Free Republic

Shortened title. Full title: Chaos In Courtroom: Man Accused Of Murdering Deputies: ‘I Killed F****** Cops’, Warns He’ll Do It Again An explosive day in the courtroom as opening statements began in the trial of Luis Bracamontes- the undocumented immigrant accused of killing two deputies in 2014. A judge ordered the jury out of the room, during an outburst by the defendant as he admitted to murdering the peace officers. Bracamontes said there’s no need for a trial, but the judge ruled it will still go on. “There was no need to prove all this s***,” Bracamontes said. “Be silent!” the...

An illegal immigrant began his murder trial for the 2014 killings of two Northern California sheriff's deputies on Tuesday with a profanity-laced rant, calling a partner of one of the slain officers a “coward.” Prosecutor Rod Norgaard recounted the events that led to the death of Sacramento Sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver outside a Sacramento motel in October 2014, and described how Oliver's partner, Deputy Scott Brown, was able to retreat from the heavy gunfire. Luis Enrique Monroy Bracamontes, 37, the alleged killer, interrupted the court when he grinned and called Brown a "coward." Bracamontes was scolded by the Sacramento Superior...

We have followed recent events in Wisconsin’s scandalous John Doe investigation of Governor Walker’s allies and supporters here (also citing background on the scandal) and here. State senator Tom Tiffany then updated us on the scandal’s aftermath. Now Senator Tiffany has directed our attention to Matt Kittle’s current MacIver Institute report “In John Doe’s shadow: Showdown looms in bitter battle over bureaucrats’ jobs.” Senator Tiffany has also forwarded Deborah Hawley Jordahl’s column commenting on current developments. Ms. Jordahl was herself a victim of the secret John Doe investigation. Her home was searched and turned upside down in a pre-dawn raid...

Journalist Kimberley A. Strassel is one of the few mainstream journalists writing about the collaborative 2016 DOJ/FBI “Trump Operation” with a sense of what is to come.  Strassel likely understands where the story is going, and appears to have a solid grasp on the evidence trail, yet necessarily writes cautiously – the stakes are indeed quite high. Today Strassel writes about the need for the Democrats to rehabilitate the Steele Dossier because the alternative origin, the truthful origin to the counterintelligence operation over the campaign of candidate Donald Trump, is a stunning political risk. Two weeks ago the New York Times narrative said the Steele Dossier...

21% of those convicted of non-immigration crimes were non-citizens — 2.5 times their share of the population

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions on Friday launched a review of a little-known but widely used practice of immigration judges closing cases without decisions, potentially putting hundreds of thousands of people in greater legal limbo. Sessions posed detailed questions challenging the use of “administrative closures,” an increasingly common outcome that allows people to stay in the country without legal status. The attorney general invited feedback from advocates and others, after which time he may issue new instructions for immigration judges nationwide. Administrative closures have been a lifeline to immigrants who apply for citizenship, permanent residency or other visas, shielding them from...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Mexican man acquitted of murder in the shooting death of a San Francisco woman that sparked a national immigration debate was sentenced Friday to time served for illegal gun possession. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Samuel Feng also denied a defense request to grant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate a new trial for his conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Garcia Zarate will now be taken into U.S. custody to face two federal gun possession charges. The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department said it would hold Garcia Zarate in jail until U.S. marshals...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday launched a review of a little-known but widely used practice of immigration judges closing cases without decisions, potentially reshaping immigration courts and putting hundreds of thousands of people in greater legal limbo. Sessions posed detailed questions challenging the use of "administrative closures," an increasingly common outcome that allows people to stay in the country without legal status. The attorney general invited feedback from advocates and others, after which time he may issue new instructions for immigration judges nationwide. Administrative closures have been a lifeline to immigrants who apply for citizenship, permanent residency or other...

“It’s never worked,” said Executive Director & General Counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) Dale Wilcox of past federally legislated amnesties extended to illegal immigrants. He advised the Trump administration and broader Republican Party to reject acceptance of amnesty proposals modeled after the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy and to prioritize the ending of chain migration and national implementation of an E-Verify usage mandate for employers. Wilcox made his comments during a Thursday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight, hosted by Breitbart News’s Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon and Senior Editor-at-Large Rebecca Mansour. Ending...

Luis Mora, 20, and his girlfriend, Jaleen Udarbe, 21, were on their way home from a party around 10 p.m. Saturday when they missed a turn and ended up at the checkpoint. Mora has been detained in a temporary holding cell in a Border Patrol station since then. “Luis Mora was found in violation of his visa condition,” said Tekae Michael, a spokeswoman for the Border Patrol in the San Diego sector. “Currently, Luis Mora is listed in DHS custody. This is all the information I have on the subject at this time.” Mora came to the U.S. from Colombia...

California offers some of the broadest protections and rights to undocumented immigrants in the country, and the California Values Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, makes those protections even stronger. Indeed, the law – also known as SB 54, or the sanctuary state law – will have a significant impact, particularly for certain people. It will also eventually shed light on the way local law enforcement interacts with federal agencies, like Border Patrol, the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But particularly in San Diego County, where there are high concentrations of federal law enforcement and numerous joint local...

Deborah Onsurez, 56, was found Thursday morning in Modesto, California. Authorities believe multiple stray dogs attacked her in the driveway of her home. Onsurez's injuries were severe and she was pronounced dead at the scene. ... Stray dogs everywhere, that's Stanislaus County for you ... They're a big problem in area known as South Modesto. ... dog attacks aren't uncommon. In November, a pit bull attacked at least three people in Elk Grove, a suburb of Sacramento that's about 60 miles from Modesto. And in 2014, two separate pit bull attacks in Stanislaus County - one left a man dead.

In California governor Jerry Brown’s endless attempts to drag California to third world nation status, he is now pardoning immigrants convicted of felonies in order to save them from being deported. The Sacramento Bee reports: Escalating the state’s showdown with the Trump administration over illegal immigration, California Gov. Jerry Brown used a Christmas holiday tradition to grant pardons Saturday to two men who were on the verge of being deported for committing crimes while in the U.S.

Today, few lies have been as oft repeated and as consistently maintained by liberals and even conservative quislings on the right as that of the “noble immigrant,” a profile of someone better in all respects than your average native-born American - better at working hard, better at not straining social services and, most importantly, better at obeying the law. And as it so happens, these “ideal citizens” happen to be foreign born and from a needy Thirld World country no less, just south of our borders, one that could really use our help by the way, what with all those...

One of the pregnant teens at the center of a new legal battle between the ACLU and the Trump administration has been released from federal custody after authorities said she lied about her age. The illegal immigrant teen had requested an abortion while staying at a government shelter for minors. Last week, the ACLU sued to force the government to help facilitate her abortion. But in an unexpected turn of events, CNN reports the unnamed young woman, who is 19, not 17, no longer is in government custody. Federal authorities said they released the young woman after discovering that she...

SALINAS, Calif. — Monterey County Sheriff Steve Bernal announced Monday that he will no longer allow a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent to have a desk in the Monterey County Jail. A new California law going into effect January 1, 2018, SB54, declares California as a "sanctuary state." Bernal said his decision to remove the ICE agent's desk was a result of complying with SB54, as well as consulting with several stakeholders who advocate for immigrants' rights on the Central Coast. An ICE agent was given a desk at the Monterey County Jail two years ago, shortly after Bernal...

Legalizing 2 million illegal immigrant “Dreamers” would cost the government $25.9 billion over the next decade, as those now-legal people would claim more tax, education and other benefits they haven’t been able to get before, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday. The CBO also said newly legalized Dreamers would sponsor 80,000 more immigrants to enter the country as part of “chain migration.” Immigrant-rights activists have argued that legalizing Dreamers would be a financial boon to the country, but the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation suggested otherwise, saying that while they would pay somewhat higher taxes in to the...

A new 13-minute mini-documentary produced by NBC makes a strong case in favor of issuing illegal aliens ID cards with little to no regard for U.S. law or the safety of legal citizens, proving once again that gone are the days of unbiased reporting. The slick production features several “undocumented immigrants” living in New York City who have benefited from IDNYC, a program created in 2014 to give a city identification card for undocumented immigrants, homeless, or any new Yorker without a proper ID. One said living without an ID meant they couldn’t “pursue happiness.” The other, a self-described “gay...

The U.S. government historically rejects most asylum claims. Over a five-year period ending in September 2016, the U.S. received about 267,000 asylum claims and granted 46,000. It has granted asylum in recent years to a number of Mexican journalists. But Eduardo Beckett, Gutierrez's lawyer, accused the U.S. of turning a blind eye to corruption and violence in Mexico, and blamed the Trump administration for changing how it deals with asylum seekers. "There is no more humanity," Beckett said. "The new tactic is, we'll pressure you, we'll keep you detained, in hopes you'll give up."... After receiving what his advocates called...

A 41-year-old San Francisco plumber who was on a losing streak at local casinos and faced eviction for not paying his rent was found guilty Monday of slaughtering a family of five inside their Ingleside neighborhood home after targeting them for robbery. On its seventh day of deliberations, the San Francisco Superior Court jury found Binh Thai Luc, an undocumented Vietnamese immigrant with a violent criminal past, guilty of five counts of murder in the massacre of the Lei family on March 23, 2012. ---------------------------- Before the killings, Luc was convicted in 1998 of committing an armed robbery at a...