Free Republic

This week Drop the I-Word is featuring daily “I Am…” stories in honor of Coming Out of the Shadows Week and in collaboration with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance. Today’s story comes from college student Him Ranjit, a young man from Texas who continues to dream, despite the many roadblocks he’s encountered in our country’s broken immigration system. Ranjit and his mother joined his father in this country after he’d been here a few years, so that their family could be together. Their visas were not extended and they were not put on a path to becoming citizens, instead, they...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a surprising show of growth, Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the last decade, exceeding estimates in most states. Pulled by migration to the Sun Belt, America's population center edged westward on a historic path to leave the Midwest.

Border Patrol agents recently arrested 13 illegal immigrants disguised as U.S. Marines and riding in a fake military van, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday. The illegal immigrants were clad in Marine uniforms when they were apprehended at the Campo Border Patrol Westbound I-8 checkpoint at 11 p.m. on March 14 near Pine Valley, Calif., border officials said. Two U.S. citizens in the van also were arrested.

Border Patrol agents recently arrested 13 illegal immigrants disguised as U.S. Marines and riding in a fake military van, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday. The illegal immigrants were clad in Marine uniforms when they were apprehended at the Campo Border Patrol Westbound I-8 checkpoint at 11 p.m. on March 14 near Pine Valley, Calif., border officials said. Two U.S. citizens in the van also were arrested. After the suspicious white van was subjected to secondary inspection, it was determined that the driver of the vehicle and its front seat passenger were U.S. citizens who were attempting to smuggle...

PHOENIX – Arizona legislators took a timeout from illegal immigration with the Senate easily defeating five related bills, reflecting little appetite for an issue that made the state the focus of national debate and protest last year. Majority Republicans were split Thursday in their votes on the defeated bills, which included two measures intended to force a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against automatic citizenship for U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. The other three dealt with health care, public services and everyday activities such as driving. Supporters of the measures voiced frustration and said there could be political fallout for lawmakers...

Police serving a search warrant in a drug investigation said they found something more ghastly in a backyard shed: Two human skulls in a shrine, and several hundred pounds of animal bones, flesh, and blood believed to be part of a religious ceremony. Roberto Casillas-Corrales, 53, of Clearfield, remained jailed Monday, a day after he was arrested for investigation of abuse or desecration of a human body. Authorities say he may also face several charges of cruelty to animals. "We believe it's a religious ritual at this time," said Mike Stenquist, assistant police chief in Clearfield, about 20 miles north...

U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper told lawmakers here that drug-related violence in Mexico poses a security threat to the United States and acknowledged that the system in place to prevent a potential terrorist from penetrating the U.S. southwestern border is not "iron-clad." During an appearance Thursday before the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Clapper reiterated the U.S. government's position that drug trafficking and the prevalence of drug cartels in Mexico is a "matter of national security interest in both countries." Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/03/11/intel-chief-mexico-drug-violence-poses-security-threat/#ixzz1GZkPVmI8

While Connecticut, its counties, and many of its towns and cities saw population growth in single-digit percentages over the past 10 years, the Hispanic and Asian populations have experienced tremendous increases, according to 2010 census figures released Wednesday. The Asian population rose more than 64 percent in the state, and an almost 50 percent statewide jump in Hispanic numbers was mirrored by similar percentages in the largest cities. Meanwhile, the population rankings of Connecticut's counties and its five most populous cities remained unchanged in 10 years, census figures indicate. According to the census data, Connecticut's general population increased 4.9 percent...

I'm watching the undercard now -- Daniel Ponce de Leon (from Mexico) vs. Adrien Broner (from the U.S.). Broner was enthusiastically booed in the intro, presumably just for being American. The Mexi fighter was wildly cheered, of course. I've seen this sort of thing before at boxing matches in CA, TX, AZ, NM, FL, etc., and at a U.S. vs. Mexico soccer match at the L.A. Coliseum a few years back (where "urine bombs" were tossed at the U.S. national team, and our national anthem was booed), but it never ceases to tick me off. We have literally tens of...

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - On the night he was killed, there is no indication that Border Agent Brian Terry ever got off a shot. That is one of the revelations contained in a confidential document that 9 On Your Side has obtained. The document is a BORTAC incident report - BORTAC being an acronym for Border Patrol Tactical Unit. According to the report, Terry was one of six officers taking part in a patrol in the Rio Rico area - not four, as the Border Patrol had previously stated. The Border Patrol has said very little about what happened that night,...

Spurred by three recent border-crossing deaths linked to frigid weather, Border Patrol officials in San Diego aim to work with Mexican agencies to create public-service announcements detailing the dangers of illegally entering the United States. “They are ill-prepared for the weather they encounter,” said Steven Pitts, spokesman for Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector. “A lot of them lack proper footwear or layered clothing. It’s the same in the summer — we find they lack proper water, clothing.” An unusual cold spell pushed the death toll so far this year to nearly half of San Diego border-crossing deaths in 2010. The...

The high crime rate in Ciudad Juárez has spurred many Mexican businessmen to transfer their business operations to El Paso, where there are already 100 new companies that have opened their doors in U.S. territory. Juárez, just across the Rio Grande from this Texas city, is Mexico's murder capital, where more than 8,000 people have died since early 2008 in drug-related mayhem. The Juárez business owners now in El Paso have created an organization, La Red (The Network), to provide logistical support so that Mexican exiles can begin their business activities anew. "We Mexican businessmen who invest in El Paso...

It is hard to remember a more important meeting between the president of Mexico and the United States. U.S.-Mexico relations are at boiling point as both nations prepare for an Obama-Calderón summit meeting in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday that would include conversations on controversial issues such as Mexico's drug war, diplomatic cable leaks, the influx of U.S. arms and a wave of anti-immigration initiatives in the United States. These issues are all taking a toll on the border nations relationship that had shown steady improvement in the recent years. As President Felipe Calderón prepares for an official visit to...

Saudi Arabia has sent dozens of tanks to Bahrain, where anti-government protests continue for about two weeks, Egypt's Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper said on Tuesday. Eyewitnesses reported seeing "15 tank carriers carrying two tanks each heading towards Bahrain" along the 25-km King Fahd causeway, which links the small island nation of Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. Protestors are mainly Shiites account for about 70% of the Bahraini population, but have long complained of discrimination and other abuses by the Sunni Khalifa dynasty that has ruled the tiny Gulf nation for more than two centuries. In the worst unrest in the kingdom since...

Looking at population projections for Texas, demographer Steve Murdock concludes: "It's basically over for Anglos." Two of every three Texas children are now non-Anglo and the trend line will become even more pronounced in the future, said Murdock, former U.S. Census Bureau director and now director of the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas at Rice University. Today's Texas population can be divided into two groups, he said. One is an old and aging Anglo and the other is young and minority. Between 2000 and 2040, the state's public school enrollment will see a 15 percent decline in Anglo...

Says Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu: "We're expecting a conflict. I absolutely believe you're going to see that happen in the next 30 to 60 days." The violence rolling across Mexico continues to destroy everything and everyone in its path, threatening the further destabilization of an already besieged society teetering on the brink of anarchy. That wave is crashing on our border as Mexican drug cartel-related incidents increase in the United States.This month’s murder of a U.S. ICE agent and wounding of another — when their armored Suburban was attacked by assailants on a Mexican highway — is just another example...

As if the threat of deadly drug cartels in Mexico wasn't enough, some of them are joining forces with Middle East terror groups. "Hezbollah are absolute masters at identifying existing smuggling infrastructures," says former DEA Chief of Operations Mike Braun, adding that the group "is developing relations with those responsible for operating those smuggling operations and then forming close relations with them, so that they can move anything they have an interest into virtually anywhere in the world." That comment comes from former DEA Chief of Operations Mike Braun. He goes on to tell me that the Middle East terror...

An outspoken Arizona sheriff has responded to a letter from the mayors of three border cities who asked him to tone down his comments on border security problems, saying, "feel free to 'drink the Kool-Aid'" of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke and President Obama. In a letter dated Feb. 14, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said his jurisdiction is the "number one pass through county" nationwide for smuggling people and drugs.

First Lady Michelle Obama called on the Latino community to put pressure on Republicans to support comprehensive immigration legislation. In an interview with Univision, the first lady said President Obama wanted to pass immigration legislation, but could not find enough support among Republicans to move a bill. The DREAM Act, a bill to give undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children and are pursuing higher education an opportunity to become U.S. citizens, had little support among Republicans, she said. The latest attempt to pass the legislation failed in December. “So I urge the Latino community, he needs help,...

WASHINGTON — Whites continued to decline as a share of the American population in 2009, and they now represent less than half of all 3-year-olds, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of census data released Monday. The country’s young population is more diverse than ever, with whites now in the minority in nursery schools, preschools and kindergartens in eight states — Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas — and the District of Columbia, according to William H. Frey, a demographer at Brookings. That was up from six states in 2000. “We are on our way to...