Free Republic

Uncle Sam is putting out an urgent call for a platoon of baby sitters who can help deal with the crushing influx of children illegally crossing the border. With thousands of unaccompanied children making the dangerous trek into the United States from Central America through Mexico, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection is looking to bring in temporary workers to help process them. The bureau is seeking workers with training in emergency medicine and non-emergency health care, “child care or juvenile teaching and/or counseling,” according to a June agency memo.

The defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is likely to significantly chill efforts to pass an immigration reform bill this year. "One of the great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents,” Cantor said in a 2013 speech. “It is time to provide an opportunity for legal residence and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children and who know no other home." Brat told voters he opposes Dream Act legislation. “For Eric Cantor to say he was against amnesty, while promoting it for certain...

The federal government plans to open a shelter in Tucson for unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border alone, but officials would have to seek zoning exemptions on the two locations being considered. And that process could take months. Part of the issue is that the exemption requires a 30-day notice to residents of the surrounding neighborhood so they can voice their opinion. “What brought the focus and attention right now is that the system that is designed to take care of these children has imploded,” said Wendy Young, executive director of Kids in Need of Defense, during a conference call...

A conservative challenger is expected to fall far short of defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in Tuesday’s congressional primary. Disorganization and poor funding have stymied the campaign of tea party activist David Brat, even as he tapped into conservative resentment toward a party leader who has been courting the Republican right for years.

House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) says he is continuing to try to grant amnesty to illegal alien youths via his GOP version of the DREAM Act, known as the KIDS Act. “We should not be holding kids liable for the acts of their parents,” Cantor said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Bob Rayner, a reporter for the Times-Dispatch, wrote that Cantor described the push for the KIDS Act, something that would reportedly legalize the status of illegal aliens who are somehow determined to have been brought to America by no fault of their own, as a...

(Reuters) - A Senate panel, responding to what President Barack Obama calls an "urgent humanitarian situation," on Tuesday advanced legislation significantly increasing funds to handle a surge of foreign children entering the United States illegally. Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, included up to $2.28 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services to feed and shelter the estimated 130,000 minors expected to arrive in the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. That is up from the $868 million that Congress urgently provided this year to handle an estimated 60,000 undocumented children who will...

GOP Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor called for a compromise immigration deal with President Barack Obama during a campaign interview with a local Virginia TV station. “I have told the president, there are some things we can work on together,” he said in the WTVR interview. “We can work on the border security bill together, we can work on something like the kids,” he said referring to his proposal to offer some undetermined variety of amnesty to the children and youths of millions of parents who entered the country illegally.

Dave Brat, who is challenging House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) in Tuesday's primary, believes Cantor betrayed his district on amnesty and shares the blame for surge in illegal immigrant children flooding into the country. "One you announced that kids are welcome, they're going to head in," Brat said on Breitbart News Sunday of Cantor's support for giving the children of illegal immigrants amnesty and citizenship because he believes it is one of the "founding principles" of the country. Brat, who has been surging in the polls, said Cantor has taken "zero responsibility" on the issue and blasted him for...

The fate of amnesty legislation this year may depend on House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-VA) margin of victory Tuesday in a primary campaign that has surprisingly emerged as a high-profile immigration battle. While a trio of House Republicans – Reps. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), Paul Ryan (R-WI), and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) – are canvassing the GOP conference on whether there is appetite to tackle immigration before the August recess, Cantor has had to fend off a long-shot, underfunded economics professor who rose in the polls by relentless attacking Cantor on the issue. In the closing hours of the campaign, Randolph-Macon...

Add another to the lengthy list of contests between powerful Republican incumbents and Washington far-outsiders: An economics professor from Henrico, Va., Dave Brat, will announce his entry into the race for Eric Cantor’s House seat on January 9. He has already hired John Pudner of Concentric Direct as his consultant. “I want to be Eric Cantor’s term limit,” he tells National Review Online. That’s not an easy prospect by any stretch of the imagination, and Cantor is certainly not throwing in the towel. Rory Cooper, a spokesman for Cantor, tells NRO: “Congressman Cantor is proud to serve the people of...

WASHINGTON — With immigration re-emerging as the topic of focus in Washington, an unusual coalition of business executives, Republican Party activists and evangelical leaders will descend on Capitol Hill early next week to pressure House Republicans to pass their own legislation. The debate threatens to create another schism in the Republican Party and to further alienate a major source of campaign contributions; several corporate executives interviewed this week said they were considering withholding donations from lawmakers who get in the way. The push by conservatives will begin Tuesday morning with a news conference featuring, among others, Al Cardenas, the chairman...

Pity the poor media. What are the Left’s shock troops of propaganda to do? What are they to do? Friday the House Gang of Seven lost its final two Republicans. The new configuration making it a Gang of Five Democrats has no chance of forcing America to except illegal aliens as equals. The votes they counted on to retake the House and hold the Senate won’t be there. To its great shame, with the exception of the Washington Post, the Democrat cheerleaders in the media have ignored the story. In a somber report the WaPo’s report on this major blow...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) warned Thursday the House might be forced to cancel its September recess to work on a government funding bill. The House was originally scheduled to have the week of Sept. 23 off, but Cantor said lawmakers might have to return to Washington that week and maybe the following weekend to prevent a government shutdown. "Members are advised that pending ongoing discussions on the continuing resolution, the House may be in session during the week of Sept. 23 and possibly into the weekend," Cantor said on the House floor. "Members should expect an announcement next...

Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte, chair of the House Judiciary Committee overseeing immigration, said he expected Congress to pursue reform legislation despite a tight schedule featuring debates over Syria, health care, and the debt limit. Those and other issues “should not deter us from getting to [immigration] as soon as possible,” Goodlatte said in an appearance on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show on Tuesday. Goodlatte said he expected votes soon, perhaps in October, on a series of smaller House bills on border security, internal enforcement, guest workers, and high-tech visas. “Those bills are ready to go to the floor of the House...

As recently as six months ago, Florida, a state with a poor record for producing presidential candidates, appeared to be striking gold at last. Former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio were among the top three or four candidates, sometimes at the very top, in nearly every poll of Republicans on the 2016 presidential nomination. They had starring roles at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa one year ago this week, with Rubio introducing nominee Mitt Romney. Today, things look different. -snip- Called a traitor and a “RINO,” or “Republican in name only,” over immigration reform by some...

In response to a question at a town hall event this week, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) suggested that a majority of House Republicans support granting amnesty through a GOP version of the DREAM Act to young illegal aliens who were brought to America as minors by their parents. Schock, a member of the whip team led by House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, was laying out for constituents his stances on immigration and the House GOP leadership’s plan to deal with the issue later this year. “They’re going to move one bill after another dealing with all the various issues that...

Conservatives in the House are not rushing to embrace an immigration proposal from party leaders to offer a path to citizenship to children who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, are crafting a bill that would be the first GOP plan to deal with some of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has endorsed the idea as a matter of “fairness” to grant citizenship to children who crossed the border through no fault of their own.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says the House of Representatives will vote on a series of immigration bills in the fall, but wouldn’t commit to a vote on a measure similar to what the Senate has passed that provides a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. “We’ve said we are not going to be bringing the Senate bill up — we don’t believe that that’s the right path toward an immigration reform bill,” the Virginia Republican said in an interview broadcast on “Fox News Sunday.” “We will have a vote on a series...

During football season, the teams that win call the right plays from their playbook. And when it comes to immigration reform, Congress needs to make sure it makes the right calls. The House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over our immigration laws, is taking a step-by-step approach to immigration reform and building a strategic playbook that first strengthens border security and interior enforcement, improves our legal-immigration programs, and fairly deals with unlawful immigrants. A robust border-security and interior-enforcement strategy is the first line of defense for any successful immigration system. Strong border security not only reduces illegal immigration, it also...

If the Senate immigration bill came up for a vote in the House, it would probably pass — some of the Republicans and almost all of the Democrats would combine for 218 votes. But conservatives have extracted promises from John Boehner not to let that happen, and the Speaker has dutifully pledged to keep the House from voting on any bill that lacks the support of most Republicans. That would seem to make comprehensive reform pretty dead, right? Except Paul Ryan, who clearly wants to pass a bill, floated a way around this promise: -snip- So the plan he's discussing...