Free Republic

ON ONE level, it’s unsurprising that the Supreme Court deadlocked 4 to 4, after an appeals court split 2 to 1, in considering President Obama’s sweeping executive action to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. As a legal matter, this was not an easy call.What makes the outcome so depressing for the country, and such a standard-bearer for failed governance, is that as a policy matter, it shouldn’t be hard at all. Immigrants have been and continue to be, on balance, an overwhelmingly positive force for the nation’s social and economic health. It would be in their interest and...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) underreported 13,288 criminal convictions of aliens who were released by the agency in 2014, according to new information released Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee. “The Obama Administration’s record of releasing criminal aliens has gone from bad to worse,” Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) said in a statement, adding that “there’s no excuse for this large discrepancy.” …

President Barack Obama sought to reassure millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally that he has no plans to deport them, while acknowledging that the Supreme Court’s deadlock Thursday marks the end of the road for his push to reform the U.S. immigration system. Though Obama predicted an immigration overhaul is inevitable, he conceded it won’t happen while he’s president due to opposition from the current Congress. Working to lay the groundwork for the next president to pick up the effort, he cast the election in November as a referendum on how the country would treat its immigrants. “We’re going...

In the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, a deadly police crackdown against teachers has left nine people dead and more than 100 wounded. On Sunday, police descended on teachers in the community of Nochixtlán, where they had set up blockades to protest against neoliberal education reform and the arrests of two teachers’ union leaders last week on what protesters say are trumped-up charges. "As soon as they arrived, they began to attack. And we were few, very few," said a Oaxacan teacher. "Then we started running. But they began to attack right away, instantly. At no time did they give...

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.) has paid his wife and daughters hundreds of thousands of dollars from his campaign’s coffer since 2010, according to campaign finance data. Gutierrez, who was first elected to Congress in 1993, brought his wife, Soraida Gutierrez, onto his campaign’s payroll six years ago to act as his office manager, treasurer, and fundraiser. Soraida Gutierrez was a registered lobbyist in the state of Illinois from 2003 to 2009 before joining Gutierrez for Congress. She has since raked in more than $300,000 for her work on behalf of the committee while being the top recipient of campaign...

One-time Republican presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will be running to keep his Senate seat, reversing course on his initial decision not to seek reelection. In an interview with the Miami Herald on Wednesday, Rubio explained what was behind his change of heart. "I think that the point that really drove me to change my mind is that as we enter this kind of new chapter in our history here is, there's another role the Senate plays that I think can be really important in the years to come," he said. "And that's the power given to it...

On a cool spring day at the Capitol, Toni Atkins delivered a series of blows unlike anything the tobacco industry had ever felt in California. Then speaker of the Assembly, the San Diego Democrat had been a lame duck for the last six months since the house elected Anthony Rendon to replace her. It was a Thursday morning in March and her final session as speaker, a tenure that lasted just shy of a year and 10 months. In a series of quick votes, the Assembly passed six smoking bills, the most significant of which raised the age to buy...

In the swing of the Trump wrecking crane, President Obama's approval ratings have risen above 50 percent. The media see greater appreciation for his "competence" in office -- but, why? In the wake of the Orlando attack it's easy to ask, "How competent would the media have made President George W. Bush appear if an Islamic terrorist shot up a gay nightclub in Florida eight years ago?" It seemed like every piece of bad news during the Bush years was somehow Bush's fault -- and proof of his incompetence. The media's attitude toward Bush was summed up in Bill Maher's...

The Copa América Centenario games have been fun and dandy until one soccer fan took things way too personal and even got in a heated argument with a cop.Following the recent soccer match between Chile and Mexico, where the South American soccer team defeated El Tri with a humiliating score of 7-0, Mexican soccer fans took to Twitter to express their thoughts via bittersweet memes and comments. One fan, however, expressed his anger at the Levi's Stadium in California following the Quarter-Finals match and was even arrested after starting a brawl with a cop.In a viral video posted by Sports...

In an awkward interview with the Huffington Post, House Speaker Paul Ryan threatened to sue Donald Trump if he were to ban Muslim immigration or build a border wall with Mexico. Considering the current track record of suing Obama over abuses of power, this is little more than a confession of impotence. And yet it’s deeply troubling that a top Republican is willing to go to such lengths to fight for Muslim migration or for that matter illegal immigration in general.

Mexican police are investigating the murder of a soldier who was part of the team guarding the recaptured notorious drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, at a prison in northern Mexico. The body of Jorge Mauricio Melendez Herrera, 20, was found on Friday in Ciudad Juarez, with signs of torture. Investigators said Mr Melendez was part of the first ring of security guarding the outside of the jail in the city.

An FBI veteran has been named to head the U.S. Border Patrol, bringing in an outsider to run an agency traditionally led by agents who rise through the ranks. Mark Morgan, who briefly led the internal affairs department at the Border Patrol’s parent agency, has been chosen to oversee a multibillion-dollar annual budget and about 20,000 agents who patrol the nation’s land borders with Canada and Mexico and its maritime boundaries. …

Mexican authorities say six people were killed and 53 were injured when a teachers' union protest in the southern state of Oaxaca turned violent. Police say the demonstration against education reforms in the town of Asuncion Nochixtlan was infiltrated by armed individuals who shot at officers and threw Molotov cocktails. The violence broke out Sunday when police attempted to remove the National Education Workers Coordinator, or CNTE, teachers who were blocking a highway. State Governor Gabino Cue said most of those who died were young people. Two had ties to CNTE.

Football coaches face a tough choice anytime they’re asked to play politics: Do so, and they risk alienating their fan base for a reason other than play calling or defensive schemes. Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh took the plunge Saturday, when he agreed with Donald Trump’s idea to build a border fence to keep out illegal immigrants coming from Mexico. At an otherwise boring press conference Saturday afternoon, Harbaugh, who’s won a Super Bowl and is no stranger to dealing with media, was asked a question about officiating during the ongoing NFL preseason. Somehow, his answer drifted into politics, with...

The president of Guatemala has offered Donald Trump "cheap labor" to build a wall on the border of the United States and Mexico. "We have high-quality labor, and we'll gladly build," President Jimmy Morales said in a Facebook Live interview conducted by The New York Times en Espanol, reported The Hill. "Tell us the dimensions, and we know how to do it," said Morales.

Thursday during debate on the Senate floor about an amendment offered by Republican Senator John Thune requiring 350 miles of double-layer fencing along the southern border, Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu called the fence "dumb" and claimed South Dakota is a border state. Thune's amendment backs up the 2006 Secure Fence Act (which Landrieu voted for) requiring 700 miles of double layer fence along the southwest border with Mexico, of which only 36 miles have been completed. I’m going to speak about this amendment for just a minute, but I’ld like to respond to Senator Thune, and I wish that we...

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago singer who appeared on the Mexican version of "The Voice" in 2011 has died after he was shot in an ambush while celebrating his birthday with friends. The Cook County Medical Examiner's office confirmed that 45-year-old Alejandro "Jano" Fuentes died on Saturday. He was shot three times in the head late Thursday outside his Tras Bambalinas School on Chicago's southwest side.

An anti-Trump protester in Arizona held up a “Make America Mexico Again” sign as anti-Trump agitators demonstrated ahead of Trump’s Saturday visit to the Grand Canyon State.

It’s the very thing the GOP Establishment fears most – loss of control. This week, an example of that diminished control reverberated throughout D.C. as challenger Scott Taylor, who is a former Navy SEAL and current Virginia State Representative, defeated longtime Republican Congressman Randy Forbes. Taylor supported Donald Trump and Trump’s America-first economic platform. Randy Forbes did not. Virginia voters just fired Randy Forbes. Taylor hosted a Virginia Trump rally as far back as September, and has since repeated his plan to support the New York billionaire in his upcoming presidential battle against Hillary Clinton. .. Reports indicate a stunned...

TEL AVIV – As the debate over Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border continues to dominate the presidential race, Israel is reportedly planning to move ahead with a massive above and underground concrete barrier along the entire border with the Gaza Strip. The barrier was revealed on Thursday in a story splashed across the cover of Yedioth Aharonot, Israel’s largest daily newspaper. The story was published with the approval of the country’s defense ministry. Yedioth’s affiliated website, Ynetnews, has the details: