Free Republic

Mexicans have endured a week of gas shortages as the government takes drastic action to combat narco fuel thieves. Several states in the center of the country, including the capital Mexico City, have seen hundreds of petrol stations closed and long lines at those left open. {snip} The government of Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, has cut off the gas supply in a number of key pipelines transporting fuel from refineries. The aim is take the fight to the "huachicoleros" as the fuel thieves are known. Many are affiliated with larger drug cartels, who for years have been...

The floor of the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most geologically interesting stretches of the Earth’s surface. The gulf’s peculiar history gave rise to a landscape riddled with domes, pockmarks, canyons, faults, and channels — all revealed in more detail than ever before by a new 1.4 billion-pixel map. This striking view of the ocean floor off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas was created by a government agency you’ve likely never heard of called the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The bureau’s job is to manage exploration and development of the country’s offshore mineral and energy...

Julián Castro, the former housing secretary and former mayor of San Antonio, announced on Saturday that he would run for president, one of the most high-profile Latino Democrats ever to seek the party’s nomination. His first campaign stop will be in Puerto Rico, where he will speak on Monday at the Latino Victory Fund’s annual summit and meet with residents still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria. Later in the week, his campaign said, he will go to New Hampshire. Mr. Castro, in prepared remarks that he was set to deliver in San Antonio on Saturday, said, “When my grandmother...

Freshman Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) told CNN Friday that she is willing to vote for “some money for physical barriers,” as the 21st day of the partial government shutdown progressed."How can the White House, Republicans believe you 1,000 percent that you are going to give money on the wall when…Nancy Pelosi herself said no, zero dollars for the wall?" CNN’s Poppy Harlow wondered. “The way they say it is if you re-open, right, how do we know you’re going to give us any of this?”“Do you think Democrats should give any money to the wall?” Harlow asked."I think there is a...

As the government shutdown drags on, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said enough with the memes, but he gave the Internet endless fodder with his and Nancy Pelosi’s response to President Trump’s border address. There is a crisis at the border, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported on it. Yet, CNN and other trash liberal outlets say otherwise because a) they hate Trump; and b) it would give legitimacy to the president border agenda. The Democrats wanted to respond to the president’s address. And boy, was it something otherworldly. It was immediately mocked on social media and wasn’t persuasive in...

The superbug that infected nearly a dozen Americans who recently underwent weight-loss surgery at a Tijuana hospital had a particularly nasty genetic mutation that set off alarm bells after patients began showing up in hospitals and doctors officers with painful wounds.(Emphasis mine) The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel warning this week, notifying the publicthat 11 Americans who traveled to Tijuana hospitals for weight-loss surgery had become infected with drug-resistant pseudomonus aeruginosa infections during their stays.

A tunnel that Mexican authorities suspect was used to transfer drugs and people across the border was discovered this week near Arizona, the third such tunnel found in the past month. The Arizona Republic first reported Friday on the tunnel near Nogales, Sonora, across from Nogales, Ariz. Mexican Federal Police posted a video of the tunnel earlier this week. The police said in the video that the tunnel was about 32 feet long, but provided limited information beyond that. It is the third tunnel to be found in a month amid the partial government shutdown and increased debate over President...

As the partial government shutdown enters its fourth week and Democrats continue refusing to provide POTUS Donald Trump with a paltry $5.7 billion in funding for his long-promised border wall, another migrant caravan is forming in Honduras. As reported by The Keene Sentinel, the plan is for migrants to set out next week “on a journey that will once again test the immigration policies of Mexico and the United States.” Like last year, word of the new caravan is being spread via social media, the local report noted. “We’re looking for refuge. In Honduras, we are being killed,” a flier...

Roberto (El Osito) Escobar, the brother of the infamous late Colombian drug Lord Pablo Escobar, is raising money in an attempt to impeach the US president. El Osito launched a GoFundMe campaign with the hopes of raising US$50 million in donations for his company Escobar Inc. But GoFundMe removed the page shortly after it was posted. On the page, Escobar claimed to be “holding dirty secrets of President Trump, his family and associates.” The appeal on his GoFundMe read:  Pablo Escobar is a South American, also known as ‘Latino,’ legendary hero, who helped millions of people in his home...

Either they don’t get much news out of the United States and Mexico down in Central America or they don’t pay much attention to it if they do. Mexican officials are currently heading to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to talk to the organizers of yet another migrant caravan that’s forming up to head north toward the United States. Given the number of people who are currently lined up and waiting for weeks or months for an asylum hearing, dumping hundreds or thousands more into the queue is only going to inflame matters further. (Reuters) Mexican authorities will meet...

President Trump said the "real collusion" story was Democrats and cable news pundits accusing him of creating a "manufactured crisis" in his push for a border wall. Trump spoke with Sean Hannity during a trip to McAllen, Texas, where the Fox News host asked the president for his thoughts on the phrase. "I saw on your show actually where you had anchor after anchor using the exact same word. 'It’s manufactured, manufactured,'" Trump said. "Sounds like they’re in collusion," Hannity chimed in. "Yeah, little collusion," Trump said. "That’s the real collusion, OK? That's the real collusion. You take a look...

Congressional Democrats are ditching House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s ardent opposition to any barrier or wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, as the partial government shutdown continues and President Donald Trump takes his case directly to the border itself. ““If we have a partial wall, if we have fencing, if we have technology used to keep our border safe, all of that is fine,” Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), the chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), said on CNN. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) also backed a barrier along the U.S. border with Mexico....

Cher wants the government shutdown to end — even if it means giving President Trump money for his border wall. The legendary singer and outspoken liberal activist tweeted out her concerns for the American people if the shutdown remains in effect. Cher exclaimed on Wednesday, “FOR trump THIS IS POLITICAL..BUT REAL PPL ARE REALLY SUFFERING.” She called Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a “hero,” but added “LET HIM HAVE HIS FKNG MONEY.” Cher’s tweet made headlines, with Fox News declaring, “Cher demands Pelosi end partial government shutdown, fund border wall: ‘DON’T DIE ON THIS HILL.’” Well, the Grammy winner...

Six GOP Senators briefed Jared Kushner and President Donald Trump’s top congressional aide about a plan to swap two amnesties in exchange for border-wall funding. The six GOP Senators included Graham, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander, Ohio’s Rob Portman, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, and Maine’s Susan Collins. The Senators’ draft offer to the Democrats, however, also includes incentives sought by GOP-aligned business groups, such as an expansion of the H-2B blue collar visa-worker program. Few Democrats support the H-2B visa program but its inclusion could encourage GOP legislators to ignore protests from the GOP’s pro-American base. Several GOP Senators...

<p>Bloomberg) -- In his first trip abroad as Mexico’s finance minister, Carlos Urzua had a message he clearly wanted to deliver to the New York investing community. It was, in essence: Don’t worry, the young administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador understands the laws of economics and isn’t about to try any radical experiments that could jeopardize Mexico’s financial health.</p>

The Department of Homeland Security "virtual fence" project, being built by Boeing, is in big, big trouble. The virtual fence is a high-tech network of cameras, lighting, sensors, and technology designed to intercept illegal border crossings. According to the Wall Street Journal:Boeing Co. has changed the management of an electronic-surveillance project along the U.S.-Mexican border after falling more than two months behind schedule, marking the complications involved in setting up a new generation of border security. The project, part of a larger Department of Homeland Security program called SBInet, is a critical link in the plan to use technology to...

Tenochtitlan was an absolutely amazing city. The city was larger than any in Europe at the time and held approximately 200,000 people with some estimates as high as 350,000. Built over 100 years or so on Lake Texcoco, the city was impressively organized. Being built on the lake meant that land platforms were created as needed in an orderly fashion leaving clean canal streets for canoe traffic and multiple bridges and paths for pedestrians. Each neighborhood was distinct and had its required services from schools to garbage collectors. The city also had fabulous amenities befitting a great city. Huge gardens...

Every new illegal immigrant that enters the United States will cost more than $82,000 each over their lifetime, a conservative think tank that advocates for lower immigration levels has claimed. The Center for Immigration Studies updated their 2012 analysis which put the average lifetime net fiscal cost of a border crosser at $74,722. In the six years since, the price has jumped to $82,191. ... The new figure by the CIS estimates what it takes to protect the border, educate, house and feed illegal immigrants and makes the assumption they will spend a lifetime on various welfare programs.

We first heard some rumbling about this in early December. Mexico’s new president was looking to shut down the procession of illegal immigrant caravans and improve relations with the United States by hardening their own southern border. But could he do it? Was the United States going to help?Looks like we have our answer. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (or AMLO) has announced yet another move to show he’s serious about border control. Once again, we’re not talking about Mexico’s border with the United States, but their own southern border with Guatemala, where the vast majority of illegal immigrants...

The federal government is reinforcing the southern border after hearing reports that a new caravan of migrants is set to leave Central America by mid-January, intending to travel north through Mexico to the United States. ... The 12 established entry points at the southern border are to be reinforced, she continued, as will the surveillance of 379 illegal crossings that have been detected. The federal government’s new migrant policy establishes several requirements for migrants, such as providing personal information that includes biometric data, the reason for their entry and official identification, Sánchez said. Anyone who fails to comply will be...