Free Republic

The Homeland Security Department expects applications for high-skilled immigration visas to outpace the available supply in a matter of days, one of the fastest runs on the much-sought-after work permits in years and a sign of continued economic recovery amid new hiring by U.S. technology companies. The urgent race for such visas -- highly desired by Microsoft, Apple, Google and other leading technology companies -- coincides with congressional plans to increase the number available to tech-savvy foreigners. The race to secure one of the 85,000 so-called H-1B visas available for the 2014 budget year started Monday and requests will be...

In an effort to clear up “misconceptions” that the Fusion Centers of the Department of Homeland Security spy on Americans, Arkansas State Fusion Center Director Richard Davis denied that they do this, instead saying that they’re only spying on “anti-government” Americans ... As has been reported, the DHS has released documents listing Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who support gun rights, who oppose the Federal Reserve, oppose illegal immigration and oppose abortion as “domestic extremists” and terrorists. Over the last year, the DHS has purchased nearly 2 billion rounds of mostly hollow point ammunition, more than 2,700 MRAP vehicles designed...

The nationwide shortage of ammunition has left many police departments scrambling to get their hands on the necessary rounds - with some even bartering among each other. Meanwhile, Rep. Timothy Huelskamp (R-Kansas) says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to respond to multiple members of Congress asking why DHS bought more than 1.6 billion rounds in the past year. Police Chief Cameron Arthur of Jenks, Oklahoma says, "Ammunition and assault weapons in general have skyrocketed...In addition to the fact, not only is it a lot more expensive, but the time to get it could be six months to...

President Obama: I'm no Dick Cheney on drones By: Josh Gerstein and Manu Raju March 14, 2013 04:37 AM EDT President Barack Obama’s defense to Democratic senators complaining about how little his administration has told Congress about the legal justifications for his drone policy: Dick Cheney was worse. That’s part of what two senators in the room recounted of Obama’s response when, near the outset of his closed-door session with the Senate Democratic conference on Tuesday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) confronted the president over the administration’s refusal for two years to show congressional intelligence committees Justice Department Office of Legal...

When the numbers are put in perspective, the federal government’s extraordinary buildup of ammunition looks even more ominous than critics already have portrayed it. An analysis by Forbes contributor Ralph Benko shows the 1.6 billion rounds of ammo that the government is acquiring would be enough for more than 100 years of training. As WND previously reported, it also would be enough ammunition to fight a war for more than 20 years. It would give the federal government enough ammunition to shoot every American more than five times. Concerned about surveillance drones, tanks in the streets and gun confiscation? Find...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says that, although safety is her top priority, there is no way around cutting back on border patrol agents monitoring the country's borders because of the across-the-board spending cuts, known as "the sequester," that went into effect over the weekend. "The number of border patrol hours that will need to be reduced equates to the equivalent of 5,000 border patrol agents, so we have fewer border patrol agents between the ports of entry," the secretary of homeland security told ABC's senior national correspondent Jim Avila in an exclusive interview. "We're going to do everything we...

The Associated Press has learned that the Homeland Security Department official in charge of the agency's immigration enforcement and removal operations has resigned after hundreds of illegal immigrants were released from jails because of government spending cuts.

Gun Control: Our future president in 2008 called for "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as the military. Should the "bitter-clingers" be worried? As Andrew Malcolm has noted on these pages, the Department of Homeland Security has been buying lots of ammo, enough by one calculation to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraqi War. Some have speculated about a link between the stockpiling between candidate Obama's off-prompter campaign remarks about a national security force and the stockpiling by DHS of more than 1.6 billion (with a 'b') bullets. DHS has...

The Department of Homeland Security just posted a video called "Options for Consideration Active Shooter Training Video." Its grossly incompetent guidance on how to survive a workplace shooting underscores the Obama administration's total lack of fitness to tell citizens what kind of firearms they can own for self-protection. We should also make sure that as many police as possible see this DHS video, which portrays law enforcement professionals as incompetent buffoons who recklessly endanger their partners and innocent bystanders. Duck and Cover versus Huddle like Sheep The DHS video takes a cue from the much-maligned "Duck and Cover" film of...

Under a bipartisan Senate framework, Democrats say, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano would have final say over whether the border is secure enough to put 11 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship. If Napolitano does not provide the green light for putting illegal immigrants on a pathway to citizenship, the responsibility for judging whether the metrics for border security have been met will be given to her successor. The early debate over immigration reform has yielded two thorny questions: What metrics will be used to determine whether the goals for border security and other safeguards against illegal...

In July of 2012, Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) produced a “show and tell” video instructing Americans on the best course of action should they suddenly find themselves in an “active shooter” situation. Entitled Run, Hide, Fight, the Big Sis-approved, 6 minute epic provided potential victims with crucial advice, such as “run away,” and “remain out of sight of the shooter.” Naturally, that’s the sort of counsel only government can provide. (1) Noticeably absent from the DHS tutorial, however, was any discussion of REAL weapons in the hands of prospective victims. Apparently firearms were not permitted in the...

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security, along with a SWAT team and Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputies raided the home of Robert Adams in Albuquerque, New Mexico and, according to a federal search warrant affidavit the raid seized nearly 1,500 firearms from the man’s home and business. However, no charges have been filed against him, despite the fact that court documents reveal that agents had been watching Adams for years. By Wednesday afternoon dozens of rifles were hauled out of the house, bagged as evidence and laid out on the lawn. According to search warrants that were filed on Thursday...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned internet users at the Wilson Center this morning that cyberspace was becoming more dangerous as more and more Americans go online. “Every individual on the net is vulner – is a potential, uh, opening,” Napolitano stated, adding that the internet was a “great thing.” “We just want to make sure that everyone remains safe and free,” she continued. “So that requires everyone to take some responsibility, have good cyber-habits, make sure we use the phrase ‘Stop, think, connect.’”

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has placed a rush order of two million meals to be delivered to Floyd Bennett New York Harbor Parks, and Lakehurst New Jersey. The solicitation was placed at 2:30 pm EST on 2 November 2012, with a response time of no later than 8 pm on the same day. The solicitation was amended less than four hours later for providers to provide a quote of four million meals, preferably of the self-heating variety. The request is for self-heating Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) with a 13-month...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is drawing flak for its decision to instruct U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to recognize same-sex partnerships in making immigration decisions. "In an effort to make clear the definition of the phrase 'family relationships,' I have directed ICE to disseminate written guidance to the field that the interpretation of the phrase 'family relationships' includes long-term, same-sex partners," said Janet Napolitano, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. The commitment to redefine “family relationships” to include same-sex couples came in a Sept. 27 letter to legislators who had called on the department to specifically mention homosexual...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said this week gay and lesbian partners will be considered as family members when immigration agents are trying to decide whether or not to try to deport someone from the U.S. The directive means illegal immigrants in gay or lesbian partnerships with American citizens could be spared deportation under the same leniency that is already often accorded to married couples. But it also raises questions about a federal law that is tied up in the courts which defines marriage at the federal level as the legal union between a man and a woman.

U.S. Homeland Security is preparing for an all-out “American Spring” rebellion and has bought 1.2 billion bullets for counterterrorist snipers. --------------------- “It is the type of ammunition and not necessarily the quantity that is troubling,” James Smith Prepper Podcast was quoted as saying. “All of the sniper grade ammunition is being used by trained, or in-the-process-of-being-trained snipers,” wrote Smith. Adding up the number of lethal bullets tallies a potential 135,384 kills for the snipers, based on U.S. Army and Marine figures from the Vietnam War, when soldiers used 1.3 rounds of ammunition for each verified kill.

The top Homeland Security official accused of cultivating a "frat-house"-style work environment has "voluntarily placed herself on leave" amid an internal review, the department told FoxNews.com late Tuesday evening -- just hours after FoxNews.com contacted the agency about new allegations against her. Two more Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees came forward this week to complain about "lewd" conduct inside the agency, submitting sworn affidavits that depict graphic comments made by two top officials working under DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. The affidavits were given as part of a discrimination and retaliation suit filed earlier this year by James T. Hayes Jr.,...

Two more Department of Homeland Security employees have come forward to complain about the "lewd" work environment inside the agency, submitting sworn affidavits that depict graphic comments made by two top officials working under DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. The affidavits were given as part of a discrimination and retaliation suit filed earlier this year by James T. Hayes Jr., the head of the New York office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Hayes claimed that Napolitano presided over a female "frat-house"-style department that routinely humiliated male staffers. The two new affidavits described separate incidents in 2009. Both accounts described the actions...

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered masses of riot gear equipment to prepare for potential significant domestic riots at the Republican National Convention, Democratic National Convention and next year’s presidential inauguration. The DHS submitted a rushed solicitation to the Federal Business Opportunities site on Wednesday, which is a portal for Federal government procurement requisitions over $25,000. The request gave the potential suppliers only one day to submit their proposals and a 15-day delivery requirement to Alexandria, Virginia. As the brief explains, “the objective of this effort is to procure riot gear to prepare for the 2012 Democratic and Republican...