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Officials say a Pinellas County deputy was killed overnight in a hit-and-run crash at a construction site on Interstate 275 near Roosevelt Boulevard. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has announced the suspect in the hit-and-run death of a deputy was taken into custody after an eight-hour search in the Ulmerton Road and I-275 area. According to Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Deputy Michael Hartwick, 51, was killed when he was struck by a front-end loader being driven by a construction worker just after 10:30 p.m. Thursday night. The suspect was initially believed to be Victor Vasquez-Real by deputies. The individual allegedly...

The IRS has discovered more than 1 million Americans whose Social Security numbers were stolen by illegal immigrants, but officials never bothered to tell the taxpayers themselves, the agency’s inspector general said in a withering new report released Tuesday. Investigators first alerted the IRS to the problem five years ago, but it’s still not fixed, the inspector general said, and a pilot program meant to test a solution was canceled — and fell woefully short anyway. As a result, most taxpayers don’t learn that their identities have been stolen and their Social Security files may be screwed up. “Taxpayers identified...

The news that Ebola may have been allowed into Washington, DC and that a case of deadly whooping cough has been diagnosed in a DC suburb* would have been enough to shake any normal American government into following our existing health and infectious disease laws for all immigrants and visitors to the U.S. and closing our county’s borders. But the Obama administration is not a normal government. As our friend Diana West wrote on these pages back in July, “A normal government -- one with the best interests of its own citizens at heart -- would have taken immediate steps...

Catholic Charities wants to care for about 50 children from Central America at a campus in Baltimore County, seeking a role in the immigration crisis even though the consideration of other sites in Maryland has met with fierce local opposition.The organization plans to apply to federal officials to house the children at St. Vincent's Villa, a residential facility on Dulaney Valley Road, Catholic Charities head William J. McCarthy Jr. confirmed Thursday night.McCarthy said housing the children would amount to his organization doing its job. "Our role and our mission is to meet the needs of these children," he said. "This...

Carroll County officials swiftly voiced opposition Friday to news that the federal government is eyeing a former military property near Westminster as a potential shelter for immigrant children — underscoring the challenge the Obama administration faces as it tries to manage a surge of new arrivals. A day after federal officials notified local leaders it would conduct a preliminary assessment of the vacant Army Reserve Center, the Carroll County Board of Commissioners convened an emergency meeting and, along with Republican Rep. Andy Harris, pledged to resist efforts to use the site. "Carroll County will not become a repository for Obama's...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. civil rights activist Al Sharpton weighed into a fight over an Arizona sheriff's immigration sweeps on Tuesday, accusing him of racially profiling Hispanics and urging him to step down. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has dispatched deputies into Hispanic communities in the Phoenix area, where they stop people and arrest anyone who cannot prove he or she is a legal U.S. resident. Under a deal allowing them to enforce federal immigration laws, the deputies have arrested more than 1,500 people who they determined were in Arizona illegally, triggering street protests and condemnation from Latino activists...

RFFM.org Commentary I was watching Bill O'Reilly's interview (O'Reilly Factor--FOX News Channel) with the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, on Thursday and the host asked his guest about the problem of illegal immigration. Remember, McCain came under considerable fire from many Americans on both sides of the political aisle for his stance on the problem and O'Reilly was trying to clarify the position of the senior Senator from Arizona on the subject of illegal immigration. Of course, McCain began with his usual spiel that he gets it, as far as Americans wanting our border with Mexico secured....

Border wars Saturday, November 24, 2007 It is time to wrap the flag around U.S. Border Patrol Agents -- America's last line of defense. Vicious Mexican-based gangs are increasing their attacks on outmanned and outgunned law-enforcement authorities along the border. And The Washington Times reports the enemy arsenal includes assault rifles, high-tech radios, computers, cell phones, Global Positioning Systems and low-tech Molotov cocktails.

For years, the vast majority of politicians in the main parties have avoided having honest public conversation about the extent and consequences of immigration. The fear of appearing racist, or giving any ground to the arguments of the far right, has left most MPs and commentators in Pollyanna territory - extolling the economic and cultural benefits of immigration and glossing over problems. That has done the nation no favours, because the consequences of rapid social change have been scarcely studied, let alone addressed. And it has increased many people's distrust of the political universe, as the gulf between their own...

Bank of America has begun quietly offering credit cards to customers in the Los Angeles are who don't have a Social Security number, The Wall Street Journal reports. Such persons are usually undocumented immigrants. The newspaper said that Bank of America, the country's second-largest bank, is offering credit cards to consumers who have had an account at the bank for three months or more, even if they do not have a credit history or Social Security number. It's the latest indication that American financial institutions are serious about doing business with the millions of undocumented immigrants who until recently have...

RUSH: Here's what happened last night on the immigration bill, as written up by the AP and then I will give you the correct analysis of this. "A fragile compromise that would legalize millions of unlawful immigrants risks coming unraveled after the Senate voted early Thursday to place a five-year limit on a program meant to provide American employers with 200,000 temporary foreign workers annually. The 49-48 vote came two weeks after the Senate, also by a one-vote margin, rejected the same amendment by Senator Dorgan. The North Dakota Democrat says immigrants take many jobs Americans could fill." Now, why...

I’ve concluded that John Edwards and Laura Ingraham are right. That may sound like a strange source of consensus — a liberal presidential candidate agreeing with a conservative radio talk show host — but bear with me. Edwards has made his “two Americas” theme the cornerstone of his presidential campaign. He should know. A multi-millionaire former trial lawyer, Edwards lives in a mansion and sports $400 haircuts while charging in excess of $50,000 for speeches on the subject of “poverty in America” to breathless university crowds. But he assures us that he has never forgotten his meager origins and wants...

The issue of illegal immigration has been a red-hot topic in my hometown community of Newport Beach/Costa Mesa, Orange County, Southern California. Sincere and heart-felt arguments have been made on both sides of the issue. However, many of those who write letters to the local paper in support of illegal immigration make it sound like Costa Mesa is the only place in the nation whose people favor the enforcement of our immigration laws. They suggest that those elected officials supporting these laws are just a small local band guilty of meanness, bigotry, and racism. Nothing could be further from the...

"OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Seven Mexican nationals were killed early on Sunday in Oklahoma when their minivan skidded into a tractor-trailer truck in icy conditions, police said."

ST. PETERSBURG - Immigration officials arrested 31 workers from a cleaning company at Tropicana Field this week. Officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed not to publicize the raid because representatives of Tropicana Field cooperated, said ICE spokeswoman Pam McCullough. McCullough said she was not sure where ICE received its information about the cleaning crew members who worked for Knight FM. Most of those arrested during Wednesday's raid were taken to the Pinellas County Jail to be charged with possession and use of fraudulent documents. The other six are awaiting deportation. Most were Mexicans. Others were from Guatemala. Richard...

by Mark Finkelstein August 28, 2006 - 06:36 You knew where this Boston Globe editorial was headed from the headline, 'Scapegoating Immigrants,' and if there was any doubt, when a few short paras in the editorial referred to 'undocumented workers' rather than illegal immigrants, you could have stopped right there. For that matter, you might have saved yourself the time when you picked up the paper, or opened to the web site, and noticed that it read 'The Boston Globe' at the top. But for my sins, I persevered, and was treated to a classic bit of blame-Americanism. First, those...

Top conservative leaders have written President Bush telling him to drop his insistence on a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens and instead support the 85 percent of congressional Republicans who want to tighten law enforcement first. Signers include William J. Bennett, Robert H. Bork, Ward Connerly, David A. Keene, Phyllis Schlafly and a number of think-tank academics and pundits. The immigration debate is the first major issue on which Mr. Bush finds himself opposing a majority of Republicans in Congress and depending on Democrats to deliver a victory. In their letter, the conservatives tell Mr....

Los Angeles -- When the immigration rights movement erupted from coast to coast beginning in March, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa embraced it with greater energy and visibility than just about any other political leader. Villaraigosa, the first Latino elected mayor here in modern times, spoke at every major demonstration in the city, in Spanish and in English, backing the calls for a fair path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. He was lauded by many of the demonstrators as a champion of their cause. But the normally voluble mayor was uncharacteristically restrained in discussing the issue in an interview last...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Faced with growing pressure from Southern states, the Bush administration wants the military to come up with ideas to help solve security problems along the U.S. border with Mexico. In back-to-back moves this week, the Pentagon began exploring ways to lend support at the Southern border, while the House on Thursday voted to allow the Homeland Security Department in limited cases to use soldiers in that region. At the Pentagon, Paul McHale, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, asked officials to offer options for the use of military resources and troops -- particularly the National...

Senate leaders say they have reached a deal to revive a broad immigration bill that could provide millions of illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens. The agreement doesn't involve provisions of the law, but it does end, for now, a lingering political standoff. The agreement brokered by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., breaks a political stalemate that has lingered for weeks. Key to the agreement is who will be negotiating a compromise with the House and its tough enforcement-only bill. The House passed much more strict immigration legislation in December. It...