Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25 — Counting on the support of the new Democratic majority in Congress, Democratic lawmakers and their Republican allies are working on measures that could place millions of illegal immigrants on a more direct path to citizenship than would a bill that the Senate passed in the spring. The lawmakers are considering abandoning a requirement in the Senate bill that would compel several million illegal immigrants to leave the United States before becoming eligible to apply for citizenship. The lawmakers are also considering denying financing for 700 miles of fencing along the border with Mexico, a law championed...

LA MESA - Osama Awadallah had never even had a parking ticket when he was detained by FBI agents in San Diego 10 days after hijacked jets destroyed the World Trade Center and struck the Pentagon. One of hundreds of Muslim men picked up in a frenzied law enforcement dragnet that followed the attacks, Awadallah was a 21-year-old community college student from Jordan who had met two of the hijackers. He was whisked to New York to testify as a material witness before a grand jury investigating the terrorist plot. He was never accused of any involvement in terrorism, but...