Free Republic

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) torpedoed a Republican-sponsored bill on Wednesday that would automatically detain illegal aliens charged with violent crimes. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) had tried to force a floor vote on the bill, which would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain any illegal charged with a violent crime in an effort to prevent liberal prosecutors from releasing them back into the population after arrest, giving them the chance to go out and commit other crimes, Fox News reported.

Violent crime is going down in Venezuela just as the United States has been hit with a rash of high-profile violent crimes by illegal immigrants. It’s not hard to figure out why. The killing of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student in Athens, Georgia, has become the latest and most prominent case of an American being killed as a consequence of President Joe Biden’s open-border policies. The man being held in connection with the killing of Riley is Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who reportedly entered the United States in 2022. Since his arrival in the U.S., he...

Less than a month before those arrested in Illinois will no longer have the option of posting bail as a condition of release while awaiting trial, Gov. J.B. Pritzker quietly signed a package that makes significant changes to the law taking effect in January. In a press release Tuesday afternoon, Pritzker said the bill (HB1095) “addresses misinformation” and makes clarifications “that uphold the principle we fought to protect: to bring an end to a system where wealthy violent offenders can buy their way out of jail, while less fortunate nonviolent offenders wait in jail for trial.” The changes approved last...

What gives urgency to debates about race in America today -- and what drives the reparations movement, are two basic facts," Walter Russell Mead writes in the Wall Street Journal. The first, he says, is that "The median white household has a net worth of $171,000, roughly 10 times the median net worth of black households." The second is that the gap "is essentially unchanged from the levels of 1962." The persistence of this gap advances the case, advocates say, for racial reparations. Like Mead, I find the case unpersuasive, and for reasons beyond those he mentions. For one thing,...

Violent crimes increased by more than 50 percent in 2018 in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, nicknamed “little Mogadishu,” which authorities attribute to Somali gang activity in the area. Buried in a recent Star Tribune article was the fact that violent crimes jumped from 54 in 2010 to 84 in 2018, an increase in roughly 56 percent. Authorities attribute the violence to rivalries between Somali gangs, such as the Somali Mafia, the Somali Outlaws, the Hot Boyz, and Madhibaan with Attitude ... the Outlaws and Madhibaan with Attitude have a rivalry that stretches back years ... A 2013 CBS article detailed the...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — An exclusive new Survey USA poll offered a stunning snapshot of where the Bay Area stands on immigration Monday, with the new numbers revealing that more local residents are backing President Trump’s policies than you might think. The KPIX 5 Survey USA Poll showed more than half of people support a key element of the President’s immigration policy. 53 percent said local law enforcement should always contact federal authorities about illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes. The even bigger surprise was the number of Bay Area Hispanics who supported notifying the feds. While the mayors...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court is making it tougher for federal prosecutors to seek longer prison terms for people convicted of repeated violent crimes. The justices ruled 5-3 Thursday that lower courts are limited in how they can consider prior state crimes for purposes of increasing sentences under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act.

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, who supports a pending sentencing reform bill that would reduce sentences for violent criminals, wants America to have a “candid conversation” about what violent crimes should be treated as violent crimes. ... Booker is a supporter of the bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 (SRCA), which is being pushed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, resident Barack Obama ... Not likely to be included in this conversation: Victims of crime, such as Army veteran Stanley Carter. He died after Malcolm B. Benson robbed and shot him at a Detroit bus stop in September...

Serious violent crimes are ignored out of a fear of offending Muslims or of being seen as racist Last week, 82-year-old Palmira Silva was found dead in her backyard garden in the UK. She had been beheaded. Silva, a great grandmother, had come to Britain in the 1950s where she met her late husband, Domenic. The two ran successful restaurants and cafes and at the time of her death, Silva was the owner of Silva’s Café, a popular café in Edmonton. Until fairly recently, the 82-year-old had worked at the café full time. Shortly after the horrific murder, police took...

Violent crime so far this year in the District has spiked sharply — a 40 percent increase that includes twice as many robberies at gunpoint than at this time last year. Across the city, all police districts are reporting increases in violent crime, and all but one have had double-digit percentage increases, according to internal Metropolitan Police Department documents. The documents contained preliminary crime data for the city as of Thursday. The crime rate is increasing this year after a downward trend — the number of reported homicides last year dropped to the lowest level in a half-century. Homicides were...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal authorities in San Francisco unveiled an indictment today against 29 people allegedly tied to a street gang, accusing the group of engaging in murder, drug trafficking, witness tampering, car theft and extortion. Those indicted include alleged senior leaders in the San Francisco faction of the Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 gang, which originated in Los Angeles, has ties to El Salvador and is renowned for its savage tactics, federal prosecutors said. Most recently, authorities say, members of San Francisco's 20th Street clique of the gang have been tied to at least five slayings in the city, including...

Deborah Schurman-Kauflin in CNN in Based on a one-year in-depth study, a researcher estimates there are about 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States who have had an average of four victims each.  Deborah Schurman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta analyzed 1,500 cases from January 1999 through April 2006 that included serial rapes, serial murders, sexual homicides and child molestation committed by illegal immigrants. She found that while the offenders were located in 36 states, most were in states with the highest numbers of illegal immigrants. California had the most offenders, followed by Texas, Arizona,...

I am writing a college essay for an English Composition class. The assignment is an argument essay with the topic of adult punishment for minors who commit violent crimes. My stance on the subject is, indeed adult time for adult crime. I am looking for a selected group that would be known to be against adult punishment for minors in violent crimes. Does anyone have any suggestions? Also, do you know who is it that determines the case be tried in adult or juvinile court?

If you had a flat tire, would you fix the problem by replacing your car’s muffler? I know, it sounds funny. But that’s exactly the logic permeating throughout San Francisco’s City Hall. When San Francisco’s murder rate spiked in 2004, it could only be expected that local politicians would seek a solution. Why they would seek to emulate a bad solution is anyone's guess. Understanding the problem and using a bit of common sense could go a long way in dealing with such a serious issue, but the idea being floated around City Hall leaves a lot to be desired....