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A super PAC supporting Jeb Bush's presidential campaign unveiled a new ad on Thursday promoting the former governor as "tough enough." Right to Rise's ad highlights Bush's conflict with Donald Trump during Tuesday night's GOP presidential debate. "One candidate tough enough to take on the bully," a narrator says as the ad shows Bush in a split-screen with Trump from the debate. "One candidate tough enough to take on [the Islamic State]. Jeb will destroy ISIS and keep America safe." The ad closes with the narrator saying "tested and proven leadership matters."

President Bush's son, Jeb, is looking for a maid who's a legal U.S. resident. A maid who had worked at Bush's Miami home for three years was deported back to her native Honduras last week. Bush was out jogging when immigration agents showed up so his wife, Columba, had to deal with them. "She indicated, `Yes, she works here,' brought the lady out, and the two agents showed her the deportation order,said Richard Smith, director of the INS's Miami office."

Members of the cultural right have called Juan Hernandez a "border obliteration activist," an "American traitor," and an "agent of the Mexican government." John McCain's presidential campaign called him something different: director of Hispanic outreach. For 14 months leading up to the election, the Fort Worth, Texas, native was a high-level volunteer at McCain '08 headquarters, where he attended daily senior staff meetings and advised the Arizona senator and his top lieutenants about how to appeal to Hispanic voters. Part of that strategy was highlighting McCain's record of championing comprehensive immigration reform. Meanwhile, down the hall, another portion of the...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - President Bush sharply challenged critics of his stalled immigration-overhaul efforts on Thursday, suggesting that failure to pass a guest-worker program could trigger a labor shortage in the United States. At a town-hall style meeting, Bush also rebuffed a question about whether he would consider pardoning two Border Patrol agents in prison for the cover-up of the shooting of a drug trafficker in Texas. "No, I won't make you that promise," Bush told a woman who asked about a possible pardon. Many Republicans in Congress have said the men should not have been convicted and have criticized the...

"Here the Bush administration has a case to make. Border enforcement has dramatically improved. The catch and release program of OTMs (other than Mexicans) was ended last summer, a month ahead of schedule. Substantial miles of the border fence, voted by Congress last September, are being built. Technology provides us with means to seal the border in thinly populated areas in ways impossible in the 1980s and 1990s. Rhetoric aimed at showing a willingness to accept immigrants has concealed these achievements. Rhetoric emphasizing the increasing toughness and shrewdness at protecting the borders could create another impression." For all of the...

President Bush yesterday told Hispanics to step into the middle of the immigration debate and make sure senators who have been bombarded with calls from opponents also hear from those who support the bill. "There's a lot of emotion on this issue, and it makes sense to have people from around the country come and sit down with members of Congress to talk rationally about the issue," he told those attending the Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington yesterday. He was speaking a day after the bill, which collapsed last week, was revived by the top Democrat and Republican in the...

For the first time in five years, President Bush will attend the Senate Republicans' weekly policy lunch today as he pushes to revive his moribund overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. But even before he set foot in the Capitol, several Republican senators issued a terse warning yesterday: Don't expect much. In the days after the sweeping compromise on immigration collapsed on Thursday, opposition, if anything, appears to have hardened among some senators who had once been willing to consider the deal. The bill's vociferous critics have also had a long weekend to throw dirt on its grave. .... Republicans...

A broad immigration bill to legalize millions of people in the U.S. unlawfully failed a crucial test vote in the Senate Thursday, a stunning setback that could spell its defeat for the year. The vote was 45-50 against limiting debate on the bill, 15 short of the 60 that the bill's supporters needed to prevail. Most Republicans voted to block Democrats' efforts to bring the bill to a final vote. The legislation, which had been endorsed by President Bush, would tighten borders, institute a new system to prevent employers from hiring undocumented workers in addition to giving up to 12...

"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical." So said Jefferson. It would appear to be time again for a little rebellion in the Grand Old Party – this time against George II. For President Bush has attacked his own loyalists for a lack of patriotism. "If you don't want to do what's right for America," he said of opponents of the Bush-Kennedy immigration bill, "if you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill's an amnesty bill....

Today's debate is just beginning. President Bush is also speaking in the Rose Garden today at 11:00 EST on this issue and war funding. (A Live Thread is up on that one too.) I have to leave today so I can only check in periodically. Thus far Menendez (D of New Jersey) is slamming the Coleman-Bond amendment, which will REQUIRE that states and municipalities permanently END "Sanctuary Cities." Of course, his reasoning is tortured; he's pulled out the old crying towel, and is already playing the the Nazi card ("Your papers, please.") Another amendment will be debated today as well...

The Bush administration insisted on a little-noticed change in the bipartisan Senate immigration bill that would enable 12 million undocumented residents to avoid paying back taxes or associated fines to the Internal Revenue Service, officials said. An independent analyst estimated the decision could cost the IRS tens of billions of dollars. A provision requiring payment of back taxes had been in the initial version of a bill proposed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat. But the administration called for the provision to be removed due to concern that it would be too difficult to figure out which illegal...

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of senators reached agreement with the White House Thursday on an immigration overhaul to grant quick legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. and fortify the border against new ones. One of the key negotiators, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said he expects President Bush to endorse it. The deal came after weeks of painstaking closed-door negotiations that brought the most liberal Democrats and the most conservative Republicans together with Bush's Cabinet officers to produce a highly complex measure that carries heavy political consequences. It set the stage for what promises...

Senators and the White House clinched a deal Thursday on bringing 12 million illegal immigrants out of the shadows and securing US borders, which could enhance President George W. Bush's legacy. The pact would provide a path to permanent residency and citizenship for illegal workers, establish a merit-based points system for future immigrants and also establish a temporary worker program. The bill, which emerged from exhaustive round-the-clock talks, and will be debated in the Senate next week, will provide 18,000 more border patrol agents, and scores of radar and camera towers on the US border with Mexico. It is aimed...

WASHINGTON The Senate is poised to begin debate on the most sweeping immigration overhaul in decades after a bipartisan group of lawmakers announced they have agreed on a deal. Their draft would provide a way for millions of undocumented immigrants to come forward and live and work legally in the United Sates. "Politics is the art of the possible, and the agreement we just reached is the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders, bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America,'' Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said Thursay. Kennedy,...

“Sellout.” It may be harsh, but it’s the most accurate and succinct way to sum up how conservatives feel right now about President Bush and Senate Republicans, who have cut a deal that would grant amnesty to the estimated 12 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. — not to mention the parents, spouses, and children of these illegals. Title VI of a draft copy of the bill breaks down amnesty visas into three categories: Z-1 — Illegal aliens present and working in the United States up to Jan. 1, 2007. Z-2 — Parents and spouses of illegal aliens qualifying...

HH: Now, I’m joined by Congressman Duncan Hunter of the Armed Services Committee. Congressman Hunter, what do you make of the Senate deal? DH: Well, from what we’ve seen of the deal, it’s a bad thing. I would, if I was president, I would veto it. And specifically, I wrote the law that mandates the 854 mile border fence, It’s been advertised as 700 plus miles, but if you add up the actual mileages that were mandated, these smugglers’ routes, it’s 854 miles. HH: Is that double fencing, Congressman Hunter? DH: That’s double fencing. 854 miles of double fencing, and...

Around much “celebration,” the U.S. Senate announced on Thursday that a “deal” had been reached on “comprehensive” immigration reform. As I heard the details of the bill, I could feel the collective groans of the conservative movement, just as if we were all punched in the stomach. Why did we work so hard to build Republican majorities? Why did we spend so many hours at phone banks or going door to door? The past six years have seen an erosion of everything we’ve worked for, and now our “leaders” give us immigration “reform.” Following announcement of the deal, President Bush...

Grassfire.org President Steve Elliott released the following statement regarding the new Bush-Senate amnesty plan: "The Bush-Senate Z-Amnesty plan is 100-percent amnesty. It immediately offers legal status to every illegal alien in this country, which by definition is amnesty. It creates a clear path to citizenship and illegals do not even have to "touch back" to their home countries to stay in the U.S. indefinitely. "In addition, the so-called 'triggers' are bogus and offensive to American citizens. In fact, illegals are granted legal status before triggers are even considered. We know that once the 'camel's nose is in the tent,' there...

The bipartisan "grand bargain" on immigration announced Thursday -- promising the most sweeping changes to U.S. immigration law in more than two decades -- met a swift onslaught from the no-amnesty right and a warm, if qualified, embrace from leading pro-immigrant groups on the left. No wonder. The pact offers quick legalization of the estimated 12 million people living illegally in the United States as of Jan. 1. Within eight years, it also would provide permanent residence -- the coveted green card -- to 4 million new immigrants, mostly family members of those already here, who have been waiting a...

Just caught a piece of this. There was a confrontation on the Mexican-Arizona border between the National Guard and "Mexicans dressed in combat/tactical gear and carrying rifles." Apparently the Guard had to retreat because it is not allowed to fire even when threatened on US soil. Perhaps other Freepers have more details. If this is true, WTF are we doing about border security?