Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Amid heated debate in Washington over President Trump's border wall, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has weighed in, ruling that construction on the U.S.-Mexico border wall can proceed, so long as it is "short enough that a pregnant woman carrying a child in each arm could be expected to scale it without difficulty." While that definition may seem vague to some, the Ninth Circuit's judges further clarified in their decision that "two or three feet high ought to suffice." Contractors working on the wall have been ordered to have a pregnant woman and several children on hand....

<p>She went in for a cheeseburger and fries and ended up McPummeled at a Manhattan fast-food joint owned by polo-playing scion Bruce Colley.</p> <p>Elizabeth Storelli says in a new lawsuit that workers at Colley’s McDonald’s at West 71st Street and Broadway failed to help her when she accidentally bumped into a woman in the crowded eatery and was severely beaten.</p>

The Yemeni mother of a 2-year-old boy on life support in an Oakland hospital is being prevented from coming to the country to say goodbye to her son by the Trump administration ban on travel from certain Muslim countries, the child’s family says.

The caravan of people trying to illegally enter the United States is taking steps to vindicate President Trump’s policy of keeping them out. On the one hand, 280 of them have been arrested by Mexican police for burglarizing residences in Tijuana. Meanwhile, another 100 of them have tried their hand at extortion by demanding $50,000 apiece as the price of them ceasing to assault the border and go home. The Trump Administration has flatly rejected this blackmail demand, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) urged consideration of what they termed “a reasonable request.”...

Pope Francis and the Devil: Misreading the Signs of the Times Despite his penchant for theological innovation, Pope Francis seems to hold some fairly traditional beliefs about the devil. Here’s an example from Gaudete et Exsultate: It is precisely the conviction that this malign power is present in our midst that enables us to understand how evil can at times have so much destructive force… Hence, we should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end...

The strain of E. coli causing the current outbreak in romaine lettuce has been found in a reservoir on a farm in Santa Barbara County, California, the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday... Water and sediment at the irrigation reservoir on the property of Adam Bros. Family Farms in Santa Maria tested positive for E. coli O157:H7 that was a nearly identical genetic match to the strain found in people who have fallen ill, Williams said. But the contaminated water at that farm does not fully explain all of the illnesses,...

The pro-mass immigration Koch brothers say ending welfare-dependent immigration to the United States would do “serious harm” to the nation and be a “serious mistake.” President Trump’s administration is looking to implement a policy that protects American taxpayers’ dollars from funding the mass importation of welfare-dependent foreign nationals by enforcing a “public charge” rule whereby legal immigrants would be less likely to secure a permanent residency in the U.S. if they have used any forms of welfare in the past, including using Obamacare, food stamps, and public housing. The immigration controls would be a boon for American taxpayers in the...

A looming, partial government shutdown would be “stupid” but might be unavoidable if Democrats refuse to support President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico, the second-ranking House Republican said on Thursday. Even if Republicans assemble enough votes to approve the wall in the House, the plan probably will fail in the Senate, said Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California. The House majority leader noted that Senate Democrats have pledged to block the bill from receiving the necessary 60 votes. McCarthy said on the House floor that he thinks “going into a shutdown is stupid,” but he offered no immediate plan...

An immigration judge in Arizona on Tuesday stripped prominent immigration and reproductive-rights activist Alejandra Pablos of her green card and ordered her deportation nearly a year after she was arrested outside a protest in Virginia. It was the climax of a case that has loomed over Pablos for years. But, she said, she’s not giving up yet. “La lucha sigue,” Pablos, 33, said in an interview. The struggle continues. Pablos, who since 2016 had worked for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health in Annandale, said she plans to appeal the decision by immigration Judge Thomas Michael O’Leary. Pablos said...

Congressmen and senators are supposed to be fighting for the American people, their constituents. But when Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer pounced on the president at the Oval Office on Tuesday for whom exactly were they fighting? Both the Senate and the House oath of offices are nearly identical. They begin like this: "I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same." At this point, are we even sure that Chuck and Nancy took...

The new Mexican government of incoming president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (or “AMLO�) continues to pleasantly surprise me. Not only have we seen increased cooperation with Mexican law enforcement on our own southern border, but he seems to be serious about attacking the illegal immigration problem at its source. The latest announcement coming from Mexico City indicates that they’re seeking to shut off the flow of migrants and caravans by cracking down on their own southern border. (Washington Times) Mexico’s top security official says the government will effectively close off illegal entry at its southern border with Guatemala.Interior Secretary...

The other three suspects — Andrew Garcia, Alejandra Guerrero and Jonathan Del Carmen — have all been convicted in the deadly attack... According to prosecutors, 24-year-old USC engineering student Xinran Ji was walking home from a study group around 1 a.m. on July 24, 2014 when he was attacked by four assailants, including Ochoa. They beat Ji with a metal baseball bat and wrench in a robbery attempt gone awry, according to prosecutors, leaving the 24-year-old to escape to his apartment near campus. Ochoa is accused of hitting the victim with a bat and then running away... Ji left behind...

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s top security official said Wednesday the government will close off illegal entries at its southern border with Guatemala, but didn’t say how the country plans to do it. Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero also said the migrant caravans that crossed the southern border in October “is no longer an issue.” “Do you know why it is no longer an issue? Because in five days this administration solved the issue, five days,” she said, referring to the first week since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office Dec. 1. “The United States was impressed.” The new administration...

A suspect in a 1987 bombing that wounded six American soldiers in Honduras is leading a group of migrants demanding entry into the United States. Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa organized a march of approximately 100 migrants to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico, on Tuesday, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Ulloa delivered a letter to the consulate on behalf of the migrants, asking for either entry into the U.S. or a payment of $50,000 per person. “It may seem like a lot of money to you,” Ulloa told the Union-Tribune. “But it is a small sum compared to everything the United...

(snip) -- Two groups of Central American migrants made separate marches on the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana Tuesday, demanding that they be processed through the asylum system more quickly and in greater numbers, that deportations be halted and that President Trump either let them into the country or pay them $50,000 each to go home.

President Trump clashed Tuesday with Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi with the cameras rolling in the Oval Office, as the president insisted he's willing to let the government shut down if Congress doesn't approve funding for his U.S.-Mexico border wall. "If we don't have border security, we'll shut down the government," Trump said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Tuesday in front of the White House that there will be a government shutdown if President Donald Trump refuses to budge from his demand for $5 billion of wall funding. He spoke after the tense meeting with President Trump.The bottom line is simple. The President made clear that he wants a shutdown. His position, if he sticks to his position for a $5 billion wall, he will get no wall and he will get a shutdown. The bottom line is very, very simple. That is, we want border security. We offered him border security....

President Donald Trump sought Tuesday to pressure Democratic congressional leaders into supporting his demand for billions of dollars to build his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, threatening to have the military build it “if Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our Country.” Trump tweeted the threat hours before Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi were to meet with Trump at the White House in an effort to avert a partial government shutdown on Dec. 21, when funding for some agencies is scheduled to expire. In a series of tweets Tuesday, Trump...

Despite the large Caravans that WERE forming and heading to our Country, people have not been able to get through our newly built Walls, makeshift Walls & Fences, or Border Patrol Officers & Military. They are now staying in Mexico or going back to their original countries....... .....Ice, Border Patrol and our Military have done a FANTASTIC job of securing our Southern Border. A Great Wall would be, however, a far easier & less expensive solution. We have already built large new sections & fully renovated others, making them like new. The Democrats,..... ....however, for strictly political reasons and because...

The U.S. this week will begin withdrawing many of the active duty troops sent to the border with Mexico by President Donald Trump just before the midterm election in response to a caravan of Central American migrants, U.S. officials said Monday. About 2,200 of the active duty troops will be pulled out before the holidays, the officials said, shrinking an unusual domestic deployment that was viewed by critics as a political stunt and a waste of military resources. That will leave about 3,000 active duty troops in Texas, Arizona and California, mainly comprised of military police and helicopter transport crews...