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A federal judge in Texas has ordered a halt, at least temporarily, to President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, siding with Texas and 25 other states that filed a lawsuit opposing the initiatives. In an order filed on Monday, the judge, Andrew S. Hanen of Federal District Court in Brownsville, prohibited the Obama administration from carrying out programs the president announced in November that would offer protection from deportation and work permits to as many as five million undocumented immigrants. The first of those programs was scheduled to start receiving applications on Wednesday.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Monday night that a federal judge has “granted” his request to “halt” President Barack Obama’s “Executive Amnesty Order” across the country. Abbott didn’t immediately offer any other details, but promised for information later. BREAKING: Federal Judge just granted my request to halt Obama's Executive Amnesty Order Nationwide. More later. #txlege #tcot @TexasGOP — Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 17, 2015

José was looking for peace and quiet, in addition to work, when he decided to settle in the hinterlands of upstate New York 14 years ago. “A lot of farmland and trees,” he recalled, speaking in Spanish. “It reminded me of my village in Mexico.” But he quickly learned that being poor and undocumented and living far from the well-established immigrant networks found in the nation’s big cities made life especially difficult. Such challenges are a fact of life for the large and growing population of immigrants across the country who have bypassed traditional gateway cities like New York and...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Controversial Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio and his top lieutenants will face a civil contempt-of-court hearing in April for repeatedly ignoring judicial orders arising from a 2007 racial-profiling case, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow ordered the evidentiary hearing to be conducted after determining there was sufficient evidence to move ahead with the proceeding that could result in penalties against Arpaio, four other individuals, and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

Millions of immigrants benefiting from President Barack Obama’s executive actions could get a windfall from the IRS, a reversal of fortune after years of paying taxes to help fund government programs they were banned from receiving. Armed with new Social Security numbers, many of these immigrants who were living in the U.S. illegally will now be able to claim up to four years’ worth of tax credits designed to benefit the working poor. For big families, that’s a maximum of nearly $24,000, as long as they can document their earnings during those years. Some Republicans are labeling the payments “amnesty...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush may find out that Wall Street money will not buy him the love of GOP primary voters like it does mainstream media elites who are rushing to cast him as the 2016 frontrunner. As soon as Mitt Romney announced that he would not make a third White House run, the mainstream press immediately anointed Bush as the clear Republican 2016 frontrunner. They made their pronouncements even though Bush had not yet proven with his speeches that he can be a successful candidate in the digital age and neither had the best ground game nor the...

Los inmigrantes indocumentados que califiquen para los alivios migratorios otorgados por el Presidente Barack Obama podrán reclamar reembolsos retroactivos por créditos fiscales a los que no calificaban mientras estaban trabajando sin un número de seguro social válido. Uno de esos es el Crédito Tributario por Ingreso del Trabajo (EITC) que puede ser de hasta $6,000. "El programa (de alivios migratorios) te permite reclamar el EITC", dijo el martes John Koskine, comisionado del Servicio de Recaudación de Rentas (IRS) ante el Comité de Finanzas del Senado.

CBP officers at the Douglas port of entry seized 300 rounds of ammunition that was taped to the body of a man who was crossing into Mexico. Officers sent the 27-year-old man for further questioning on Feb. 10 as he attempted to cross into Mexico, according to a Customs and Border Protection news release. Officers searched the man and found six boxes of 9mm ammunition that were in his waistband and taped to his thighs. Officers seized the bullets and arrested the man.

Senate Democrats’ filibuster of a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security that would block deportation amnesty is not about the immigration issue but about respecting President Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. “This is not a question of protecting illegal people in our country, it’s a question of respecting the authority of the president of the United States,” Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, told reporters at her weekly press conference at the Capitol. Current funding for the Department of Homeland Security runs out Feb. 27, but Senate Democrats are blocking the spending bill that includes a prohibition...

Opponents say New Mexico has become a haven for those seeking to fraudulently obtain driver's licenses. "These fraud operations involve the trafficking of humans to our state for the purpose of committing crimes; and with no intention to live here, they snatch up our license to take elsewhere, to places unknown and for purposes unknown," said Mike Lonergan, spokesman for Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. Martinez, the nation's only Latina governor and a rising figure in the Republican Party, has been pushing to repeal the driver's license law since she was first elected in 2010. The governor and others have said...

The state of Georgia is issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. After years of explaining this fact to astonished Georgians all over the state, I have still not grown accustomed to the shock and outrage they so vocally express. “But Georgia is governed by Republicans! – what is this, California?” is the most common reply that is printable here. They seem to become even angrier when someone correctly points out that illegal aliens cannot obtain a driver’s license in Mexico. For those readers who are wondering – no, this bewildering assault on our driver’s license integrity is not a result...

Hispanics represent about a third of the nation’s uninsured, and for a number of reasons, signing them up has been harder. According to the latest government statistics, as of Jan. 16, two months into the current open enrollment period, just 10 percent of those who had enrolled in the 37 states served by healthcare.gov are Latino. Despite a concerted effort by officials and health law advocates to reach Latinos, that’s up only slightly from 7 percent during the first few months of last year’s enrollment. Nonetheless, the Department of Health and Human Services and pro-health-law groups have stepped up their...

A Tamaulipas state official says a Televisa station in the border city of Matamoros suffered a grenade attack that injured two guards, one seriously. […] The attack came after a week of violence in the city across from Brownsville, Texas. Enrique Juarez Torres, editor of El Manana in Matamoros, was kidnapped and released on Wednesday, a warning he said from the Gulf Cartel for reporting on gunfights that killed nine people. Fifteen people reportedly have died since last weekend in cartel violence. …

Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican authorities have rescued 129 workers, including six children, who said they were exploited and physically and sexually abused at a garment factory run by South Koreans, officials said. Four South Korean nationals have been handed over to prosecutors in the western state of Jalisco after workers identified them as the owners or managers of the company named Yes International, the National Migration Institute (INM) said. Authorities raided the company in the town of Zapopan on Wednesday after receiving an anonymous tip, INM coordinator Ardelio Vargas Fosado told reporters, describing the South Koreans as a "gang...

Pope Francis has decried the “inhuman” conditions facing migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and has encouraged communities there not to judge people by stereotypes but welcome migrants and work to end discrimination. Francis made the appeal in a letter to a Jesuit priest who helps organize Catholic teens in Nogales, Arizona, to support the Kino Border Initiative, which advocates a more humane solution to migration. The letter was dated Dec. 19 but was made public on Kino’s website recently. […] Francis has made migration one of the priorities of his pontificate and will likely raise the issue when he visits...

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Should the United States not send arms to help Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia because our country would be angered if Russia armed Mexico against Texas? A strange analogy, no? But it's the one Joe Scarborough made on today's Morning Joe: "what is Vladimir Putin's response going to be to the United States arming Ukraine? Certainly I would guess no better than, you know, the Russians arming Mexico with weapons against Texas." View the video here.

(CNSNews.com) - Speaking from the Oval Office, President Barack Obama made a sales pitch today directly urging illegal aliens to sign up if they qualify for what he calls his “executive action” that will allow them to stay in the country despite violating the immigration laws. “So I’m going to want all of you to get information so you can sign up if you qualify as well. All right?" said the president. In the same talk, Obama referred to six young illegal aliens he met with in the White House today as “DREAMERS” and described them as individuals who came...

Rep. Ron Paul has a problem with the idea of a U.S. border fence.“The people that want big fences and guns, sure, we could secure the border,” the congressman noted. “A barbed wire fence with machine guns, that would do the trick. I don’t believe that is what America is all about.” “Every time you think about this toughness on the border and ID cards and REAL IDs, think it’s a penalty against the American people too. I think this fence business is designed and may well be used against us and keep us in. In economic turmoil, the people...

A month after the rollout of California’s massive effort to issue driver’s licenses to 1.5 million undocumented immigrants, the process is working overall in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire. Still, many applicants report a mixed bag of experiences. Local advocacy groups are scrambling to address overflowing driver’s license preparation classes. Some test-takers are showing up at the Department of Motor Vehicles without studying, and some tech-phobes fear the touch-screen test format that allows four minutes for each question. Language kinks were being untangled last week for Mixteco speakers after confusion over whether translators could assist during the written and...