Free Republic

Rafael Rivadeneira was crying a river to local news papers this past week about a report on the John McCain "Hispanic Reception in Chicago." He wanted to set the record straight! Let's look at the facts......Rafael readily admits he supports Comprehensive Immigration Reform which American taxpayers have come to know as Amnesty for illegal aliens. It has cost Americans billions of dollars, but hey Rafael could care less, he supports it! This is the same Comprehensive Immigration Reform that SHUT DOWN the White House switchboard June 2007. But who's listening? Was Rafael out of the country that he did not...

“I’m a strong opponent of illegal immigrants,” he said. “We’ve got to secure our borders.” Wicker, who has voted to increase funding to build a fence along the southern border and to add more border patrol agents to protect the border, said enforcement is a key. “We need to enforce the law and protect the border,” he said. “We should be able to tell businesses if someone is an illegal immigrant and then hold them accountable if they hire them after they have been informed.” Wicker said, however, he thinks one of the most important issues facing Americans is the...

Presidential candidates who seem to change positions as they change audiences should avoid accusing others of flip-flopping. It makes them look silly. That's the lesson for John McCain, who has criticized Barack Obama for reversing his views on campaign finance and easing off his keep-up-with- Hillary-Clinton opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Obama also flip-flopped on building hundreds of miles of fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border; the Illinois Democrat voted for the fence before he was against it. “This election is about trust and trusting people's word,” McCain recently told supporters in Louisville, Ky. “And unfortunately, apparently on...

Post 9/11 dragnet turns up surprises Biometrics link foreign detainees to arrests in U.S. By Ellen Nakashima The Washington Post updated 2:49 a.m. ET, Sun., July. 6, 2008 In the six-and-a-half years that the U.S. government has been fingerprinting insurgents, detainees and ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, hundreds have turned out to share an unexpected background, FBI and military officials said. They have criminal arrest records in the United States. There was the suspected militant fleeing Somalia who had been arrested on a drug charge in New Jersey. And the man stopped at a checkpoint...

In the six-and-a-half years that the U.S. government has been fingerprinting insurgents, detainees and ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, hundreds have turned out to share an unexpected background, FBI and military officials said. They have criminal arrest records in the United States. There was the suspected militant fleeing Somalia who had been arrested on a drug charge in New Jersey. And the man stopped at a checkpoint in Tikrit who claimed to be a dirt farmer but had 11 felony charges in the United States, including assault with a deadly weapon. The records suggest that...

African Immigrants Among Obama's Enthusiastic Backers By Darryl FearsWashington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 6, 2008; Page A08 A catered fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama was held recently at Duke's City, an upscale restaurant and bar nestled amid the hip new condominiums in the District's U Street corridor, where up-and-coming white professionals are slowly taking over an area that was once mostly black. But the owner of Duke's City, Donato Sinaci, is not one of Obama's many young, white supporters. And the host of the event, Michael Endale, is not a native-born black American. They are members of Ethiopians for...

The name of the nation’s most visible, self-defined Latino civil-rights organization, the National Council of La Raza, translates as the National Council of The Race. The official website denies it, of course, but we have dictionaries. That controversial term — La Raza — is gaining currency: Some K-12 public schools now teach something called “Raza Studies.” Like those in Tucson, for example. The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) has, in fact, welcomed Raza Studies in its classrooms for about a decade, but it’s been mighty secretive about the association. What, exactly, is Raza Studies? Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom...

San Francisco's 1989 sanctuary law grew out of the religious-based sanctuary movement through which churches across the country offered a safe haven to Central Americans who fled civil war and political persecution but were unable to gain asylum in the United States. For local governments, however, the motivation behind sanctuary policies today has more to do with effective policing than humanitarian impulses. "Some police departments say ... 'We don't want our police officers enforcing immigration law because if they do, victims and witnesses of crimes won't cooperate with us,' " said Kevin Johnson, dean of the UC Davis law school...

93% [of job applicants] are instantly verified within 3-5 seconds. [Another] 1.2% are verified after an electronic, 24-hour USCIS check without any type of notice being issued to the employee. 5.8% of employees receive initial mismatches (tentative non-confirmations). 5.3% employees receive a final non-confirmation response.....

Under pressure from the toughest crackdown on illegal immigration in two decades, employers across the country are fighting back in state legislatures, the federal courts and city halls. Business groups have resisted measures that would revoke the licenses of employers of illegal immigrants. They are proposing alternatives that would revise federal rules for verifying the identity documents of new hires and would expand programs to bring legal immigrant laborers. Though the pushback is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, in many places it is reopening the rift over immigration that troubled the Republican Party last year. Businesses, generally Republican stalwarts,...

Presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain told Mexican leaders security at the border is a precondition of immigration reform. McCain ended a visit to Colombia and Mexico Thursday, The Arizona Republic reported. I believe we must have comprehensive immigration reform. The American people want our borders secured first, McCain said at a Mexico City news conference. That will require some walls. It will require virtual fences. It will require high-technology equipment. We must secure our borders, and then we will address the issue of comprehensive immigration reform. McCain was one of the authors of an immigration reform bill that...

Appearing before Mexico's drug-fighting Federal Police, John McCain promised Thursday that as president, he would quickly implement a U.S. aid package to give the officers more helicopters, technology and training. Mr. McCain, visiting the federal force's new command center as he concluded a three-day trip to Colombia and Mexico, paid his condolences to the hundreds of officers who have died in the drug fight since President Felipe Calderón took office 19 months ago. Those deaths, Mr. McCain said, "will not be in vain." "I want to thank President Calderón and the people of Mexico for their efforts in making our...

San Bernardino County officials vowed Thursday not to become a dumping ground for San Francisco criminals, saying they may sue that city for exporting juvenile offenders to local group homes. "The county is exploring every option to recoup all our police expenses," said county Supervisor Gary Ovitt. "This lunacy needs to stop now." Ovitt, joined by other officials at a news conference in San Bernardino, expressed anger over recent revelations that San Francisco sent illegal immigrant cocaine dealers from Honduras to group homes in Yucaipa. Eight juveniles walked away from the homes. One was recaptured in San Francisco this week,...

Two hours were enough for José Luis Sánchez and his family to pack their most valuable belongings in two vans – items accumulated in 10 years of living in the Dallas area. With his wife, children and their suitcases in place, Mr. Sánchez closed the door of his Mesquite apartment for the last time, sat at the wheel of one of the vehicles – his brother drove the other – and hit the road back to his homeland. So ended his decade-long adventure as an illegal Mexican immigrant in the United States. According to Mexican consulate officials in Dallas, some...

WASHINGTON – Latino gang members were hunting for black people in the Harbor Gateway community of Los Angeles. Age was not a factor. Neither was gender. Cheryl Green, 14, was on her scooter, talking to friends when a hail of bullets killed the 8th-grader and injured several other black youngsters. That was December 2006. But the race-motivated carnage has only increased since then, say law-enforcement authorities from coast to coast – with Hispanic gangs targeting blacks and black gang reciprocating as their communities are increasing surrounded by the exploding population of Hispanics, much of it fueled by illegal immigration. In...

On the 4th of July, the Campo Minutemen will join other Border Watch Groups for a Bar-B-Que at Camp Vigilance in Boulevard, CA.

...now broadcasters worry about communicating with Spanish-speaking listeners during emergencies. 1030 AM is the only talk and information station of its kind in Charlotte. “And we were that venue. So a lot of the sorrow we feel today comes mostly from that and that link to the community was lost,” Lozano said. The community calls Aura Maria Gavilan-Posse "Charlotte's Spanish Oprah". She too worries listeners will suffer. “We were like a 911, like a 311 and went to the people in the cold helping a lot. More than journalism or reporter we were human beings tried to help the other...

This is to summarize the law on two issues: One, Citizenship of a person, one of whose parents is a Citizen, the other an alien; and, two, eligibility of a person born outside the geographical limits of the fifty states to serve as President of the United States under Article II, Sec. 1, Par. 4 of the U S Constitution. This is addressed to Obama's status if he was born in Kenya and to John McCain's status on the record birth in Panama. I do not intend to address any of the collateral factual issues. I take it as a...

A French couple has been charged and arrested for running an immigration scam that cheated more than 100 people of thousands of dollars. 4 July 2008 LOS ANGELES - A French woman was arrested in California early Thursday on charges of running an immigration scam with her husband that netted thousands of dollars, US justice officials said. Deborah Sion, 25, was detained without incident by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, one day after charges were filed against her and her husband, who is in custody in France in an unrelated fraud scheme. Sion was due to appear in a...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democrat Barack Obama has a dominant lead over Republican John McCain among Hispanic voters, despite his struggle to woo the key bloc during his presidential primary campaign, a poll found Wednesday. A Gallup survey put Obama up 59 percent to 29 percent over his rival among registered Hispanic voters across the United States. The community will likely play a pivotal role in general election swing states like Colorado, New Mexico and Florida. The poll was published as McCain made a three-day trip through Colombia and Mexico, designed to burnish his foreign policy credentials, which was also seen...

The U.S. authorities must prevent the mass deportation because there are records that over 56% of those deported were sentenced for crimes in the United States, explained the owner of the Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE). Rommel Moreno Manjarrez manifestó que en el 2006 la Agencia de Aduanas y Emigración del sector de San Diego deporto a 16 mil 476 personas y el 56% había sido condenado por delitos en la Unión Americana. Rommel Moreno Manjarrez said that in 2006 the Customs Agency and emigration sector of San Diego deport 16 thousand 476 persons and 56% had been...

CEDAR RAPIDS - Two supervisors at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville on Thursday became the first known members of the company's management to be arrested after a federal immigration raid of the company in May. A federal arrest warrant has been issued for another Agriprocessors employee whose whereabouts are unknown. Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43, are accused of encouraging illegal immigrants to work at the plant, in some cases even helping them obtain false documents before the raid. The two men were arrested at Agriprocessors on Thursday morning by U.S. marshals and were...

WASHINGTON — Besieged Texas sheriffs have vowed to press the White House and Congress to deliver emergency assistance to law enforcement officers battling drug cartels along the Mexican border to match the $400 million on its way to Mexico. The sheriffs said they were frustrated that President Bush and Congress agreed to provide assistance to Mexico as part of the Merida Initiative, without offering additional federal help to their departments. The officers said they'd seek direct federal assistance, as well as changes in Department of Homeland Security restrictions to permit local law enforcement departments to use homeland security funds to...

THE distraught mother of a young Irishman shot dead by a policeman in the United States broke down in tears yesterday as she revealed how she had been left "begging for information" on how he met his violent death. Andrew Hanlon (20), who had travelled to the US a year ago to stay with his sister in Silverton, Oregon, was killed by a police officer responding to a burglary on Monday night. Neighbours reported several shots were fired. His heartbroken mother, Dorothea Hanlon-Carroll, from Dundrum, Dublin, was yesterday being comforted by three of her children as they tried to come...

BROOKS COUNTY -- It's just before noon in the tangled woods of La Copa Ranch. U.S. Border Patrol Agent Rick Garcia makes his first discovery of the day. Through the web of mesquite brush and weeds, the footsteps of three immigrants crunch louder on the blanket of dead leaves as they approach the weathered ranch path. Garcia's partner, K-9 agent Chico, just found the immigrants struggling through the woods. Garcia asks the exhausted group in Spanish whether any of them have weapons, then how long they have been traveling on foot. "Two days," one woman replied in Spanish. The group...

WASHINGTON -- Just in time for Independence Day, a conservative think tank has delivered a controversial report questioning whether America's national identity is eroding under the pressure of population diversity and educational slackness. The threat outlined by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in its report, "E Pluribus Unum" strikes me as a bit exaggerated. But at a time when Barack Obama and John McCain find themselves debating the "patriotism issue," having a coherent discussion of this matter -- and this short pamphlet is admirably written and well-researched -- is a useful contribution. The takeoff point for the argument is...

An immigration activist is questioning the White House decision to give foreign nationals with HIV/AIDS a special waiver to obtain short-term visas to enter the country. At a recent White House press briefing, Press Secretary Dana Perino was asked if President Bush agrees with a call by Senators John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) and Gordon Smith (R-Oregon) for the lifting of a ban on immigration into the U.S. for those who have HIV or AIDS. Perino said the president has directed the Secretary of State to request that the Secretary of Homeland Security initiate a rulemaking to propose a categorical waiver for...

2 leaders and 3 managers face charges after operation Last week their undocumented workers were hauled off to a detention facility, but today the owners and managers of a Houston rag exporting firm are in custody for employing the illegal immigrants. This morning a U.S. magistrate in Houston is scheduled to preside over the initial court appearance of two owners and three managers of Action Rags USA. The eastside company, located in a sweltering factory near the Port of Houston, was the scene of one of Houston's largest immigration raids when 166 undocumented workers were detained June 25. Federal charges...

An Egyptian-born nuclear physicist is suing the US Department of Energy over the revocation of his security clearance. Moniem El-Ganayni worked from 1990 as a scientist at the Bettis Laboratory, a contract lab for the energy department near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that works on nuclear propulsion. El-Ganayni, a US citizen since 1988, is an active member of the local Islamic community...[snip] In May, the energy department revoked El-Ganayni's security clearance, in part because he was suspected of “conflicting allegiances”. Shortly thereafter, he was fired from the laboratory. El-Ganayni's suit, filed with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, claims that...

British girls as young as 12 are being forced into prostitution by migrants in a new crime of 'internal' people trafficking. Children from ordinary families are groomed by older men posing as boyfriends before being pimped around the UK to have sex up to 20 times a night. They are raped and often drugged, according to police. Officers have identified 'syndicates of Iraqi men throughout the UK' behind the exploitation. A Government report said 'internal trafficking' was an 'emerging issue' and it should no longer be assumed young victims of sex exploitation were smuggled from abroad. A UK Human Trafficking...

San Francisco will shift course and start turning over juvenile illegal immigrants convicted of felonies to federal authorities for possible deportation, Mayor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday as he took the blame for what he conceded was a costly and misguided effort to shield the youths. Newsom said he hadn't known until recently that the city was keeping the juvenile offenders from being deported as part of its sanctuary-city policy, but he added that "ignorance is no defense." "All I can say is, I can't explain away the past," Newsom said. "I take responsibility, I take it. We are moving in...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - Some of the almost 10,000 members of the National Education Association (NEA) attending the teachers union's annual conference this week in the nation's capital spoke out on the issues they hope their lobbyists will fight for during next year's legislative session, including the establishment of a peace academy, in-state college tuition and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who graduate from high school. Susie Jablinske, a first grade teacher at Central Elementary School in Edgewater, Md., said children who are in the country illegally should have the same educational rights as American children. She proposed that...

West African bushmen are denied U.S. visas They'd been recruited to build a mud-hut village at a Staunton museum Thursday, Jul 03, 2008 - 12:55 AM By CARLOS SANTOS TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER • PDF: Letter STAUNTON -- Three West African bushmen recruited to build an authentic mud-hut village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia were denied visas because they are too poor and inarticulate. In a letter to Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., Debra Heien, chief of the consular section for the U.S. in Nigeria, said one applicant "could not articulate anything about the project. . . . The...

Wha-h-h-h? This has to go down as one of the stranger non sequiturs from a pundit of national standing. Responding to a study that concludes that burgeoning multiculturalism threatens national unity, David Broder takes solace in the fact that 34 years ago, the American body politic booted Richard Nixon from office. In his column of today, One Nation No More?, Broder comments on the study, E Pluribus Unum, recently released by the The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Police last week arrested a pastor who allegedly raped children, authorities said Wednesday. Police photo Child rape suspect Maximo Ake-Be Maximo Ake-Be, 31, faces charges of rape, sodomy and sex abuse in connection with a series of sexual assaults dating back to 1998, said Portland Police Sergeant Brian Schmautz. Ake-Be appeared in court Wednesday and pleaded innocent on all charges. A judge set bail at $4.5 million. The investigation began when two alleged victims recently reported that Ake-Be sexually assaulted them between 1998 and 2000. During that time, the girls and their families attended The Peach House,...

From an email I received... From: 'David LaBonte' My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to 'print' it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined. Dave LaBonte (signed) Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register: Dear Editor: So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of...

The agreement between Attorney General Jon Bruning and the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission seems to be missing an important provision. The signed document should have included a stipulation that Bruning cease and desist from further grandstanding in NEOC cases. Bruning’s behavior in the controversy won acclaim from immigration hardliners — and an appearance on the Lou Dobbs show on CNN — but it has thrown a monkey wrench into actual governing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development suspended its contract with Nebraska in April because of inadequate performance on cases of housing discrimination. While Bruning was milking the...

With the blankest of blank expressions on their faces, these mysterious figures have been popping up in the most unlikely of places. The faceless mutants have a penchant for A-list celebrity bashes and have been spotted at Elton John's White tie ball and Harrods summer sale, opened by Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall.

A North Carolina-based immigration political action committee has announced that the main thrust of its 2008 candidate and campaign operations will be to throw as many incumbent politicians out of office as possible. William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), asserts that illegal immigration remains one of the major issues in America today that has caused more than 80 percent of the people to believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. He adds that Republicans in Utah have already expressed their dissatisfaction in the recent primary by throwing out longtime incumbent Chris Cannon, who has...

The San Diego City Council will vote next Tuesday to declare July 8 “National Council of La Raza Day.” Well, they already gave their blessing to “Happy ACLU Day” despite the litigious group’s long-standing efforts to take down the Mount Soledad cross. Might as well put their weight behind the ethnic supremacist group fighting against assimilation, funding reconquista schools, advocating speech suppressiong, and promoting lawlessness, too!

The Coatesville Police Department continues to receive reports of black city residents robbing, assaulting and raping Hispanic immigrants, according to Police Chief William Matthews. And, if the activity is not stopped, police say it could trigger the formation of violent Hispanic gangs as a type of cultural protection. With the city's black community, growing immigrant population - many of whom do not speak English - combined with the city's social issues, "It's not long before you have black-on-brown crime," said Matthews. "And we're seeing the beginning of that." Matthews, who first spoke publicly about the problem last fall, spoke candidly...

MISSION -- Police busted a stash house Tuesday after a Honduran woman said she was sexually assaulted there. Officers raided the house -- at 2113 Sierra Court, near Mission Veterans Memorial High School on Mile 2 North and N. Mayberry Ave. -- about 11:25 a.m. Police had found the woman wandering along a nearby road in the wee hours earlier that morning. Police pulled over to see if she was OK and she told them she had been sexually assaulted at the brick house, Mission police spokesman Lt. Martin Garza said. The house likely sheltered illegal immigrants traveling north, he...

Youths, all 17, are being held at county jail Three 17-year-old male Bokencamp Children's Shelter detainees from Honduras were arrested by police about 8 p.m. Monday following an assault on four center staff members. Staff members told police that Edgardo Casco-Perez, Sergio Davine-Paz and Javier Nunez-Ramirez appeared to be plotting an escape attempt and they attacked staff members who attempted to separate them, according to a Tuesday police brief. The teens are suspected members of an El Salvadoran street gang, the brief said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol agents asked police to book the teens on...

ALBEMARLE, N.C. -- A Mount Pleasant woman who works for the Albemarle Department of Motor Vehicles is charged with attempting to defraud the government by issuing identification cards to illegal immigrants.Authorities said between January 2007 and June 2008, license examiner Susan Honeycutt, 50, issued about 150 IDs to illegal immigrants using addresses that don’t exist and other fraudulent information.Federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents set up surveillance at the DMV two weeks ago. They said surveillance tape caught Honeycutt giving driver’s licenses to two illegal immigrants.Two men, Vijendra Gangadeen and Richie Seupersad, are accused of conspiring with Honeycutt. According to...

The media frequently devotes much attention to mothers who are separated from their children by deportation actions. The treatment is usually highly sympathetic to the mothers. When fathers are deported away from their children, little attention is paid. Even when the media covers the issue, there is little handwringing, as evidenced in a recent straight-facts story from the Los Angeles Times--Custody case of Long Beach boy complicates deportation of illegal immigrant (6/30/08). The story details the case of Michael Campo, a 10-year-old Los Angeles boy whose father Carlos Alvarado is an illegal immigrant. Alvarado is fighting deportation proceedings, saying that...

We invite ALL Americans to join us for the Celebration Event of the Year!!! When: JULY 4th, 2008!!! Where: CAMP VIGILANCE, Boulevard, CA Event Time: 9:00 AM - 10:00 PM Border Watch: For Patriots Who Wish To Stay, There Will Be A Weekend Border Watch -July 5th & 6th!! The Unity of Groups: The event is sponsored by California Coalition for Immigration Reform, Save Our State, The Minuteman Corps of CA Inc, The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of CA, The San Diego Minutemen, The Escondido Minuteman Brigade, The Antelope Valley Minutemen and others!!!!! July 4th festivities will include guest speakers,...

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's best-known sanctuary city -- a haven for illegal immigrants -- has been escorting convicted juvenile offenders back to their home countries at city expense for nearly a generation and shielding them from federal officials in the process But after several recent embarrassing incidents, this famously liberal enclave has been forced to reconsider how it deals with young undocumented criminals. Ever since a city juvenile probation officer was detained by federal immigration authorities in Houston nearly seven weeks ago and questioned about two offenders he was escorting back to Honduras, the city has stopped flying such people...

In their June 28 speeches to (NALEO), John McCain and Barack Obama seemed to be competing to see who could do a better job of pandering to open-borders advocacy groups..... .....Mr. McCain called for creation of a "temporary" worker program; declared that "comprehensive immigration reform" will "be my top priority yesterday, today and tomorrow"; and called for a way to turn illegal aliens into citizens of the United States. .... In response, the McCain campaign attacked Mr. Obama for proposing "poison pill amendments" that would undo the efforts of Mr. McCain and Sen. Edward Kennedy to pass a "bipartisan" immigration...

In October 2008 a new version of the U.S. citizenship test will be taken by all applicants. Could you pass it? The questions are usually selected from a list of 100 samples that prospective citizens can look at ahead of the interview. Some are easy, some are not. We have picked some of the more difficult ones. NOTES: Candidates are not given multiple choices in the naturalization interview. The following questions have been adapted from the immigration service’s sample questions.

Senator John McCain has been accused of flip-flopping on immigration. Supposedly he tacked right during the primaries and now is tacking left. Actually, McCain has been all too consistent. As he has twice in recent weeks told Hispanic leaders, he remains committed to a “comprehensive immigration reform” that increases enforcement but also creates a “temporary guest worker” program and lets many illegal immigrants become legal residents. His one concession has been a matter of timing. During the primaries he said that the public would need to see enforcement work before it would tolerate the other elements of reform. He did...