Free Republic

Democrat President Joe Biden’s U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Amy Gutmann, has returned to the United States just days after first reporting for duty during the Munich Security Conference, taking a commercial flight back to the States after Vice President Kamala Harris refused to let her fly home on Air Force Two. Gutmann, who presented her credentials just days ago — Thursday of last week — to begin work as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, attended meetings at the Munich Security Conference with world leaders and fellow top U.S. officials, including Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Instead of staying...

A federal lawsuit filed yesterday charges that agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement unlawfully force their way into the homes of Hispanic families in the New York area without court warrants or other legal justification, sometimes pushing down doors in the middle of the night, in search of people who do not live there. The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Manhattan as a class action, accuses the immigration agency of conducting the raids in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches, harming citizens and legal residents of the United States as well as foreigners...

Advocates have launched a campaign to educate immigrants about their rights following a series of arrests in Southern California and across the nation. Legal aid and nonprofit groups have joined forces to hold town hall meetings, hand out information packets and produce a DVD to prepare illegal immigrants for future law enforcement sweeps. The outreach is part of a broader effort by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, American Immigration Lawyers Assn. and other organizations seeking reforms. In recent months Immigration and Customs Enforcement has assigned four teams of agents to the Los Angeles area to search for criminals, fugitives and...

SANTA ANA Federal immigration officials said Tuesday they arrested more than 750 illegal immigrant fugitives from 14 countries in what they described as one of the biggest such sweeps in U.S. history. The weeklong series of raids in the five-county Los Angeles region targeted illegal immigrants who had previously been deported for crimes or had ignored final deportation orders. The raids netted 338 illegal immigrants who were arrested at their homes and apartments and 423 who were identified in area jails since Jan. 17. Those already jailed will be transferred to federal custody when they finish serving their state sentences,...

Federal officials have arrested 119 people in Contra Costa County in a weeklong illegal immigration crackdown, and they had deported 16 as of Monday. This portion of the yearlong "Operation Return to Sender" took place primarily in Concord and Richmond and targeted fugitives who had ignored final deportation orders, said Timothy Aitken, deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention and removal office in San Francisco. ICE is the agency that now performs the enforcement functions of the old Immigration and Naturalization Service. Agents also picked up 94 other undocumented immigrants they encountered in the process, he said. Latino community...

To the happy few who may read this...I used to post here as Pat The Postman. Never insulted anyone. Just presented facts. Paid respect to everyone. Yesterday I participated in a highly interesting thread about the War On Iraq/Terrorism. Today I posted a link to an official report from the UK from the Chatham House, a deeply respected think tank, held in high esteem all over the world. And what happened? Well, all my posts were removed, and the thread about the Chatham House report was pulled within a minute. This is interesting. What's the matter? There is but one...

Elvis' Tooth For Sale On EBay FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- It's a lucky day for anyone who's ever wanted to own a piece of Elvis Presley. A tooth from the mouth of The King himself is being auctioned on eBay. The tooth was in the possession of Presley's former fiancee, Linda Thompson, until it went to the Elvis Presley Museum. The museum later sold the tooth. The auction also includes a lock of Presley's hair that was saved from his haircut upon joining the military and a gold record for "Love Me Tender." The collection's curator said he's been...

Otis Blackwell Otis Blackwell worked as a singer/songwriter/pianist in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Although his recordings never met with much success, many of the songs that he wrote went on to become very well-known, million-selling songs. Otis was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1931. He grew up listening to cowboy songs, particularly those by Tex Ritter, and R&B songs by artists such as Chuck Willis. As a teenager he entered and won a contest at the Apollo Theatre in New York City. He was introduced to songwriter Doc Pomus, who encouraged him and helped him early in his...