Free Republic

Senate Republicans are fuming over the House GOP’s decision to extend the standoff over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a move that they say uses up political oxygen and burns precious time on the legislative calendar. GOP senators say it’s time to move on to other issues, such as the budget, trade legislation, and regulatory and tax reform. They must defend 24 seats in the 2016 election and worry that voters could soon start to question their ability to govern unless they can move forward with a more substantive agenda. The fight over President Obama’s executive actions on immigration...

South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy has introduced an immigration bill to defund President Obama’s executive amnesty and expedite the removal of criminal aliens from U.S. soil. Named after Michael Davis, Jr., a sheriff’s deputy in California who was killed in the line of duty last year by an illegal immigrant, Gowdy’s bill would also provide a work-around for state and local governments to reinforce federal immigration laws while also implementing an annual review of the executive branch’s use of prosecutorial discretion in immigration cases. “If we are serious about finding a long term solution to our immigration system, we...

Congress has narrowly averted a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security for one week, setting up another funding showdown for next Friday. Hours before a midnight deadline, the House easily approved a one-week extension of the funding. It required two-thirds of members' support to pass. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reversed course later Friday night, instructing House Democrats to back the one-week measure.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — In a surprise speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) unloaded on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush—systematically dismantling Bush’s push for amnesty and a massive increase in guest workers from around the world. “Right now, there are two conferences—one of them in public where candidates are out there having to speak and defend and answer questions on their views and on their positions on important issues facing America,” Sessions said to open up his remarks to the Breitbart News-sponsored meet-and-greet with CPAC activists. “Many people at this conference here and watching...

On the Mark Levin Show Thursday evening, Sue Paine of WCBM revealed that she was accidentally invited to take part in a White House Conference call about Obama’s ‘Executive Amnesty’ orders. What she heard on this call by officials in the White House and radical Amnesty planners was frightening. It is no less than an insidious plan to use American citizens own money to fund our own national suicide and demise. Sue revealed that the White House plans that these ‘New Americans’ will be subsidized by you and me, the taxpayer. That they will be given immediate access and priority...

From Jamie Dupree on Twitter

The House moved a step closer to preventing a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security Friday by voting 228-191 to approve a motion to hold a conference with the Senate to negotiate a deal. The successful vote sets up a vote on a measure funding the department for three weeks. "Unfortunately, the Republicans have changed the sequencing of the consideration of legislation so that if we pass a motion to go to conference, the legislation which we could pass, which would be the ... balance-of-the-year funding for the Department of Homeland Security, would no longer be in possession of...

The White House said Friday that President Obama will sign into law a short-term funding bill to avoid a midnight shutdown of the Homeland Security Department, a pledge that all but assures the funding fight over his deportation amnesty will last at least three more weeks. “The truth is, if the president is faced with the choice between the short-term extension and shutting down the Department of Homeland Security, he will sign the short-term extension,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at the daily press briefing. The president’s willingness to accept the temporary funding being pushed by House Republicans...

An attorney for Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County is asking the judge who ordered federal bureaucrats not to implement President Obama’s amnesty-by-memo plan to order a hearing over the administration’s apparent refusal to abide by the order. Sen Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also raised the issue of compliance with the court order, too. “Violating an unambiguous federal court order by defying its instructions to cease and desist a particular activity would represent a significant breach of your authority, and would be an escalation in abuse of our separation of powers,” Cruz wrote to administration officials. “For a president and...

In the last two years there have been two major attempts by conservatives to defund catastrophic policies. One attempt was Obamacare in October of 2013 and the other attempt was executive amnesty this week. In both attempts, the Republican House-passed bills were amended in the Senate to reinstate funding for Obamacare and executive amnesty. In both attempts, the Republican House-passed bills were amended in the Senate to reinstate funding for Obamacare and executive amnesty. In both cases, there weren’t 60 votes in the Senate to reinstate funding for these policies. So the majority leaders at the time had to resort...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that he's learned he was wrong on his approach to immigration reform. Rubio, a onetime Tea Party favorite whose support for a comprehensive immigration reform package hurt him with the GOP base, told the conservative crowd that he now understands U.S. borders must be secured before anything else can be done. "It wasn't very popular, I don't know if you know that from some of the folks here," Rubio said with a smile, earning laughs from the crowd, when asked about his earlier support for the bill by Fox...

With the Republican surrender on President Obama’s amnesty decree that I predicted over a month ago now taking shape, an appeal to duty may be futile. Nevertheless, it is still worth being blunt about this. The Beltway GOP’s retreat would be a profound dereliction of duty – specifically, the duty that Congress owes to the states.The federal government, very much including Republican lawmakers and conservative judges, has systematically disarmed the states of their capacity for self-defense. The power to defend one’s territory – including the power to remove aliens who have no legal right to be present – is...

The New York Times had a very compelling story about an illegal alien who came to the US and immediately gave birth to a sickly baby who died. The problem with the story was that the Times implausibly tied the death of the baby to the lack of immediate amnesty for illegal aliens, and that implausibility made for a weak storyline. Since we've seen so many of these kinds of articles, I thought I'd provide some tips on how to write a better one. His mother was still in McAllen, a town 10 miles from the Texas-Mexico border —...

If President Obama, who has warned ICE agents of consequences if they do their job, had a son, he might look like Jamiel Shaw Jr., a young African-American killed by an illegal alien who shouldn't have been here. Shaw was a Los Angeles high school star dreaming of a good life ahead when he was gunned down on March 2, 2008, while walking home. He was picked at random, police said, possibly as part of a gang loyalty test for the illegal alien who shot him. Charged with the crime was Pedro Espinoza, who'd been released just hours earlier from...

He only controls 46 seats, but Harry Reid is acting like he has 60. Reid’s uncompromising posture during the flap over homeland security funding and his emerging plans for an upcoming fight over immigration make clear he’s doing little to change the hardball style that defined his tenure as majority leader. This despite losing control of the chamber after last fall’s Democratic debacle and tamping down a coup among centrists seeking his ouster. The 75-year-old Reid, who may seek reelection next year and is in his second stint as minority leader, is betting that Republicans are so nervous about being...

How the DHS fight shows that the right wing is (thankfully) toothless, and that Congress is essentially leaderless. So here’s something I’ve often wondered over the last few years. What exactly would happen if John Boehner bucked the right-wingers in the House? You know—if he gave us one of those heroic Hollywood moments that we so long for in this sail-trimming city and gave a big speech about how he was putting principle ahead of politics and the consequences be damned. You know what I think would happen? If, say, he followed Mitch McConnell’s lead and allowed a vote on...

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Some among the GOP base may decry an “establishment” takeover of the party’s nomination process, but Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says his political machine is a crucial part of a path to Republican victory in 2016. “We cannot be a candidate-crazy party,” Priebus told reporters in a meeting Thursday. “We also need the mechanics.” Speaking to reporters during the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference, Priebus touted himself and the RNC as handling the “boring stuff” that’s key to getting a campaign off the ground — and helping a Republican candidate actually be successful. From...

While the entire nation focuses on the growing threat of radical Islamic attacks in the West, there’s still an ongoing war on the southern border of the United States and it just got a lot worse. Thanks to Obama’s willingness to allow undocumented illegal immigrants into the U.S. military, a situation bound to happen finally did. A 34-year-old Arizona Army National Guardsman NCO by the name of Raul Portillo was recently busted in an undercover sting and accused of helping Mexican drug cartels safely transport large loads of cocaine and marijuana over the border. Portillo, a man suspected of living...

Thanks to Whenifhow for FReepmailing me this: Here’s a video and article.. also below see the videos of Gowdy in congress and interview with Greta last night. 5:12 Minutes Rep Trey Gowdy: Democrats Will Regret Pres’ Exec Action On Immigration - America’s Newsroom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqBVjhsiUyc Feb 26, 2015 Gowdy to Dems: In Future ‘You Will Beg’ to Have Law Enforced http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/02/26/gowdy-to-dems-in-future-you-will-beg-to-have-law-enforced/ In the opening statement below his microphone isn’t working for a few seconds, but he continues. Trey Gowdy BLASTS Obama’s illegal amnesty, tells illegals they will regret this abuse one day Trey Gowdy gave a great opening speech today blasting...

MONTPELIER, Vt. — An investigation into fraudulent applications for Vermont’s driver’s privilege cards has spread to multiple states and Department of Motor Vehicle branches, according to the department’s chief investigator. When the Department of Motor Vehicles first reported receiving a rash of driver’s license applications from out-of-state illegal immigrants, it appeared the problem might be limited to a single license branch and involve one other state.