Free Republic

When naturalized U.S. citizen Faisal Shahzad was arrested for his terror plot to detonate a bomb in Times Square, it exposed more than the ongoing attempts by international terror organizations to attack America...The arrest was another in a long line of examples that demonstrate the need to secure our nation’s borders and enforce our nation’s immigration laws to keep terrorists from entering the US. For years, we’ve known that strong border security is a fundamental component of national security. The Times Square bomber was able to gain U.S. citizenship because a background check failed to identify him as a threat....

Washington DC – Following remarks on immigration reform by President Obama, Congressman Hunter reiterated the call that responsible reform starts with stronger border security and enforcement. “Once again, President Obama missed a valuable opportunity to assure the American people that his Administration will do what it takes to secure America’s borders and enforce the rule of law," said Congressman Hunter. "At one point during the remarks, he called blanket amnesty a bad idea, saying it ‘could lead to a surge in more illegal immigration,’ but then proceeded to call for a ‘pathway to legal status.’ This still means amnesty for...

Obama just gave a speech on immigration. I was told it was coming. He had totally lost the leadership role on the issue and needed to get it back. So, expect a speech. Well, we just got it. He spoke at length on the merits of legal immigrants. People who moved to the US and made the US a better place, their lives better, and the entire world. He spoke of the huddled masses who work their fingers to the bone 20 hours every day so their poor but honest children can have a better life. He spoke of the...

While Americans march against Arizona's new restrictions on unlawful immigration, hundreds of illegal aliens from countries awash in Muslim terrorists tiptoe across the U.S.-Mexican frontier. New York, N.Y. — According to the federal Enforcement Integrated Database, 125 individuals were apprehended along the border from fiscal year 2009 through April 20, 2010. These deportable aliens included two Syrians, seven Sudanese, and 17 Iranians, all nationals from the three Islamic countries that the U.S. government officially classifies as state sponsors of terrorism. Federal authorities also track "special interest countries" from which terrorism could be directed against America. Over the aforementioned period, 99...

Iran-tied terror group Hezbollah may be colluding with drug cartels along the U.S.-Mexico border, a Republican congresswoman warned, calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to establish a special task force to figure out how to "clamp down" on this "national security" threat. The Lebanon-based group has long-standing and documented ties to South America and its drug gangs, but reports have recently surfaced that it may be expanding its influence to Mexico and the U.S. border.

Iran-tied terror group Hezbollah may be colluding with drug cartels along the U.S.-Mexico border, a Republican congresswoman warned, calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to establish a special task force to figure out how to "clamp down" on this "national security" threat. The Lebanon-based group has long-standing and documented ties to South America and its drug gangs, but reports have recently surfaced that it may be expanding its influence to Mexico and the U.S. border. In her letter to Napolitano, Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., called on Homeland Security to find out and report more on the extent of the...

The sweet nothings Hillary Clinton whispered into the ears of foreign television audiences went stateside on Friday, as America media outlets began confirming what the secretary of state first told an Ecuadoran news channel: the Obama administration is planning a lawsuit against Arizona's new immigration law. Publicly, Obama administration lawyers will only admit that a thorough "review" of SB 1070 is ongoing. But the toothpaste is out of the tube. Officials in Eric Holder's Justice Department are quietly giving word that it is a matter of when, not if, they will seek to subvert Arizona's attempt to protect its people...

The following is based on a report from the U.S. Congress obtained by the 14,000-member National Association of Chiefs of Police. Recent terrorist events such as the attempted bomb attacks in New York's Times Square and aboard an airliner on Christmas Day 2009 are reminders that national security challenges have expanded beyond the traditional threats of the Cold War Era to include unconventional threats from non-state actors. Today's threats are diffuse and ambiguous, making it difficult -- if not impossible -- for any single federal agency to address them alone. Effective collaboration among multiple agencies and across federal, state, and...

President Obama may have Katrina'd himself this week over the Gulf oil spill -- but at least it distracted attention from the fact that he also got caught using the National Guard as lipstick on a cactus. Anyone with military experience knew that the president's earlier decision to send 1,200 National Guard soldiers to Arizona's border with Mexico was a purely political move. But few realized just how cynical it was. Troop numbers don't matter as much as what the Guard is tasked and allowed to do. If the president doesn't authorize those in uniform to track and apprehend illegal...

Security: After letting Mexico's president trash Arizona's immigration law and his immigration enforcement chief say he won't enforce it, the president wants to send a token National Guard contingent to the border. There's something disingenuous about the president's plan to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops to the Arizona border to help the Border Patrol catch illegal aliens. His director of immigration and customs enforcement, John Morton, has said he might not enforce immigration crimes reported by Arizona officials, though the state's new law merely copies federal law. Morton is director of ICE, not chief justice of the Supreme Court. He...

(CNSNews.com) - Amid growing concern about the illicit drug trade across the U.S.-Mexico border, the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas have been linked to South American drug trafficking organizations–and the money Hezbollah and Hamas make from narco-trafficking is used to finance their organizations, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS). “International terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, have also reportedly raised funding for their terrorist activities through linkages formed with DTOs in South America, particularly those operating in the tri-border area (TBA) of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina,” stated CRS in an April 30 report. As evidence that Hezbollah and...

http://www.wsbtv.com/video/23438021/index.html video

Increasing Coordination Between Mexican Drug Cartels, Human Smuggling Networks, and U.S.-Based Gangs Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials are witnessing a growing nexus between the Mexican drug cartels, illegal alien smuggling rings, and U.S. based gangs.The human smuggling networks that operate along the Southwest border cannot move their human cargo through drug cartel controlled corridors without paying a fee. The typical Mexican illegal alien now pays approximately $1,200 to $2,500. For aliens from countries other than Mexico this price is often considerably higher, and may even be more alluring for the cartels. Foreign nationals are often charged an exorbitantly...

The 1,200 National Guard who are headed to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona won't be on the front lines but will be helping out in vital support roles, President Obama said Thursday. Speaking at an East Room press conference in the White House, the president said the Guard will primarily assist with intelligence, but troops will not not nabbing illegal immigrants and smugglers as they cross into the southwestern state. "What we find is, is that National Guards persons can help on intelligence, dealing with both drug and human trafficking along the borders. They can relieve border guards so that...

Jack Webb didn't quite get it right in "Arizona law racially profiles for a reason" (Letters, Wednesday) when he wrote, "The problem at issue is people illegally crossing the southern border with Mexico - and it so happens that virtually 100 percent of the people doing so are Hispanic." An even greater threat to U.S. security than illegal Hispanic immigrants is the number of immigrants from terror-sponsoring countries who are crossing our borders. Hundreds of such people are detained by the U.S. Border Patrol; however, our government is catching only one out of 10 people crossing the border. Those immigrants...

As the debate over illegal immigration and Arizona’s response to it continues to heat up, one aspect seems to have been forgotten. OTMs. Thousands of illegal aliens apprehended along the 2000 mile long border that stretches through California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas aren’t even from Mexico. They are from other foreign countries. The Border Patrol refers to them as “Other Than Mexicans”, or OTMs. Many of these illegals come from countries that are sponsors of terrorism. While Felipe Calderon and Barack Obama spent a good portion of the last few days lecturing America on the ‘misguided’ Arizona law that...

McALLEN — Heavily armed Mexican freshwater pirates have been shaking down U.S. boaters on Falcon Lake, a reservoir and bass fishing haven that straddles the Rio Grande. At least three such incidents have been reported since April 30, the latest on Sunday, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety warning issued Tuesday that linked the muggings to northern Mexico's increasing lawlessness. According to descriptions of the incidents, the robbers — in at least one case posing as Mexican federal law enforcement officers — searched fishermen's boats for guns and drugs, then demanded cash at gunpoint. One of the incidents...

Note: Video included at the link. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (AP Photo) (CNSNews.com) -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, while testifying before a Senate panel, said the United States’s southwest border is “as secure now as it has ever been.” “I say this again as someone who has walked that border,” she said. “I’ve ridden that border. I’ve flown it. I’ve driven it. I know that border I think as well as anyone, and I will tell you it is as secure now as it has ever been.” Napolitano made that remark in response to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.),...

"Now Arizona has more than one war in our backyards MY OPINION: Hezbollah using drug routes" By Lionel Waxman, Inside Tucson Business Published on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 SNIPPET: "For years, I have been warning that the Mexican drug war will sweep over Southern Arizona if we don’t close the border. Well now the war is here. But today, I am writing to warn you of another war. It is using the drug routes but it isn’t connected to the cartels. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese group, is on its way to involving Tubac, Tucson, Phoenix and other parts of Arizona...

Some House Republicans introduced a bill they said would improve border security on federal lands. It would transfer operational control of lands along the national border to the Department of Homeland Security, instead of the Interior Department or Forest Service. Rep. Rob Bishop...and other lawmakers accused federal land managers of “hiding behind the law” to place wilderness or endangered species ahead of border safety. In one instance, a tower used by Border Patrol agents was removed because of concerns about endangered species... Bishop said federal border lands have become a dangerous, “unpatrolled highway” open to drug smugglers and other criminals...