Free Republic

McCain's love of amnesty will be a key issue. He supported amnesty in 2003 by name, proposed it in 2006 and 2007 without calling it amnesty, and says that anyone who says that he ever supported amnesty is a liar. He has insulted Americans who advocate border security and has cursed at the thought of building a border fence. The presence of Juan Hernandez in the background of the McCain campaign tells us that John McCain is as weak on border security now as he ever was. Dr. Juan Hernandez, a dual citizen of the US and Mexico, and past...

MEXICO CITY President Felipe Calderon decried Wednesday what he called "the growing harassment" of Mexicans in the United States and said his government will work to counter it by funding a media campaign to show migrant success stories. Mexican officials have expressed concern over a recent wave of immigration raids and a U.S. political climate perceived as anti-migrant. Calderon said U.S. presidential candidates were using migrants as "symbolic hostages" on the immigration issue. "I am especially worried about the growing harassment and frank persecution of Mexicans in the United States in recent days," Calderon said at a meeting of the...

<p>The rapid escalation of the U.S. anti-immigration hysteria fueled by ratings-hungry cable-television hotheads and leading Republican presidential hopefuls is a dangerous trend: It may lead to a Hispanic intifada that may rock this nation in the not-so-distant future.</p>

Will the execution-style murder of three young students in Newark, N.J., finally turn the tide in the immigration enforcement debate? Will we at last abandon the deadly, chaotic, lawless sanctuary nation experiment and restore America's lost status as a sovereign nation under the rule of law? The death of six innocent men and women and the injury of more than 1,000 at the hands of several illegal alien 1993 World Trade Center bombers wasn't enough to convince politicians in New York and across this country to end illegal alien sanctuary policies. The death of nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and...

You can’t have national security without border security. It’s not only necessary for any meaningful immigration reform; border security plays a key role in both the interdiction of illegal drugs and in defending America against terrorist threats. Weak borders allow terrorists and smugglers, as well as millions of illegal aliens, easy entrance to the United States. Unfortunately, it’s not at all clear our government is committed to its first responsibility: the protection of our borders. In June 2006 the federal government began Operation Jump Start, deploying 6,000 National Guard troops to assist the Border Patrol in securing our border with...

If you listen to folks who oppose immigration and border enforcement, you get the feeling they think we put locks on our doors to keep everybody out. The truth is we have locks so we can choose who comes in. An example of what happens when we don’t make the choice took place August 4th when three Newark, New Jersey, college students with great promise were executed, gangland style. The killers’ ringleader was apparently an illegal alien indicted twice in 2007 for felonies, including the rape of a kindergarten-aged girl. Why would such a person be set free instead of...

PORTSMOUTH — An illegal alien wanted by the Department of Homeland Security is being held on $75,000 cash-only bail for charges alleging he restrained and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in a Water Country wave pool Sunday. Marvin Hernandez, 27, of 11 Ingall St., Lynn, Mass., is alleged to have twice grabbed an inner tube in which the minor girl was floating, pulled her toward him and put his hand inside her bikini bottom. As a result, he is charged with a felony count of criminal restraint, felony false imprisonment and two Class A misdemeanor counts of simple assault. Prosecutor...

(CBS/AP) In a surprisingly strong attack, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said Republican rival Rudy Giuliani had turned New York City into a sanctuary for illegal immigrants during his two terms as mayor. Immigration is a hot-button issue in the GOP and may play especially well in Iowa, an early battleground state where the federal government has raided meat processing plants employing illegals, and where some longtime residents feel their pay is being undercut by cheaper-working immigrants. "If you look at lists compiled on Web sites of sanctuary cities, New York is at the top of the list when Mayor...

The GOP leadership is waking up to a persistent reality, and it's one that has fundraisers and strategists at the RNC up at night. Conservatives, the core constituency of the Republican Party, are irate. Far from a passing hobbyhorse, the illegal immigration issue has galvanized Republican voters like no single issue in recent memory, and conservatives are refusing to let it go. The Senate's comprehensive immigration bill, backed by the President and pushed by the GOP establishment, was more than a mere legislative miscalculation, is was the straw that broke the conservatives' back. Moreover, to listen to conservatives, it wasn't...

Construction on the wall already has begun in Arizona, Chertoff said. Washington aims to have "operational control" of the border by 2013 by building the 700-mile (1,120-km) wall along parts of the frontier and creating a "virtual fence" in desert areas with drones, sensors, cameras, satellite technology and vehicle barriers.

My fellow Americans, we have a problem. We spend billions of dollars on homeland security, but our government can't even track and deport convicted criminal aliens. These are not the well-meaning "newcomers" who just want to "pursue economic opportunities" by "doing the jobs no one else will do." These are foreign-born thugs, sex offenders, murderers and repeat drunk drivers who are destroying the American Dream. If our immigration and entrance system cannot effectively monitor, detain and kick out convicted criminal aliens -- including illegal border-crossers, illegal visa overstayers, fugitive deportees, and green card holders who have committed serious crimes and...

The alliance of talk radio, blogs and grassroots efforts was a winner when it came to defeating the "shamnesty" bill. Conservatives were enraged and showed just how much power we possess: A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 15,000 adults in June found that just 32.0% now say they're Republicans. That's up more than a full percentage point from a month ago and is within a tenth-of-a-point of the GOP's best showing in ten months. This is purely because of the efforts put forth to defeat a bill that would've rewarded those who broke our laws. The Bush administration suffered...

A Pennsylvania district attorney who has drawn national attention for his raids on businesses that employ illegal aliens is considering a run for state attorney general to broaden his effort to secure the nation's borders. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, however, has had to scramble to bury a report – from his own camp – that he will make a third bid for state attorney general in 2008. An e-mail from Morganelli's political action committee, Us Securing America, announced the veteran prosecutor's intentions and asked for grassroots and financial support. ''I have decided to seek the office of Attorney...

Rocio, a Mexican woman living in Norristown, is scheduled to have her second baby, a boy, by cesarean section next Sunday at Montgomery Hospital. At that point, Medicaid, the federal and state insurance program for the poor, will pay for her hospital care and that of her baby, who will be an American citizen. --snip-- There is a problem with underreporting of how many undocumented women there really are, and they're putting a huge strain on all of the safety-net systems," said Natalie Levkovich, executive director of the Health Federation of Philadelphia. "We're all in the same miserable, leaky boat

Due to copyright cannot post story here: http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070707/GPG0101/707070567

EAGLE PASS -- He's been living here off and on for more than half a century, so rancher Bill Moody figured he had experienced about all the excitement and madness the Texas-Mexico border could produce.When there's not a drug bust going down or a lost immigrant begging him for food, Moody sometimes finds himself in the company of Hollywood directors, like the one who filmed Lonesome Dove here years ago and was back again recently working on a prequel called Comanche Moon.But the federal plan for a massive security fence along the border strikes Moody as too far-fetched for a...

The immigration debate in Congress is dead for now, but in all the heated discussion, many flaws in the legislation were never discussed. The immigration reform debate completely ignored one big magnet for illegal entry into the United States: minimum-wage laws. And as the minimum wage increases that were recently passed this year go into effect, this problem will get worse. Even employers willing to illegally pay subminimum wages are reluctant to hire U.S. citizens or legal residents, because even workers who’ve knowingly agreed to the low pay have a legal right to sue. And, by law, you can sue...

Former Sen. Fred Thompson has begun his unannounced quest for the Republican presidential nomination by telling audiences in New Hampshire that Washington is badly out of touch with the country. As a senior campaign adviser put it to The Washington Post's Michael Shear, Thompson believes that "the politicians have lost their connection with what people really want and what they really expect." Few if any of the other 17 men and one woman vying for the presidency would be bold enough to challenge Thompson's claim. The belief that official Washington is deaf to the people's wishes is a staple of...

Attack likely to exploit existing network of cross-border human, drug traffickers. A nuclear terrorist attack on the U.S. is better than an even bet in the next 10 years, says a former assistant secretary of defense and author of a book on the subject. "Based on current trends, a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States is more likely than not in the decade ahead," says Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and author of "Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe." Allison, who has testified before Congress on...

A funny thing happened to a pro-illegal immigrant activist this week in Dallas, Texas. The activist, a League of United Latin American Citizens representative named Jesse Diaz, was carjacked. Obviously there’s nothing funny about someone sticking a gun in another person’s face and stealing his car. This isn’t funny as in hardy-har-har. And everyone is relieved that Mr. Diaz wasn’t hurt by the punk who threatened his life and stole his vehicle in broad daylight. But the amusing part of this crime is what happened afterward. It seems that Mr. Diaz is plenty steamed that it took the Dallas Police...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- To his bosses at Pilgrim's Pride, he was Juan Jose Rodriguez -- it said so on the birth certificate and Social Security card he presented when the southwestern Arkansas chicken plant hired him six years ago. At his De Queen, Ark., home, he was Joel Garibay-Urbina -- with a wife, three kids and a mortgage under his own name. And to police officers responding to a domestic violence call, he was just the latest illegal immigrant to have two identities after an arrest. "We've arrested them and they offer an Arkansas identification card, and they give...

The Chairman of the Republican Party on Friday lambasted Democrats and Republicans who helped kill an immigration bill in the Senate and challenged them to come up with a solution beyond "just build a fence along the border." "The voices of negativity now have a responsibility to come up with an answer," RNC Chairman and U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. said. "How will you fix the situation to make peoples' lives better? How will you continue to grow the economy? How will we bring people out of the shadows for our national security and for the sake of being a...

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil for every one striking at the root – Henry David Thoreau Will you be the one in a thousand? According to the polls 85 per cent are OPPOSED to the President and the Democratic Senate’s agenda. Even if one in a thousand takes action, we will have a massive impact. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. — Leo Tolstoy PUT AMERICA FIRST! Stop being a good Democrat. Stop being a good Republican. Start being a good American. Sometimes we tend to make things...

The bitter fight over a comprehensive immigration overhaul has pushed President Bush and his fellow Republicans to the brink of divorce -- and, for the first time, the opportunities for reconciliation appear severely limited. House leaders played down the friction Wednesday, but Republicans have predicted a showdown with the White House over immigration since Democrats took control of Congress last fall. And that longstanding tension spilled out Tuesday when GOP lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to reject the Senate -- and, by turns, the White House -- immigration overhaul. This immigration fight marks yet another low ebb for the White House, and...

Washington, DC (AP) - U-S Senator Tom Coburn says he'll try to kill an immigration bill that was revived in the U-S Senate. Senators voted 64-to-35 to revive the bill with 60 votes needed. Both Coburn and Senator Jim Inhofe voted against it. Coburn said later he'll do everything he can to make sure the bill never gets out of the Senate. Opponents say the bill gives amnesty to illegal immigrants and Coburn says it undermines the rule of law. The bill is supported by President Bush who is working to drum up support for it.

A Republican senator from Kentucky says the so-called "comprehensive immigration reform" bill is completely unnecessary because there are already laws on the books the government has yet to enforce that will stop illegal aliens at the border. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is reportedly unsure whether he will support the immigration bill that would grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. McConnell tells Associated Press, "the bill on the merits is a mixed bag," and he won't decide how to vote on the measure until a series of amendments have been considered. But fellow Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning is...

Senate may vote on immigration reform measure FridayBy Fawn Johnson CongressDaily Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, intends to file a second cloture petition Tuesday on a sweeping immigration measure, setting up a Thursday vote to limit debate. If that motion is approved, a final vote would occur Friday, possibly after a "vote-a-rama" on amendments, Democratic leadership aides said Monday. The Senate will vote on a separate cloture motion Tuesday and -- assuming it passes, and several insiders predict it will -- the next step for Reid would be to offer his omnibus amendment that contains all the Democratic and...

83% of Undocumented Immigrants Would Comply with Senate Bill - Poll Caitlin G. Johnson OneWorld US Tue., Jun. 26, 2007 NEW YORK, Jun 26 (OneWorld) - As the U.S. Senate voted today to resume debate on its immigration reform bill, a new poll brings the voices of those at the heart of the debate -- undocumented workers themselves -- into the mix. New America Media, a collaboration of ethnic news organizations, released a national public opinion survey of 1,600 undocumented immigrants from Latin America who came to the United States before January 1, 2007. It is intended to be nationally...

WASHINGTON– U.S. Senator Judd Gregg today joined 63 of his colleagues in supporting a motion to proceed to debate on S.1639, a comprehensive immigration reform package. Senator Gregg stated, “Today I voted in support of debating immigration reform, one of the biggest issues facing our country. The bill in its present form needs to be fixed, but so does our immigration system. There is no way to improve this bill if we refuse to take it up and debate it. “It is a known fact that our current immigration laws and procedures are not working. Our borders are porous and...

June 26, 2007 – Brownback Immigration Update Senator Brownback voted in favor of cloture on the motion to proceed to the immigration bill today. That means he voted to bring the bill back to the floor for debate and for amendments to be offered. This does NOT mean that Senator Brownback supports the immigration bill itself – he feels the bill needs to be improved. Brownback opposes amnesty, and believes first and foremost in securing our borders and ending illegal immigration. Brownback voted to debate the bill in the Senate but is withholding support for the bill until the amendment...

The immigration bill is back on the Senate floor today. To help opponents of the legislation educate their senators about its disastrous consequences, I’m sharing this list of the bill’s Top 10 defects. You’re welcome to use it however you’d like -- share it with family, friends, co-workers, whoever. 1. It repeats the mistakes of the 1986 immigration law. • Like the 1986 law, this immigration “reform” measure grants amnesty immediately while promising security and enforcement in the future. • Actually, the old law was tougher. Back then, illegals had to show they had lived in the United States continuously...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Months of tumultuous negotiations with the White House and GOP allies have brought the Senate's liberal lion, Edward M. Kennedy, to the brink of passing a bill to legalize up to 12 million unlawful immigrants. But his concessions to get there have alienated liberals who in the past have counted him as their strongest champion. A showdown test vote is scheduled Tuesday, and the Senate could pass -- or reject -- the bill by week's end.Traditional Kennedy allies are mystified and angry at the Massachusetts senator's willingness to accept Republican-backed measures such as subjecting illegal immigrants to...

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said Sunday he believes a second try at immigration reform will pass and will garner "good support" among Republicans. The reason it will pass with GOP support is the bill is "tough, fair and practical, Kennedy said on ABC's" This Week with George Stephanopoulous." Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said earlier, however, he didn't think the measure would pass. The legislation contains $4.4 billion for beefing up border security and is tough on worksite enforcement, Kennedy said. "And finally, we will have a tamper-proof card to make sure that we can really have an effective...

Sessions says support for immigration bill is eroding By Klaus Marre June 24, 2007 Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a key opponent to the bipartisan immigration bill that will be taken up again next week, said Sunday that support for the legislation “continues to erode.” Sessions noted that some of the senators that had supported the compromise in a series of votes when the bill was first discussed are now beginning to shift their position. “We’re going to use every effort to slow this process down and continue to hold up the bill and read it to the American people and...

How did Sen. John McCain, the onetime front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, come to this? New polls this week showed support for him plummeting in two key early-voting states. Tied for fifth place in Iowa, with 6 percent. Falling to fourth place in South Carolina, with 7 percent. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research conducted both polls of likely Republican voters, which had error margins of plus or minus 5 percentage points. This after an ongoing Senate debate on immigration that highlights McCain's opposition to his party's base on a hot-button issue, and the informal entry into the race of former...

Sen. Edward Kennedy needs Marna Vasquez, and vice versa. Vasquez is a packinghouse worker from Porterville. Kennedy is a rich and famous Democratic senator from Massachusetts. Nonetheless, the 37-year-old former illegal immigrant and the 75-year-old lawmaker briefly shared a Capitol Hill stage this week to push for sweeping immigration revisions. Vasquez needs Kennedy's bill to help her friends and neighbors. He needs her voice to persuade congressional fence-sitters. "I have a lot of faith that we're going to win," Vasquez said. "That's how we feel." But there are strong feelings on all sides of the immigration debate, which resumes Tuesday...

The top Senate Republican negotiator on immigration said he has heard the complaints of conservative talk-radio show hosts and bloggers, and will try to change the immigration bill to accommodate them. Sen. Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican who wrote the bill with Democrats and the Bush administration, said he is making moves to stiffen immigration law enforcement when the Senate bill returns to the floor next week. "All of the concerns from our constituents and some in the media have been listened to, and incorporated," said Mr. Kyl, who is drafting new provisions in an amendment he hopes to offer....

Procedural snares and ``killer'' amendments threaten to disrupt the fragile coalition in the Senate that's holding together the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. immigration policy since 1986. Supporters are scrambling to address the legislative obstacles before debate resumes next week. Opponents plan to try to derail the legislation by using procedural delays and offering poison-pill amendments that may split the coalition that sustains the measure. Passage of the legislation would give 12 million undocumented immigrants a chance at legal status while handing President George W. Bush a victory on his top domestic priority. ``This is a delicate balance. The wheels...

Some Republicans in the Senate think you and I are stupid. They believe that if they vote 'yes' for cloture and vote 'no' on the final bill, that the stupid citizens of their respective states will not see what happened as a horrid bill passes. ANY SENATOR THAT VOTES "YES" ON CLOTURE SHOULD BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE. CALL THEM TO REMIND THEM THAT YOU KNOW WHAT "CLOTURE" IS.TELL THEM TO VOTE "NO" ON CLOTURE.ANYTHING ELSE IS UNACCEPTABLE.

The Senate's Republican leader says he is unsure whether he will vote for the immigration bill President Bush strongly supports, underscoring the measure's precarious status. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has long called for an immigration overhaul, saying the current situation is deeply flawed. And as the Senate minority leader, McConnell is central to shepherding legislation the president wants. But in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, McConnell said he would not decide how to vote on the measure until a long series of amendments are disposed of next week. "The bill on the merits is a mixed bag,"...

What is a class? Akaka, Daniel K.- (D - HI) Class I 141 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-6361 Web Form: akaka.senate.gov/email.cfm Alexander, Lamar- (R - TN) Class II 455 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-4944 Web Form: alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home Allard, Wayne- (R - CO) Class II 521 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-5941 Web Form: allard.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home Baucus, Max- (D - MT) Class II 511 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-2651 Web Form: baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue Bayh, Evan- (D - IN) Class III 131 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC...

President Bush’s latest attempt to salvage the Immigration Bill has made it crystal clear that there is indeed a political class of those we elect, who blatantly ignore the wishes of the electorate. Despite the overwhelming outcry against the bill in its present form, the president and many members of Congress seem determined to pass a collection of glued-together agendas, which are far from being a comprehensive solution. The Senate responded to the outcry by voting to not end debate, which prompted Senator Harry Reid, the Majority Leader, to pull the bill from the floor for the time being. That...

House Democrats say they may break the immigration issue up into a series of smaller bills that would put off the tougher parts and allow others to pass, such as border security, and high-tech and agriculture worker programs that have clear support. That could buy Democrats more time to work out the tougher aspects of immigration, such as what to do about the estimated 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens now here, but it would go against the Senate's massive catchall approach and contradicts President Bush's call for a broad bill to pass. "There is active, serious discussion in...

This is a links and activism-central thread to collect the information on the status and effort to defeat the Senate Immigration bill, especially the egregious Z visa amnesty program, in its second attempt at passage. The Vampire Strikes Back The nefarious back-room dealers in the US Senate announced on Thursday night that they were bringing the Senate Immigration bill, killed on a previous cloture vote, back from the dead. Senators are trolling for votes. The future of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA hangs in the balance as they try to drum up support for the sellout of the century. WILL...

WASHINGTON- U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today made the following statement on the agreement to bring the immigration reform bill back to the floor. The Senate will resume debate on immigration possibly as soon as next week. Graham said: “After 9-11 immigration reform is not just a social and economic problem, but also a national security issue of the highest importance. I am pleased that the Senate leadership is going to bring the immigration reform bill back to the floor for further debate and amendment. This is a great opportunity for the Senate, in a bipartisan fashion, to reform...