Free Republic

Now this is just pathetic. Some of you turned Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)87% into the hero of the day because of his Benghazi investigation. He could do no wrong. What happens when you build a cult of personalty around any politician is then they can go BOHICA on you. Bend over America. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)87% is now on record admitting he’s going to help shove President Obama’s amnesty plan right where you don’t want it. (SNIP) So, Hemmer asked Gowdy who he’d stop the President. Gowdy’s answer? He wants to let Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)Heritage ActionScorecardSen. John McCain52%Senate Republican...

President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, granting de facto amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, has so outraged the tea party faction of the Republican Party that the ultra conservatives are focusing their attention and resources on this single issue, potentially causing a fissure within the party, according to The New York Times. "What started five years ago as a groundswell of conservatives committed to curtailing the reach of the federal government, cutting the deficit and countering the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party has become a movement largely against immigration overhaul," writes the Times’ Jeremy Peters. "The...

President Barack Obama claimed he has been "restrained" on immigration and that his position on executive actions has not changed after he unilaterally granted temporary amnesty and work permits to millions of illegal immigrants. On ABC's This Week, Obama said that he has "been very restrained with respect to immigration" and has "bent over backwards and will continue to do everything I can to get Congress" to pass a more permanent and comprehensive executive amnesty bill.

President Obama will no doubt clash regularly with his newly empowered partisan adversaries in Congress. But the most important struggle in U.S. politics over the next two years will be inside the Republican Party. And the person who can play a decisive role in that battle is Jeb Bush. Yes, Democrats have their own divides, usually described as differences between their populist and Wall Street camps. Still, there is broad agreement inside the party, even among most of its Wall Streeters, that wage stagnation and economic inequality are major problems for the country and that Democrats need to make dealing...

Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday noted that previous U.S. presidents have issued some type of executive order on immigration, suggesting his Democratic successor was on “pretty firm legal ground.” The former president spoke on the eve of President Barack Obama’s scheduled announcement of executive actions to spare as many as 5 million immigrants from being deported from the U.S. Clinton said during an event honoring the magazine The New Republic that it was part of a larger debate about the nation’s role around the globe. “As far as I can tell, every president in the modern era has issued...

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio urged President Barack Obama to hold off using executive authority to overhaul immigration regulations, saying reform should be gradual and come only after authorities clamp down on illegal immigration. “Taking executive action will set back the opportunity to make progress,” Rubio told reporters in Spanish on Wednesday during a two-day trip to Colombia. His comments echoed those by incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a day after Republicans took control of the Senate. …

If Republicans take control of the Senate and hold the House in Tuesday’s midterm election, they’ll get busy passing bills, says Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). First up—“very popular” legislation to fast-track the Keystone XL pipeline, Portman told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren on Monday evening. He called it “probably the biggest infrastructure project in America next year,” one that would create “20,000 to 40,000 new jobs.” “Jobs, lower gas prices, energy independence—what’s wrong with that?” he asked. “Let’s just do it.” Portman said Republican attempts to “do anything significant on Obamacare” probably would meet with a presidential veto, “but there...

... Shaheen, when asked by Breitbart News about a recent study from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) that found 71 percent of all New Hampshire jobs since 2000 have gone to both legal and illegal aliens rather than New Hampshire citizens, ducked for cover. “My understanding is that’s a study sponsored by a right-wing organization,” she replied. When Breitbart News noted that the study is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other government sources—and includes no data from non-governmental sources—her communications director Harrell Kirsten abruptly called an end to the press conference inside the local Democratic...

During a debate with Democratic challenger David Alameel, Texas Sen. John Cornyn said it is time to reach a "consensus" on immigration reform by "finding parts that we agree on," including providing children of illegal immigrants access to education. "I believe education is the way out," the Republican said. He added that the children of parents "who did not comply with our immigration laws are guilty of nothing," and "it makes no sense to condemn them to a minimum-wage job for the rest of their lives when they could produce so much more, when they could be so much more....

WASHINGTON (AP) — The most powerful business group in the country is spending tens of millions of dollars to help Republicans win control of the Senate with one glaring omission — the tight Georgia Senate race. Rob Engstrom, political director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Friday that the organization will stay on the sidelines in the contest between businessman David Perdue and Democrat Michelle Nunn in Georgia as well as the competitive Louisiana race pitting three-term Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu against Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy. Days before the Nov. 4 election, both races are which are critical to...

Some people are urging the Colorado burrito chain Illegal Pete’s to change its name because of the way the word “illegal” has been used to describe immigrants. The Coloradan reports that about 30 people gathered in Fort Collins Wednesday to ask owner Pete Turner to change the name of the chain, which is about to open an outlet there. It’s part of a bigger campaign nationally against what critics refer to as the “I-word.” They think using the word to describe a person is dehumanizing. …

Key House Republicans say congressional action on immigration is much more likely if Republicans take control of the Senate. The effort, two Republicans say, would likely involve individual measures rather than a broad, comprehensive bill favored by Democrats. "I actually think it's more likely, if we take the Senate, that we will have immigration reform," said Rep. Raul Labrador. "We will be able to do it on a step-by-step approach like most Republicans have been asking to do and I think the American people want." Labrador, who was a member of the bipartisan House group working on the issue before...

Republicans are canceling TV ad spending planned for the final two weeks of Michigan’s U.S. Senate race, signaling that the GOP is investing in other races in its drive for the Senate majority. The National Republican Senatorial Committee pulled nearly $1 million in ads for the weeks of Oct. 21 and Oct. 28, according to a political operative who tracks ad spending. Democrat Gary Peters leads Republican Terri Lynn Land in Michigan. …

Speaker John A. Boehner outlined the September legislative agenda in a Wednesday afternoon conference call with House Republican lawmakers, describing a scheduled 12-day session that will be “brief, but busy.” The most pressing item on the agenda is a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30, but Boehner also spoke strongly and at length, according to a read-out from a source on the call, in favor of using the remaining legislative days before the November elections to draw “a very stark contrast between ourselves and the Democrats who run Washington.” The Republican-led House, Boehner said, “is...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said that President Barack Obama should “continue to follow the law” in order to help “create an environment where you could do immigration reform in a responsible way next year” on Tuesday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show.”

The ACLU, the American Immigration Council and other pro-amnesty groups filed a lawsuit Friday against the federal government because they claim the Obama administration’s policies are unconstitutional. The groups filed on behalf of mothers and children deported from a detention facility in Artesia, New Mexico for policies that would ensure “rapid deportations” and create “countless hurdles” according to the ACLU for people who illegally crossed the border. …

When Mitt Romney chose Representative Paul Ryan as his running mate in the 2012 presidential election, the tea party was ecstatic. "It's a big step toward what the tea party has been trying to accomplish," Matt Kibbe, the president and CEO of FreedomWorks, said at the time. "It gives people a reason to be more enthusiastic about the Republican ticket." But just two years later, Kibbe and his fellow tea party activists are singing a different tune: Ryan has betrayed the movement. The first significant break between Ryan and the tea party came at the beginning of this year, when...

In a wide-ranging interview with The Huffington Post's Howard Fineman, Glenn Beck took the opportunity to again blast conservatives critical of his decision to greet the recent wave of underage illegal immigrants with toys and hot meals. "I don't understand those who cannot see the plight of children," Beck told HuffPo. The border issue is one example. Beck took heat from fellow conservatives for his decision to distribute large amounts of relief supplies through churches and other organizations in McAllen, Texas, to undocumented children caught at the southern border. Sen. Cruz was at his side. Beck's view is that the...

What can President Barack Obama actually do without Congress to change U.S. immigration policies? A lot, it turns out. There are some limits under federal law, and anything the White House ultimately decides to do may be challenged in court as unconstitutional. But leading legal experts say the White House almost certainly could delay indefinitely efforts to deport millions of immigrants already in the U.S. illegally, and it could give them official work permits that would allow them to legally find jobs, obtain driver's licenses and pay income taxes. Here is what Obama could not do without approval from Congress:...

Unaccompanied illegal immigrant children with communicable diseases have given or exposed federal agents to lice, scabies, tuberculosis and chicken pox, according to a report issued Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General. In two cases, the children of a border patrol agent got chicken pox contracted from their parents’ exposure to unaccompanied children with chicken pox, according to the report on conditions of detention centers and border facilities. The report, the first in a series, is based on 87 unannounced visits to 63 detention centers being used to house unaccompanied alien children (UAC) in Texas, Arizona...