Free Republic

(Speaker Paul) Ryan said lawmakers have not determined how to resolve differences over the wall funding. A House Homeland Security appropriations bill provides $5 billion in funding, but the Senate version includes $1.6 billion. ...the Senate will require the help of at least nine Democrats to pass spending measures thanks to the filibuster rule.

The United States maintains a policy of separating children from their parents in the case of illegal border crossings in the same sense that the United States has a policy of separating parents from their children when those parents are sent to prison for murder or tax evasion or are jailed for unpaid speeding tickets --SNIP-- The more illegals there were in the United States, the easier it was for more to come. It’s the public-policy version of what the tort lawyers call an “attractive nuisance.”

Hillary Clinton said, "Jesus Christ said, 'Suffer the little children unto me' not 'let the little children suffer.'" Three former first ladies — Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama — have stepped out their political retirement to condemn the Trump administration's practice of separating parents and children at the border while parents are prosecuted for illegally entering the country. Speaking at a women's group in New York City on Monday, Clinton called family separation "an affront to our values" and said she had warned Trump's immigration policy would lead to this during her 2016 presidential campaign against him. And...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is calling on President Donald Trump to end the “heartless” policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the U.S. border. “Children shouldn’t be used as a negotiating tool,” Bush tweeted on Monday. “@realDonaldTrump should end this heartless policy and Congress should get an immigration deal done that provides for asylum reform, border security and a path to citizenship for Dreamers.” The failed presidential candidate’s plea came in response to President Trump’s tweet in which he vowed to stop “some of the worst criminals on earth,” from using children to illegally enter the U.S....

Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich is pushing Republican leadership to stand up to President Donald Trump on tariffs and immigration. […] Kasich urged Republicans in Congress “to do whatever they can do legislatively” to push back against Trump’s decisions to impose tariffs on several ally nations and end an Obama-era program to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. …

Ohio Gov. John Kasich hinted again Sunday at a possible 2020 presidential run by ripping the Republican Party and declaring “I can bring that party back.” The Republican governor accused the GOP of being “anti-immigrant, anti-trade, in favor of debt,” and implored party members to “come home.” “We should care about people from top to bottom, not just at those at the top but everybody,” Mr. Kasich told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I can bring that party back, that’s what I’m going to do, in one way or another.”

California Governor Jerry Brown blamed “low-life politicians” for a growing backlash against the “sanctuary state” policies he has enacted in his state during an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

--SNIP-- Since Trump took office, deportation officers have been unshackled, as the White House describes it, from an Obama-era mandate to focus limited enforcement resources on deporting immigrants with serious criminal convictions. Across the country, they have been rounding up people like Franco who have sunk roots in this country, living for years, if not decades, with little fear of apprehension. Nowhere, however, have federal agents more aggressively embraced their newfound freedom than in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware, an investigation by ProPublica and the Inquirer and Daily News foun

The glee was palpable in the right-wing corners of the Internet and media at the news that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R) was leaving at the end of the year. There, Ryan’s departure was greeted not with hand-wringing but celebration, as if it were a Super Bowl victory. “We WILL NOT miss Paul Ryan,” one Twitter user with more than 20,000 followers bellowed this week. “President Trump is the one who truly loves this country, who loves the people of this country, and we give ZERO flying flips what you think.” “GOOD RIDDANCE,” Trump loyalist and Fox News commentator...

US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan will not run for re-election this year, US media report. Congress’ most powerful lawmaker has told friends he will not stand for another term in his Wisconsin district this autumn, reports Axios. His exit would be a blow to the Republican party ahead of November’s mid-term elections. […] According to Axios, Mr Ryan has found his job frustrating, partly because of President Donald Trump. …

It's either Yes or No, Mr. POTUS, Donald J. Trump. Sir, you are the human being in this God's world put there by the American people to save this once magnificent Nation Republic. A profile in courage awaits your pen killing this monster of destruction of the American Republic..case closed!!! Veto that bill!!!

Stuart Varney: There Is No Penalty For Illegals Voting In California… VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEv02zSjjwM&feature=youtu.be _______ Leftist politicians driving rift within California: Varney _______________

A group of Republicans who have decided not to run for re-election told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the Republican Party has changed, and not for the better. Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), and Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) complained about the GOP’s narrowing focus and the perception that the Republicans must pledge loyalty to the president instead of to GOP principles. […] Royce said he always considered the Republican Party to be “a big tent party” with room “for a lot of different viewpoints.” He said part of the answer is for...

Democrats said President Trump will be under pressure Tuesday to prove he can actually forge bipartisanship in Washington, after a year in which they said he tacked to the right, shunning opportunities they gave him to work across party lines. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said that from judicial picks to health care to the tax-cut bill, Mr. Trump has tilted to the right — and for the most part hasn’t even sought Democrats’ input.

The Trump administration has been aggressively deporting foreign nationals home around the globe, from Somalia to Slovakia. Though Mexicans, Central Americans and Haitians make up 9 out of 10 people removed from the United States, year-end figures analyzed by NPR show that deportations to the rest of the world have jumped 24 percent. Some are from formerly "recalcitrant" countries that used to reject U.S. deportees but have now agreed to take them home. These nations include Guinea, Cuba, Bangladesh, Iraq, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Moreover, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, are arresting more immigrants in the interior of...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the Republican-led Congress should offer a path to citizenship for DREAMers now and pass a bill that deals with border security and “chain migration later” in exchange for granting “amnesty” to all undocumented immigrants. Rather than waiting until Congress can agree on some sort of comprehensive immigration package, conservatives in Congress have argued that any deal granting legal status to “Dreamers,” called so in reference to the DREAM Act, should be tied to additional border security measures, such as funding for the border wall and legislative language that prevents “chain migration,” or family reunification, in...

Pro-amnesty GOP Senators are working hand-in-glove with Democrats to block a government budget until President Donald Trump agrees to break his campaign promise and his presidency by amnestying millions of wage-lowering illegal immigrants. The hostage-taking is being fronted by a group of GOP legislators, led by Sen. Jeff Flake and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who announced Wednesday they would not allow 2018 funding for the Pentagon until Trump approves an amnesty, saying:

Everyone knows something has to be done for America's DACA kids. Everyone with a good heart or a working brain knows it's not their fault their parents sneaked them into the country when they were kids under 16. It's true that by law they are illegal immigrants. But most DACA kids have grown up to become good, law-abiding Americans. They've gone to school here. They've worked and paid taxes here. They've even served in our military. Everyone except a few people on the far fringe knows it'd be wrong to deport these 800,000 so-called "Dreamers" -- now or in the...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told the House Rules Committee today that Congress has a “duty” to protect the “DREAMers” by taking action to allow them to stay in the United States. “Congress has a duty and an obligation to protect these DREAMers—the committee should take this opportunity and take the bipartisan DREAM Act a vote on the floor,” Pelosi said. […] Pelosi said the vast majority of Americans want the DREAMers to stay and become legal residents of the United States. “By an 84 to 12 margin, Americans believe that Dreamers should be allowed to stay in America and...

Since he became governor, Chris Sununu has rarely clashed with President Donald Trump, supporting the travel ban on citizens from several mostly Muslim nations and quick to play up visits he has made the White House. But when Trump’s immigration crackdown reached the state’s tiny Indonesian community this year, Sununu wrote a letter to his fellow Republican in October in which he said he was “respectfully requesting your administration reconsider its decision to deport these individuals” and urging it consider a “resolution that would allow them to remain in the United States.” Sununu insisted the case of the Indonesians was...