Free Republic

The Supreme Court rules that former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller can't be sued by more than 700 Muslim men sent to maximum security prison in the wake of the 2001 attacks.Reporting from Washington -- The Supreme Court today shielded two top former Bush administration officials from being sued by more than 700 Muslim men who say they were arrested, roughed up and locked in a maximum security prison after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. None of the men were charged as terrorists, although many of them pleaded guilty to violating immigration laws. In...

NCPA Launches Toll-Free Line For Help on INS Registration. The National Council of Pakistani Americans (NCPA), in collaboration with The Resource Foundation, a non-profit economic development group, on Jan. 15 launched a toll-free telephone line to help people with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) registration process.

CLEVELAND -- The aunt of President Barack Obama, who was living in Cleveland for a time, will get to stay in the United States for now. A judge issued a stay in the deportation case of Zeituni Onyango, 56. She fled to Cleveland from Boston last year when it was made known that she had been illegally in the United States since

HB1093 The AR Taxpayer Citizen Act Bill Sample has introduced HB1093 to the 2009 Arkansas Legislative Session. This bill will reduce illegal immigration in the state by requiring proof of ID for benefits, require businesses to verify their workers, and punish illegal alien smugglers. You can look at the bill in PDF format by going to the link below: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/R/Pages/BillInformation.aspx?measureno=HB1093 HB1093 will have cosponsors that are both Democrat and Republican, but it will also face a lot of opposition from the powerful pro-illegal alien lobby. Local leaders of conservative organizations will have a meeting at the Capitol Rotunda to talk...

By Michael Webster, Syndicated Investigative Reporter Early this month U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Tucson, Ariz. sector and agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were again fired upon with what appeared to be military type automatic weapons by Mexican drug smugglers dressed in military garb. Agents after observing a Flatbed tow truck on the Mexican side of the U.S. Mexican border backed up to the new international border fence. According to witnesses the tow truck backed up on a newly constructed earthen dirt berm which put the truck almost even with the height of the fence. The tow...

Investigators say they believe 64-year-old Paulette Locklear was beaten to death outside her home Tuesday afternoon after confronting a man who was trying to break in. Julio Cesar Ramos, 45, is charged with first-degree murder in Locklear’s death. Ramos, who is from Honduras, has been deported from the U.S. several times and is in the country illegally, said Debbie Tanna, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. Ramos told investigators he is homeless and unemployed., Tanna said. Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies responded to Locklear’s home on the 1200 block of Wilmington Road after she called 911 Tuesday afternoon to report...

This short news report might have been a bit longer if it had been written a couple of weeks later than it was. This story is dated September 5th and deals with one of the key issues about immigration that virtually no one is willing to talk about - especially politicians and others who subscribe to the open borders philosophy and to the idea of providing the millions of illegal aliens who are in our country with a Guest Worker Amnesty Program and a "Pathway to United States Citizenship." It deals with illegal aliens using stolen Social Security numbers and...

Since Ecuador eliminated requirements for entry visas for all foreigners entering their country, growth in the arrival of Chinese from China has jumped from an average of twenty a month to over one thousand a month with goals of entering the United States illegally Saturday 12/13/08 El Universo (Guayaquil, Ecuador) 12/13/08 "Ecuador, stopping point in the traffic of undocumented Chinese" When officials entered a humble abode in the middle of Guayaquil in early August they found 28 Chinese citizens, the majority of them young women, crammed into two rooms awaiting travel to the United States in search of the American...

A former INS official who attended meetings with Rahm Emanuel when Emanuel was a White House aide says the hard-charging Democrat relaxed rules to naturalize even criminal immigrants and secure their votes for President Clinton ahead of the 1996 presidential election. President-elect Barack Obama, who has chosen Emanuel to run White House operations as his chief of staff, has promised to sign legislation that loosens immigration and puts even illegal aliens on a fast track to citizenship. Emanuel coordinated with Hispanic community organizers in Chicago to rubberstamp immigrants for citizenship, the INS official said in an exclusive interview with WND....

POSTVILLE, Iowa — When federal immigration agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant here in May and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants, they found more than 20 under-age workers, some as young as 13. Now those young immigrants have begun to tell investigators about their jobs. Some said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week. One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant’s killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts,...

LORETITO, Mexico — It's the end of the day here. Down one lonely street two young boys kick a ball between them, as an elderly woman slowly makes her way nearby. On most days, this little town about 300 miles northwest of Mexico City feels like the set of a Hollywood movie — its narrow streets and alleyways silent, stark, deserted. From the sidewalk outside his small liquor shop, Edmundo Cruz takes in the vast emptiness, pointing out one house after another left vacant when families headed north — to Seattle. It is said more Loretito people now live in...

CAIR Exposed: Part 1 As IAP Offshoot, CAIR Followed Pro-Hamas Agenda From the Start by Steven Emerson IPT News March 24, 2008FEATURE STORY   From the Hamas ties of its founders in 1994 to its solicitous stance toward accused terrorists today, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demonstrated that its actual mission is far removed from the civil rights advocacy it claims to pursue. Still standing as perhaps the clearest evidence of CAIR's insidious role, two key leaders of the group attended a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia called by Hamas members and supporters to devise a strategy for torpedoing...

The alleged gang member accused of killing Los Angeles high school football star Jamiel Shaw is in the country illegally and had been released from jail without anyone questioning his citizenship the day before Shaw's shooting, according to a report by MyFOXLA.com. Meanwhile, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Saturday afternoon was scheduled to join with Shaw's family to dedicate a memorial honoring the 17-year-old at the spot where he was killed. Police say Pedro Espinoza, the 19-year-old suspect arrested in Shaw's death, has been in a street gang since he was 12. Until this month, he had been in jail on...

For years, the vast majority of politicians in the main parties have avoided having honest public conversation about the extent and consequences of immigration. The fear of appearing racist, or giving any ground to the arguments of the far right, has left most MPs and commentators in Pollyanna territory - extolling the economic and cultural benefits of immigration and glossing over problems. That has done the nation no favours, because the consequences of rapid social change have been scarcely studied, let alone addressed. And it has increased many people's distrust of the political universe, as the gulf between their own...

NEW YORK -- An Armenian immigrant accused of plotting to sell military weapons to an FBI informant posing as an arms dealer went on trial Wednesday with a prosecutor saying he was greedy for a fast buck and his defense lawyer saying he merely wanted a green card. Artur Solomonyan and five others were accused of agreeing to obtain deadly weapons from those who knew what happened to weapons in the former Soviet Union, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Massey said. "The defendants saw these deadly weapons as a way to make a quick buck," Massey said. An indictment accused Solomonyan...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE) set new records for enforcement activity, ended the long-standing practice of “catch-and-release” along the borders, launched major new initiatives, transformed its detention and removal process, and improved its intelligence functions. Some milestones include: Total arrests made in worksite enforcement cases was more than seven times greater than in 2002, the last full year of operations for U.S. INS. Ended “Catch-and-Release” for non-Mexican aliens existed for years and was one of the greatest impediments to border control. DHS and ICE re-engineered the detention and removal process to end this practice along the border, an accomplishment considered...

In America today there are an estimated 7 million illegal immigrants. Many say that these immigrants drive down wages for hard working Americans. Others say that they introduce new problems into our education system and drain resources from our entitlement programs. Though the problems are [somewhat] clearly defined, the solution is not. While I do not generally support the idea of giving special privileges to certain groups of people, especially ones who purposely and knowingly break the law, in this situation there is no other logical or practical solution. America is like a baker that has left a window open...

It's an issue with no clear solution, and one that has divided a nation. And now, illegal immigration has a local impact. "I mean there's proper ways to get a pass to come in here, but at the same time if I lived in Mexico, and I wanted to better myself, then I'd probably do anything I ever could to get into the United States," says Gene Butler, owner of the Roadhouse Steakhouse. Saturday morning, Wood County Sheriffs Deputies received a call from the Department of Labor, located in Charleston. "They wanted to investigate the new Holiday Inn Express going...

As the Senate is mulling the details of a compromise immigration bill hammered together by the odd couple of Sens. Edward Kennedy and Jon Kyl, and as members of Congress hear from their constituents over the Memorial Day recess, it may be worthwhile to put the issue in historical context. For most of our history, the United States had no restrictions on immigration at all. I am told that my Canadian-born grandfather was a "nickel immigrant": He took the five-cent ferry from Windsor, Ontario, north to Detroit roundabout 1896. This situation resulted from America's strong demand for labor, coupled with...

Back in 2002 - and still in May 2007 - Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) wanted the United States Coast Guard, FEMA, INS, and U.S. Customs Service to remain independent and directly responsible to the local communities they serve to increase their efficiency. USCG - "The Coast Guard and its mission are very important to the Texas Gulf coast, and I don’t want that mission relegated to the back burner in a huge bureaucracy." FEMA - "FEMA needs to be a flexible, locally focused, hands-on agency that helps people quickly after a disaster." U.S. Customs - "My coastal district also relies...

A steady stream of customers flowed into Grace Lopez-Williams' office on Jimmy Carter Boulevard. They were taxpayers, looking for help to file by this year's April 17 deadline.Many of them were also illegal immigrants.Norcross tax preparer Grace Lopez-Williams (left) talks with Ruth Santiago in the reception area of her accounting firm. She said she's seen an increase in the number of immigrants paying multiple years of back taxes, preparing for immigration reform that could require payment of back taxes for a chance at legal status.It is not unusual for people who are here illegally to pay taxes. The Internal Revenue...

RICHMOND -- Carlos Diaz broke the law when he crossed the border and took a job as an office janitor. But he's not about to break another by failing to pay his income tax. "I've been talking to other people who've done it, and I want to follow the law," said Diaz, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who squirmed in his seat at a neighborhood tax preparer's office. Tuesday is Tax Day, when millions of illegal immigrants find themselves collaborating with one federal agency -- the Internal Revenue Service -- while trying to avoid another -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement....

INVASION USA Drug smuggler left cell phone in van But Ramos-Compean prosecutor claimed no evidence against him Posted: February 10, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila The Department of Homeland Security's report on the case of imprisoned Border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean notes the drug smuggler they pursued left behind his cell phone, but there appears to be no evidence investigators made any attempt to identify him. Moreover, the disclosure directly contradicts prosecutor U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's repeated statements that there was no evidence that permitted law enforcement officers to track down the...

INVASION USA Border-agent investigator had tie to smuggler Played major role in Ramos-Compean case but name blacked out in report Posted: February 9, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com According to official documents in WND's possession, a Department of Homeland Security agent played a major role in managing the drug smuggler and conducting the field investigation in the incident that landed Border Patrol officers Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean in federal prison for more than a decade. Yet, in the heavily redacted 77-page DHS report submitted to Congress Wednesday there is no explicit discussion of the role...

"Herndon (Virginia) officials are considering applying for a federal program that would train some of the town's police officers to enforce U.S. immigration law, including the initiation of deportation proceedings."

The war over immigration reform among conservatives continues, and, as in most wars, truth has been one of the first casualties. Those who disagree with the hardening positions of people who would adopt more restrictive policies or with people who favor less restrictive measures are attacked as know-nothings, traitors or handmaidens of evil forces out to destroy the America we live in. Many conservatives reacted angrily to the way the Bush administration tried to demonize opposition to the president’s quasi-amnesty and guest-worker proposals when they were first introduced. Critics at the time were characterized as racists or “nativists” more interested...

The Daly City murder defendant who avoided trial for seven years from the time he allegedly shot a 22-year-old woman four times in the head, sliced up the body and hid it inside a storage barrel pleaded no contest to manslaughter just hours before a jury was to hear opening statements. In return for pleading no contest in the death of Xiu “Erica� Jiang, Bobby Tran, 31, will receive 30 years in prison with credit for 15 percent of time already served. Tran must serve 85 percent of the sentence and faces deportation back to Indonesia or Vietnam when released....

An eerie quiet has descended over the past week on Fulton Street, a stretch of weather-beaten apartment buildings in eastern Linda Vista that is home to a large number of recent immigrants, some of them legal residents, others not. Some people have skipped work. Others have skipped doctor appointments. Children are walking to school more frequently by themselves, neighbors say, because their parents are afraid to accompany them outside. “Today the migra was here,� explained Jose Cardenas, 30, one of those here legally, on a gray afternoon this week when the sidewalks were empty and the street deserted save for...

A civil rights lawyer demanded authorities investigate a roundup of hundreds of undocumented immigrants in what he called a desert dragnet based on racial profiling. In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, attorney Luis Carrillo claimed U.S. Border Patrol agents only pulled over Mexicans in the five-day operation known as "Operation Desert Denial." More than 600 undocumented immigrants were detained from May 19 to May 24 along Interstate 40 near Barstow. “Where are the illegal Chinese, Polish and Italian immigrants?” Carrillo demanded to know. “The fact that all the illegal immigrants detained were from Mexico is evidence of...

Business should heed Cisneros on immigrationhttp://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA060306.1D.hendricks.271c546.html http://tinyurl.com/k8ln6 David Hendricks San Antonio Express-News Web Posted: 06/03/2006 12:00 AM CDT San Antonio businesses are eerily quiet about the pending immigration reform legislation in Washington. That doesn't make sense. Given San Antonio's comfortable blend of international cultures and its pro-business stance with Latin America, this should be the first city speaking out on immigration. Politician-turned-businessman Henry Cisneros did that for San Antonio businesses Friday in an impassioned speech. He articulated what many San Antonio businesses think but are not saying publicly, especially when it comes to the growing U.S. business reliance on immigrant...

Taking a page from the Disney Corporation, the U.S. Homeland Security Department is proposing to rename the country “Americaland” and charge hefty admission fees. Individual admission fees would be in the $300 range for a three-week pass. Family admission packages would start at $1,000. “We can’t stop illegal entry, so we might as well try to turn a profit,” said Emilio Gonzalez, director of the department's Citizenship and Immigration Services. The admission packages include a variety of rides in boxcars, vehicle trunks and semi-trailers. Homeland Security staff dressed as “Uncle Sam,” “George Washington” and INS officers will be available for...

May 28, 1924: Congress establishes United States Border Patrol http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/daybyday/05-28-003.html On this day in 1924, the U.S. Congress established the United States Border Patrol as part of the Immigration Bureau, an arm of the Department of Labor. Its duties included the prevention of smuggling and the arrest of illegal entrants into the United States. During Prohibition smuggling absorbed most of the attention of the border patrol, as bootleggers avoided the bridges and slipped their forbidden cargo across the Rio Grande by way of pack mules. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt united the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of...

Carlos Guerra: The immigration smoke-and-mirrors show is coming to a head http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/columnists/cguerra/stories/MYSA052506.01B.guerra.1cbd3e7a.html http://tinyurl.com/gsbal Web Posted: 05/25/2006 12:00 AM CDT San Antonio Express-News With elections less than six months off, chances that the U.S. House and Senate will agree on the "comprehensive immigration reform bill" that President Bush promised are iffy, at best. This isn't to say that some sort of immigration bill won't pass. But with Republicans deeply divided over the issue, while competing pressure groups mount grass-roots campaigns that are clogging phone systems and e-mail servers, it won't be anything decisive. It is far more likely to be a...

A main item on the Burner is Corporal Binh N. Le, (KIA Iraq) and his parents. You'd think with all these morons who run around attempting to claim our land as theirs soverign (what ever), the illegal ( I guess some folks just don't understand that word - I bet it's those left wing professors at all the colleges, universitys, grade middle and highschools ( gawd I feel surrounded) that have perverted what illegal means.. so mom and pop citizen, when you son doesn't come home cause he done something illegal that he dicided wasn't illegal using the imigration issue...

Immigration officials made a surprise visit to a northeast Houston business this morning and questioned about two dozen workers in what may be only one of several immigration raids in the city today. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bus was parked in front of IFCO Systems on North McCarty Drive where several officials had gathered the workers. The company makes and repairs pallets, wooden structures used in shipping. A woman stopped by to check on relatives who work at the company, including a cousin. "He doesn't have papers. They say he'll be deported back to El Salvador,'' said Ana...

Federal agents raided a west Jackson business Wednesday morning. It was part of a nationwide crackdown on suspected illegal immigrants. While politicians continue to debate immigration reform, so-called "ICE" agents launched the crackdown on undocumented workers. Surprise raids were carried out at a number of 'IFCO' businesses. One bust was right here in Jackson. The well-organized early morning crackdown by "ICE" agents took place in several locations. Among them, Houston, Texas, Albany, New York, Portland, Oregon and Jackson, Mississippi. Agents arrested suspected illegal immigrants working for 'IFCO Systems' based in Houston, Texas. One man whose brother was taken into custody...

Immigration Officials Raid Evendale Business Federal immigration agents and local police raided an Evendale business Wednesday and arrested more than 30 people. The raid happened at IFCO Systems on Evendale Drive in Evendale and police say they were looking for illegal immigrants. After about an hour, agents left escorting two white vans but they declined to say who or how many people are in their custody. A spokesperson for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement only released this statments: "Today's arrests and detentions are part of an ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement worksite enforcement investigation. Because the enforcement actions are ongoing, we...

In past commentary on the mass illegal alien protests around the country, we have wondered aloud where Immigration chieftess Julie L. Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been. We've also wondered aloud why ICE agents aren't converging on the mas protests to arrest the illegals. It would be like shooting fish in a barrell and very efficient. Now, we know the answer. We assumed that Julie Myers a/k/a "The ICE Princess" and other Homeland Security officials ordered agents to stay away from the protests and not arrest anyone. Yes, the same ICE Princess who pledged to Congress...

Decades ago, the Publishers Clearing House launched a campaign to give away $1 million with Ed McMahon and Dick Clark as spokesmen. In addition to the prize and fat payments to the sponsors, PCH had millions in costs for its advertising and direct mail. That campaign offers a solution to the illegal alien problem in the US today. Some people wondered when the “Ed McMahon” campaign began, how that made good economic sense. I was working in direct mail advertising then. I knew exactly why it made sense. PCH were (and still are) spending tens of millions of dollars in...

WASHINGTON - Corruption plagues the agency that determines the legal status of immigrants, and its employees often don't conduct proper background checks of immigration applicants, a former agency official told lawmakers Thursday. As a result, "the integrity of the United States immigration system has also been corrupted and the system is incapable of ensuring the security of our homeland," Michael Maxwell said. "Ours is a system that rewards criminals, facilitates the movement of terrorists, (and) supports foreign agents," said Maxwell, who had been in charge of the Office of Security and Investigations at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services until resigning...

WASHINGTON - A former homeland security official will tell Congress Thursday morning that his one-time superiors are turning a blind eye towards deep-rooted corruption and the involvement of foreign agents in the nation's immigration system. Michael Maxwell, who until early this year was the director of the Office of Security and Investigations at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, said in an interview Wednesday that his bosses "buried their heads in the sand" and refused to act on "major national-security vulnerabilities" that his team brought to their attention. "These breaches comprise virtually every part of the immigration system, leaving vulnerabilities...

One of the most striking features of the immigration debate now raging in Washington is that none of the Democratic or Republican proposals seem to hold any appeal for ordinary Americans--which is why this debate is generating so much frustration among voters that no matter which proposal Congress adopts, the issue itself threatens to shatter both parties' bases and dominate the November elections. Simply put, the debate in Washington isn't about "immigration" at all - and that's the problem. To ordinary Americans, the definition of "immigration" is very specific: You come here with absolutely nothing except a burning desire to...

So why is illegal immigration sucha problem? This cartoon breaks it down for you in four simple panels.

To access the full version - http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.+4437: Summary of Title VII of H.R. 4437—Employment Eligibility Verification Telephonic and Electronic Verification. The current employment verification process relies upon employer examination of work authorization and identity documents by employers. If the documents appear genuine on their face, the employer must accept them. Two years after enactment, the bill would change this process by requiring that employers use a toll-free telephone or other electronic device to access a Social Security or Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data base to verify the validity of Social Security numbers (SSN) and alien documents used to evidence...

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has dealt the fatal blow to the controversial concept of Guest Worker Amnesty to 12 million illegal aliens now living in the United States in defiance of our laws. The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress charged with examining matters relating to the receipt and payment of public funds. In a devastating report released today, the GAO charges the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) – this is the agency under the Department of Homeland Security that would be in charge of proposed Guest Worker Amnesty – with a failed organizational...

Millions of Mexicans illegally enter America looking for jobs and educations, but remaining here seems to be bad for their health. The longer Latino immigrants are here, the more likely they are to become obese and to develop diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. The children of these immigrants have even higher rates of those illnesses, a new government report shows. The INS says it plans to feature these findings in their new campaign to discourage illegal entry. Juan Tonamayo, INS Under Deputy for Communications, said the agency will be placing ads in Mexican media, including Spanish language signage...

A Bolivian history professor hired last year by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln can’t start his job because U.S. immigration officials have blocked the visa process for the past eight months. Waskar Ali The unexplained delay baffles history colleagues, frustrates UNL’s immigration expert and angers opponents of the U.S. Patriot Act, who see the case of Waskar Ari as more evidence that it’s used arbitrarily to punish those with no connection to terrorism.

The U.S. government has sent more than $376 million to Mexico in the past decade for that country's military and police to help stop alien and drug smugglers, guard against terrorists and protect America's southern border, including $50 million due this year. The money, quietly authorized through State and Defense department programs, has been used to train and equip the Mexican military and police, drawing disagreement on whether those institutions are part of the solution for U.S. border security, or are part of the problem.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A federally funded program will train 10 sheriff's deputies in Mecklenburg County, giving them more power to identify, detain and remove illegal immigrants who go through the jail system. After the four-week course, the deputies will be certified immigration officers. "We, as local officials, can sit around and wring our hands and say, 'I wish someone would do something,'" Sheriff Jim Pendergraph said at a news conference Monday. "We're going to do something, and we're going to try and do our part." The training comes from the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest investigative...

Shootout closes Peace Arch border crossing Last Updated Tue, 24 Jan 2006 23:47:40 EST CBC News A police chase at the Canada-U.S. border forced the closure of the Peace Arch border crossing south of Vancouver on Tuesday. It also caused dozens of Canadian guards to walk off the job, fearing for their safety. The incident started when two men, both murder suspects, tried to get into Canada. Officials say the two men, 38-year-old Ishtiaq Hussain and 22-year-old Jose Antonio Barajas, are now in custody. They are wanted on murder charges in California. But the arrest didn't come easy. One of...