Free Republic

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom says the Board of Supervisors’ recent change to the city’s sanctuary laws is a violation of federal law and he will ignore it. The Board of Supervisors voted 8-to-2 yesterday to overturn a policy enacted last summer by Mayor Gavin Newsom that rolled back the city’s sanctuary policy as it relates to contacting immigration authorities when a juvenile is arrested on felony charges. The new rule would require the city to contact immigration authorities only after a juvenile has been convicted of a felony. In City Hall, it’s been cast as a bit of political...

In a little-noticed act of political faintheartedness, the Obama administration has pulled back from nominating Thomas Saenz, a highly regarded civil-rights lawyer and counsel to the mayor of Los Angeles, to run the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Saenz, the former top litigator in Los Angeles for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or Maldef...The floating of his name led to fierce outbursts from anti-immigrant groups and blogs, which detest him for being so good at what he does. He was a leader of the successful fight to block California’s Proposition 187...He has defended Latino day laborers who...

The man accused of arranging for the killing of 32 bison on a neighbor's property struck a deal this morning in which he'll face minimal or no jail time but will have to open his wallet wide. Jeffrey Scott Hawn, CEO of Seattle-based software firm Attachmate, pleaded guilty to a class 3 felony of criminal mischief and to a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals in Park County Court. At his Jan. 28 sentencing he could get up to two years of probation and up to 10 days in Park County Jail. Four generations of the Downare family, in cowboy...

A software CEO from Texas accused of allowing the killing of his neighbor's bison in South Park last winter is due in court. Forty-four-year-old Jeffrey Scott Hawn of Austin has been charged with 32 counts of animal cruelty, one count of theft of more than $20,000 and a one count of criminal mischief. Prosecutors allege that he "tortured, needlessly mutilated or needlessly killed" the bison, who belonged to another rancher.

A Park County rancher on Friday waived his right to a preliminary hearing and asked to enter a plea in the slaughter of 32 bison owned by his neighbor. It’s hard to find anyone here sympathetic to Hawn.

For a generation, Mexican intellectuals have pondered the possibility of a “Greater Mexico” – the idea that Mexican immigration to the United States was so persistent and sustainable, that Mexican culture could “re-settle” lands lost to the United States at the conclusion of the Mexican American War. Americans, clinging to the belief of a “melting pot,” dismissed that notion, arguing that Mexican immigrants would follow historical norms and assimilate into mainstream American life, as previous generations of newcomers did before them. A new study by the Institute of Mexicans Abroad (IME), part of Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Relations, offers insight...

Although the nation's largest Latino advocacy organization is a nonprofit that must remain nonpartisan because it gets millions of U.S. federal grant dollars, the group's president helped lead a Barack Obama pep rally during an annual conference. The extremist Mexican group National Council of La Raza clearly endorses Obama, which is why La Raza President Janet Marguia stood by as Los Angeles' renowned Chicano Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised Obama during the group's annual convention in San Diego. Villaraigosa assured the crowd that Obama is LATINOS' BEST HOPE for reforming the nation's immigration policies. If that's not an endorsement, then what...

Raza Studies. Like the rest of you, I’ve been wondering how the lead organization lobbying on behalf of special privileges for Mexicans in the U.S.A. manages to get away with calling itself “National Council of La Raza.” Those last two words, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, mean “the race.” The idea, as I had it explained to me, is that by blending the European race with the Mesoamerican, Mexico has brought forth a new race, the mestizo or bronze race, which is claimed to be superior to both the contributing races, I suppose by dint of hybrid...

Texas businessman Jeff Hawn was charged May 8 in the March slaying of 32 bison near Hartsel and faces one count of class 3 felony theft, one count of class 3 felony criminal mischief and 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, each a class 6 felony. Hawn turned himself in to the Park County Jail on May 12 and bonded out... Kobe Bryant's attorney The arrest warrant affidavit indicates that the bison had been killed over the course of a number of weeks. For instance, it states that on April 1 officers "retrieved a spent bullet from one of...

I'm Absolut Swedish but NEVER EVER again will I buy Absolut Vodka and I will, at least, TRY to avoid other products of V&S Group (their repertoire is a pretty broad one though and I kinda party from time to time..), a former Swedish company which recently was sold to French Pernod Ricard (for the sum of €5,626 billion). I've also managed to convince my father and some of my friends to join my initiative and I'll continue to campaign! The background is, of course, the already infamous Absolut Vodka ad with the words "In an Absolut World" slapped over...

Moscow, March 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia has said that the recent violence in Tibet is linked with the recognition by some states of the independence of Serbia's breakaway province, Kosovo. In an interview published Tuesday in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the recognition of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence by many countries, including the US and the majority of the European Union (EU) states, had 'already reverberated in many regions.' He said that the Kosovo issue was linked to recent riots in Tibet and demands for greater autonomy by ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. 'There are...

An anti-illegal immigration group's adopted stretch of highway near a Border Patrol checkpoint is being orphaned. The California Department of Transportation said the San Diego Minutemen's participation in an Adopt-A-Highway stretch of Interstate 5 poses "a significant safety risk." "The risk is in the potential for disruption to the operation of the state highway as well as public safety concerns for the traveling public and volunteers in the program," Caltrans district director Pedro Orso-Delgado said Monday. He did not elaborate. The Minutemen will get another stretch on State Route 52 in San Diego - far from the Border Patrol checkpoint...

Do you support the Lakota Freedom Delegation's declaration of sovereign-nation status? Yes No

Stating that "Al Qaeda's goal to collapse the US economy seems on track" on the front page of Aztlan.net, Ernesto Cienfuegos of La Voz de Aztlan brings us "Mexican insurgents cause record $80 per barrel crude oil price". In the article Cienfuegos states that: "In addition, the Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor), through the US State Department, is now offering its services to President Felipe Calderon. Stratfor is supposedly a private intelligence agency founded in 1996 in Austin, Texas but insiders know the outfit as "The Shadow CIA". Stratfor analysts say that the EPR has "evolved greatly". They believe that the...

A recent proposal in Congress — H.R. 1999, which was cosponsored in April by Reps. Ruben Hinojosa of Texas and Rick Renzi of Arizona — would provide $10 million a year to a radical immigration group, the National Council of La Raza (meaning "the race"). It gets better. Have you heard of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, better known by its acronym MEChA? If you live in California, you have. This group's Web site states: "We are Chicanos and Chicanas of Aztlan reclaiming the land of out birth," which according to their revisionist history, includes areas of the Southwestern United...

Several high-profile Hispanic Bush supporters among those now behind Richardson Donors express loyalty to party as well as heritage By Ken Herman WASHINGTON BUREAU Tuesday, May 29, 2007 WASHINGTON — As a consultant in six Republican campaigns, dating back to Ronald Reagan in 1980, Texas ad man Lionel Sosa tried to persuade Hispanic Democrats to back non-Hispanic Republicans for president. This year, after serving as a Hispanic outreach consultant and high-dollar fundraiser in President Bush's national campaigns, Sosa is putting his money on a Hispanic Democrat. "Blood is thicker than party," Sosa said in explaining his support for New Mexico...

The Lone Star State has long welcomed Latino immigrants, no matter how they got across the state's 1200 mile border with Mexico. Back when California voted to cut public services to illegal immigrants, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush was preaching that illegal immigrants were equal players in the state's economy. But the atmosphere has changed markedly in Texas, home to about 10% of the nation's illegal immigrants. Now, a growing chorus of Republicans and some Democrats is pushing some of the harshest immigration-related measures in the United States -- laws that would not only deny public services to illegal immigrants...

Joyce Mucci, the Southern Field Representative for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is coming to Little Rock March 3rd -5th! Keeparkansaslegal has created some events for citizens who want to do something about illegal immigration can attend. Saturday March 3rd at 12:00pm Julie's, 110 South Shackleford Rd Little Rock, AR 72211-5721 (501) 224-4501 (just off I630 and I430) We will have a lunch/meeting at Julie’s where we will discuss legislation, the Mexican Consulate, banking, ballot initiatives, and other items concerning immigration in Arkansas. Monday March 5th at 2:30pm State Capitol (Exit 2B off I630) We will also have...

MISSION — A Mexican national accused of ramming his truck into a state trooper’s patrol vehicle and attacking a city police officer with a plank of wood was set to spend Tuesday night in the Hidalgo County jail after his first court appearance earlier that day. Jose Garcia Hernandez, 34, was formally charged with evading arrest and aggravated assault of a public servant during his arraignment in Mission municipal court.

A bill aimed at keeping illegal aliens out of Mississippi is working its way through the state legislature. It requires businesses verify their employees are here legally. Mexican immigrant Angel Palsencia works as a waiter to support his family on the Gulf Coast. He worries that could all change if businesses are forced to check employees' legal status. "I've lived in Mississippi for 7 years, and to make that bill into law, it would stop the future of me and my family," Palsencia said. Members of the immigrant rights group, MIRA, are trying to kill the bill that has passed...

CHICAGO, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mexican legislators have traveled to Chicago to meet with Elvira Arellano, an illegal alien who defied a U.S. government order that she turn herself in to the Department of Homeland Security for deportation. The 31-year-old woman was arrested in 2002 during an immigration sweep at O'Hare International Airport. U.S. officials noted that Arellano had already been deported once in 1997, and that she had a criminal conviction for Social Security fraud. Rosanna Pulido, Illinois spokesperson for You Don't Speak for Me, a national coalition of American Hispanics who oppose illegal immigration, states, "Actually Elvira Arellano...

Vitamins, video games and an El Maguey Mexican restaurant highlight the latest batch of leases scored by Maly Commercial Realty Inc., leasing agent for the two recently opened Wal-Mart Supercenters.El Maguey Mexican restaurant owner Manuel De La Paz said he plans to open a restaurant at the Wal-Mart Supercenter complex off West Broadway and Fairview Road in about four months. The upcoming restaurant will be the fourth local El Maguey opened by De La Paz, who launched his first restaurant in 1994 at 504 Business Loop 70 W. Other locations followed in the Broadway Marketplace at 21 Conley Road and...

The murky diplomatic status of a proposed Mexican customs clearinghouse in Kansas City has gotten murkier. Since last spring, local officials and the Washington office of Sen. Kit Bond all have insisted that the matter was moving through government channels. But U.S. State Department spokesman Eric Watnik said that the agency has never been formally asked to consider the proposal. “It’s off the radar screen,” said Bill Anthony, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in the Department of Homeland Security. Border Protection was engaged in the early planning and was widely thought to have endorsed the project and moved...

WASHINGTON -- Conservative Republican Mike Huckabee, seeking to repeat the success of another former governor from Hope, Ark., said Sunday he is taking the first step in what he acknowledged is an underdog bid for the White House in 2008. Huckabee, who left office Jan. 9 after serving 10 1/2 years as governor of a Democratic-leaning state, faces steep odds in a crowded GOP field that includes well-known and well-funded hopefuls such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Hispanics Lead U.S. In Unmarried Birthrate NewsMax.com Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007 The birthrate among Hispanic women in the U.S. is twice as high as the rest of the American population – and an increasing number of Hispanic children are born to unmarried mothers. Hispanic women now have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country – more than three times that of whites and Asians, and almost 1 1/2 times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For every 1,000 unwed Hispanic women, 92 children were born in 2003, the latest year for which data...

Cook Rosa Maria Salazar's eyes dart anxiously to the door as customers file into the Salvadoran cafe in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles. "We're terrified. The police could come for us at any time and deport us," she said in Spanish earlier this week as diners fingered maize tortillas stuffed with beans and pork scratchings and chatted softly. break "We hadn't seen anything like this here before, and it came as a shock," said Antonio Bernabe, a community worker who runs a day labor program at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "The police...

<p>Defining moments in the history of a nation are time and again overshadowed by the drama of war. These critical events are often domestic policy decisions that affect the immediate state of a country and have serious consequences for the future. Significant examples in U.S. history include: the initial decision of the revolutionary government to found a republic dedicated to the lofty principles of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” but embracing slavery, a contradiction that ultimately led to civil war; the decision to prematurely end reconstruction efforts in the South after the Civil War, a policy reversal which allowed the long-term oppression and exploitation of the emancipated slaves and their descendents; and the decision during the Second World War to encourage the mass migration of poor African Americans from the rural South to the industrial centers of the Midwest and Northeast to support the war economy, a haphazard resettlement program that resulted in the ghettoization and continued oppression of a significant national minority.</p>

The U.S. is engaged in a 'silent war' conducted by illegal aliens that is causing a higher toll than the war in Iraq, according to Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project. "Since 9/11 alone, about 45,000 U.S. citizens have been killed in action via homicide or manslaughter at the hands of illegal aliens, and about another quarter of a million to 300,000 have been wounded," Gilchrist told Cybercast News Service in an interview. Gilchrist said the financial cost was also significant. Welfare benefit programs used strictly by the illegal population were costing $400 billion a year - that's four...

Although some city officials are downplaying the fact, it appears that gang violence in L.A. is almost out of control. Police have identified some 720 street gangs with 39,315 members. Gang crime is up 40% in San Fernando Valley. It's led to conflict between blacks and newly arrived Hispanics and is so bad the F.B.I. and County Sheriff's Department have been called in to assist the L.A.P.D. The first Hispanic mayor, Villaraigosa, is a proponent of open borders and amnesty. He shouldn't be surprised. But perhaps he's happy to see all these prospective new voters.

Imagine you've just given a year and a half of your life to serving your country in Iraq and come home to find that your pregnant wife and your toddler daughter have been forced to leave the United States and now the government won't let them back in. You sit at home waiting, but no one can give you answers when or if they will be allowed to return. You wait five months, long enough for your new baby to be born in a foreign country. But still, no one can give you answers. That is what Aaron Thorsted of...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's elaborate rollout of his second-term agenda last week contained many moving parts and -- either inadvertently or by design -- underscored one of California's most salient trends: increasing socioeconomic stratification. But in the midst of those celebratory occasions, Schwarzenegger unveiled a sweeping plan to bring health care insurance to the estimated 6.5 million Californians -- the working poor, for the most part -- who lack it, thus focusing attention on a growing underclass. In one study, Mogull found that the state's poverty rate was 14.4 percent in 1959 and dropped to 11.1 percent in 1969, but "there...

So American troops are surging in Iraq, and withdrawing along our own border. What's wrong with this picture? Nothing, say the journalistic and political elites. Yet, before anything else, what we need is a surge of troops on the U.S.-Mexican border, which is a lot closer to home than Baghdad. On Jan. 6 The Arizona Republic reported that a small team of National Guard troops "abandoned their post near the border southwest of Tucson as four gunmen approached from Mexico."

Starting Monday, patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos. Restaurant experts and economists said they knew of no other food chain with locations so far from the Mexican border offering such a service. "We're trying to reach out to our core customer," Antonio Swad, president of Pizza Patrón Inc., said Friday. "We know they come back [from Mexico] and have pesos left over. We want to be a convenient place for them to spend their pesos." While U.S. restaurant chains have stepped up their marketing...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25 — Counting on the support of the new Democratic majority in Congress, Democratic lawmakers and their Republican allies are working on measures that could place millions of illegal immigrants on a more direct path to citizenship than would a bill that the Senate passed in the spring. The lawmakers are considering abandoning a requirement in the Senate bill that would compel several million illegal immigrants to leave the United States before becoming eligible to apply for citizenship. The lawmakers are also considering denying financing for 700 miles of fencing along the border with Mexico, a law championed...

More than 100,000 undocumented women each year bear children in California with expenses paid by Medi-Cal, according to state reports. Such births and related expenses account for more than $400 million of the nearly $1 billion that the program spends annually on health care for illegal immigrants in California, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing state reports. California long has been one of the more generous states in offering such benefits to illegal immigrants, covering everything from pregnancy tests to postpartum checkups. Many illegal immigrants who might otherwise shy away from government services view care associated with childbirth as safe...

Workers are town's lifeblood, but most are there illegally By Arnold Hamilton and Deborah Turner The Dallas Morning News (MCT) CACTUS, Texas - He's known in this Panhandle outpost by an unofficial, yet majestic title: El presidente de Cactus. His two-story, Spanish villa - looking over blocks of town-center shanties - is often called the White House. His portfolio includes the town's only grocery and laundry, at least 18 rental properties and a 575-acre ranch nearby. It was little more than 30 years ago that Luis Aguilar slipped into this country from Mexico, eventually using a fake name, license and...

Little did voters know it, but last Tuesday they were delivering a mandate for amnesty for illegal immigrants. Most of them probably thought they were voting on the Iraq War or on corruption, but elite opinion-makers have decided that they also were panting for a laxer immigration policy. There's no doubt that electing a Democratic Congress furthers the cause of an amnesty and guest-worker program by removing the main obstacle to both: the Republican majority in the House. But there is no good evidence that championing strict immigration enforcement was a loser for Republicans, or that voters elected Democrats explicitly...

Brownback Honored by National Council of La Raza Wednesday, February 27, 2002 WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback last night received the National Council of La Raza Capital Award at the National Council of La Raza Dinner in Washington, D.C. “This honor is especially meaningful to me because the Latino community represents the best parts of America – a community proud of its immigrant heritage – a community that is family-oriented, religious, and hard-working,” Brownback said. “It is wonderful to see the increasing number of Latinos working in government, industry, and public service. “After the events of September 11th,...

(CBS 11 News) AUSTIN -- Texas lawmakers are ready to pounce on the illegal immigrant issue when they start their next session in January. With the Democrats in charge in Washington, conservatives in Texas plan to put their imprint on a variety of issues ranging from abortion to school vouchers. Their biggest push by far, however, will be passage of a host of bills dealing with illegal immigrants, including one that just might challenge the 14th Amendment, which defines citizenship and requires states to provide civil rights to anyone born on U.S. soil. In Austin, Republicans began are heading...

Illegitimate births are ruining our country.

When it comes to the border, we're all Neanderthals now. When the amateur border guards, the Minutemen, first set up with their lawn chairs and binoculars at the U.S.-Mexico border and started talking about the need to build a fence, polite opinion scoffed. Now, the fence almost represents a consensus position, embraced by the left and right alike, from likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to the rabble-rousing pro-enforcement conservative Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado. Sixty-four Democrats just voted with Republicans in the House to pass legislation authorizing 700 miles of double-layered fence along the border. The Senate recently voted...

A 32-year-old illegal immigrant has been charged in Thursday evening's shooting death of Houston Police Officer Rodney Johnson. Juan Leonardo Quintero has been charged with capital murder in the 248th District Court, said HPD spokesman John Cannon. The suspect is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who has been deported in the past and sometimes expressed concern about immigration officials and worried that he should return, his wife, Theresa Quintero, said in an interview today at their home near Hobby Airport. Mrs. Quintero said the couple has been married since 1997. The HPD spokesman Cannon said the suspect gave "a full...

Tancredo: 'I Don't Trust the President' on Border Security By Kevin Mooney CNSNews.com Staff Writer September 22, 2006 (CNSNews.com) - An immigration compromise plan will not work, because President Bush cannot be trusted to "certify" America's borders are secure, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) said Thursday. In an effort to reconcile the divergent immigration bills in the House and Senate, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) put forth a compromise plan this summer that would require the president to "certify" the successful implementation of security measures along the most porous entry points into the U.S. before a...

Over the 2000-2005 period, immigration levels remained very high and roughly half of new immigrant workers were illegal. This report finds that the arrival of new immigrants (legal and illegal) in a state results in a decline in employment among young native-born workers in that state. Our findings indicate that young native-born workers are being displaced in the labor market by the arrival of new immigrants...

Hispanics head for higher ed (Especially in Northwest Arkansas.) Gema Vargas, 20, will be a senior at UALR in the 2006-07 school year. She came to this country as a child. Her father, who had fled a war in Nicaragua, got a job in Arkansas, then brought his family up. Because they were considered war refugees, the Vargas family got the necessary papers to stay here comparatively easily, Vargas said. She said that a majority of Latino college-age students in the U.S. don’t have papers, which means they’re here illegally. Vargas speaks English fluently — although, she says, she sometimes...

Opinions clash in initial meeting of Ark. immigration watch group Viewpoints clashed Tuesday night during the Arkansas Minuteman Civil Defense Corps organizational meeting at Lake Hamilton Fire Department. Nearly half of the packed meeting room at the station were there to voice their opposition to the organization’s mission, while the other half voiced staunch support. "It’s up to us to do what we can to protect the birthright of our children and grandchildren," meeting organizer Bill Riggins of Hot Springs told the crowd. "With every benefit and every reward comes responsibility." Riggins called the influx of illegal immigrants into the...

Frustrated by the federal government's immigration policy, small cities across the nation are taking enforcement into their own hands, passing laws that make it harder for illegals to live and work in their communities. Dozens of towns have followed the path of Hazelton, Pa., which passed an ordinance July 13 to deter housing owners from renting to illegals. Riverside, N.J., quickly passed a similar measure, which fines landlords $1,000 per day for renting to illegals and removes business licenses from employers who hire illegals. Already, legal action has been taken by opponents who insist the new laws usurp federal authority....

When the Census Bureau released its American Community Survey analyzing demographic trends among U.S. households last week, the Washington Post and the New York Times, the flagship newspapers of the Eastern liberal establishment, celebrated the news with front-page stories. The Census Bureau’s data confirmed that the U.S. continues to be inundated by a flood of immigrants both legal and illegal (a distinction the bureau does not even make). One Nation The top-of-the-page headline in the Post said: “Area Immigrants Top 1 Million.” The Times’ front-page headline read: “New Data Shows Immigrants’ Growth and Reach.” “Last year, one in five people...

First 3-of-7 drivers (including non-citizens) thru Manteca sobriety checkpoint have no licenses What you are about to read isn’t politically correct. But you’d better read it anyway. And the next time you climb behind the wheel of your vehicle you’d better act like it’s a matter of life and death when your turn the key in the ignition. Manteca Police opened their first sobriety checkpoint Saturday at 9:30 p.m. in the 900 block of East Yosemite. They struck pay dirt three times within the first seven vehicles to enter the checkpoint. When they pulled over the fourth vehicle after 20...

A Mexican man with two prior convictions for illegally entering the United States was arraigned in federal court in Cleveland on Wednesday for illegal reentry, the result of an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Jose Barron-Marquez, 35, a citizen of Mexico, was apprehended by the New Philadelphia Police Department after stealing a US flag and setting it on fire following a July 4th Independence Day celebration. Marquez provided the arresting officer a false identity, calling himself “Marco Polo.” Marquez was taken into ICE custody July 11. Database checks revealed that he had two previous convictions for illegally entering...