Free Republic

While speaking at a majority Hispanic church in Orlando, Florida, on Monday, former governor and current GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush said that a path to citizenship for those in the country illegally must happen. Moreover, Tampa Bay Times political editor Adam Smith reported on Twitter, Bush said the idea of self deportation or the idea of rounding up people in the country illegally is "not an American value." MyNews13 reporter Caroline Rowland said Bush spoke to "about 100 local pastors" at the mostly Latino church. The first five minutes, she added, were focused on his Christian faith. A number...

Donald Trump laid out his immigration plan on Hannity Monday night. Trump called for “good illegals” to be sent back and let back in while keeping out the bad dudes. "Trump: You got to build a wall. It’s not an easy thing to do. And I’ll get it done. And believe me, I’ll do it for the right but I’m also going to have Mexico pay for it. Mexico is making a fortune off of us. They will pay for it. So, just mark my word. That’s called “negotiation.” …Before I even start a wall we’d get rid of the...

Lesser-known changes in immigration enforcement announced by President Barack Obama in November could offer a “degree of protection” from deportation for up to 9.6 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally, according to a new report by the Migration Policy Institute. In contrast, the highly publicized deferred action programs known by the acronyms DAPA and expanded DACA, which have garnered most of the public’s attention and are on hold by a federal court, could grant temporary relief from deportation to as many as 5.2 million undocumented immigrants if implemented. The Department of Homeland Security recently adopted new...

Last year a retired Border Patrol Officer by the name of Zach Taylor went on camera to explain the driving force behind the unprecedented surge in illegal immigration happening on our southern border. Taylor went on to note that what was happening at our border was not due to a spur of the moment event, or “a humanitarian crisis”, but asymmetrical warfare. The surge we saw at the border was a part of a larger, more chilling event that served one purpose and one purpose only, to show our enemies that our southern border had been compromised and the government...

Lawyers representing immigrant mothers held in a South Texas detention center say the women have been denied counsel and coerced into accepting ankle-monitoring bracelets as a condition of release, even after judges made clear that paying their bonds would suffice. In a letter Monday to Sarah Saldana, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the leaders of a volunteer lawyers' project said they were "dismayed by the lack of transparency, and the coercion, disorganization, and confusion" surrounding recent releases...

Jeb Bush told Telemundo he wants a pathway to legal status for all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. The former Florida governor granted his first Spanish-language interview as a presidential candidate to Telemundo Monday evening. In the interview, he talked about his immigration policies, his thoughts on Donald Trump and Cuba, and his home life and family. "First, coming here legally has to be easier than coming here illegally," he said. "So there needs to be an agreement with the border ... for the 11 million people (who are here illegally), they must come out of the...

This should answer the question of why Donald Trump resonates with the Republican base. Despite having criticized Mitt Romney for being too hardline on immigration in 2012, Trump has until very recently embraced the hardline positions — and those turn out to be very popular among GOP voters. A new poll from CNN shows that normalizing the illegals who have been living here gets 55% support from the general public, but 64% of Republicans prefer deportation: The poll also finds Trump’s positions on immigration are at odds with those of most Americans, but may be providing him a boost in...

KATHLEEN HENNESSEY Bush: Trump's Words 'Vulgar,' Huckabee's Comment 'Doesn't Help' In his first Spanish-language interview since launching his bid for the White House, the former Florida governor said he was optimistic about passing comprehensive immigration reform, saying, "I know we can do it," according to excerpts of the interview released by Telemundo on Monday evening. Bush's definition of comprehensive reform is different from some others. He has said he supports a path to legal status for immigrants living in the country illegally, but not a path to citizenship as backed by most immigration advocates, Democrats and some Republicans. The candidate...

I hope Trump’s MSNBC interview doesn’t surprise too many people: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took a softer stance [on] immigration during a television interview Friday, saying he believes in a “merit system” for undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. … During Friday’s interview, Trump said the U.S. should take a two-step approach to the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the country. Wouldn’t it be nice if there really were only 11 million? The actual number is probably at least three times that high and rocketing upward every moment. Meanwhile, we can’t find even a loose cannon,...

In an interview conducted solely in Spanish, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tells MSNBC he’s “hurt” by GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s strident criticisms of Mexican criminal aliens coming across the border. “I was hurt hearing somebody speaking in such a vulgar fashion. This makes solving this problem much more difficult. When we have politicians like that we cannot progress,” said Bush according to a translator. “In a political sense it was bad, and it creates an environment that is worse.”

Sends letter to Secretary Kerry questioning inappropriate use of UAC funds among other concernsWASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking more questions about a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) document that appears to contradict key aspects of the Administration’s policy regarding the handling of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC). This letter represents the latest step in Sen. Cruz’s thorough examination of the Administration’s multi-agency approach to last year’s UAC influx, and follows two prior letters to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on the subject: Sen. Cruz’s...

Andrew Arredondo clicks through hundreds of black-and-white photos on his computer at the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office in Lordsburg, pausing to point out pea-sized shadows. If you didn’t know what to look for, you’d miss them. But in the green cross hairs of the photos snapped with his long-range thermal-image camera, there they are: drug mules trudging across one of the Bootheel’s four mountain ranges. In the middle of the night. With no light but the moon. Carrying swollen loads of dope on their backs. Chances are the shadows have been walking for days. Chances are their destination is I-10,...

But he said the country should take a different approach with "the other ones" — i.e., undocumented immigrants who are already in the country who have "done a good job." "I'm a very big believer in merit system," Trump said. "I have to tell you ... some of these people have been here, they've done a good job. You know, in some cases, sadly, they've been living under the shadows, etc., etc. We have to do something. So whether it's merit or whether it's whatever, but I'm a believer in the merit system. If somebody's been outstanding, we try and...

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States totaled 11.3 million in 2014, outnumbering the 9.6 million Americans who were unemployed in the same year, according to data from Pew Research Center and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). “An estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2014,” says a Pew report. “The new unauthorized immigrant total includes people who cross the border illegally as well as those who arrive with legal visas and remain in the U.S. after their visas expire.” Of those 11.3 illegal immigrants, 8.1 million are participating in the labor force. “Unauthorized...

People who entered the United States illegally may be called "undocumented" in politically correct circles, but what is all too well documented is the utter irresponsibility of both political parties in dealing with immigration issues. Both Democratic and Republican administrations have left the border with Mexico porous for years — porous not just for Mexicans but for anybody else, including terrorists from the Middle East. Two very different issues have gotten jumbled together in the political stew called "comprehensive immigration reform." The first and most fundamental issue is whether we are going to have an immigration policy at all. The...

Disappointing, but not surprising. The depressing reality though that is that most of the Republican field has endorsed amnesty in one form or another. So this isn't much of a surprise. Trump is using his own vocabulary, but he's echoing the same amnesty talking points you could hear from Marco Rubio... or Barack Obama. During Friday's interview, Trump said the U.S. should take a two-step approach to the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the country. "Well, the first thing we do is take the bad ones — of which there are, unfortunately, quite a few," said Trump,...

A remarkable transformation is underway in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The birthplace and final resting place of George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson—and once one of the most reliably-red of red states—is being rapidly turned into a progressive stronghold. These changes are not the result of an inside agency, or a natural evolution in political thinking, but rather the result of one of the most impactful yet least-discussed policies of the federal government. Each year the federal government prints millions of visas and distributes these admission tickets to the poorest and least-developed nations in the world. A middle-aged person living...

The government has once again violated a federal court’s injunction prohibiting the implementation of President Obama’s executive amnesty plan. The action comes right before high-ranking federal government officials, including the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have been ordered to appear in an August hearing to show why they should not be held in contempt for prior failures to comply with the injunction.

From  pjmedia.com: PJ Media obtained a never-before-released copy of a Texas DPS report on human smuggling containing the numbers of crimes committed by aliens in Texas.   According to the analysis conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety, foreign aliens committed 611,234 unique crimes in Texas from 2008 to 2014, including thousands of homicides and sexual assaults. The precise number of homicides (presumably murders and non-negligent manslaughters) is listed as 2,993.  From the FBI UCR, Table 20, the murders and non-negligent manslaughters listed for Texas in those years are the following: 2008 1372, 2009  1325 2010  1246 2011 1089...

Latino street gangs led by MS-13 have tried to lure Long Island's newest child immigrants into their ranks, police said, causing concern among local investigators as well as immigrant advocacy groups. The violent, drug-dealing gangs have been vying for new members among the more than 3,000 children younger than 18 who resettled in Nassau and Suffolk counties between September 2013 and September 2014, authorities said. Many of those kids were fleeing violence carried out by MS-13 and other gangs in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala."They were targeted by the Latino gangs that were already established here," Det. Sgt. Mike Marino,...