Free Republic

While the Legislature has been going full speed working to draft and pass finance omnibus bills, legislators continue to introduce new bills about issues important to constituents. Reps. Kurt Bills (R-District 37B), Rosemount, and Tara Mack (R-District 37A), Apple Valley, are authors of a bill that looks at people's rights to protect themselves on their private property, HF1467, introduced on Thursday. It would allow people to use "deadly force" against someone who is committing a felony in their home. The bill also includes a provision to make transfer permits valid for five years instead of one year. Mack said she's...

The eurosceptic and anti-immigration True Finns have taken nearly a fifth of votes in Finland's general election, reflecting a trend across Nordic and Western European countries. The phrase "rise of the far-right" has been used - though in each country the parties concerned have their own characteristics and do not necessarily fit the conventional "far-right" description. Here we record the electoral status - and political influence - of some of the most succesful nationalist/ anti-immigrant parties in Europe.

Should Americans believe Janet Napolitano’s rosy picture of a U.S.-Mexico border that’s “as secure as it has ever been” or a Pentagon assessment that it’s actually a gateway for Mexican criminal organizations that have infiltrated the entire country and joined forces with terrorist groups? For months the nation’s Homeland Security Secretary has repeatedly insisted that everything is hunky dory on the southwest border, even as violence escalates and overwhelmed federal agents are increasingly attacked by heavily armed drug smugglers. Just last month Napolitano declared that violence along the Mexican border is merely a mistaken “perception” because the area is...

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a lower court decision that blocked the most contested provisions of Arizona’s immigration law from taking effect. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that a federal judge did not abuse her discretion in blocking provisions of the law that would, among other things, require police to check immigration status if they stop someone while enforcing other laws. The decision is a victory for the Obama administration,

Dee Dee Garcia, president of Somos Republicans, told The Florida Independent her group does not support immigration-enforcement-only measures in Florida. The Florida Senate Judiciary committee will discuss the GOP’s immigration bill S.B. 2040 today. A Somos press release issued Friday states: SOMOS REPUBLICANS, the largest conservative Hispanic grassroots organization is a leader in advocating pro growth, pro business and pro immigrant ideas. We are not in support of SB 2040, an E-Verificiation Bill which is supported by Florida State Senator Anitere Flores. # We believe that small businesses are the economic engine of the United States, therefore, state lawmakers should...

(CNSNews.com) - Do fewer apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border really reflect a lower number of illegal crossings? Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says yes, but an Arizona sheriff says no. Republican Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, which lies on the Arizona-Mexico border, told Fox News on April 1 that border apprehension numbers fail to tell the real story of what is happening on the southwest border. “We do not know who’s crossing that border,” Dever said, adding that “anyone who wants to, can. That’s the message our nation needs to hear -- that anyone who wants to (cross...

Shocking Obama Adm. Immigration Policy Fail: GAO Homeland Security Head Admits 45% of All Illegal Aliens in the US are Being Searched for by Only a Little Over One Hundred Agents http://www.theblaze.com/stories/shocking-obama-adm-immigration-policy-fail-gao-homeland-security-head-admits-45-of-all-illegal-aliens-in-the-us-are-being-searched-for-by-only-a-little-over-a-one-hundred-agents/

President Barack Obama reflects in his thinking and actions the open-society tenets of Saul Alinsky. Alinsky, a University of Chicago graduate, introduced the concept of community organizing in 1939. In 1946 Alinsky wrote a community organizers handbook, Reveille for Radicals, and shortly before his death, a follow-up book, Rules for Radicals. Alinsky’s influence on Barack Obama is clear and troubling. Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago for some five years after graduating from Columbia University. Under Alinsky’s theory, a community organizer is a revolutionary adept at deceiving an unthinking populace. Obama’s campaign for the presidency reflected his Alinsky-styled...

Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch, has announced that he has launched a lawsuit against Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, for allegedly facilitating jihad against Israel. It seeks damages of up to $1 billion. WND reported earlier this week on strategies that were being developed on Facebook pages for thousands of people worldwide to "return" to the original homes of their families in "Palestine" on May 15. It was explained in an in-depth report by L. Barkan, a research fellow at the Middle East Media Research Institute, which monitors and analyzes media reports throughout the Middle East. He reported...

CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama on Monday told a student who has received a deportation notice that he does not want to deport her -- he wants people like her to succeed. The exchange happened during a town hall event sponsored by the Spanish-language television network Univision at a Washington, D.C., school.

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,...