Free Republic

Immigration reform advocates plan an aggressive campaign to bring the issue back — and the White House has signaled it’s on board. Can Obama emerge from the fiscal crisis with enough momentum to win the immigration fight? As the fiscal fight roiling Washington nears its end, the White House is already signaling that it plans to use the political momentum it has gained during the shutdown fight to charge back into the immigration debate. And this time, Democratic pollsters and advocates say, they could actually win. The final chapter of the current crisis hasn’t been written yet, but Democrats in...

Over the past few years, immigration reform has been at the forefront of debates in Congress. In both the Senate and the House of Representatives, members from across the aisle have come together to develop bipartisan bills that would change the lives of over 11 million undocumented immigrants. Some in Congress have worked tirelessly to create a law that would provide a path to citizenship for millions, while others have focused the debate on border security. In an exclusive interview with Latinos Post, National Council of La Raza (NCLR)’s senior immigration legislation analyst Laura Vazquez discussed the future of immigration...

Once the fiscal crisis has been resolved, President Barack Obama is going to push for immigration reform, he told the Los Angeles affiliate of Spanish-language network Univision on Tuesday. Obama, who largely managed to hold on to office on the backs of Hispanic voters, has long looked to easing the plight of the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants, but other issues have kept coming in the way during his second term.

President Obama vowed Tuesday that he would pursue an immigration reform vote in the House the "day after" Congress reached an agreement to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. "Once that’s done, you know, the day after -- I’m going to be pushing to say, call a vote on immigration reform," Obama told Univision's Los Angeles affiliate. "And if I have to join with other advocates and continue to speak out on that, and keep pushing, I’m going to do so because I think it’s really important for the country. And now is the time to do it."

PAYSON, AZ - Republican Rep. Brenda Barton of Payson compared President Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler on her Facebook page Monday in a post urging county sheriffs to revoke authority from the National Parks Service “thugs” who are enforcing the federal shutdown on national parks lands. “Someone is paying the National Park Service thugs overtime for their efforts to carry out the order of De Fuhrer… where are our Constitutional Sheriffs who can revoke the Park Service Rangers authority to arrest??? Do we have any Sheriffs with a pair?” she wrote. Fuhrer is a German term for leader that is...

Few remember Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, the DEA agent killed in the line of duty almost 30 years ago, when the War on Drugs was the talk of Washington. "On February 7, 1985, Special Agent Camarena was kidnapped by the traffickers," then First Lady Nancy Reagan somberly told a room full of anti-drug advocates. "He was tortured and beaten to death." Camarena's killer was sentenced to 40 years in jail. Now, he's free after serving only 28 years. And those who knew the agent and became close to his family are fighting to see that his story is not forgotten. "I...

To some outside California, Gov. Jerry Brown always will be kooky Gov. Moonbeam, no matter what he does. To California Democrats, however, Brown is the political mastermind who persuaded voters to approve a ballot measure to increase taxes -- no small feat, considering that 65 percent of voters rejected a similar measure by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009. The increased revenue and an improving economy lifted Sacramento out of its habitual shortfalls. To some Sacramento Republicans who fought Brown's efforts to put the tax increases before the voters, Dao Gov has become an object of worship. They call Brown...

I’m a very straight-laced guy. Some would even say boring. I’ve never done drugs, for instance. But not because they’re illegal. I’ve never done drugs for the reason that I’ve never smoked cigarettes. Just doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do. And I encourage friends and family to have the same approach. "Why Are So Many Violent Criminals Walking Free?" | LearnLibertyBut this isn’t about cost-benefit analysis. Watch this powerful video from Reason TV about how one family has been victimized by drug prohibition. Riverside Cop Tricks Autistic Teen into Buying PotNow ask yourself what purpose it served...

Mexico has been badly shaken by a photograph of a woman squatting on the grass and grimacing in pain as she gives birth to a child. It’s not that the photograph is so dreadful, although one feels for her pain and the absence of privacy and, therefore, dignity. What’s causing so much soul-searching in Mexico is the reason the woman ended up being photographed giving birth on a lawn. Mexico, a country with socialized medicine (except for rich people, who have their own private healthcare market), has a troubling shortage of good maternity care. Additionally, Mexico’s indigenous people routinely face...

(AP) -- Mexico needed a spectacular Raul Jimenez goal in the 85th minute to beat Panama 2-1 on Friday and revive its hopes of qualifying for the World Cup. The result moved Mexico into fourth place in CONCACAF qualifying, three points ahead of Panama and three points behind third-placed Honduras with one game to play. The top three teams qualify automatically for the World Cup, while the fourth team faces an intercontinental playoff against New Zealand. In the last round of games, Honduras is away to already-eliminated Jamaica and needs only a draw to secure a World Cup berth, while...

A plea for asylum by an HIV-positive transgender individual is providing a rare glimpse into the complexities of deportation cases and the harsh realities facing federal immigration detainees. Wilfrido “Perla" Lopez-Roque, who is an undocumented Mexican immigrant, has been detained in the Santa Ana Jail since being caught last year by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE at a freeway check in San Diego County. Most undocumented immigrants detained by federal officials are immediately deported under a “voluntary removal” process that sends them back to their country of origin. Some, such as Lopez-Roque, request a judicial hearing for asylum....

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the kingpin of the Sinaloa Cartel, owns the Chicago-area drug game. Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the Sinaloa cartel’s “logistics coordinator” and son of a principal Sinaloa leader, asserted in court documents that Guzman is a U.S. informant and Sinaloa was "given carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago.Niebla also alleged that Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the cartel in exchange for information used to take down its rivals.

FULL TITLE: The photograph that shamed Mexico: Health director suspended after shocking image of indigenous woman giving birth on a clinic LAWN when nurses denied her treatment went viral A disturbing photograph of an indigenous woman from Mexico delivering a baby on a patch of grass outside a medical center has set off a firestorm online and sparked a national debate that led to the suspension of the head of the clinic that has turned the mother away. The shocking image, taken by a passerby, shows 29-year-old Irma Lopez , who is of Mazatec ethnicity, squatting after giving birth, her...

On Sunday, police in Englewood, NJ, arrested the man suspected of trying to rape a woman who was jogging with her baby last week in New York City's Fort Tryon Park. The suspect, Oscar Ruiz, 35, reportedly ran up behind the victim, grabbed her in a bear hug and dragged her to the ground. Ruiz threatened the woman with a broken bottle as he tried to rape her, according to police. However, this victim was no easy mark... 33-year-old Jane Jarman, grabbed a bicycle pump from the stroller and used it to repeatedly strike Ruiz in the head. With blood...

A planned immigration reform rally will take place on the National Mall on Tuesday even though the site is closed due to the government shutdown. ~~~SNIP~~~ Susana Flores, a spokesperson for the rally, confirmed for the Washington Examiner that the Park Service will allow the event to take place under the group's rights granted by the First Amendment. About 30 members of Congress are expected to attend the rally, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

A top House Republican says in an upcoming interview that the chamber will take up immigration reform in 2013, insisting that “there’s still time” for a comprehensive rewrite despite the rapidly dwindling time left on this year’s calendar. Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, said during an interview with Univision’s “Al Punto” that top leaders are still discussing when to bring immigration bills to the House floor. Speaker John Boehner “over the last few weeks has continued to talk about the importance of the House moving forward on immigration reform,” McMorris Rodgers said, according...

National Day for Dignity and Respect pushes for immigration reform through portraits in New Haven NEW HAVEN >> When his daughter was just eight months old, Alejandro Gonzalez made the decision to leave Mexico. Gonzalez, who now lives in Connecticut, said he has not been able to go back since. That was in February 2002. “When I talk to her on the computer or the phone, it is like a piece of my heart is gone,” Gonzalez said. Recently, Gonzalez said he has lost two cousins to cancer and lost a grandfather, but was unable to say goodbye to any...

Gov. Jerry Brown this morning signed into law the TRUST Act, which will prevent police from handing over many nonviolent jail inmates to immigration authorities for possible deportation. The governor also signed seven other immigration-related bills into law, including one that allows undocumented immigrants to practice law in California. “While Washington waffles on immigration, California’s forging ahead,” Brown said in a statement. “I’m not waiting.” The signings came as immigrant-rights supporters in the Inland area and across the country are rallying to push the House to pass a comprehensive immigration-reform bill with a path to citizenship. A San Bernardino march...

Police in Mexico have arrested one of Guatemala's most wanted men - a drug lord suspected of masterminding the killing of eight policemen in June.Eduardo Villatoro Cano - also known as Guayo Cano - was detained in the southern Chiapas state and later handed over to Guatemala. Mr Cano and another 36 men are blamed for the attack on the police station in north-western Guatemala. President Otto Perez Molina said Mr Cano's gang had now been dismantled.

SAN DIEGO — Elizabeth Silva was walking her younger sister to school when two hooded men burst into her house and pumped three bullets into her father. When her 14-year-old brother rushed out of his bedroom to see what was happening, he was also shot dead. The killings in a sun-seared farming region of western Mexico prompted her to board a bus to the U.S. border to seek asylum, a hugely popular escape route in a remote area that has seen some of the country's worst drug-fueled violence. As gunfire rang in the distance, her family hurried out of the...

Feds plan to spend $100,000 to help give away more moneyIt’s an expenditure of only $100,000 – mere pocket change in the vast labyrinth of federal spending – but the funds are for the creation of a manual to teach people how to get more money from the U.S. government. And the recipients aren’t even citizens of the United States. The U.S. Trade & Development Agency, an independent White House agency, is laying the foundation for the government of Mexico to infuse hundreds of billions of dollars into modernizing its roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure. While it remains to...

About two months after nine DREAMers either left the country voluntarily or were deported then tried to cross the border to protest U.S. immigration laws, 30 others will make the same attempt next Monday, an immigration advocacy group said. The National Immigrant Youth Alliance, which coordinated the summer crossing in which the so-called DREAM9 asked for political asylum, said in a press release that 29 people from Mexico and one from Peru will seek to enter the United States.

Last week, Juan Antonio Gonzalez-Rodriguez, 31, was charged with raping a 14-year-old girl he met on the social networking site Facebook. After about a month of conversations over the internet, the girl agreed to meet Gonzalez-Rodriguez at a park in Provo. Gonzalez-Rodriguez who was posing as a 19-year-old, stripped the girl of her clothes and raped her in the park, according to a police report. The girl went home and informed her mother of the attack, who then notified police. Detectives spoke with several teenage girls on Gonzalez-Rodriguez's 'friends list.' All of them said the Mexican national tried to meet...

MEXICO CITY — Can Mexico ever ascend to its proper place in the world economy without tackling corruption and crime head on? When will the country, with its rising potential, stop being held down by weak government? Those are some of the tough questions raised by readers responding to an article published in The New York Times on Sunday about the growing number of immigrants from around the world who have resettled Mexico in recent years, viewing it as a land of emerging opportunity. Many foreigners who have lived in the country for years stressed that while they wished the...

"My daughter was raped and abducted," said a Mexican farmer. President Obama says, "What's different in America is it's easy to get your hands on a gun." First, from Aljazeera The village warriors of Guerrero AYUTLA DE LOS LIBRES, Mexico -- There on the cement town plaza, villagers led the two presumed extortionists over to government police. A band of farmers with old hunting rifles and machetes made sure the pair didn't get away Three hundred eyes watched as the detainees were led to a truck. A wind was picking up and the official overseeing the handover wanted to leave...

(CNSNews.com) - Speaking at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City on Friday, Vice President Joe Biden said that the international partnership he and President Barack Obama are seeking to build--including one between the United States and Mexico--are "literally going to shape the future for my country for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years." Part of that future, Biden said, should involve letting “undocumented” people “out of the shadows” in the United States—terminology the administration and others have used to describe a policy that would legalize illegal aliens and allow them to eventually become U.S. citizens. “With regard...

President Obama's on-and-off-again planned American attack on Syria is nothing new. Besides its five declared wars, America has a habit of intervening all over the world. Even apart from clandestine CIA operations, and even after the unhappy end of the Vietnam War, we have attacked lots of countries and non-state militias. The roll call of recent American military interventions is quite astounding: Cambodia, Iran, Libya, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Liberia, Iraq, Haiti, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Zaire and Afghanistan. Even the notion of Past American isolationism is a myth. In the four years between 1912 and 1916 alone, the U.S. sent...

AT THE U.S. BORDER, Columbus, N.M. - The mothers, holding the small hands of their children, can go only as far as the glass door, where Mexico ends and the United States begins. They lean down and send off their little ones with a kiss and a silent prayer. The children file into the U.S. port of entry, chatting in Spanish as they pull U.S. birth certificates covered in protective plastic from Barbie and SpongeBob backpacks. Armed U.S. border officers wave them onto American soil and the yellow buses waiting to take them to school in Luna County, N.M. This...

LOS ANGELES — California is challenging the historic status of American citizenship with measures to permit noncitizens to sit on juries and monitor polls for elections in which they cannot vote and to open the practice of law even to those here illegally. It is the leading edge of a national trend that includes granting drivers’ licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants in some states and that suggests legal residency could evolve into an appealing option should immigration legislation fail to produce a path to citizenship. With 3.5 million noncitizens who are legal permanent residents in California, some view...

Two House Republicans who had been trying to craft a comprehensive immigration package said Friday they were dropping of bipartisan negotiations. In a joint statement, Texas Republican Reps. John Carter and Sam Johnson said that they had “reached a tipping point” in the talks and “can no longer continue” working on a “broad approach” to a rewrite of the nation’s immigration laws. “We want to be clear. The problem is politics,” they said in a joint statement. “Instead of doing what’s right for America, President Obama time and again has unilaterally disregarded the U.S. Constitution, the letter of the law...

On Sept. 6, Ezequiel Padilla-Villalobos, 24, pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and murder of 14-year-old Gabriela Acosta in Commerce City. The illegal alien had been dating the girl's sister. On Dec. 23, 2012, Padilla-Villalobos was drinking at a bar when his girlfriend called and asked him to pick up her younger sister in Broomfield, according to police. ABC 7 News reported: “Commerce City police wrote that he told them he started having "bad thoughts" about killing the teenager as he drove her to a family member's home. Padilla-Villalobos pulled over at a horse farm at 8690 Verbena St., where he'd...

The Obama administration has given Mexico enough input and authority over U.S. matters that its lawmakers felt emboldened enough to order the release of four communist spies serving lengthy sentences in federal prison. The Mexican Cámara de Diputados, which is similar to the U.S. House of Representatives, actually passed a measure this week commanding American officials to free the foreign intelligence officers, agents of Cuba’s communist government convicted in 2001 for espionage, conspiracy to commit murder and acting as an agent of a foreign government. One of the spies is already out on probation after serving a 13-year sentence but...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday pledged action on immigration overhaul legislation even as most of the attention on Capitol Hill is focused on fights over the budget and debt. Rep. Bob Goodlatte said the immigration issue needs to be solved and work is happening behind the scenes toward that goal.

By sunset Tuesday night, 24 hours after most vacationers were supposed to be back, less than 700 people had been flown out to Mexico City. Many times that number waited miserably on the runway or, worse, with thousands of other sweating, blank-eyed people in a roughly quarter-mile-long line outside the base. "It's horrible. We haven't eaten anything since nine in the morning," said Lizbeth Sasia, a 25-year-old teacher from Cuernavaca. "They keep telling us we'll be on the next flight, but the next flight never comes."

The Mexican government is honoring the founders of a Perris immigrant-assistance organization with an award that recognizes people who contribute to the well-being of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the United States. Luz Maria Ayala and Antonio Ayala will receive an Ohtli Award during celebrations Sunday night of Mexican Independence Day at Cal State San Bernardino. The Mexican government each year bestows the award on people around the country. “They’ve done some very important work in the Inland Empire,” Carolina Zaragoza Flores, consul for the Mexican consulate in San Bernardino, told me in Spanish. “They’ve worked for very just causes and...

Above: Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Chief Doug Jordan meet in Phoenix.- Unbelievable! The Grantville, Georgia Police Chief has been suspended for a week - without pay - merely for visiting Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio during his vacation. Chief Doug Jordan and his wife planned a recent trip to Arizona to celebrate their wedding anniversary. They had honeymooned there 31 years ago. They paid for the trip and its expenses themselves. While there, Jordan thought it would be a great idea to see if he could meet with Arpaio. He was honored when Arpaio agreed to do so.“I meet with...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Needing a victory over Mexico and a little help from Honduras to punch its ticket to next summer's World Cup, the U.S. took care of business Tuesday, riding second-half goals by Eddie Johnson and Landon Donovan to a 2-0 victory in front of a raucous 24,584 at Columbus Crew Stadium. Then the Americans retired to their locker room, where they watched Honduras and Panama play to a 2-2 tie, assuring the U.S. one of CONCACAF's three berths in Brazil. So when the dressing room opened again an hour later, it smelled of champagne.

TEPALCATEPEC, Mexico — An audacious band of citizen militias battling a brutal drug cartel in the hills of central Mexico is becoming increasingly well-armed and coordinated in an attempt to end years of violence, extortion and humiliation. What began as a few scattered self-defense groups has spread in recent months to dozens of towns across Michoacan, a volatile state gripped by the cultlike Knights Templar, a drug gang known for taxing locals on everything from cows to tortillas and executing those who do not comply. The army deployed to the area in May, but the soldiers are mostly manning checkpoints....

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The uncertainty of a U.S. led strike in Syria has shifted Congress' focus to the international crisis, and that has pushed many national issues like immigration reform out of the spotlight.

Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte, chair of the House Judiciary Committee overseeing immigration, said he expected Congress to pursue reform legislation despite a tight schedule featuring debates over Syria, health care, and the debt limit. Those and other issues “should not deter us from getting to [immigration] as soon as possible,” Goodlatte said in an appearance on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show on Tuesday. Goodlatte said he expected votes soon, perhaps in October, on a series of smaller House bills on border security, internal enforcement, guest workers, and high-tech visas. “Those bills are ready to go to the floor of the House...

Based on the dismal data from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve (as well as our own experiences), we know Obamanomics doesn’t work in the United States.But we also know bigger government doesn’t work in France. And we know itdoesn’t work in Japan. We know it doesn’t work in Spain. We know it doesn’t work in Argentina. We know it doesn’t work in Greece.I could continue, but I think you get the point.But some people never learn. The President of Mexico has unveiled a new scheme to increase taxes to finance bigger government. Here are some details from the New York Times. President Enrique Peña Nieto proposed on Sunday a...

Absolute equality is absolute despotism. This statement is becoming truer every moment in which the Sodomite agenda is incessantly advancing over the moral infrastructures, and they are not doing so without destroying lives. Look at the decree that was just passed in San Antonio, TX, which now prohibits all those in political office from being bias toward homosexuals. Homosexuality is not a right, and sodomite marriage is not even recognized in the state of Texas, yet the reprobates are not stopping in their endeavorment to make everyone accept them. Now let me make one thing clear, this bill is not...

An illegal immigrant and convicted sex offender, deported once to Mexico, could well be going back. Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner says one of his deputies pulled Eduardo Medina over on Interstate 80 for driving too closely to another car on the interstate. The deputy checked Medina’s background and found not only that he had been convicted of sexual assault, but that he had been deported to Mexico only three weeks ago. He was listed as a deported felon by the Department of Homeland Security. Medina listed as his address Creston, Iowa. Wagner says Medina has been handed over to...

PHOENIX - U.S. Representative Kyrsten Sinema was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that made a three-day visit to Afghanistan this week. The Arizona Democrat's office says the delegation went to Afghanistan to see the drawdown of the American military presence and the transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces.

On Thursday, Stanislaus County Judge Thomas Zeff ruled that Pedro Vicente Aguirre, 36, is incompetent to stand trial for the 1999 kidnapping and rape of a 3-year-old girl.The case was suspended and Aguirre will be sent to Napa State Hospital for psychological treatment. On Oct. 24, 1999, Aguirre forced his way into a Modesto home, beat the 34-year-old father and the 26-year-old mother with a tire iron, and abducted their young daughter, according to court documents. The girl was taken to an orchard, where she was repeatedly raped until two people came by and chased Aguirre from the scene. While...

AUSTIN — What do Donald Trump and former President George W. Bush have in common? They both want Greg Abbott to be the next governor of Texas. Both men are among the contributors listed in Abbott’s latest campaign finance report to the state, which covers fundraising over six weeks in June and July that the Legislature was in special session. Trump, the millionaire developer, gave the Republican candidate for governor $25,000 last month. Bush contributed $5,000 in July. Abbott, the state attorney general, raised $1 million, while Republican rival Tom Pauken, the former state GOP chairman, raised $44,395. During the...

Drug war hawk John McCain is turning pot dove. McCain appears open to making a dramatic shift on marijuana policy, saying during a town-hall meeting in Arizona that he's open to potentially legalizing weed. “Maybe we should legalize. We're certainly moving that way as far as marijuana is concerned,” McCain said in comments first reported by Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller. “I respect the will of the people." In the past, McCain has been a hard-liner on federal drug policy. During his 2000 presidential primary campaign, the Arizona Republican suggested increasing penalties and sentence guidelines for those convicted of...

An alleged drug smuggler is behind bars after leading La Feria Police on a chase. The suspect crashed into a nearby business. We asked him why he did it. "No habla Ingles," said Miguel Infante Perez. He refused to talk to Action 4 News, saying he doesn't know anything about the crime. "Gringo, I don't know," said Perez. La Feria Police have a different story. Chief Don Garcia said the man ran a stop sign. "Officers tried to stop him. He refused to stop, accelerated in speed and lead the officer on a chase," said Garcia. The 23-year-old Mexican National...

On January 5 in El Potrero, a small town in the Mexican state of Guerrero, a man named Eusebio García Alvarado was kidnapped by a local criminal syndicate. Kidnappings are fairly common in Guerrero—the state, just south of Mexico City, is one of the poorest in the country and the site of some of the worst violence in the ongoing battle between the drug cartels and Mexican authorities. Guerrero’s largest city, Acapulco, is known to Americans as a tourist hot spot. It’s also currently the second most dangerous city in the world, according to a study released by a...

When Edgar Falcon and Maricruz Valtierra exchanged vows last week, it wasn’t inside a church or at a fancy wedding venue. Instead, they had a border wedding on the Paso del Norte International Bridge, which connects the United States-Mexico border cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. The couple said they decided to get married there because that’s the closest Valtierra, a Mexico citizen, can get to the U.S. The 25-year-old is barred from entering the U.S. because she falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen by using someone else’s birth certificate when she tried to enter the...