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(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met in the Oval Office on Tuesday with three people who are in the country in violation of U.S. immigration laws but who have received “deferred action” allowing them to stay in the country under the terms of a "memorandum" issued unilaterally last year by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. While conceding that she had no legal authority to change the "immigration status" of illegal aliens or provide them with a "pathway to citizenship," Napolitano instructed the top officials at Customs and Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Immigration...

The SenateJudiciary Committee voted Monday to allow illegal immigrants who get legal status to begin collecting tax-welfare payments, as the panel spent a fourth day working through amendments to the massive immigration bill and party-line splits began to emerge. In one major change, the committee voted 17-1 to make a third drunken-driving conviction a deportable offense for the newly legalized immigrants if at least one of those offenses occurs after they are approved for legal status. But immigrant-rights groups called that a rollback of due-process rights for the immigrants and said a drunken-driving incident shouldn’t cost someone a chance at...

Jon Feere is the Legal Policy Analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) appears in a new television advertisement designed to promote the immigration amnesty bill currently being debated in Congress. The minute-long advertisement calls the proposal "conservative immigration reform" and attempts to make amnesty appealing to Republican voters. Partisan politics aside, the amnesty ad is misleading on a number of counts, outlined below.The ad was produced by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg who created the floundering FWD.us, an advocacy group aimed at promoting amnesty. One of the group's offshoots is something called "Americans for a Conservative Direction",...

Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that passing an immigration reform law that would give the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally a pathway to citizenship would be “granting them the dignity and respect they deserve.” Speaking at the Conference on the Americas on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Biden told attendees from countries throughout the Western Hemisphere that every nation has to make “tough choices.” “In the United States, it means reforming our immigration system and 11 million undocumented men, women and children being able to come out of the shadows and be full participants in American life,”...

On Monday, Alfonso Diaz-Diaz, 26, was arraigned in Woodford District Court for the death of 5-year-old Blake Cohorn, of Lexington. The little boy's father, Rocky, was also seriously injured in the alcohol-fueled crash, and is still listed in critical condition at the University of Ketnucky (UK) Chandler Hospital. Other family members were also injured. LEX 18 reported: Police say they got a call about a black car heading the wrong way around 10 p.m. on April 21. Just a few minutes later, the report of a head-on collision at US 60 and Midway Road came in. Blake Cohorn was declared...

The pro-Amnesty lobbyists who helped craft the Schumer-Rubio immigration bill included two "slush funds" amounting to $150 million. Millions of dollars will go to groups like La Raza, Casa de Maryland, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Welfare: Not content with having more Americans on food stamps than people in Spain, the Obama administration is ringing the dinner bell for illegal aliens. We'll feed you and not check your status. As we wrote last July, just as food stamp use has skyrocketed here under President Obama, so have marketing efforts to Hispanics under a partnership with Mexico. We dubbed the program "Fat and Furious" after the administration's gun-running program that also seemingly had worthy goals but had unclear motives and pernicious effects. "USDA and the government of Mexico have entered into a partnership to help educate eligible...

“Never before have I seen such contempt for law enforcement officers as what I’ve seen from the Gang of Eight” - Chris Crane, ICE Agent union president.- Last week, ICE union chief Chris Crane won a stunning initial court victory in his lawsuit against the Obama Administration. As we reported, Federal Judge Federal Judge Reed O’Connor told the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they had no power to refuse to deport illegal aliens, and that he was likely to strike down Obama's virtual "DACA" amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. The ruling stunned Washington, and Crane's lawsuit could derail...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The California Assembly passed a bill on Thursday that would make the state the first in the nation to allow non-citizens who are in the country legally to serve on jury duty. Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, said his bill, AB1401, would help California widen the pool of prospective jurors and help integrate immigrants into the community.

The battle within the Republican Party over the so-called Gang of Eight’s 844-page immigration bill has often been contentious, but in recent days it has escalated. Despite his plea for cooler heads to prevail in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing last, Alex Conant, press secretary for Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, likened the current plight of illegal immigrants to that of slaves in 19th century America. Conant made his remarks in a Twitter argument with the Washington Examiner’s Conn Carroll, who accused the Florida Republican of “selling lies.” Conant replied by asking Carroll for suggestions. After Carroll suggested...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he won’t let the terror attack in Boston—and concerns about the immigrants behind it—derail the immigration bill introduced last week by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and six other senators. “There are some—some on the hard right…who opposed our immigration bill from the get-go, and they’re using this as an excuse. We are not going to let them do that,” Schumer told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “If they have a reason, a suggestion as to how to change it based on what happened in Boston, we’ll certainly be open to...

It is one of the Obama administration’s favorite talking points on immigration: It has been deporting illegal immigrants in record numbers. That bolsters its credentials on enforcement and supports the argument that, now that we’ve gotten tough on the border, it is time to enact comprehensive immigration reform. But figures recently unearthed by a federal lawsuit in Texas cast serious doubt on the administration’s deportation claims. The number of deportations appears to have declined significantly during the president’s term in office. Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, has analyzed a set of largely unpublished...

The Senate’s Gang of Eight delivered an immigration overhaul bill this week that was far more generous to their constituencies than Democrats and Hispanic activists expected. The pre-bill marketing campaign — driven by leaks that seemed to come from Republican negotiators — focused on stringent new border-control measures and a long, difficult path to citizenship. The goal was to minimize conservative opposition by creating a first impression of the bill as a tough solution to the country’s illegal immigration problem. But when Democrats got a look at the 844-page measure, they discovered that their negotiators extracted more concessions than they...

“One of the Chechen terrorists who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings could have been deported years ago after a criminal conviction and the other was granted American citizenship on the 11th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. “Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old killed in a wild shootout with police, was a legal U.S. resident who nevertheless could have been removed from the country after a 2009 domestic violence conviction, according to a Judicial Watch source. That means the Obama administration missed an opportunity to deport Tsarnaev but evidently didn’t feel he represented a big enough threat.”

The illegal immigrant who was drunk driving when he hit and dragged a Milford man to his death has been ruled incompetent to stand trial. Judge Janet Kinton-Walker says Nicolas Guaman's "unique cultural background" and language barrier means that he doesn't understand the court process. The court also said that he lacks the ability to consult with his attorney properly. The judge ordered Guaman's attorney to find an interpreter and educate him on the court process. In August 2011, 23-year-old Matthew Denice was hit and dragged to death while riding his motorcycle. FOX 25 spoke to Maureen Maloney, Matthew's mother,...

Rep. Jason Chaffetz takes us inside his recent tour of the Arizona border and what he hopes to achieve in immigration reform

An unemployed illegal immigrant who has spent the last few years playing video games reportedly used records of his playing time to apply for and receive President Obama’s “deferred action” status. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Jose Muñoz was an out-of-work 25-year-old Mexican immigrant who graduated with honors from his Sheboygan, Wisconsin high school in 2005. Since that time, Muñoz — who was brought to the United States at the age of one — has been out of school and out of work, instead spending time helping his family with household chores and countless hours playing sports video games on...

Obviously, these people believe it is a natural human right to go someplace illegally and demand free healthcare. Stand With Arizona reported on this latest movement: A new ad campaign has been launched to extend medical coverage to illegal aliens in the state of California. The California Endowment, a private foundation that advocates for affordable healthcare, wants county-run Medicaid expansion programs called Low-Income Health Programs to be “retooled” to provide insurance for this population – well over 1 million people! Just what the people of California need, right? First they cut tuition assistance for citizen students by $1.2 billion. Then...

The Los Angeles Times ran a Thursday editorial by Middlebury College Professor Bill McKibben arguing that allowing millions of illegal immigrants into America will reduce global warming. “I feel it's urgent that we get real immigration reform, allowing millions to step out of the shadows and on to a broad path toward citizenship,” wrote McKibben. “It will help, not hurt, our environmental efforts, and potentially in deep and powerful ways.” McKibben says that while the average American has a larger carbon footprint than a person living in the developing world, bringing more immigrants to America would likely reduce their tendency...

Budget: Over a hundred jobs are at Homeland Security, which is letting criminal aliens go despite billions unspent from last fiscal year, with hundreds more jobs available at an Interior Department that warns of park closings. 'We're doing our very best to minimize the impacts of sequester. But there's only so much I can do," DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said. With regard to the release of illegal aliens from detention in anticipation of cuts due to sequestration, "I'm supposed to have 34,000 detention beds for immigration. How do I pay for those?" Well, Madam Secretary, like other federal departments and...

The eight senators meet in private several times a week, alternating between Sen. John McCain’s and Sen. Charles Schumer’s offices. They sit in arm chairs arranged in a circle and sip water or soft drinks as they debate temporary workers and border security. In a capital riven by partisanship and gridlock, they are determined to be the exception and actually get something done. This is immigration reform’s “Gang of Eight.” With them lies the best hope in years for overhauling the nation’s byzantine immigration laws—and they know it. … The legislation the group is working on would secure the border;...

Link only: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/final-approval-expected-for-bill-allowing-lower-tuition-for-colorado-illegal-immigrant-students

Budget: Even before sequestration hits, the administration has been releasing hundreds of illegal aliens scheduled for deportation, jeopardizing public safety in a demagogic attempt to scare us into not cutting spending. 'I'm appalled to learn the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has begun to release hundreds of illegal aliens from custody, the first of potentially thousands to soon be freed under the guise of federal budget cuts," said Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Tuesday in response to the release by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of hundreds of "low-risk" illegal aliens from detention. Well, so are we. We are appalled at...

They’re not contributing members. They take away jobs from Americans, leech off the social benefits system and commit a number of crimes besides the whole “illegal entry” deal. Jails tend to be full of illegal aliens for a reason. "Every day, like the rest of us, they go out and try to earn a living. Often they do that in a shadow economy — a place where employers may offer them less than the minimum wage or make them work overtime without extra pay. And when that happens, it’s not just bad for them, it’s bad for the entire economy....

What they fail to mention: in the state of Oregon, one can register to vote on the same form used to apply for a driver’s license, and their citizenship is never checked. Granting drivers licenses to illegals paves the way for MASSIVE voter fraud in the next election (like Oregon wasn’t rife with it already).

Bob Clark, director of classic "A Christmas Story", and his son were killed by a drunk illegal alien on 4/4/2007. by John HillStand With Arizona For many Americans, Christmas means something else besides faith, family, food (and presents). It means movies: It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol (pick one), Miracle on 34th Street. Yesterday I myself watched a modern classic: A Christmas Story, the irreverent adaptation of Jean Shepherd's memoir of Christmas memories from childhood. Many of our readers also caught this extraordinary film (at least) once yesterday, as the cable network TBS shows it non-stop for 24 hours every...

Federal agents no longer will scoop up jailed illegal immigrants who had been picked up by police for traffic offenses and other petty crimes, the nation's top immigration enforcer announced Friday. "We are changing who" we seek to detain and deport to focus more on serious criminals, said John Morton, the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Morton changed the national policy just as sheriffs around the Bay Area were rethinking their cooperation with the controversial federal Secure Communities immigration program, out of concern that it was leading to deportation of too many minor offenders. The shift responds to...

According a report by the Associated Press, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) repeatedly instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents not to arrest an illegal alien sex offender who was employed as an unpaid intern in the office of Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) until after the elections. If confirmed, this overtly political act further demonstrates the shocking politicization of immigration enforcement under the current DHS leadership, charged the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Legislation introduced Tuesday would give about 400,000 undocumented immigrants in California the same rights as citizens to unemployment benefits and various other government services.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez employed as an unpaid intern in his Senate office an illegal immigrant who was a registered sex offender, now under arrest by immigration authorities, The Associated Press has learned. The Homeland Security Department instructed federal agents not to arrest him until after Election Day, a U.S. official involved in the case told the AP.

The Obama administration is set to reopen a crossing station at the Texas and Mexico border that was closed after the September 11 terrorist attack for security concerns, yet is newly constructed to be monitored by Border agents stationed hundreds of miles away. Federal officials estimate the Boquillas crossing located in the Big Bend National Park will accommodate 20,000 visitors a year, whose entry into the U.S. will by monitored by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers 300 miles away in El Paso through surveillance cameras that will observe kiosks where identification cards are scanned for access. “Remote technology would...

Drew Rosenberg became a victim of San Francisco's immigration policies on Nov. 16, 2010. The second-year law student was riding his motorcycle in rush-hour traffic when a car driven by an unlicensed driver made a left turn and hit him. That evening, Don Rosenberg of Westlake Village received the phone call every parent dreads. His precious son was dead. Then another nightmare unfolded. As Rosenberg investigated driver Roberto Galo's background, he discovered that San Francisco's policies regarding immigrants have served as an enabler for dangerous drivers.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has used excessive force against immigrants along the Mexican border and should cooperate in investigating border killings, including those of many young people, the top United Nations human rights official said on Thursday. "There have been very many young people, teenagers, who have been killed at the border," Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a news conference. "The reports reaching me are that there has been excessive use of force by the U.S. border patrols while they are enforcing the immigration laws," she added. The family of a Mexican teen...

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) paid Chicago consultants over $200,000 in taxpayer money to put on diversity training workshops that included activities in which employees were instructed to chant "our forefathers were illegal immigrants." The government watchdog group Judicial Watch alleged in documents released this week that these programs only served to promote and enforce left-wing political agendas. A USDA department official said the statements were not reflective of USDA policy, and the consultants merely had "participants repeat provocative and potentially offensive phrases as part of an exercise to examine stereotypes." According to Judicial Watch, the USDA has...

On Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials announced that Sandra Rodriguez Miramontes, 19, has been free on bond since September 21. She reportedly left her 2-year-old nephew trapped in her car for eight hours, resulting in the child's death. Miramontes has been charged with child abuse resulting in death. She was arrested on August 5, after admitting to police that she left the boy, Gabriel Torres, outside the Precious Moments Daycare in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she worked. Despite her illegal status, she was released on only a $500 bond from the Metropolitan Detention Center, where she had been...

The U.S. government paid a Chicago consultant hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on diversity training workshops that, according to one watchdog, included an exercise in which employees were told to chant "our forefathers were illegal immigrants." Conservative group Judicial Watch made the claim this week as it released a handful of documents pertaining to the program -- and alleged that the sessions held by the Department of Agriculture ended up enforcing political views more than promoting tolerance. "Instead of being diversity-oriented or tolerance-oriented, it's more about adopting a mindset," said Lisette Garcia, a senior investigator with the group....

<p>The identities of the agents were not immediately released, but the shooting occurred at the Brian Terry Station near Naco, Ariz., which is just south of Tucson. The station was named after an agent who was killed in the line of duty in December 2010. The area is considered a remote part of the state and sources tell Fox News that the shooting occurred about eight miles from the border.</p>

It was learned late Tuesday night that Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever has died in a single vehicle rollover accident in Coconino County. Details of what occurred are sketchy as of this hour, but the news was confirmed by Cochise County Supervisor Pat Call at about 11 p.m. Dever was running unopposed in this fall’s election for what would have been his fifth term as sheriff. It is unclear at this time what his sudden passing will mean in the electoral process. The sheriff was more than a local law enforcement official as he took the lead on the national...

Illegal immigrant activist Benita Veliz was given a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday night, where she championed President Barack Obama’s recent decision to stop enforcing certain aspects of immigration law. Veliz, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, gave a short address to the convention audience, and then introduced Telemundo talk-show host Cristina Saralegui. In her speech, Veliz claimed to be “from San Antonio, Texas,” saying that she was “like so many Americans.” “My name is Benita Veliz and I’m from San Antonio, Texas. Like so many Americans, of all races and...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Justice Department will establish its first civil rights unit in the southern state of Alabama, the agency said Tuesday -- a development that comes in the wake of the state's crackdown on illegal immigration, which raised concerns about Alabama's compliance with federal laws. . . The department's decision to place a civil rights unit in Alabama shows the state has problems guaranteeing legal equality years after the civil rights era ended, said Shay Farley, legal director of Alabama Appleseed, a public interest legal office based in Montgomery. "It highlights the fact that the war isn't over,"...

A high-ranking Mexican drug cartel operative currently in U.S. custody is making startling allegations that the failed federal gun-walking operation known as “Fast and Furious” isn’t what you think it is. It wasn’t about tracking guns, it was about supplying them — all part of an elaborate agreement between the U.S. government and Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel to take down rival cartels. The explosive allegations are being made by Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, known as the Sinaloa Cartel’s “logistics coordinator.” He was extradited to the Chicago last year to face federal drug charges.

A veteran Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is facing suspension after he refused to release an illegal immigrant who was not considered a priority target under the Obama Administration’s new immigration enforcement policies, according to documents provided exclusively to Fox News.“They’re punishing law enforcement officers who are just trying to uphold U.S. law,” said Chris Crane, president of the National ICE Council. Crane is a union representative acting on the unidentified officer’s behalf. The officer under fire is an 18-year law enforcement and military veteran. On March 27 he and another officer were conducting surveillance on a vehicle in Newark,...

George Miller’s 1981 post-apocalyptic film The Road Warrior envisioned an impoverished world of the future. Tribal groups fought over what remained of a destroyed Western world of law, technology, and mass production. Survival went to the fittest — or at least those who could best scrounge together the artifacts of a long gone society somewhat resembling the present West. In the case of the Australian film, the culprit for the detribalization of the Outback was some sort of global war or perhaps nuclear holocaust that had destroyed the social fabric. Survivors were left with a memory of modern appetites but...

A busload of illegal immigrants has begun a month-long, cross-country tour of protests culminating at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., according to reports. Approximately 30 men and women departed Phoenix, Ariz., on Sunday on a trip scheduled to hit states that have passed aggressive laws against illegal immigration, reports the Charlotte Observer. The bus will pass through Colorado, New Orleans, Atlanta and several other cities en route to Charlotte, just before the start of the convention on Sept. 3, according to USA Today. “We are tired of the injustice,” Fernando Lopez, an illegal immigrant who is originally from...

The Obama administration declined to try to deport more than 36,000 illegal immigrants that were arrested on other charges between 2008 and 2011, including some who went on to commit 19 murders, 3 attempted murders and 142 sex crimes, the House Judiciary Committee said Tuesday. All told, the administration was alerted to nearly 160,000 immigrants — most of them here legally — who were arrested during the three-year period. They went on to be charged in nearly 60,000 more crimes, according to the committee and the Congressional Research Service, which issued a report on the matter. The findings stem from...

ANAHEIM – At least four marchers who took part in unruly protests Sunday against the city’s police department have been arrested, on the ninth consecutive day of demonstrations by residents and activists furious over two recent police shootings. Two protestors – Mark Dameron of San Diego and Corbin Sobrita of Escondido – were arrested in front of the Anaheim Police Department’s headquarters on Harbor Boulevard, Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said, where a crowd of more than 200 was demonstrating Sunday afternoon.

Welfare: As if being "food stamp president" weren't enough, Barack Obama's administration is partnering with the Mexican government to make sure Mexican nationals living in the U.S. don't miss out. Ay caramba! On Wednesday, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who's been pushing for reform of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking for details of our partnership agreement with Mexico to promote food stamp use, including whether we are looking the other way in cases of illegal aliens. The partnership agreement goes back to 2004, so Obama administration...

Security: In the twisted logic of this administration, the "most secure" border ever just got more so with the announced closing of nine patrol stations in four states. Check points? We don't need no stinkin' check points. When in Beaverton, Ore., in May 2008, candidate Barack Obama said he'd campaigned in 57 states with one left to go, it was treated by his defenders as a campaign fatigue-induced gaffe. Judging by his recent actions as president, maybe he meant 57 and the missing seven are the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango and Baja California on...

Today, the Obama Administration, in an obvious attempt to boost the President's flailing reelection campaign, announced that it would bypass Congress and rewrite the nation's immigration laws. The Obama administration will stop deporting and begin granting work permits to younger illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and have since led law-abiding lives. The election-year initiative addresses a top priority of an influential Latino electorate that has been vocal in its opposition to administration deportation policies. The second sentence of the Associated Press story addresses the true impetus for the policy change; election-year politics. Obama, and today's Democrat...

Investigating the IRS: Why it gives billions to illegal immigrants INDIANAPOLIS - Why are many illegal immigrants getting a bigger tax refund than you? Blame it on the IRS and a massive tax loophole that's now being exposed by Eyewitness News. 13 Investigates has found the IRS is giving away your tax dollars to illegal workers and people who don't even live in the United States - and the problem is costing billions! We want you to see exactly where your money is going and why the IRS is allowing it to happen. From the homes of illegal workers in...