Free Republic

The fate of 12 million illegal aliens estimated to be living in the United States is hotly debated in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, the problem is a symptom of beltway politicians' failure to enforce immigration laws and modernize our legal immigration system. At this point, some form of legal status for many illegal residents is necessary for a practical solution. But every elected leader has an obligation to ensure America remains the land of opportunity. That means stopping the current tide of illegal entry and residency with improved border security and visa tracking. At the same time, we must reformulate and...

Marco Rubio is preparing to go all in to support sweeping immigration legislation, offering himself up as the public face of a bill that will split the Republican Party — but that his allies hope will propel him to the front of the GOP presidential sweepstakes. After offering lukewarm support until now, Rubio is preparing to fully embrace a measure that is the most significant of his political career so far. The gambit could pay off in spades by crowning a leading presidential contender in 2016, or it could permanently damage the Republican’s brand with conservatives. Rubio is planning a...

Passing major legislation is not a path to the presidency. So why is Sen. Marco Rubio, who is almost surely running for the 2016 Republican nomination, working so hard on comprehensive immigration reform? Look at the only lawmaker who has become president in the last half-century. Barack Obama did almost nothing in his brief time in the Senate. His career in the world's greatest deliberative body consisted mainly of showing up, becoming immediately dissatisfied and looking for something better. Obama never took a leading role crafting any piece of momentous legislation. And some of the things he did do, like...

The Republican National Committee’s latest report, released March 18 at the National Press Club, offers more evidence that the GOP is out of touch-but not in the way it thinks. According to what the RNC called an “autopsy” of what went wrong in the November 2012 election, it concluded that the party is perceived as comprised of “stuffy old men,” “scary” and needs to change its ways. The first course of action should be-guess what?-passing comprehensive immigration reform! Before anything else is done, said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Republicans must join together to pass amnesty. Nothing could have been more...

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Task Force on Immigration, said on Tuesday he’s seen a marked change in the way Republicans are approaching the immigration debate -- and that he has a key ally in Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Speaking to reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Gutierrez said he and Ryan would be talking about immigration reform in Chicago in April. He said that Ryan “was not new” to the immigration debate but that “like many in the Republican Party, his voice was shut out.” Gutierrez said that prior to...

Por favor disculpen mi Espanol. Como creCI en Houston -es un poco ‘espanglish y un poco Tex Mex. I lived, worked, played and grew up alongside Latinos. As a teenager I worked alongside immigrants mowing lawns and putting in landscaping around businesses. I remember once asking one of the immigrant workers how much he was being paid. “Cuanto le Pagan por el trabajo? He responded “tres dolars.” I responded, “Yo tambien. Tres Dolars, por hora . . . ?” He shook shook his head, “No tres Dolars, por dia!” At a young age, I came to understand that it makes...

Let me think about that....NO!A new ad campaign has been launched to extend medical coverage to illegal aliens in the state of California. The California Endowment, a private foundation that advocates for affordable healthcare, wants county-run Medicaid expansion programs called Low-Income Health Programs to be "retooled" to provide insurance for this population - well over 1 million people! Just what the people of California need, right? First they cut tuition assistance for citizen students by $1.2 billion. Then they made illegal aliens eligible for in-state tuition and financial aid, with AB131 - signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Then tuition assistance was...

Ever heard the claim that Latinos are "natural conservatives"? The person repeating the conventional wisdom of the Beltway apparently hasn't examined the evidence. That's why, for Republicans, to buy that canard spells disaster. The most recent evidence comes from a new Latino Decisions poll. It shows two-thirds of Latinos support "comprehensive immigration reform" that includes special immigration privileges for foreign-born gays and lesbians. Of those Hispanic respondents who favored giving homosexual couples the same immigration rights as traditional couples, 92 percent view it as important (very or somewhat) to make the change part of any amnesty bill in Congress. While...

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) issued the following statement regarding today’s bipartisan immigration reform proposal: I appreciate the good work that senators in both parties have put into trying to fix our broken immigration system. There are some good elements in this proposal, especially increasing the resources and manpower to secure our border and also improving and streamlining legal immigration. However, I have deep concerns with the proposed path to citizenship. To allow those who came here illegally to be placed on such a path is both inconsistent with rule of law and profoundly unfair to the...

ST. PETERSBURG -- There are two million Hispanic voters in Florida. It's a constituency that has the power to shift a tight election, so both political parties have tried to sway the Hispanic vote their way. An exclusive Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9 statewide poll shows many Hispanic voters dropping their support for Obama. Last month, 52 percent of Hispanic voters polled said they would vote for the president. That has now dropped to 44 percent. Romney picked up some ground among Hispanics, from 43 percent to 46 percent. And the number of undecided Hispanic voters has doubled from 5...

If the president may constitutionally permit 15 percent of the nation's illegal immigrant population to remain in the United States without fear of removal, why may he not do the same for 50 percent of that population, or for all of it?

With a little under a month remaining until Election Day, the Obama campaign has transitioned into full-blown hispandering mode. This week’s symbolically potent, yet empty, exercise in gestural politics entailed President Obama designating the home of former California labor leader Cesar Chavez a national monument. The ostensible purpose of this decision is to rally support among one of his party’s most reliable voting blocs, i.e. Hispanic Americans. Because even though they still decisively support the President’s reelection, that support does not always translate into votes, as other analysts have trenchantly observed. What makes Obama’s trip to California so fascinating though...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown signed a new law that will allow hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses and vetoed another that would have restricted sheriffs from helping federal authorities detain undocumented Californians for potential deportation. His actions, announced Sunday as the deadline neared to finish work on nearly 1,000 bills sent to him by the Legislature this year, followed an intense week of protests, prayer vigils and lobbying by immigrant advocacy groups. The governor also revived a tax break for Hollywood, allowed juvenile killers serving life in prison a chance for release and outlawed...

Some illegal immigrants could get California drivers licenses under a bill that Gov. Jerry Brown announced he signed into law late Sunday. AB2189 by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, will let the Department of Motor Vehicles issue licenses to illegal immigrants eligible for work permits under a new Obama administration policy. The bill requires the department to accept as proof of legal residence whatever document the federal government provides to participants in its deferred action program. Cedillo said his bill will make roads safer while letting young immigrants drive to school and to work. His reasoning drew support from several...

The governor signed a bill Sunday that will let hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants qualify for California driver’s licenses. Young people would qualify if they are accepted by a federal program giving work permits to those who came to this country before they were 16 and are now 30 or younger. …

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will pledge to Hispanics on Monday that if elected he will fix the troubled U.S. immigration system in an appeal to a rising voter bloc that overwhelmingly favors Democratic President Barack Obama... Romney will vow to "work with Republicans and Democrats to permanently fix our immigration system," while stressing that any plan must first ensure the integrity of U.S. borders - a problem on which the Obama administration says it has already made progress.

My Hispanic can beat up your Hispanic!” pretty much captured the Convention kick-offs. “Republicans chose Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American, to introduce Mitt Romney, “reported the AP. “Democrats picked Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio, a Mexican American, as keynote speaker. Both are considered rising stars.”Ah! But what FUN the Republicans missed! Given the era’s political-correctness, politics in the U.S. get pretty boring nowadays. No present-day politician or their slick consultants could possibly publicize what’s forthcoming in this article. So please stick around, because I belong to neither profession. Most immigrants arrive in America poor (especially by U.S....

TAMPA, Fla. — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) on Tuesday said Republicans aren’t going to close the gap with Hispanic voters until they “stop acting stupid.” Bush said many Hispanic voters share the GOP’s commitment to faith, family and small government but have been alienated from the party by exclusionary rhetoric on immigration. But that, he said, is finally changing. “I promise you this is where the conservative cause is going, and thank God it is,” he said to cheers at a lunch sponsored by the center-right Hispanic Leadership Network. The advantage that Democrats have with Hispanics is a...

Mitt Romney is on track to lose the Latino vote by a wider margin than any Republican presidential candidate in over a decade, and strategists in both parties say he may have made a bad situation worse with his selection of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate. What’s clear is that Romney’s lagging fortunes among Hispanics are unlikely to receive any boost from choosing a vice presidential candidate who has voted in Congress against the DREAM Act and supports overhauling entitlement programs that are extremely popular among Latino voters. The Republican ticket’s dire position among Latinos has even...

Hispanic lawmakers unhappy with Charlotte contractsBy ANNA PALMER | 8/3/12 1:20 PM EDT Hispanic lawmakers are peeved at the Democratic National Convention Committee for not hiring more Latino-owned businesses for next month’s convention. Upset over the lack of contracts, Hispanic lawmakers exchanged heated words Wednesday with a top DNCC official in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. Afterward, Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) suggested that DNCC Chief Executive Steve Kerrigan should be fired if things don’t improve. If the situation isn’t rectified, “there will be a recommendation that the person who is in charge will not be in charge,” Baca told...

On the same week that the U.S. House of Representatives found him in criminal contempt, the nation’s embattled Attorney General professed solidarity with a radical leftist Latino group, proudly celebrating its socialist mission of “uno para todos, todos para uno” (all for one and one for all). It wasn’t enough for Eric Holder to earn the accolade of being the nation’s first sitting Attorney General to be found in criminal contempt by Congress for stonewalling the investigation of a disastrous experiment conducted by his office. Known as Operation Fast and Furious, the project allowed Mexican drug traffickers to obtain U.S.-sold...

Meet Mayra Hidalgo. She was introduced yesterday to the CNN viewing audience as a "student" who happened to question Gov. Mitt Romney after his speech to Latinos in Florida. She made for great television for CNN because Ms. Hidalgo asked Romney to explain his position on illegal immigration and the DREAM Act. When the governor would not pander to her, she bolted to the nearest camera crew she could find to explain how terrified she was for her future if Romney were elected. CNN more than obliged. CNN actually reported on Hidalgo twice yesterday, each

Mitt Romney criticized President Barack Obama's immigration plan on Thursday, saying that as president, he will "put in place my own long-term solution that will replace and supersede the President's temporary measure." That plan is still vague, but it does not involve a path to legalization for any of the country's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants except for people who enlist in the military, according to a release from the campaign. "As President, I won't settle for a stop-gap measure," he said during his speech to to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Annual Conference in...

BRUNSWICK, Ohio (AP) — Mitt Romney is refusing to say that he would overturn President Barack Obama's new policy allowing some young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States. The Republican presidential candidate tells CBS” ”Face the Nation” that if he’s president, Obama’s executive order “would be overtaken by events … by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution.” Romney was asked three times in the interview if he would overturn Obama’s order, but he didn’t directly answer the question. Instead, he said would work to pass a law to help those young people who were “brought...

Today we encourage you to watch Senator Marco Rubio answer questions from constituents on his proposal to the alternative version of the DREAM Act. Click here or on the image below to watch the full video.

Washington D.C. – Marco Rubio says he wants his version of the DREAM Act in effect by fall, just in time for undocumented students to be able to attend college fall semester. Rubio, in two separate events in Washington D.C., said his plan is still being hammered out, and important details – such as the minimum and maximum age of those who would qualify – were yet to be determined. “We’re involving the DREAMers” in the drafting of the measure, he said, using the term that refers to undocumented youth brought to the country by their parents. “We’re involving the...

FACT SOURCE--EDITED EXCERPTS New York Times report: Lawmakers generosity on big corporations' tab. Copyright 2012 stltoday.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/article_dfea2768-b95b-11df-bd41-0017a4a78c22.html#ixzz1rfgdnEAe NARRATIVE Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif 43rd) has achieved near celebrity status in his suburban LA district, as much for his record of giveaways — turkeys, scholarships, boots for firefighters — as for anything he has done in the US Congress. Baca's generosity is made possible by The Joe Baca Foundation, a so-called "charity" he and his family set up circa 2008 under the pretext of "aiding" local organizations....

PHOENIX — President Obama’s re-election campaign is dispatching workers across Arizona’s college campuses and Latino neighborhoods this spring, registering as many new voters as they can in an organized, three-month effort to determine whether they can put this unlikely state into play for Democrats this November. By any measure the obstacles are considerable: Arizona has voted for precisely one Democratic president since Truman was in the White House. Yet Mr. Obama’s aides said in interviews that they thought it was possible they could move the needle of history by winning in 2012 a state that analysts believe is heading Democratic...

President Obama is off on Air Force One tomorrow, this time for another summit in Latin America. Not that much will get accomplished at the two-day Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, the sixth in an ongoing series. As with pretty much anything Obama is doing these days, the trip has more to do with election year politics at home than foreign affairs in countries that most Americans hardly ever think of unless they're featured on a popular TV show like "NCIS," as Cartagena was this week. The Democrat wants to be seen lavishing attention on the homelands of...

WASHINGTON -- A few weeks ago, Daniela Pelaez visited Washington. A valedictorian at North Miami Senior High, the 18-year-old had just learned she no longer faced deportation, thanks in part to congressional intervention in her immigration case. She visited the nation’s capital the same week a Fox News Latino poll found Hispanic voters favor President Barack Obama six-to-one over any of the Republican presidential hopefuls. Suddenly, there was new life in the DREAM Act, an immigration bill that offers a path toward citizenship for young people like Daniela who came to the U.S. illegally with their parents. Enter Florida Sen....

Senate Republicans want to alter DREAM Act legislation to steal away Hispanic voters from Democrats. Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), the only Senate Republican of Hispanic heritage and a possible vice presidential pick, is working on an alternative version of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants who came to the country at a young age and serve in the military or attend college. He declined to provide any details, but confirmed he hopes to have legislation soon. “I don’t have any specifics to announce yet,” said Rubio. “This stuff...

President Barack Obama's 13-year-old daughter, Malia Ann Obama, will be spending her spring break in the Mexican city of Oaxaca with 12 friends and 25 Secret Service agents. The young tourists will be in a downtown hotel in the city known for its colonial architecture and native traditions, reported a state police official. President Barack Obama’s 13-year-old daughter, Malia Ann Obama, will be spending her springbreak in the Mexican city of Oaxaca with 12 friends and 25 Secret Service agents. "We are here to block access to the hotel by other people and escort the vehicles that are carrying the...

Wasteful, senseless and cruel. How better to describe the ridiculous battle that Felipe Montes is waging to be reunited with his three U.S.-born children? Since his deportation, they've been ensnared by the foster care system and are at risk of being put up for adoption. Montes, who had lived in the U.S. illegally for almost 10 years, was sent back to Mexico in 2010 after having been sentenced to probation following an arrest for driving with an expired license, an expired registration and no automobile insurance. He was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at one of his...

(CNN) -- One day, California wakes up and every single Latino has inexplicably disappeared. No business owner, doctor, nurse, soldier, teacher, entertainer, athlete or politician can be found. No bus driver, farm worker, cook, gardener or nanny. All gone. California -- the ninth largest economy in the world -- grinds to a halt because Latinos have vanished. Chaos and tragedy follow. This scenario is what Sergio Arau's satiric film, "A Day Without a Mexican," explores. This modern-day fable provides a cautionary tale on the assumptions we make about the 11 million unauthorized immigrants who live and work in America every...

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said he supports the idea of allowing illegal immigrants to have driver's licenses as long as they have been in the United States for a number of years without committing other crimes. Baca's comments Thursday come as Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck has also expressed support for driver's license for illegal immigrants. Baca said such licenses should only be issued after illegal immigrants fill out comprehensive applications, similar to those for citizenship. The sheriff also said the licenses should be up for renewal annually, and be noticeably different than those issued to citizens....

About 7,000 people attended a Mexican Flag Day ceremony in downtown Santa Ana on Sunday afternoon, aimed at honoring the Mexican and American flags and educating many in the audience about their Mexican roots. The eighth annual event – which featured flag presentations, live entertainment, a brief history lesson and more – ran from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Plaza Santa Ana, an outdoor space at the corner of Fourth and French streets. (Click here or on the photo above to see pictures from the event.) The gathering was sponsored by Los 32 Por Mexico en Orange County –...

ARLINGTON, Texas - A two-time “Teacher of the Year” in Arlington is now fighting to keep her job after allegedly telling a Hispanic student to “Go back to Mexico.” Barnett Junior High School math teacher Shirley Bunn has 24 years of teaching experience. But her career could end with what she called a moment of frustration. Bunn admitted she lost her temper on Sept. 30 while distributing Title 1 forms to her eighth grade students. According to public documents, a student who had a history of being disruptive repeatedly asked his teacher for a form printed in Spanish by saying,...

Republicans are demanding an apology Wednesday from President Obama's campaign manager after a tweet that they argue was insulting toward Latino Americans. Jim Messina, who is helming the president's reelection effort, tweeted a line from a column written by The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, in which he argues that Republicans will struggle to attract the Latino vote after coming out against the DREAM immigration reform act. "Line of the day from WAPO's Dana Milbank: 'The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos,' " Messina tweeted. But the comments drew rebuke from Republicans, who argued...

Newt Gingrich Press Availability Following Hispanic Leadership Event, South El Monte, California – February 13 2012 Newt Gingrich Campaign attended an Hispanic Leadership Event at the Cielito Lindo Restaurant in South El Monte, Following the event he held a brief press conference.

The Obama administration on Tuesday announced a new "public advocate" charged with listening to immigrants' concerns about its law enforcement policies — but Republicans said the position amounts to an official mouthpiece for illegal immigrants being deported.

Marco Rubio Says Some Conservatives ‘Harsh and Intolerable’ On Immigration By Liz Goodwin | The Ticket "For those of us who come from the conservative movement, we must admit that there are those among us who have used rhetoric that is harsh and intolerable, inexcusable," Rubio said at a conference for the conservative Hispanic Leadership Network. "We must admit, myself included, that sometimes we've been too slow in condemning that rhetoric." Rubio, a Republican senator to Florida who is often floated as a potential vice presidential nominee for the party in 2012, was interrupted by two protesters raising awareness about...

One thing was missed in Newt Gingrich's victory in the South Carolina primary: Conservatives embraced a pro-amnesty candidate without batting an eyelash. This should come as a wake-up call to those who've been pushing a hard-line anti-illegal immigrant position in the Republican Party. Granted, Gingrich didn't spend a lot of time discussing his position, which favors amnesty for those illegal immigrants who have been here for a long time, have deep family and community ties, and have paid taxes and avoided breaking other laws. But that's the point. He didn't have to spend a lot of time defending his position...

Romney and Gingrich Battle for Florida's Latino Vote Though Gingrich still lags Romney in support from the bloc, he appears to be gaining ground, especially among Cuban Americans. A Univision/ABC poll showed him with a 15-percentage-point advantage over Gingrich among likely Hispanic GOP voters. By Alana Semuels, Paul West and Seema Mehta January 25 Mitt Romney is defending an increasingly precarious position among Florida's Latino voters, a key voting bloc whose growth and diversity has complicated efforts to unify it behind one prospective nominee in Tuesday's Republican primary. Newt Gingrich opened the newest front against Romney on Wednesday by mocking...

MIAMI — Former House speaker Newt Gingrich on Wednesday mocked as an “Obama-level fantasy” Mitt Romney’s plan to deal with illegal immigration by encouraging “self-deportation.” Gingrich made the comment as he began a day of outreach to Florida’s Hispanic voters with an extensive interview on Spanish-language television and a speech at Florida International University in which he called for a more a forceful U.S. role in ending communist rule in Cuba, as well as an overhaul of U.S. economic policies toward all of Latin America. In an interview with the Univision network, Gingrich said it was unrealistic for millions of...

Gingrich: Romney shows no concern for 'Humanity' of illegals"..

Have you ever thought about that? How many times have you seen establishment types posit about how beautiful it would be to have a Romney/Rubio ticket? Even after Rubio has made it clear he isn't interested, I keep hearing it. It can be summed up in one word: Hispanic. The republicans have absolutely nothing in common with a conservative like Rubio, yet every time they mention his name, they always go off on a tangent about how he can win the hispanic vote. Because of his skin color?!?! Yep. The republicans are that superficial. It's that simple. They're in full...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said his home state could be "up for grabs" in the 2012 presidential election, due in large part to the growing numbers of Hispanic voters. "The demographics are clear that the Hispanic vote will play a major role in national elections," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." However, higher numbers of Hispanic voters does not guarantee Obama an edge according to McCain, who said his inability to meet some campaign promises on immigration makes that voting bloc competitive. The most recent GOP candidate went so far as to say New Mexico, Colorado, and even...

A former Texas Supreme Court justice whose appointment by Gov. Rick Perry led to accusations of racial pandering was part of a Federal District Court decision Thursday to issue a new voting district map for Texas that will likely overturn the map proposed by the Texas Legislature and is designed to create ethnic voting districts for Latinos. U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez joined with another Latino justice from the three-justice federal panel — Clinton-appointee Judge Orlando Garcia — to issue the racially-drawn map, which has not yet been given final approval. Lawyers for the Democrats and Republicans were given...

<p>“I do not believe that the people of the United States are going to take people who’ve been here for a quarter of a century … [and] separate them from their families and expel them,” Gingrich said during a discussion about illegal immigration and border security. “I do believe we should control the border. I do believe we should have very severe penalties.”</p>

A former Texas Supreme Court justice whose appointment by Gov. Rick Perry led to accusations of racial pandering was part of a Federal District Court decision Thursday to issue a new voting district map for Texas that will likely overturn the map proposed by the Texas Legislature and is designed to create ethnic voting districts for Latino’s. U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez joined with another Latino justice from the three-justice federal panel — Clinton-appointee Judge Orlando Garcia — to issue the racially-drawn map, which has not yet been given final approval. Lawyers for the Democrats and Republicans were given...