Free Republic

US attorneys have been granted additional time by US District Judge Andrew Hanen to provide details about a contentious advisory to assess sanctions or redresses against them for misleading the states and the court in the legal challenge against President Obama’s executive action on immigration reform. Hanen moved the deadline from April 21st to April 30th at the request of the government. In the legal challenge against the immigration executive action, which has taken by 26 states led by Texas, attorneys for the government claimed on numerous occasions that movement on deferred action applications would not take place before February...

The most potent illustration that Republicans have shifted their attitudes on immigration came Tuesday morning when all GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected an amendment from Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to severely limit the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country. The committee’s overwhelming ‘No’ vote shows that the battle for Republicans’ souls on immigration has shifted away from groups that want to reduce the influx of foreigners, like the Heritage Foundation, NumbersUSA, and Fairness for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), toward free-market groups that applaud increased immigration, such as Americans for Tax Reform and the CATO Institute....

The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC/CONELA) announced today that Gov. Mike Huckabee will address attendees at its annual convention to be held in Houston, April 28-30. This follows last week's announcement that Governor Jeb Bush and U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez would be guest speakers. Bush and Huckabee will appear on Wednesday, April 29 with Bush speaking during a noon luncheon and Huckabee providing an address at the 6 PM Dinner and Awards Presentation. Gutierrez will address the group on Tuesday, April 28 during the 7 PM session. A full schedule of events is available at: bit.ly/NHCLCschedule. "We are excited...

If Jeb Bush embodies many Republicans’ hopes to soften the GOP’s harsh brand image on immigration and expand the party’s competitiveness with Latino voters, then why is he endorsing and appearing at a political fundraiser tonight for the virulently anti-immigrant Senator David Vitter? (SNIP) Meanwhile, David Vitter is one of the most consistent anti-immigrant hardliners in the Senate – a vocal opponent of the DREAM Act, comprehensive immigration reform, and President Obama’s immigration executive action programs and a lead sponsor of efforts to restrict the use of discretion in immigration enforcement to target felons, not families (it continues to be...

“Marco gives the same speech with donors that he does in public,” one Rubio advisor assured BuzzFeed. I’m sure he’s right. After all, when has Marco Rubio ever said different things to different audiences about his stance on immigration? I do think it’s safe to say that Rubio’s choosing his words carefully on this subject, even among friends in private settings. All it would take to blow him up for good on the right is a hidden smartphone recorder catching him crowing about amnesty, and he knows it. He’s the safest pick in the field precisely because he’s not prone...

I’ve long been a fan of the adage that the worst thing you can give someone is exactly what they’ve asked for. In the last few days, there has been a minor storm brewing over SB 2161 – the bill in Mississippi designed to address Common Core. The bill passed with overwhelming support in the Mississippi Legislature in an election year. Last week, Governor Phil Bryant had some misgivings about the bill and signaled that he might (might) veto. Wingnut nation piled on both on blogs and in closed door Facebook chat rooms urging him to do that. (SNIP) Of...

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Gov. Phil Bryant late Thursday afternoon ended any suspense over whether his signature would go on a Common Core bill supporters said was designed to kill use of the education standards in Mississippi. Bryant disagreed, and Thursday put his veto on Senate Bill 2161, saying the measure did not kill Common Core but merely created a commission to study it. He wants it dead and pledged to continuing seeking its demise. (SNIP) Chris McDaniel, who narrowly lost a runoff bid against Thad Cochran for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination, is chairman of United Conservatives Fund. While commending Bryant for his...

David Vitter, the only conservative up in 2016 is running for Governor in 2015. Grassley is good for his state's leanings and he needs no help to win big. Harry Reid's seat is going to be contested by 1 of the pro-amnesty or pro-driver-card Nevada Republicans Sandoval, Heck, Amodei, Cresent or Hutchison. Portman is a conservative because Ben Carson endorsed him apparently. John McCain (R) Johnny Isakson (R) Mark Kirk (R) Chuck Grassley (R) Roy Blunt (R) (Harry Reid) (D) Kelly Ayotte (R) Richard Burr (R) Rob Portman (R) Pat Toomey (R) Ron Johnson (R)

The battle lines of the 2016 Republican primaries are being formed more quickly than many of the establishment media pundits seem to realize and one of the first issues to form a fissure in the field and to, surprisingly, put two candidates with different bases in the Party apparently on the same side are immigration and amnesty for illegal aliens. That Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio should end up as the leading pro-amnesty and pro-expanding legal immigration is unsurprising. During a stop in New Hampshire “gringo aplatanado” Jeb Bush arrogantly referred to his plan to grant amnesty to illegal aliens...

Being a single mother or witnessing a gang crime could be enough for Central American illegal immigrants to get on the path to asylum under guidance the Homeland Security Department issued last week, opening up new ways for the current surge of illegal immigrants to gain a legal foothold in the U.S. The guidance, a 27-page training document from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, says women who flee Central America because they fear being a single woman at the head of a household can be deemed to be part of a targeted social group, and can make a claim that...

First he had the Koch endorsement. Then he didn't. Why? A Glenn Beck interview where Walker moved wackier than Cruz. According to a number of well-respected journalists, the Koch brothers are putting their heft and muscle behind Scott Walker for president. Or maybe not. It depends on whom you ask. First, let’s acknowledge once again that the Great Whitebread Hope from Wisconsin seems to have everyone in the political establishment mesmerized by his alleged strategic and tactical brilliance. Sure, he makes epic gaffes over and over again, but that cannot take anything away from the fact that he barely won...

The Obama administration’s lawyer, Benjamin Mizer, the acting assistant attorney general of the Civil Division at the Justice Department, did not have an easy time in his argument last Friday before a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in the immigration lawsuit filed by 26 states. He was questioned about all of the claims being made by the government, from the administration’s argument that the states don’t have standing to file a lawsuit to the assertion that everything President Obama has done is within the administration’s prosecutorial discretion. The substantive merits of district court Judge Andrew Hanen’s...

While the American voters sent a message of repudiation against the overreach of the executive branch in the November 2014 elections, the executive responded by informing the voters that their message would be ignored. As Republicans won in a landslide election that gave them control of Congress by vowing to stop the overreach of the Obama administration, it simply didn’t matter. In an interview with the Huffington Post last month, Barack Obama conveyed this message by stating that he will, “try to reach out to Republicans and see if they can work with us and where they’re not willing to...

American opposition to the Obama administration and GOP establishment’s extremist immigration policies is boiling at an all-time high, a broad survey of polls shows. Sixty percent of Americans are displeased with the current levels of immigration, according to Gallup—a decline from 72 percent in 2008, when the country plunged into a recession, but an increase of six percent from 2014. The majority of adults Gallup polled, 39 percent in a plurality, said they wanted to see immigration levels decrease. Gallup presents these numbers through a partisan filter as “fodder” for Republicans, discomforted as they are by the results. According to...

Jeb Bush says that the prospective confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch “sounds to me like a victory” because “getting rid of” current Attorney General Eric Holder has “gotta be a win.” The former governor of Florida said last week that President Barack Obama deserves the opportunity to have the team he wants. He also took shots at Holder then, saying that Republicans should consider that the longer they take to confirm Lynch, the longer he will be in office. “I said that they should have a vote,” Bush told radio show host Michael Medved in an interview Tuesday....

A Republican congressman ripped congressional leadership for their inaction on President Obama’s executive amnesty plan for illegals and pointed a finger at Sen. Marco Rubio for U.S. problems with open borders. Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks was a guest on Tim Constantine’s “Capitol Hill Show” on Tuesday and the conversation was dominated by the topic of illegal immigration and the effort by the Obama administration to circumvent existing law and grant amnesty to millions. “What I am very disappointed in is the House and Senate leadership,” Mr. Brooks explained....

Which Republican presidential candidates support amnesty? I have analyzed all the major Republican presidential candidates (except Ben Carson and Rick Sanctorum, who are long shots, and Donald Trump, who has undocumented hair). I have found that all the major presidential candidates support amnesty for illegal aliens, except for one. Can you guess which one?

Scott Walker is under fire for what a former aide calls an “Olympics-quality flip-flop” on immigration. Walker has already moved away from his past positions on allowing undocumented immigrants a clear pathway to legal status — what many conservatives deride as “amnesty” for immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally. On Monday, the Wisconsin governor appeared to go a step further, telling radio host Glenn Beck that he supports limits on legal immigration. “The next president and the next Congress need to make decisions about a legal immigration system that’s based on, first and foremost, on protecting American workers and...

President Obama’s Task Force on New Americans has issued its much-anticipated plan to facilitate life in the U.S. for immigrants and refugees by enhancing pathways to naturalization, building welcoming communities and providing “mobile immigration services in underserved communities.” The government-wide initiative aims to “strengthen federal immigrant and refugee integration infrastructure.” This includes multilingual media campaigns promoting immigrant rights and other free tools to make life easier in the U.S. and up to $10 million for “citizenship preparation” programs. The goal is to “strengthen civic, economic and linguistic integration and to build strong and welcoming communities,” according to the report issued...