Free Republic

Fire-gate, the cover up of who started the Arizona wildfires. Smugglers have exploited environmental restrictions along the border for decades. Arizonans pay the price after smugglers set several wildfires that have burned homes and cost millions of dollars. All of the images in this video were taken after the forest was closed to the public. Smugglers and Illegal Aliens were among the only people in the wilderness. The Department of Homeland Security has failed to provide security for the people of Arizona and beyond.

Facing a barrage of criticism from some Democratic governors, members of Congress and local officials, the Obama administration is altering a controversial federal program in which law enforcement agencies share fingerprints of suspects held in local jails with U.S. immigration authorities. The Secure Communities program, which was intended to identify and deport convicted felons, wound up also ensnaring minor offenders, victims of domestic abuse and other crimes, as well as witnesses to crimes and people who were arrested but not convicted of offenses. In response, U.S. Homeland Security officials announced Friday that the department had issued new guidelines in an...

(Reuters) - The Texas Senate early on Wednesday passed a measure pushed by Governor Rick Perry aimed at cracking down on cities that provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants. "Drug traffickers and transnational gangs should think twice before they step foot in Texas," Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate, said in a statement. "Prohibiting sanctuary city policies will make the apprehension, detention and deportation of dangerous criminals more uniform -- keeping us all safer and Texas more secure." The measure now heads to the House, which passed a similar bill during the regular legislative session that ended May...

The General Accounting Office estimates that as of 2009 there were currently about 350,000 criminal aliens in U.S. prisons, “the majority from Mexico.” At $30,000 per year, per inmate, that’s $11 billion annually, with most of the costs born by the states.   While not all of the criminal aliens are here illegally, criminal illegals are putting a strain on budgets, especially in the states with large illegal immigration populations such as Arizona, Colorado, California, Florida, New York, and Texas. Not coincidentally, many of those same states are facing the largest budget shortfalls for fiscal year 2011 and 2012, including New...

The suspect accused of driving his vehicle through a police barricade and killing a Houston police officer may be an illegal immigrant, records show. Johoan Rodriguez, 26, charged with the intoxicated manslaughter of Houston officer Kevin Will, has an immigration detainer placed in his arrest records after investigators found "reason to believe" he was not a citizen. It’s not clear exactly what evidence prompted the detainer. Typically, a detainer is placed when a individual’s fingerprints surface in federal immigration databases. However, fingerprints of lawful immigrants are also kept in the same database. "No further info can be released at this...

The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General plans an investigation of an immigration enforcement program that purports to target "serious convicted felons" for deportation but has ensnared many illegal immigrants who were arrested but not subsequently convicted of crimes or who committed minor offenses, a letter obtained Wednesday shows. The letter from acting Inspector General Charles K. Edwards to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), who requested an investigation late last month, said the watchdog agency had already scheduled a review of the program, known as Secure Communities. Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency launched the program in...

In the latest collusion between the Obama Administration and the leftwing American Civil Liberties Union, Homeland Security officials have suspended the scheduled deportation of an illegal immigrant at the ACLU’s request. The move is part of a bigger plan to perhaps eliminate the federal program (Secure Communities) that identified the illegal alien in the first place. The influential open borders movement—which includes the ACLU—has aggressively pressured the administration to nix Secure Communities, which requires local authorities to check the fingerprints of arrestees against a federal database. The idea is to deport dangerous criminals, many of whom have fallen through...

Barack Obama has declared that "immigration reform is an economic imperative", and is promising to do his best to get an immigration bill pushed through Congress this year. But will "legalizing" all of the illegal immigration that has taken place over the last several decades improve the struggling U.S. economy or will it actually make our economic problems worse? One of the favorite tricks of top politicians is to promise that the economy is going to improve if we just support what it is that they are currently pushing. Hopefully the Americans people will not buy the nonsense that Obama...

Four months after Gov. Rick Perry put out an urgent request to wrap up a bill cracking down on cities providing sanctuary to illegal immigrants, the Texas House passed it Monday night, advancing it to the state Senate, which is expected to approve it and send it to Perry's desk. Under the bill, police officers in so-called "sanctuary cities" will be able to question detained suspects about their immigration status even if their bosses disapprove. The term "sanctuary cities" is used to describe places where local officials refuse to enforce federal immigration laws and undocumented workers are free to seek...

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- President Barack Obama says his administration has answered the concerns of Republican lawmakers who want the U.S.-Mexico border better secured before they are willing to take on comprehensive immigration reform. Standing at the border Tuesday, Obama mocked Republicans for never being satisfied and always changing the conditions about what's needed to secure the border. Said the president: "Maybe they'll say we need a moat. Or alligators in the moat."

San Francisco, one of the first sanctuary cities in the nation, plans to end its cooperation with federal immigration officials and start releasing illegal immigrants arrested for minor offenses before they can be picked up for deportation. The city's decision is the latest development in a tug of war between several communities and the federal government over its controversial national program that automatically checks the immigration status of arrestees. Officials in jurisdictions including Providence, R.I., and Chicago have also challenged the program, which they say undermines trust that it has taken local law enforcement years to build in immigrant communities....

A bill unveiled today by Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Penn.) would slash federal funding for cities whose local law enforcement don’t enforce immigration laws. The legislation, the “Mobilizing Against Sanctuary Cities Act,” would crack down on more than a hundred American cities, Barletta said during a press conference today. “Local officials who choose not to enforce immigration laws are aiding illegal immigrants,” Barletta said. “My bill makes sure that sanctuary cities no longer get federal money as long as federal officials ignore federal law.”

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that time has almost run out for the Florida Legislature in their efforts to pass an immigration bill similar to the one passed in Arizona last year. The bill had been pushed by Tea Party supporters while immigrant groups and large businesses had opposed the measure.

President Barack Obama is ramping up his push to overhaul the country’s immigration system, launching a sustained personal campaign to pressure Congress into taking up the controversial issue that will rely in part on recruiting outside help. “He is committed and will be leaning into this issue in a very serious and very vigorous way,” Melody Barnes, director of the Domestic Policy Council, said Tuesday at a briefing for a small group of reporters. “We are upping the intensity on this issue.” Barnes and Cecilia Munoz, the White House director of intergovernmental affairs, detailed a strategy of pressuring Congress from...

Los Angeles -- Elvira Sosa left Mexico for the United States more than 30 years ago, but last year was the first time she'd been counted as part of the U.S. Census. Sosa was among thousands of illegal immigrants in Los Angeles who filled out a census form last year, and city officials said the response, especially among Latinos, might have saved the area money and congressional representation. The increased count was purposeful: A Census Bureau outreach program...included Spanish call centers that would field questions about the census, plus billboards, bus advertisements and fliers with information... The response: The 2010...

(CNSNews.com) - April is National Fair Housing Month, and to mark the occasion, the Obama administration is addressing discrimination in housing based on national origin. The emphasis is on immigrants, legal or illegal. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Monday that it plans to educate the public -- through community talks and a media campaign -- about discrimination against "persons of foreign descent." “Through this education campaign, HUD will work with communities to prevent housing discrimination and promote immigrant integration into the broader society," said John Trasvina, HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal...

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a lower court decision that blocked the most contested provisions of Arizona’s immigration law from taking effect. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that a federal judge did not abuse her discretion in blocking provisions of the law that would, among other things, require police to check immigration status if they stop someone while enforcing other laws. The decision is a victory for the Obama administration,

(CNSNews.com) - Do fewer apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border really reflect a lower number of illegal crossings? Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says yes, but an Arizona sheriff says no. Republican Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, which lies on the Arizona-Mexico border, told Fox News on April 1 that border apprehension numbers fail to tell the real story of what is happening on the southwest border. “We do not know who’s crossing that border,” Dever said, adding that “anyone who wants to, can. That’s the message our nation needs to hear -- that anyone who wants to (cross...

In a move closely watched by other Southern California law enforcement agencies, LAPD Chief Chalie Beck has ordered his officers end the practice of immediately seizing the cars of undocumented immigrants who are stopped at sobriety checkpoints. The move comes amid concerns that police were unfairly targeting those drivers. The news came as a relief for Maria Ranjel of Boyle Heights. Her husband and three sons are undocumented immigrants who drive all the time, even though they're ineligible to apply for drivers licenses in California. “We know well that it’s against the law to drive without a license but it’s...

(Reuters) - Workers have been leaving Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc in the nation's capital and Virginia since getting notice that U.S. immigration officials are auditing restaurants in the area.A survey of help-wanted websites, including Chipotle's own, shows a higher level of hiring in those markets than in others like Ohio, where the company has twice as many units. Chipotle co-Chief Executive Monty Moran called the departures "very limited" and said they came after he told workers that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was reviewing worker eligibility documents at the chain's roughly 60 restaurants in Virginia and Washington, D.C. Just...