Free Republic

HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS — A Mexican national was executed Wednesday night in Texas for killing a Houston police officer, despite pleas and diplomatic pressure from the Mexican government and the U.S. State Department to halt the punishment. Edgar Tamayo, 46, received a lethal injection for the January 1994 fatal shooting of Officer Guy Gaddis, 24. Asked by a warden if he had a final statement, he mumbled "no" and shook his head. As the lethal dose of pentobarbital began taking effect, he took a few breaths and then made one slightly audible snore before all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead...

Politico reports that the House Republican leadership is struggling to come up with an agenda to fill the 19 legislative days that are left in 2013. The House will finish its work week on Wednesday. After that, it is out of session until November 12. Moreover, Speaker Boehner reportedly is thinking about canceling some of the remaining session days. I consider this good news. For one thing, it confirms that immigration reform is virtually dead this session. More broadly, there’s nothing of consequence the House can pass that the Senate will embrace. All things considered, then, out-of-sight, out-of-mind seems like...

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...

Border security" is a bogus holdup for immigration reform. Let us prevent this worthy legislation from becoming a giant rip-off benefitting the military-intelligence industry. Millions of people in this country have paid a deplorable price for surreptitious border passage. So-called "coyotes" have extracted up to $10,000 per person per trip; yet these victims have been subjected to mass murders, tortures, locked vans abandoned in deserts, kidnappings and rape. Why does anyone assume that coyotes act independently of the heavily armed cartels in their nearly sovereign territories?One proposed immigration strategy suggests we should punish the victims by imposing a bureaucratic maze...

Former President George W. Bush wants Republicans to consider immigration on its own merits, not just as a party saving piece of legislation, he said during an interview on ABC's This Week. "Sometimes, it takes time for some of these complex issues to evolve. And it looks like immigration, you know, has a chance to pass," Bush said.

House Republicans aren’t feeling pressure to tackle comprehensive immigration reform — not from the Senate, not from the business and religious communities and not from the many GOP-aligned groups backing the effort. From Karl Rove to Jeb Bush to Grover Norquist, an array of Republican heavyweights have called on the House GOP to embrace immigration reform. -snip- At the behest of the Speaker , the House is taking a more deliberate, methodical approach to immigration reform than the Senate and will begin in earnest with a special meeting of the Republican Conference on July 10.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Illegal immigrants worried about stronger enforcement of U.S. laws are deciding what they want to happen in the event they are deported, attorneys say. Lawyers in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas told USA Today that illegal immigrants have approached them to prepare documents spelling out what they want to happen to their families and belongings if they are deported.