Party. Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah, who voted for the DREAM Act in December, was defeated in the Republican primary. Sen Arlen Specter,...

An avid illegal immigration foe, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) will not continue as the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee's Immigration subcommittee. Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) announced his selection for subcommittee chairman on Friday, and California Rep. Elton Gallegly (R) was chosen to head the Immigration and Enforcement panel. King, who served as the ranking Republican on the Immigration subcommittee since 2007, was selected as vice chairman of the panel. He has long been an outspoken foe of illegal immigration — and has been viewed as the successor to former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) as the party's lead...

The Diversity Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) is seeking to “inform and sensitize” reporters nationwide about how “offensive” the term “illegal immigrant” is to Latinos. Diversity Committee member Leo Laurence announced the campaign against “illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien” terminology in the latest issue of the organization’s magazine, Quill, writing that those who have not obtained citizenship but have entered the country without any prior approval should be called “undocumented workers” or “undocumented immigrants.” In his report, Laurence quotes SPJ Diversity Committee chairman George Daniels as saying, “this is not about being politically correct,” but about aiming...

Click here for your handy target phone list as we head toward the Saturday DREAM Act vote in the Senate. Operation Buck Up has to be in full effect this afternoon. The White House has enlisted left-wing open-borders religious leaders to lean on Senate Republicans who have supported DREAM in the past. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is also leading a last-ditch push to make illegal aliens’ education a priority while strapped institutions are turning law-abiding citizens and law-abiding immigrants away. Remember: This is a brazen “down payment” on a larger shamnesty. Remember: This is nothing more than a 2.1 million...

“This is war!” claims Phoenix student Aldemar Cruz. “Republicans may have stopped the DREAM Act, but they won’t prevent La Reconquista from happening. “White people, watch out!”

A diversity plan from a group of journalists says reporters should not be using the term "illegal aliens" because it is not constitutional. "Frequent use of the phrases 'illegal immigrant' and 'illegal alien' by our mainstream media is being questioned in order to remain faithful to the principles of our U.S. Constitution," Leo Laurence wrote in the "Diversity Toolbox" column on the website for the Quill, which is produced by the Society of Professional Journalists. He said the organization's "Diversity Committee" met during its 2010 convention in Las Vegas and "decided to engage in a yearlong educational campaign designed to...

BRIDGEPORT — A federal court judge Thursday dismissed the government’s argument that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are essentially immune from suits that claim their actions violated constitutional standards. The ruling advances a civil rights suit brought by 11 suspected illegal immigrants picked up by ICE agents in June 2007 in the Fair Haven section of New Haven, and is expected to have national implications, according to the lawyers for the men. U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill refused to dismiss the charges against the ICE agents, as well as their supervisors, including Julie Myers, who headed the agency under...

Just reported

With both chambers of Congress cruising toward a vote on the DREAM Act as early as Wednesday afternoon, Republicans are grousing about what they argue is a glaring loophole that allows illegal immigrant criminals to qualify for a green card.

President Obama and the liberal open-border leadership of the Democratic Party are pushing for passage of legislation granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. They are doing this despite the fact that this costly legislation will make a difficult job market worse, will place a higher tax burden on Americans, will ensure greater difficulty in balancing budgets on the state and federal level, and will undermine respect for our nation’s immigration laws. -- Congress should wake up from this nightmare by defeating the DREAM Act. In November, voters’ concerns about the weak economy and the poor job market contributed to...

If you care about illegal immigration, how bout calling your Senators and ask that they co-sponser this bill? Senator Hatch Drops a Helpful and Thoughtful Border Security Bill By Janice Kephart , October 3, 2010 Amongst all the chit-chat by the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and President Obama about it being time for Congress to "step up and do something on immigration," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has. That being said, I'm pretty sure Sen. Hatch's bill does not reflect this administration's checklist of priorities, but it should. Why? The bill is thoughtful and provides remedies to problems either...

Five years ago, my family took a vacation to Niagara Falls. On our return across the Canadian border, U.S. Immigration officials detained us for several tense hours because we happened to be the unlucky renters of a car that matched some sort of suspect list. The same year Immigration officers were busily occupied with the travel risk of the Simpson family, hundreds of thousands of babies were born in hospitals all across the U.S. to parents who gained entry in the country illegally (obviously not driving Hertz rental cars). The parents' reward, other than a beautiful newborn: shiny new made-in-the-USA...

COSTA MESA – Civil rights groups – including the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California – filed a class action lawsuit Monday against federal officials, demanding they create a system for determining the mental competency of those in immigration detention who represent themselves. It is the latest legal attempt by the ACLU, Public Counsel Law Center and Sullivan Cromwell LLP and others to defend those with severe mental disabilities who are held in immigration detention.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., on Sunday said he and his colleagues are still looking for answers on whether the administration has seriously considered mass legalization for illegal immigrants, after an administration memo surfaced outlining ways to grant legalization without going through Congress. The draft memo, first obtained by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley's office from the U.S. Customs & Immigration Services, outlines ways the administration was exploring to legalize swaths of illegal immigrants "in the absence of Comprehensive Immigration Reform." The memo describes how to, "reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization."...

The recent cases of Dengue Fever reported in South Florida earlier this month can only be traced by conjecture because our government officials are very reluctant to admit just how this odd third world disease could take hold. So, allowing that we must be our own scientists and in the absence of reliable data draw our own perceptions may we suggest that the many Haitian School Age Children taken into South Florida public schools after the January Haitian earthquake just could be a factor? Were the millions of government dollars given to the school districts who took in the Haitian...

At the beginning of July, more than 2,000 families with undocumented immigrants stopped receiving food stamp benefits due to a change in Utah’s rules. Now a growing number of them are showing up at emergency food pantries confused and needing help. “But, of course, I have to feed my family,” said an undocumented mother of five who works as a housekeeper at a nursing home. She is among those who recently lost food aid. Earlier this year, the state announced it would begin to fully count the income earned by all members of a household when determining food stamp eligibility....

If Los Angeles wants to boycott Arizona, it had better get used to reading by candlelight. That's the message from a member of Arizona's top government utilities agency, who threw down the gauntlet Tuesday in a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa by threatening to cut off the city's power supply as retribution. Gary Pierce, a commissioner on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission, wrote the letter in response to the Los Angeles City Council's decision last week to boycott the Grand Canyon State -- in protest of its immigration law -- by suspending official travel there and ending future...

To the surprise of immigrant advocates, Ohioans back sweeping immigration reform and are ready to engage in a debate they know could get ugly. A poll released this week found that nearly 70 percent of likely Ohio voters would support a plan that brings illegal immigrants out of the shadows and makes them tax-paying citizens. Ohioans rated a "path to citizenship" as a higher priority than border security and other get-tough measures that are widely perceived as politically safe. "The Ohio results are stunning," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-reform group America's Voice, which commissioned the poll. Sharry...

The White House is set to step up pressure on some key Republicans in hopes of winning support for comprehensive immigration reform. But it’s shaping up to be a struggle, based on interviews with the senators President Barack Obama has approached on the issue. The administration is starting with a pool of 11 Republicans who voted for immigration reform in 2006. Subtract a few who are dead-ends — such as John McCain, who faces a tough primary in Arizona — and that leaves the White House zeroing in on several others, including Dick Lugar, Judd Gregg and Lisa Murkowski and...

The Tea Party movement was founded to campaign for lower taxes and limited government. But at least one faction is now branching out and standing behind the new law passed in Arizona that says police officers should check the immigration status of anyone they believe may be in the United States illegally. The Tea Party Express has put a petition on its web site. Those who sign it are saying they stand with the people of Arizona and that they reject any efforts to boycott the state because of the law that will take effect in less than three months....

<p>WASHINGTON -- "Physician, heal yourself," said the founder of the church in which Roger Mahony is a cardinal. He is the Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles and he should heed the founder's admonition before accusing Arizonans of intemperateness. He says Arizona's new law pertaining to illegal immigration involves "reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation."</p>

*snip* As a case in point, consider the reaction of the supposedly competing major parties to Arizona's effort to respect and cooperate with federal laws against illegal immigration. The Obama faction deploys its now commonplace arsenal of race-baiting verbal terrorism, along with menaces of U.S. government action against any state that dares to heed and obey federal laws they mean to disobey and defy. At the same time, well-known or rising GOP figures join in the irrational and unwarranted chorus of criticism. *snip* In this respect, the influx of illegal immigrants is in the nature of an actual foreign invasion....

Reporters: Forrest Carr and Ina Ronquillo TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - The backlash against Arizona's tough new crackdown on illegal immigration is now beginning to affect enrollment at the University of Arizona. In a campus-wide e-mail sent out Thursday morning, university president Robert Shelton states, "The families of a number of out-of-state students (to date all of them honors students) have told us that they are changing their plans and will be sending their children to universities in other states." Shelton goes on to express concern about the impact of SB 1070. He said the decision of students to withdraw "should sadden...

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO Anti-illegal immigration groups plan to hold a fund-raiser for a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was killed in Campo earlier this summer. The fund-raiser for Agent Robert Rosas is part of the San Juan Capistrano Tea Party scheduled to take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sep. 12 at the Cook-La Novia Park at 31611 La Novia. The fund-raiser goes to benefit Rosas' family, event coordinators said. Tawnya Wojciechowski, a San Juan Capistrano resident who is coordinating the Tea Party, said Britt Craig is helping coordinate Rosas' fund-raiser and moment of silence.

As we saw this morning, American citizens are not faring too well in the era of the Eric Holder Justice Department. But aliens — especially those who are illegally in our country, or who commit crimes in our country — continue to thrive. The Legal Times is reporting that Attorney General Holder has reversed the ruling by Attorney General Mukasey that aliens in immigration removal proceedings have no right to effective assistance of counsel. As Mukasey explained back in January, in a well-reasoned 34-page opinion which carefully analyzed the pertinent law, the Sixth Amendment right to counsel applies only to...

Latino immigrants increasingly pessimistic about life in U.S. By Hernán Rozemberg - Express-News The combination of a lack of jobs due to a worsening economy and an unprecedented series of governmental work raids have got immigrants down in the dumps, according to findings in a new survey. The Pew Hispanic Center, a nonprofit research think tank based in Washington, concluded that Hispanics across the country, and in particular immigrants, are increasingly concerned about staying employed and being deported. According to Pew's annual national survey of Latinos, nearly two-thirds of Latino immigrants said their lives have worsened over the last year...

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 12:00 PM CDT Immigration raid inhuman KAMYAR ENSHAYAN CEDAR FALLS --- Since when has illegal-ness been such an important criteria for federal action, and people worrying about the "illegals?" I mean, the invasion of Iraq has been illegal by international law; U.S. government and some corporations have been involved in all sorts of covert and overt illegal operations all over the world, and for a long time. It is incredible that a nation of immigrants who came here for a better life are so harsh on people who are trying to do the same, and whose...

Two events directed at opposite ends of the illegal immigration debate take place this weekend in Sonoma County. Organizers say at least 3,000 people are expected to march Sunday through downtown Santa Rosa in a pro-immigration rally organized by the local field office of the United Farm Workers. Casimiro Alvarez, UFW regional director, said the rally and march come after a long period of relative silence from the local Latino immigrant community. He said the goal of the march is three-fold. “First, we want to honor the memory of Cesar Chavez and celebrate his life and work,” Alvarez said. “Second,...

URBANA – A 30-year-old illegal immigrant faces possible prison and his third deportation following his recent arrest by federal authorities. Fernando Delgado-Cruz, also known as Fernando Lopez, was arraigned and pleaded innocent Wednesday to a federal charge of unlawful reentry of a removed alien. Magistrate Judge David Bernthal, through an interpreter, advised Delgado-Cruz that he faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. The judge set a pretrial hearing for May 2 and a trial for May 12. The judge had previously ordered that Delgado-Cruz be held in the custody of the U.S. Marshal pending resolution of the case....

What can we do should an amnesty/open-borders candidate win the Presidency? Can we go to the Supreme Court to make the President and Congress obey the law which demands that we protect our national sovereignty? Does anyone know of any other remedy should an amnesty bill be passed?

MARIETTA, Ga., June 18 — If President Bush thought he could win support for a comprehensive immigration bill by promising to secure the border and step up law enforcement, he would be dismayed by the reaction here. Mark A. Johnson, with his wife, Ann. “Everybody can see the folly of it, everybody but the politicians,” Mr. Johnson said of the immigration bill. “It’s all window dressing,” said Mark A. Johnson, a real estate lawyer in this fast-growing suburb of Atlanta. “We don’t believe the government has the will to enforce any of these promises. Everybody can see the folly of...

In what could be a harbinger of next year's congressional campaigns, Iraq and immigration have dominated the special election to replace deceased Republican Rep. Charlie Norwood in northeast Georgia. Ten candidates _ six Republicans, three Democrats and a Libertarian _ have lined up to represent the 10th congressional district, which includes Athens, home to the University of Georgia, as well as Fort Gordon and parts of Augusta. The election on Tuesday is the first congressional contest since the Democrats won control of Congress last year and it will be watched closely for any clues it might provide to the high-stakes...

Lawmaker: Ban 'illegal aliens' – just the words Florida legislator thinks A-word is 'somebody who is from another planet' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Florida Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Here's a novel way to solve the controversy over illegal aliens in America. Just ban the use of the words "illegal alien." That's what a Florida state legislator proposes when it comes to official documents in the Sunshine State. "To me an alien is somebody who is from another planet," Democrat Sen. Frederica Wilson told the Miami Herald. "There are so many other synonyms that would be more dignified for human beings."...

HARTFORD -- Victoria Perez traveled to the state Capitol Tuesday to ask for a future. Perez, a senior at New Haven's Wilbur Cross High School, aspires to go to college next year to prepare for a career in criminal justice. But she has no idea how she'll foot the bill. The problem: She's in the United States illegally, and therefore doesn't qualify for in-state tuition rates at Connecticut's public colleges and universities. Out-of-state tuition costs three times as much. To Perez, a native Mexican brought to the United States at 3 years old, that simply isn't fair. "We're all created...

Imagine an "undocumented tenant" moved into your house while you and your family were vacationing. The guy slept in your bed, wore your clothes, used your gas and electricity and helped himself to your fridge. When you came back, he refused to leave, claiming the protection that Fourth Amendment extends to "the people to be secure in their...houses", so you had to call police and insist your uninvited "guest" be removed from your place forcefully. A police officer who arrived shortly after your call was not willing to get involved, though. He referred to the situation (a “tenant” not willing...

Hint: Not the American people! Recent legislative actions in Washington, D.C., raise the question of just who the U.S. Senate is working for. It obviously is not the American people who voted the Senators into office. A bill to permanently repeal the Death Tax was voted down 57-41 in a motion to invoke cloture. Sixty votes were needed to let the bill advance. There are enough Senators, 57, in favor of repealing the Death Tax. A minority of Senators, 41, were able to block the legislation from proceeding to a vote. The Death Tax penalizes people who are hardworking and...

As Carole King sang thirty years ago, “It’s too late, Baby.” She was referring to romance, but in this context it is too late for Team Bush to recapture the loyalty of the conservative GOP base. Immigration/amnesty, Dubai Ports, Harriet Meyers, Katrina, deficits and Iraq have destroyed Mr. Bush’s credibility as president. The new federal effort on gay marriage is as transparent as the dispatching of “less than 5,000 unarmed national guardsmen” to our southern border: a cosmetic ploy in a vain effort to keep the conservatives in line. This White House just doesn’t get it. Period. Before - when...

Several years ago, when we found ourselves in the throes of the obscenity known as the second term of the Clinton administration, I found myself obsessing with the atrocities being perpetrated on the sovereignty of our republic and the safety of its citizens … obsessing to the point at which my concern interfered with my own everyday responsibilities and, sometimes, with my ability to obtain a good night’s sleep. It was then that I stepped back and took stock, realizing just how little power to institute change we individual Americans have these days, as a result of the unprecedented power...

Opponents of amnesty for illegal immigrants rally in Santa Clara By Julie Patel Mercury News About 100 opponents to amnesty for illegal immigrants rallied today -- Cinco de Mayo -- in Santa Clara's Central Park. The group, some dressed from head to toe in red, white and blue, waved American flags and held up signs that read ``Protect our borders,'' and ``Enforce our laws.'' Santa Clara tech worker Jill Easton said her concern with illegal immigration was economic. ``Because of all the illegal immigrants, our hospitals are broke and are schools are broken because we're pouring all this money out,''...

The minutemen say they stopped 60,000 illegal immigrants from crossing the border. The month started with protests and ended today, peacefully. "It's been phenomenal, life changing experience really." Minuteman Mitch Geiger spent 16 days in April patrolling the Arizona/ Mexico border. "The thing I'm proudest of is the fact there was really no confrontation, no incidents," Geiger said. With no incidents, the Minutemen claim they stopped thousands of border crossers. "A crowd of mostly senior citizens sitting in lawn chairs armed with binoculars and cell phones, the things they could accomplish," Geiger said. "I'm proud to have been a part...

Violent, terror-connected gang threatens to confront civilian immigration patrols It looks like there is going to be a second "showdown at the OK Corral" in Tombstone, Ariz., April 1. A leader of the violent, terror-connected Latin American gang Mara Salvatruchas, Ebner Anivel Rivera-Paz, has reportedly issued orders from federal prison to members of his international criminal organization to teach a lesson to a group of Americans taking border control into their own hands. The American civilians, known as the "Minutemen," say they have some 750 volunteers ready to show up in Tombstone to start policing the border and dealing with...

County Commissioner Bills Mexican Government For Illegal Aliens Caldwell, ID - Thousands of migrant farm workers are here legally but many are here illegally. It was that portion of the migrant labor population that Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez singled out for special attention today suggesting that the Mexican government should reimburse local taxpayers for their expenses. "My fellow American's, constituents, friends and neighbors expect their county commissioner to spend the taxes on services for American's not on illegal alien's healthcare, education or detention." That is why Vasquez today showed off a $2 million bill he is sending to...