Free Republic

Two recently published articles point up how confused some conservatives are on the issue of illegal immigration from Mexico. Heather Mac Donald's article, "A New Latino Underclass," which appeared in the Dallas Morning News (July 25, 2004), and "A Conservative Manifesto for Solving Border Woes" in The Arizona Republic (Aug. 15, '04) seem to be working at cross purposes. Heather Mac Donald claims that "Hispanic gang violence is spreading across the country," and is "the sign of a new underclass in the making...With gang violence up, social trends down, some fear an immigration influx will overwhelm the tradition of assimilation."...

<p>WASHINGTON - Inspired by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, tens of thousands of people are expected to climb aboard a caravan of buses this month for a modern-day Freedom Ride to the nation's capital to call attention to the plight of the estimated 8 million to 9 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.</p>

IMMIGRANT RESEARCH Poor language skills and pride in national origin are two reasons why nearly eight million foreign residents eligible for U.S. citizenship have not applied, according to a study released Wednesday. Mexicans and Canadians are among the nationalities least likely to apply for citizenship, the report by the Washington-based Urban Institute found. Historically, there have been millions of immigrants with green cards who have not sought citizenship for various reasons, but this is the first time a study has focused on the issue. ''Despite rising naturalization rates, the pool of legal immigrants eligible to naturalize remains strikingly large,'' the...