Free Republic

... For uninsured California immigrants such as Vasquez and Becerra, which side of a county line they live on can significantly affect the care available when they're sick. Counties are required under a 1933 state law to "relieve and support all incompetent poor, indigent persons." That requirement has been open to interpretation when it comes to healthcare for those in the country illegally. Among the 11 counties that provide low-cost medical care to such immigrants, some limit treatment to seriously ill patients or children. The remaining 47 counties do not consider these immigrants to be covered by the state mandate....

A GOP-controlled Senate panel on Wednesday blocked President Barack Obama's request for $50 million to pay for legal help for unaccompanied immigrant children coming to the United States after fleeing violence in Central America. The lawmaker responsible for the move was Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, chief author of a spending bill funding the Justice Department's budget. The spending measure, however, has a long way to go before becoming law. Without lawyers, children are much more likely to be sent back to their home countries. Under federal law, immigrant children have two options to seek legal status, including requesting...

A former Army sniper has invented a way to spot terrorists - in those in low-flying airplanes - who are trying to cross our borders. If we can spot the threat - we can deal with it.

The courts in New York have allowed an undocumented immigrant to practice law for the first time. Cesar Vargas, a leading voice in the immigrant rights movement, received the OK to practice his profession in a decision handed down Wednesday by a New York appeals court. "We find that the undocumented status of an individual applicant does not, alone, suggest that the applicant is not possessed of the qualities that enable attorneys to vigorously defend their client's interests within the bounds of the law," the ruling says, "nor does it suggest that the applicant cannot protect, as an officer of...

North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire’s bill to permanently ban new oil drilling in state waters along the 840-mile California coast was approved by the Senate Wednesday and now moves to the Assembly. Calling the coast a “worldwide wonder,” McGuire, D-Healdsburg, said his bill will protect the natural beauty of the coast, which draws 150 million visitors a year and contributes $40 billion to the state economy. The bill closes a loophole in a 1994 law that banned oil and gas development in state waters, which extend out three miles from shore, but permitted exceptions in cases where state oil...

Fourteen to one, in favor. That was the Los Angeles City Council vote to raise, over the next five years, the city's minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15. Of course, as Investor's Business Daily tells us, the $15 per hour really is closer to $20. How does it get to $20? Investor's Business Daily says: "Once all the nonwage costs are added, including payroll taxes, paid sick leave and the big one -- ObamaCare's employer mandate -- minimum compensation for a full-time worker could rise as high as $19.28 an hour by 2020, an IBD analysis finds. That...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —It's a television ad that runs just 30 seconds, but its implication that immigrants are draining resources during the California drought has critics contending its message is divisive and untrue. "I think those ads are disingenuous," said Sen. Ricardo Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens. "They serve to further divide us as Californians."

Los Angeles on Tuesday is set to take a final vote on becoming the latest big U.S. city to endorse a hike in the minimum wage. The City Council is extremely likely to make the move, which has the endorsement of Mayor Eric Garcetti and comes two weeks after a 14-1 preliminary vote on the wage. The vote would bring a $15-an-hour wage by 2020—more than double the current federal minimum. …

In the battle to save a precious resource a record number of people in the Bay Area are reporting their water-wasting neighbors. The Santa Clara Valley Water District has a program where residents can anonymously report water waste. In April, 900 people reported water wasters. It was the highest number since the district's program to conserve water by reporting water waste started last summer. Residents are able to report water waste through e-mail, phone or using the district's water app. "It's extremely helpful," said Jerry De La Piedra of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. "Often people don't realize they...

The state Senate on Tuesday approved a hotly debated measure that would allow many immigrants in the state illegally to sign up for special healthcare programs that would offer the same benefits as Medi-Cal. State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) said his proposal provides “what we can realistically achieve now” for the estimated 2 million people in the state illegally. “We are talking about our friends. We are talking about our neighbors and our families who are denied basic healthcare in the richest state of this union,” Lara told his colleagues.

BALTIMORE - Baltimore Police arrested and charged a Honduran man with attempting to sexually assault a child in a home where he was a renter, according to a department spokesman. Jose Ricardo Garcia, 34, was charged with various sexual offenses for the May 28 incident. Police said the 5-year-old boy’s aunt caught Garcia in the act at their home in the 3400 block of East Baltimore St. “Please don’t call the police. I have six children back home,” Garcia said after he was caught, according to the boy’s aunt. Garcia then left the home and went to a nearby bar,...

The state Senate on Tuesday approved a hotly debated measure that would allow many immigrants in the country illegally to sign up for special healthcare programs that would offer the same benefits as Medi-Cal. “We are talking about our friends. We are talking about our neighbors and our families who are denied basic healthcare in the richest state of this union,” Lara told his colleagues.

As more money continues to flow into the pockets of Mexican drug cartels, traffickers need to maintain a solid network of places—often along the southwest border—where they can launder drug money. However, in an attempt to stymie these efforts, several major US banks have been closing numerous branches in the region and shutting down hundreds of customer accounts. According to a WSJ report, the Arizona border town of Nogales, population 21,000, is feeling the financial pinch most strongly. In the past several months, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc.-owned Banamex USA have shut a total of four...

Some 200 mostly Eritrean migrants heading northwards from Italy were turned back by police in the Italian Alps on Friday and left sleeping in train stations as European countries tightened frontier checks before a global summit in Germany. EU countries are struggling to stem the flow of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East and to share the burden more evenly across the continent, after more than 35,000 people reached Italy so far this year and hundreds more died at sea. Migrants often head north after landing in boats on Italy's southern shores, hoping to make it to Germany...

METETÍ, Panama - Ahmed Hassan staggered through dense Panamanian jungle, crazy with thirst, his rubber sandals sliding in the mud, fearing he would die thousands of miles from his homeland in Somalia. “I told my family I would go to the U.S., that was the plan,” said the 26-year-old truck driver, who said he fled late last year when al-Shabaab militants took his village. He flew to Brazil and made a cross-continental bus trip to Colombia. The circuitous Panama route has become more attractive, say migration experts, thanks to the easing of visa and asylum requirements in some South American...

Amalia Mendez, a housekeeper and mother of four from Guatemala, has been hanging many hopes on President Obama’s executive action in November that would defer deportation for up to 5 million people like herself. Now, with a federal court ruling Tuesday putting that program in limbo for the foreseeable future, she is putting those hopes on hold. “I would be able to earn more if I had papers, and so would my husband. We could get insurance and a nicer home for our children. Most important is that we would not have to be afraid every time we leave the...

New research about implementation of the Affordable Care Act finds that Obama administration regulations are allowing taxpayer subsidized health insurance for some people earning less than the statutory income floor and also for unlawful immigrants. A new study by Andy S. Grewal, an associate professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, explains that the ACA provides tax credits to U.S. citizens with incomes between 100 and 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). However, IRS regulations were written to extend credits to citizens below 100% FPL in some cases. Also, Section 36B of the ACA grants credits to...

TheDream.US, the nation’s largest scholarship fund for immigrant youths who entered the country illegally as children, is embarking on a campaign to raise at least $30 million to help undocumented students pay for college. Donald E. Graham, a former owner of The Washington Post who co-founded TheDream.US last year, has pledged $15 million to kick off the fundraising drive, as has hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. Their gifts were in addition to previous donations of $10 million each and were meant in part to spur other philanthropists to donate. The money will go toward providing $25,000 scholarships to undocumented students...

... In a statement on Wednesday, officials from the Justice Department said they would not ask the Supreme Court to reverse this week’s decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that continues to block the president’s immigration actions. “The department believes the best way to achieve this goal is to focus on the ongoing appeal on the merits of the preliminary injunction itself,” said Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesman for the Justice Department. “Although the department continues to disagree with the Fifth Circuit’s refusal to stay the district court’s preliminary injunction, the department has determined that...

A crackdown on children attempting to illegally enter the United States by Mexico and other Latin American nations has cut this year's surge to a still-high 30,000, but proponents believe that has made the situation even more desperate for kids, leading to greater crime and deaths. "Those that are fleeing and trying to get out of their countries are now using even more dangerous tactics with more criminal entities and costing them even more money to get through to safety," said Kimberly Haynes, director of children's services for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Baltimore-based LIRS is a key player in...