Free Republic

In his first year in office, President Obama lifted an entry ban on foreigners with HIV. In his final year in office he will lift the entry ban on three more sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The president's own Health and Human Services department says this guarantees more infections in the United States, proving once again that immigration is the defining issue for politicians like Obama. Increased immigration trumps all other concerns. First, some background. In 1993, a clause specifically designed to reduce the spread HIV/AIDS into the United States was added to the Immigration and Nationality Act. It passed the...

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC - While a majority of New Hanover County commissioners say they don’t want county tax dollars going to subsidize childcare for families who came here illegally, it remains unclear what guidelines will be applied to county money set aside for this purpose. In New Hanover, 106 of the approximately 1,500 children here receiving state and federal childcare subsidies have at least one parent who is undocumented. DSS officials tell us the average childcare subsidy is $400 per child, per month. Using that number, we estimate that means $508,800 is going to support New Hanover County children...

What appeared as any typical Wednesday noon at UCR's Bell Tower quickly became a large occasion as an audience of Highlanders were attracted to the center of campus to support Coming Out of the Shadows, an event hosted by the Undocumented Student Programs. "I'm coming out as undocumented, and unafraid,"second-year sociology major Ruby Olvera proudly shared alongside several other undocumented students. "I have a right to education and to healthcare, and I shouldn't be denied this just because of my legal status," exclaimed fourth-year sociology major Veronica Martinez. As an undocumented student ally, Nicole Perez, a fourth-year psychology and music...

In the sharpest official Mexican government comments to date on Republican front-runner Donald Trump, the foreign minister called Trump's policies and comments "ignorant and racist" and his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border "absurd." “When an apple's red, it is red. When you say ignorant things, you're ignorant," said Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu, Mexico's top diplomat.

LANCASTER, PA - An undocumented Mexican immigrant, who lived in Lancaster, has been charged with his 9th DUI in 10 years, according to the Lancaster County district attorney's office. Alfredo W. Lopez, 40, was pulled over Monday night after an officer observed him driving erratically on New Danville Pike in Conestoga Township. Before living in Lancaster, Lopez was charged with 8 DUIs in Arizona between 2006 and 2010. Lopez is being held without bail at York County Prison. He faces possible deportation.

Illegal immigrants in New York will be able to apply for teaching and other professional licenses under a controversial policy approved by the state Board of Regents. The new policy will cover the so-called "Dreamers," undocumented residents given exemption from deportation under an executive order issued by President Obama in 2012. By easing the restrictions on licenses for 53 professions, from engineering to dentistry, the regents are wading into the national immigration debate. GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has already said he would undo Obama's executive order as president. Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch defended the policy, saying, "We...

Two former Mexican presidents said in separate interviews with The Washington Post that the xenophobic rhetoric of Donald Trump and the other Republicans running for president has damaged U.S.-Mexico relations and changed the way many Mexicans view Americans. Noting Trump’s recent disagreement with Pope Francis over the proposed border wall, Fox said, “I think the Republican Party should demand from him respect, not only for the Mexicans but for the pope and for Muslims. The Republican Party has let this go too far. It’s ridiculous.” Fox said he had been speaking with Republicans in the United States. "They are telling...

The Obama administration is spending close to a half a billion dollars to build a sophisticated electronic fence along Jordan's northern and eastern borders, a wall which US strategic planners hope will stem the flow of refugees and also wall off the increasingly important American base from the disintegration of Syria and Iraq. The wall, which began as a $20 million project in 2008 to erect a set of surveillance towers along a 30-mile (50 km) stretch of the border with Syria, has since expanded into a program costing half a billion dollars, according to defense officials who spoke to...

More than 100 Cuban migrants from among the 1,300 stranded in Panama on Sunday received immigration permits that early next week will allow them to travel legally to Mexico, where they will be able to continue their land journey to the United States. This is the first group to resume their trek from Panama to the United States after Costa Rica closed its border in December saying it was unable to continue housing the more than 7,000 Cubans who were also trying to make it to the United States but who had been stranded there after being denied passage through...

During his campaign, Donald Trump has said a lot of things that many people did not want to hear. Chief among them is that illegal immigration has brought misery and death to far too many innocent Americans and it has to stop. The strength of Trump’s argument has been distilled down to a brilliant 30 second indictment of not only the problem of illegal immigration, but of those on both sides of the political spectrum who support and promote open borders as an immigration policy. The spot is about Jas Shaw a superior high school football player from Los Angles...

Officials at California's four-year public universities are reaching out to an estimated 10,000 undergraduate students who might qualify for a special loan aimed at reducing their tuition - a program that further distinguishes the state as a national trendsetter in providing services to immigrants who are in the country illegally. The California DREAM low-interest loans are designated for such immigrants who are enrolled at UC or Cal State University campuses. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the program into law in 2014, but funding didn't become available until last month. Zenen Jaimes Perez, policy analyst for United We Dream, the country's largest...

SANTA ANA -- Three people died and two others, including a police officer, were wounded in a rash of shootings across the city this week, underscoring what the police chief on Friday called a surge in brazen gang-related crimes. Santa Ana police Chief Carlos Rojas said it was the worst week in a year already rocked by the 'busiest' January for his department since 2011. "We're seeing more gang activity now, and I think a lot of that has to do with gang members being released into the community and more of a soft-on-crime approach," Rojas said.

Who would have ever dreamed that the pope would win a primary for Donald Trump — in South Carolina, of all places, the buckle of the Bible Belt. Sure, Trump was probably going to prevail tomorrow anyway. But it’s over now, thanks to Pope Francis and his sanctimonious, tone-deaf statement that “a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.” Related Articles Pope Francis flap could boost Donald Trump in South Donald Trump blames Mexican gov’t for Pope Francis’ remarks Bernie Sanders goes on the defense while Hillary Clinton goes...

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz has praised Donald Trump for making illegal immigration a central issue of the Republican presidential race, but in an exclusive interview with ABC News, Cruz said that Trump’s immigration plan amounts to amnesty. "So Donald Trump's position is once you deport them, it's what's called touchback. A lot of establishment Republicans had touchback," Cruz said in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. "Basically you make them fly back to their country for a minute, touch the ground, and then they come back with amnesty as citizens. Now, Donald is entitled to do that. He can...

About 4.6 percent of the men and women in Texas prisons are undocumented immigrants with standing requests that they be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when their sentences are served. In December 2015, 9,158 Texas prisoners were under ICE detainers, and 6,698 of them were determined by ICE to be undocumented. Among other findings in the data: ** Mexican nationals account for most of the inmates with ICE detainers. ICE determined that 78 percent of Mexican nationals in Texas prisons are undocumented. ** El Salvador and Honduras nationals account for the next greatest numbers of offenders with...

Alabama Senator Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) 80% praised GOP frontrunner Donald Trump's responses to his GOP candidate questionnaire. Sessions noted that to date "Trump is the only candidate who has "answered to my satisfaction". On February 5th, Sessions, the intellectual thought leader of the conservative nation-state movement, issued a questionnaire to all candidates seeking the Party's nomination. The Sessions test consisted of five straightforward questions addressing immigration, trade, and crime in the United States. In his response, Trump wrote, "After my inauguration, for the first time in decades, Americans will wake up in a country where their immigration laws are...

Six months ago every talking head on TV and print media was decrying the Trump proposal to build a border wall as impossible hyperbole. It is amazing just how far the conversation has turned. Yesterday CNN ran a segment on how the border wall would possibly be constructed, what materials would be used, and how much it would potentially cost.

Frank Gaffney .. the need for tighter border security, and how it conflicts with Pope Francis' support for mass migration from the Third World into Western countries. ... "We've now got these cartels operating with gangs all over the United States," said Gaffney, referring to South American drug cartels. "Literally, every state in the Union is now a border state." we have been neglecting the border .. and not preventing people who have been operating on one side of it from operating on both... the drug cartels are not alone in establishing operations on both sides of the porous border....

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC - A controversial element of the most recent New Hanover County budget just became much more controversial. According to the minutes from the Board of Social Services meeting last month, undocumented citizens could qualify for these child care subsidies being funded with county tax money. "Ms. Pinder (Deputy County Manager) noted the stipulation that the parents must be documented was removed," the minutes read. DSS officials tell us that the state requires one parent or child be a US citizen or legal resident to qualify for state child care subsidies. Since the $400,000 set aside by...

The federal government is abandoning plans to open a temporary shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children in suburban Denver, saying it would take too much time and money to get the site ready. The department wants to be ready to handle an expected surge in Central American children crossing the border starting this spring. It's already opened temporary shelters at Holloman Air Force in New Mexico and near Dallas, and is set to open another one in late February in Homestead, Florida.