Free Republic

Federal immigration officials arrested 107 undocumented immigrants living in Philadelphia during a four-day operation that targeted sanctuary cities, where local law enforcement agencies are not complying with federal immigration orders. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement teams arrested 498 individuals from 42 countries as part of a national operation dubbed "Safe City." More individuals were arrested in Philadelphia than in any of the other nine municipalities where the operation took place. Nationwide, the individuals arrested included 317 people with criminal convictions, 68 immigration fugitives and 104 people who had previously been deported. An additional 18 people were known gang members. Among...

Diana Montelongo came to the United States as a 6-year-old from Mexico, brought by her parents in search of a better education. Now a graduate of UC Berkeley, Montelongo teaches math in Natomas to middle school students. The day after the 2016 election, she decided to share her story. “I came into the classroom and students were crying and hugging each other,” Montelongo recalled. “There were students that had to be sent home because they were afraid their parents were not going to be there when they returned.” Montelongo, 23, is one of about 5,000 educators working in California schools...

BREAKING NEWS: Trump's border wall IS being built - with work under way on first prototypes of barrier at special site in San Diego Customs and Border Protection say the first building work on prototypes of the border wall is now under way in San Diego Each prototype will be up to 30 feet high and 30 feet long, with four made of concrete and for in 'other materials' California's Democratic attorney general is suing to stop construction saying it breaches environmental laws Work is now under way with a 'free speech zone' being built to accomodate protesters The federal...

On Valentine’s Day, the WhiteBox art gallery in New York City hosted a runway show with a political twist. The diverse group of models featured in “Illegal Fashion” wore dresses made of canvas, linen, burlap, and recycled paper. Painted with splotches of bold colors, the garments bore provocative phrases like “I am illegal,” “deport me,” and “ICE me.” Artist Maria de Los Angeles curated the show with Juan Puntes de Los Angeles also designed the dresses modeled. The 29-year-old has a personal connection to the garments, as well as to the messages painted on them. “I’m undocumented,” she says. “So...

About 100 young people gathered on the lawn of East High School in Wichita on Friday for a student-led rally in support of a program that protects children who were brought to the United States illegally from being deported. Carrying signs and shouting “Build more bridges, not more walls,” the high-schoolers said they wanted to show support for the legal shield known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it would end the program, leaving Congress a six-month window of time to try to save it. “We are here because we have...

Violeta Gomez-Uribe, 32, goes to kickboxing classes in Brooklyn. Eduardo Garcia, 22, lifts weights at the gym, in between classes and two jobs. Apolinar Islas, 34, who came to New York from Mexico when he was 15, said he walks around in “zombie mode” and tries to stay off social media to avoid “the tsunami of confusion.” All of them are recipients of DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protects undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children from deportation and lets them work legally in this country. They have felt a whiplash of...

The Trump administration is drafting a new policy to quickly deport more than 150,000 child migrants from Central America who arrived alone in the U.S. illegally, creating a new class of undocumented migrants. The Department of Justice and Homeland Security is drawing up a policy proposal in a series of memos, according to two sources with knowledge of the internal debate who spoke to the Miami Herald. As it stands, the plan would allow for teens and children who arrived in the U.S. illegally by themselves to be put on a fast track to deportation when they turn 18. Most...

Like many high school seniors, Indira Marquez Robles thinks a lot about her future. She knows what college she wants to go to (Bryn Mawr) and what she wants to be when she grows up (an immigration attorney) but she also doesn't know if she'll be at risk for deportation in the next six months. Marquez Robles is a beneficiary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Because the 17-year-old Houstonian's DACA will expire on March 21, 2018, she doesn’t have any option but to wait and see if Congress passes legislation that would grant her some form of...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday appealed a judge's ruling that halted the abrupt deportation of 1,400 Iraqi nationals nationwide, including 114 from Metro Detroit. Nearly all of the Iraqi nationals, who are now waiting to learn their fates in detention centers, have outstanding and, in many cases, long-dormant deportation orders stemming from prior criminal convictions. "The criminal history of these aliens includes convictions for homicide, rape, aggravated assault, drug trafficking, sex assault and many other types of offenses," Acting ICE Director Thomas D. Homan said in a statement after the deportation sweeps. Each of the detainees had been...

The Resistance wants a showdown with Donald Trump, and looks like it will get its wish soon. Our Democrats would make California a “sanctuary state,” setting up a confrontation with the federal government over fundamental questions of who gets to enter the country, who gets to stay and how the rules will be enforced. Meantime, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Wednesday announced the state is suing the Trump administration yet again. This time, California wants to block the president’s proposed border wall on the grounds that it would be bad for the environment. Since when does the environment trump...

ABC is developing a comedy about an undocumented family with “New Girl” writer and co-executive producer David Feeney, Variety has learned. Titled “Sanctuary Family,” the single camera comedy would follow a hard-bitten husband and empathetic wife who butt heads over the chaos created when they provide sanctuary for their undocumented nanny and her family. This is the latest project about immigration to go into development at the broadcast networks in recent weeks. Gina Rodriguez has set up Latino-led series at CBS and The CW. At CBS, drama “Have Mercy” centers around a Latina doctor who is unable to practice when...

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Wednesday that the state will sue the Trump administration over one of President Trump’s paramount campaign promises—the border wall.  Becerra’s lawsuit, which targets planned projects in San Diego and Imperial counties, marks the latest shot in California's legal and legislative war against Trump.  The state essentially has emerged as the heart of the Trump "resistance," pumping out lawsuits against his immigration policies and even passing a resolution Friday in the Assembly censuring Trump for his comments on the violence stemming from white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Va. 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Target Corp and PepsiCo Inc on Wednesday joined an expanded group of nearly 800 companies calling in a letter for U.S. legislation to protect immigrants brought into the country illegally by their parents from deportation, according to organizer FWD.us. A group of businesses less than half the size and weighted toward technology companies sent a similar letter in August, before President Donald Trump said he would end the program. Both letters were spearheaded by FWD.us, a pro-immigration group co-founded by Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.

Undocumented immigrants are shunning California in favor of Texas, with the Lone Star State’s undocumented population growing nearly five times as fast as California’s, new federal data show. About 2.9 million undocumented immigrants lived in California during 2014, according to new estimates from the Department of Homeland Security. The undocumented population in California grew steadily from 2000 to 2008, dropped sharply during the 2007 recession, rose again and remained essentially flat from 2011 to 2014. Overall, California’s unauthorized immigrant population grew by 16 percent from 2000 through 2014. The undocumented population in Texas, by comparison, grew by 75 percent from...

Places of worship and private charities in Texas and Florida are playing a pivotal role in the recovery effort from hurricanes Harvey and Irma because so many storm victims are immigrants in the country illegally – and therefore ineligible for federal disaster aid. FEMA rules allow people in the country illegally to apply for disaster aid on behalf of children under 18 years old with legal status, but many worry about the government sharing information with immigration authorities. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston is hosting workshops for immigrants to explain FEMA eligibility and answer other questions.

Rasmea Odeh was deported Tuesday. The 70-year-old Palestinian immigrant, whose U.S. citizenship was revoked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for not disclosing having served time as a prisoner in Israel, didn’t cry until the end, only after ICE refused her huge crowd of supporters entry into the airport. Before that, Odeh was staunchly defiant, the etched lines of her set countenance only occasionally twitching during a three-hour O’Hare Airport send-off for the political activist who became symbolic of a cause — Palestine liberation — her case gaining notoriety worldwide. “Up until this very moment, I didn’t believe they will throw...

Though the administration has begun to put supports in place for undocumented students affected by President Donald Trump’s decision to end a program that shielded them from deportation, some say SIU is lagging behind other Illinois universities. “Since the undocumented body of students is smaller [here], the urgency is lower,” said Martha Osornio, an undocumented student and a senior studying cinema and photography from Chicago. “Other universities are all doing workshops and things to help their larger populations of undocumented students.” The University of Illinois system’s flagship campus has a website dedicated to providing resources for undocumented students, open.illinois.edu. Here,...

The Tompkins County Immigrant Rights Coalition launched a rapid response network and hotline for immigrants last week in an effort to “stand in solidarity with undocumented immigrants.” Volunteers who are part of the network will respond to calls from people in the area if they are being pursued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and are facing arrest, detention or deportation. When called, a team of volunteers will arrive at the scene or otherwise document the event, including a description of the persons arrested, the identification of law enforcement agencies present at the arrest, the location where the person...

In Minnesota, more than 6,200 individuals have been granted DACA status. A similar number might have qualified for the program but never applied. And some, like 29-year-old Alejandra Cruz, were never eligible. She was 20 when she entered the United States, and DACA covers only those who arrived before reaching age 16. The vulnerability that DACA recipients are feeling is familiar territory to her, though she insists she is not afraid. "This country depends on the immigrant community," she said. "And this country needs to recognize that." She doesn't usually volunteer that she's undocumented and not enrolled in DACA, but...

A Palestinian convicted terrorist with a decades-old record of bombings in Jerusalem will be deported from Chicago to Jordan on Tuesday, her spokesman said. Supporters and community activists plan to gather at O’Hare Airport’s international terminal before Rasmea Odeh, 70, departs for Jordan, said Hatem Abudayyeh, coordinator of her defense committee. Odeh pleaded guilty in April to concealing her convictions when she applied for US citizenship in Detroit in 2004. Her record would have disqualified her from entering the US a decade earlier. In 1970, Odeh was convicted of two bombings in Jerusalem, including one that killed two young men...