Free Republic

It might be uncomfortable to talk about, but Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been fighting brain cancer since July. The 81-year-old has not returned to the US Capitol since December. So the speculation is already underway about what would happen if McCain stepped down — or, worse, could no longer serve. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a list of possible successors is circulating in the whispering Republican class, headlined by McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, and former US Sen. Jon Kyl. If McCain leaves office before May 30, the Post indicated, his Senate seat will be on the ballot in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. law enforcement agencies have seized the sex marketplace website Backpage.com as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to a posting on the Backpage website on Friday. A Phoenix FBI official said that there was “law enforcement activity” on Friday at the Sedona, Arizona home of Michael Lacey, one of the founders of Backpage.

Washington (AFP) - The US states of Texas and Arizona on Friday announced plans to send National Guard troops to the southern border with Mexico after President Donald Trump ordered a thousands-strong deployment to combat drug trafficking and illegal immigration. The Texas National Guard said it would send 250 troops to the border within 72 hours and had already deployed two Lakota helicopters, while Arizona's governor said he would send 150 personnel next week. "The Texas national guard is preparing to immediately deploy with supporting aircraft, vehicles and equipment to the Texas-Mexico border," Brigadier General Tracy Norris, the commanding general...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 6, 2018 Attorney General Announces Zero-Tolerance Policy for Criminal Illegal Entry Attorney General Jeff Sessions today notified all U.S. Attorney’s Offices along the Southwest Border of a new “zero-tolerance policy” for offenses under 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a), which prohibits both attempted illegal entry and illegal entry into the United States by an alien. The implementation of the Attorney General’s zero-tolerance policy comes as the Department of Homeland Security reported a 203 percent increase in illegal border crossings from March 2017 to March 2018, and a 37 percent increase from February 2018 to March 2018—the largest month-to-month...

The Justice Department announced Friday that it is implementing a “zero-tolerance” policy for prosecuting those attempting to enter the U.S. illegally -- the latest in a series of measures by the Trump administration to combat illegal immigration. “The situation at our Southwest Border is unacceptable,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement announcing the policy. “Congress has failed to pass effective legislation that serves the national interest -- that closes dangerous loopholes and fully funds a wall along our southern border. " “As a result, a crisis has erupted at our Southwest Border that necessitates an escalated effort to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday ordering the end of a policy, known as “catch and release,” in which illegal immigrants are released from detention while awaiting a court hearing on their status. As part of the memo, Trump asked Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to produce a list of military facilities that could be used to detain illegal immigrants.

In a widely ridiculed speech in 2015 at Trump Tower, Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, promised to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and told the nation: “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists …” To fix that problem, the future president promised he’d build a wall on the southern border. The mainstream media lambasted Trump for being “insensitive,” said he is “racist” and accused him of “insulting” Mexico with his comments. When CNN asked Trump if he regretted saying “rapists” come across the border from Mexico, Trump doubled down: “Some are rapists and some are killers.” But was...

Oregon's governor says that if President Donald Trump asks to dispatch members of her state's National Guard to the US southern border, she'll "say no." In a set of tweets Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Kate Brown said she was "deeply troubled" by Trump's plan to send members of the US military to the border and implied that the President is doing so as a political distraction. "If @realDonaldTrump asks me to deploy Oregon Guard troops to the Mexico border, I'll say no. As Commander of Oregon's Guard, I'm deeply troubled by Trump's plan to militarize our border," the tweet said. Brown...

MADISON, Wisconsin, April 4, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Federal Elections Commission fined Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin for failing to report $116,898 in contributions to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Democratic Senate candidate Russ Feingold. According to FEC documents, the abortion affiliate’s political arm reported $133,305.04 in expenditures on its October 2016 quarterly report, but that sum included two payments of $58,449.04 apiece, dated August 31, 2016, but not submitted in any previous reports. One was a donation to Clinton, who lost to President Donald Trump, and the other a donation to Feingold, a former Wisconsin senator who unsuccessfully...

President Trump wants to get more manpower on the border by deploying the National Guard, but there is another option: He could tell the Border Patrol to get agents out from behind their desks and into the field on patrol duty. On one Sunday last month in a key stretch of the border in Texas, just 12.5 percent of the agents on duty were patrolling along the border, according to numbers reviewed by The Washington Times. At one point during the day shift, that worked out to 16 agents patrolling more than 55 miles — and five of them were...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, urging tougher security measures along the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, claimed that women "are being raped at numbers never seen before" while an immigrant caravan is heading toward the U.S. "Yesterday, it came out where this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before," the president said at a White House tax reform event in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. "They don't want to mention that, so we have to change our laws." "Remember my opening remarks at Trump Tower...Everybody said, 'Oh, he was so tough.' I used the...

The Mexican Senate passed a resolution seeking an end to bilateral cooperation with the U.S. against drug cartels and immigration problems after President Trump ordered National Guard troops to the border. The resolution was passed in a unanimous fashion and sent to the White House, Members of the U.S. Congress, and Mexico’s Foreign Relations Officer, El Universal reported. “Despite everything that is at stake in the relationship between our two countries, the way in which President Donald Trump has behaved is, for the Mexican people, unacceptable and intolerable,” El Universal quoted from the document. The resolution demands that President Trump...

Border Patrol agents within just a few hours on Tuesday seized over $1 million dollars worth of marijuana from two abandoned vehicles. The first incident occurred near Garceno, Texas when agents observed a Ford F-150 leaving the Rio Grande at a high-rate of speed. Agents responded to the area and found the vehicle abandoned. In the bed of the pickup, 50 bundles of marijuana were found, weighing at over 600 pounds and worth an estimated $500,000. Just hours later, agents near Fronton, Texas witnessed several suspects loading bundles of marijuana into a Chevrolet Trail Blazer. The driver fled to Mexico...

If the US Government offered/ issued a redeemable or even a non redeemable wall/ fence Bond, would you purchase them?

The Pentagon said Thursday it is establishing a new “border security support cell” that will be manned 24 hours a day after President Trump ordered the military to help secure the southern border. Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said Trump authorized the National Guard to “enhance its support” for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the border. “This is not business as usual,” White said. She said their efforts will include aviation, engineer, surveillance, communications, vehicle maintenance and logistics support. “They will support border patrol agents who are performing law enforcement duties,” White said.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that President Trump will sign a proclamation to send the National Guard to the border immediately. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said at the White House press briefing that it would be done in conjunction with governors and that the administration hopes the deployment begins "immediately."

Looking at Mexican policy and actions, President Trump was right way back during the campaign: Mexico does use the United States as a bit of a dumping ground for their least desirable citizens. Like everything he says, this claim was immediately misrepresented and castigated in the media. Sinister motives were ascribed. But it can be proven through the briefest of Socratic methods: Why do Mexican leaders risk angering the United States and flaring relations to ensure that some of their residents can illegally cross into America? Is it because these are the brightest and best Mexico has to offer? Is...

Hollywood director Joss Whedon took to Twitter late Tuesday and wished for President Donald Trump to “quietly die.” “Donald trump is killing this country. Some of it quickly, some slowly, but he spoils and destroys everything he touches,” Whedon wrote. “He emboldens monsters, wielding guns, governmental power, or just smug doublespeak. Or Russia,” the Avengers director wrote. “My hate and sadness are exhausting. Die, Don. Just quietly die.”

A caravan of Central American migrants whose trek across Mexico infuriated President Donald Trump has decided not to travel to the US border, leaders said Tuesday. "We will wrap up our work in Mexico City," said Irineo Mujica, the head of the migrant advocacy group People Without Borders (Pueblo sin Fronteras). "We have support teams at the border if there are people who need assistance there, but they would have to travel on their own," he told AFP in the town of Matias Romero, in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. The just over 1,000 migrants who currently make up...

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, lit into U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and President Donald Trump during an interview in Waco on Tuesday, suggesting the two Republicans were inciting fear in Texas voters. "Let me tell you what the president and our junior senator are doing right now," he said at an event hosted by The Texas Tribune. O'Rourke was being interviewed by the Tribune's CEO, Evan Smith. "They want you to be afraid of Mexicans. When they call them rapists and criminals, and say only a wall will keep them out." O'Rourke is challenging Cruz in the November election....