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PHOENIX — Federal authorities say an immigrant was out on bond and awaiting deportation hearings when he killed a Phoenix-area convenience store clerk over a pack of cigarettes. Apolinar Altamirano, 29, pleaded guilty in 2012 to a burglary charge but did not serve time in prison. U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement took Altamirano into custody on Jan. 3, 2013, after learning of his conviction in Maricopa County in Arizona. But after reviewing his case, ICE found he was eligible for bond, a spokeswoman said in a statement issued Monday.

SAN MATEO, California — No more pedaling the bicycle or ridesharing with relatives and friends to work or to bring the children to school. This month, the Department of Motor Vehicles started issuing special licenses to people who cannot prove their legal presence in the country. So-called irregular Filipino immigrants are among the people joining the long lines of applicants for a California driver’s license at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Immigrant advocates say some applicants who previously held licenses under Social Security numbers that were not their own have been told they will need to meet with a DMV...

DAVOS -- The crackdown on illegal immigration combined with intensified border security has prompted large numbers of undocumented Mexican laborers to remain in the U.S. permanently -- even as many prefer to go home -- out of fear they will never be able to return, former Mexican President Felipe Calderon told International Business Times. “Many of them are currently trapped,” Calderon told IBTimes. “There are a lot of these people [who] want to be in Mexico eight months every year, but they are unable to go there, because if they cross the border, they will never be able to cross...

LINK ONLY:  Two undocumented citizens arrested at Freedom Summit

Efforts by several California counties to provide health insurance to undocumented immigrants could serve as a model for other states. As a state, California has taken several steps to provide health coverage to undocumented residents. Immigrants in the state who qualified for Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival initiative are eligible for Medi-Cal coverage. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program. In addition, under an executive action by President Obama last year, Medi-Cal coverage could be extended to up to 500,000 undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and who have no record of felony offenses...

The Mexican government is asking a U.S. appeals court to let a Mexican teenager's parents sue the U.S. Border Patrol agent who shot and killed their 15-year-old son from across the border. The arguments are in one of three "friend of the court" briefs filed this month with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering the lawsuit filed by Sergio Hernandez's parents for the second time Wednesday. The full 16-judge court heard arguments. All three briefs ask the court to overturn U.S. District Judge David Briones' ruling that the family cannot sue agent Jesus Mesa Jr. over...

Ana Zamora, who came to the United States illegally, is among the 22 people selected to sit with First Lady Michelle Obama at tonight's State of the Union address. This is an honor bestowed on people who provide a human face for the liberal agenda that President Obama will lay out. Ana is the face of Obama's executive amnesty, which conservative Republicans call an affront to the U.S. Constitution. The White House describes Ana as a "letter writer, student, DREAMer." She was bought here illegally as a child by parents who were themselves illegal aliens, and that's exactly why she's...

Homeland Security: To keep out Islamic State terrorists, the Saudis are building a 600-mile-long barrier — complete with five layers of fencing, underground movement censors and radar cameras — on their northern border. If they can do it ... Good fences, it is said, make for good neighbors, which on a grand scale was the intent of the Great Wall of China in antiquity and the Israeli fences of more recent vintage. Both were designed to keep out intruders and to make sure all guests were invited guests. Unlike the Berlin Wall, they were built to keep hostiles out, not...

More than half a million undocumented immigrants are living within the five boroughs of New York City, but slightly more than 230,000 are eligible for the deferred action programs created by President Barack Obama. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) released details data on featuring estimates of major U.S. counties and its undocumented immigrants population. MPI's data profiled 94 counties across the U.S. and discovered the five counties with the largest populations potentially eligible for either DACA and DAPA relief are Los Angeles, California; Harris, Texas; Orange, California; Cook, Illinois; and Dallas, Texas, accounting for 1.1 million people, or more than...

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2017, some 2 million currently undocumented immigrants will be eligible for certain federal benefits under the Obama administration’s executive amnesty. In a report released Thursday, CBO considers how changes to immigration policy could affect the federal budget. Its estimates are based on President Obama’s expanded deferred action programs to provide legal status to undocumented immigrants. The office estimates that between 2 million and 2.5 million undocumented immigrants will “have received approval for deferred action” by 2017. The CBO’s estimate is less than the 5 million the Obama administration estimated its executive amnesty would...

I stand with the Santa Barbara News-Press. How about you? The newspaper is under fire for refusing to kowtow to left-wing word police and militant propagandists who demand unfettered illegal immigration. Last week, in the wake of angry protests against the publication, vandals threw paint bombs and spray-painted graffiti on its offices. So, what exactly is the News-Press' unforgivable crime? Calling illegal aliens "illegals" in a headline for a story about illegal aliens descending on California DMVs. A new law went into effect last Friday allowing illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses without proof of lawful residence. The article featured...

Immigration - Global humanitarian reasons for current U.S. immigration are tested in this updated version of immigration author and journalist Roy Beck's colorful presentation of data from the World Bank and U.S. Census Bureau. The 1996 version of this immigration gumballs presentation has been one of the most viewed immigration policy presentations on the internet.

Complete Headline: Dems Were Asked to Support the Deportation of Illegal Immigrants Convicted of Violence and Sexual Abuse. Here’s How They Voted. Dozens of House Democrats on Wednesday voted against a legislative proposal aimed at ensuring that illegal immigrants convicted of domestic violence, sexual abuse or child abuse are a priority for deportation. The vote suggests that immigration-related issues trump other traditional Democratic priorities, such as efforts to protect people from sex or violence-related crimes, especially against women. [Snip] Pelosi explained that she opposed the amendment because it was opposed by the National Catholic Conference of Bishops.

Leaked internal training documents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reveal Border Patrol agents are now receiving guidelines instructing them that the vast majority of illegal immigrants in the U.S. are off limits to federal agents and are substantially immune to detention and deportation. A trusted federal agent in the CBP provided exclusive copies of the documents to Breitbart Texas and also agreed to an interview on the condition of anonymity. According to the source, these training documents were required training for U.S. Border Patrol agents and each agent was required to sign their name to confirm receiving the...

The belief is widely held that those who are wealthy or possess great political power are above the law and do not have to respond to the legal constraints endured by the great masses of Americans. Those on the left who profess to support the poor and middle classes are quick to point out that the wealthy class can afford to have better access to the legal system. They can afford the best lawyers and rarely receive lengthy prison sentences. The other social class that enjoys privilege is the political class. They too can often find themselves given better treatment...

A case of red measles, also known as Rubeola, was diagnosed earlier this week in Moorseville, North Carolina -- worrying health officials and highlighting the renewed threat of measles in this country. The infected person was unvaccinated and had recently returned from a trip to India confirmed Rebecca Carter, the public information officer for Mecklenburg county. Carter said she could not release any additional details such as the age or sex of the person due to patient confidentiality. Dr. William Schaffner said this case is no trivial matter, warning that measles is highly contagious, spreading easily through coughing and sneezing....

The crisis on our southern border has many searching for reasons why thousands of immigrants are seeking to live in the United states.  The influx of illegals has been attributed to poverty and crime in Latin America, but that isn't the only reason.  Panama has the highest per capita income of any country in Latin America. It's also the farthest from the southern U.S. border. But its citizens are heading to the United States as well. Only it isn't the kind of people you might think.Sarah is a well-educated business owner in Panama.  "I have two businesses...a bar and an...

The right to determine who is issued a driver license is reserved for the states - not the federal government or an unelected judiciary If anyone in America has suspicions that communism, in the more friendly, yet more deviously illegal, form called Socialism is commandeering our civil rights, in fact, ALL of our rights, he or she is absolutely spot on target. Without a miniscule of legislation put forth by our law-making branch of government, the Legislative Branch AKA Congress, we are being trussed like slaves and unjustly pilloried from the most unlikely of places, the Judiciary Branch of our...

Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York City Police Department Commissioner William Bratton, and Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs Nisha Agarwal last week announced a notable update to the NYPD Patrol Guide – the upcoming municipal identification card, IDNYC, will be a valid and recognized form of government-issued identification. This important step will help prevent the arrests of New Yorkers previously unable to provide proof of their identity during interactions with the Police Department – including many immigrant, young adult, and transgender residents. IDNYC cards with names and home addresses will also be recognized as a form of identification in the issuance...

MCALLEN, Texas – An illegal alien from Mexico who was working as a choir teacher for a Texas border church has been arrested for allegedly trying to seduce an 11-year-old girl. Authorities believe other girls may have been victimized. Police in the rural border city of Palmview arrested Jesus Bustos earlier this week on the charge of indecency with a child, court documents obtained by Breitbart Texas show. Bustos, 48, had been a singing teacher at a local Christian church where he also gave individual lessons to choir members. The case began weeks ago when Palmview police were contacted by...

PHOENIX (AP) — Many young immigrants protected from deportation under an Obama administration policy are expected Monday to begin applying for Arizona driver's licenses, a privilege first denied by the governor but now given to them by the courts. The Arizona Department of Transportation said it's anticipating a rush of immigrant applicants in the weeks ahead at Motor Vehicle Division offices statewide. It comes after a judge barred enforcement of Gov. Jan Brewer's policy of denying licenses to about 20,000 immigrants living in the country illegally. The governor is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review her appeal.

In the fallout following a grand jury’s decision to not indict police for the death of Eric Garner, there is no shortage of libertarians who claim that Garner was innocent as far as the natural law is concerned. “Natural law” is an ethical tradition with an illustrious pedigree stretching back millennia. From this perspective, natural law is a transcendent moral order that provides the standard of justice for “positive law,” i.e. human legislation.The law forbidding the sale of loose cigarettes that Garner violated (repeatedly) is unjust. Garner “aggressed” against no one. He merely exercised his “natural right to dispose of...

Say transgender kids should choose which sex to live with Health and Human Services released long overdue guidelines Friday ordering facilities that house illegal immigrant children to set up sexual abuse prevention programs, and to be prepared to deal with tricky cases such as transgender or intersex children. The rules, which congressional Democrats had demanded earlier this week, govern everything from pat-downs to evaluating each child for their likely risk of being targeted for sexual abuse or harassment, and govern how the children should be housed while at the private facilities, which operate under a government contract.

The migration of undocumented children and adolescents traveling alone EE. UU. does not stop, and only in October and November last -the first two months of fiscal 2015 in that country-, 495 thousand Guatemalan minors were arrested in the southern border of the country by Border Patrol agents. Guatemala tops the list of Central American countries with the largest number of infants captured by entering illegally in the country's north. In the same period 115 thousand were arrested and 506 Hondurans Salvadoran children. Although Foreign Ministry authorities say that migration figures are changing and may decrease in the coming months,...

The approval comes one year after Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill into law allowing certain undocumented immigrants to pay in-state college tuition rates. In 2013, Christie and Democratic leaders reached a compromise to remove a clause in the bill that also would have offered the same undocumented immigrants state aid to help pay for their higher education.“We have the opportunity to allow all children in this state now to go to college and to go to college in an affordable manner. It provides opportunity and it makes New Jersey the kind of place that all of us want to...

Vote on legality of executive action scheduled for 9:00 p.m. EST.

In small-town community centers, schools, churches and a vast city convention center, immigrant advocates are spreading the word about President Barack Obama's plan to give millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally a temporary reprieve. In Los Angeles, advocates are hosting an information session for as many as 10,000 people at the city's convention center Sunday. "After this big forum, we're going to have daily orientations. That is what we have to do in order to deal with the demand," said Angelica Salas.

Shortly after House Speaker John Boehner promised on Thursday to challenge President Barack Obama's immigration executive action, White House officials detailed how they plan to move forward on it. Immigrants should be able to start applying for deportation relief and work permits in the middle of May and February, Leon Rodriguez, Citizenship and Immigration Services director told Spanish-speaking reporters in a conference call. First up will be those applying for expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Then, parents of U.S. citizens and legal resident children should be able to begin applying in May. Despite discussions about blocking the...

Sens Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said, “So I have a message today to every leader in Congress, to every official in the White House, and to President Obama: we are going to fight this illegal amnesty and we are not going to stop. We are going to carry out the mission the voters sent us here to do. We are not going to give in. We are not going to yield. We are going to stand strong for the American people.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District is declaring itself a safe haven for unauthorized immigrant students and their families who may qualify for relief under President Barack Obama's executive order. At a press conference Tuesday, district officials and union leaders pledged to work together to help students who qualify access the records they need to file their applications.

A border immigrant rights group is set to launch efforts Wednesday to create a municipal ID for residents who don't have access to current forms of state identification. The standardized ID would not only afford the homeless, indigent and disabled access to essential city services, the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights argues, but would help undocumented immigrants prove they qualify for relief from deportation under the president's recently announced executive action. Without some form of ID, “these people may end up being deported even though they qualify for executive action," said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the BNHR....

President Barack Obama was bullish on Tuesday about the future of his deportation relief programs, urging undocumented immigrants to apply despite threats from Republicans that the policies will be dismantled. Obama said future presidents could, of course, try to end the programs. But stripping protections and deporting those who applied is "not politically likely," he said at a town hall meeting at the Casa Azafrán community center in Nashville, Tennessee. "Any future administration that tried to punish people for doing the right thing, I think would not have the support of the American people," the president said.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's bill to ban horse-drawn carriages reached the City Council on Monday, in a move to phase out the carriages that often give tours around Central Park. The legislation says that as of June 1, 2016, "it shall be unlawful to operate a horse-drawn vehicle in the city of New York or offer rides to the public on a vehicle drawn or pulled by a carriage horse." ... It also boosts the penalty for breaking horse-carriage rules to a maximum of $25,000 instead of the current $500. The proposed ban was introduced one day after...

Unlike his predecessor, left-wing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will not commit to rejecting a bill that would allow non-citizens to vote in city elections. In January, City Council member Council Daniel Dromm will reportedly introduce legislation that would grant non-citizens voting rights in local elections, hoping that the bill will have a better chance of passing now that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who opposed the bill, is no longer in office. “The legislation I’ve seen so far, I think, has a number of challenges and issues that have to be addressed, so I was not...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law a measure that creates a municipal identification card that can now be used by illegal immigrants to access government services, rent an apartment and open a bank account. “Today we’re living up to our highest ideals, and today we’re saying that no one should be left out,” said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, calling the signing of the bill into law an “historic” moment, the New York Daily News reported. Ms. Mark-Viverito, along with fellow council members Carlos Menchaca and Daniel Dromm — all Democrats — said the new ID...

NEW YORK, April 17, 2014, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New York City councilman has effectively told traditional marriage supporters they are “not welcome” in the Big Apple. In response to Chick-fil-A’s proposed plans to expand their business and set up restaurants in several locations, including New York City, Councilman Daniel Dromm told the Huffington Post that the fast-food chain would not be welcome in the most populous city in the country. Councilman Daniel Dromm “We don’t need bigots coming to New York City,” Dromm told HuffPost. “They are not welcome here unless they can embrace all of New York’s diverse community,...

That was a big wide smile on Bill de Blasio’s face the other night, and why not? He sure as hell earned one. He was the only Democrat in a cluttered primary field to recognize—and then to capitalize on—the lesson Barack Obama taught the nation in 2008: That is, it is no longer necessary to do important things to win high office; it is only necessary to talk about doing important things. Obama rode that insight into the White House, and de Blasio—bless his progressive heart—is at the cusp of the New York City mayoralty. … (W)hat de Blasio really...

New York City could soon become the first major city in the country to give non-citizens the right to vote. The proposal, which would allow certain non-citizens to vote in local elections, appears to have a veto-proof majority in the New York City Council—enough to overcome opposition by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. As hearings on the proposal get underway Thursday, supporters are optimistic it will become law by the end of the year and believe it will have an impact beyond the five boroughs. “It’s going to be huge and just imagine the implications that are involved here,” Councilman Daniel Dromm,...

<p>Starting Jan. 1, unauthorized immigrants can get California driver’s licenses, but before they can register their vehicles they’ll need one more, pricier item -- auto insurance.</p> <p>Another state law is aimed at fixing that. Also starting Jan. 1, unauthorized immigrants for the first time are eligible to buy insurance through California Low Cost Auto Insurance.</p>

New York lawyer Brett Stark, who has worked with dozens of unaccompanied Central American children who crossed into the United States in the past year, says getting the courts to grant these kids asylum is extremely difficult. So he often turns to a special advocate — a doctor. Such medical-legal partnerships have cropped up in New York and California, where thousands of unaccompanied minors have settled with their families or friends who were already in the U.S. For cases involving emotional trauma, the bulk of the evidence may come from a psychologist. The lawyer can try to describe the trauma,...

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson testified before the House of Representatives on December 2 that he thinks it's a "bad idea" for Congress to consider a short-term funding bill in lieu of full funding for his department, so that it can implement the stunningly broad sweep of "executive actions" on immigration announced by the president during a nationally televised speech on November 20. He may think so, but it's not at all clear why the House should adopt that view given the executive branch usurpation of authorities granted to the legislature under Article I of the Constitution,...

President Barack Obama’s immigration deputies released 30,862 foreign criminals into the United States’ cities and neighborhoods, according to a federal document. The document also showed that Obama repatriated less than 1 percent of the 12 million illegals living in the United States during the 12 months up to October 2014. Officials also repatriated only 8,805 of the roughly 180,000 unskilled Central American migrants who flooded across the border since 2011, according to the “Fiscal Year 2014 ICE Enforcement and Removal Operation Report.” “Immigration enforcement has been destroyed by this President,” Sen. Jeff Sessions said in a Dec. 5 statement.

Where, outside of a marginalized left, are today’s equivalent of the antebellum radical Republicans, “ready and willing to destroy” the coercive deportation regime? Where are the absolutists, who would brook no compromise, who would rather see the republic ripped apart than tolerate an immigration system that denies equal rights to millions upon millions of people; that brutalizes families, generates thousands upon thousands of desert deaths, and breeds sexual terror, be it on the journey here, in the factory and field, or in the closed quarters of the home, where women workers have limited protections and where fear trumps whatever slim...

Did President Obama just set up Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to be a candidate for impeachment [snip]? The inquiry begins with the question: Where are the executive orders Obama supposedly signed to permit up to 5 million parents of young illegal aliens to remain in the United States for three years?[Snip] The White House appears to have engaged in administrative sleight of hand, changing U.S. immigration law not by executive order but by a memorandum “exercising prosecutorial discretion” Johnson signed the day of Obama’s Nov. 20 nationwide address that so far has not been filed in the...

Fear of being arrested and deported, family separation, and poverty just some of the daily anxieties faced by an estimated 11 million undocumented people living in the U.S. The stress can also take a toll on mental health. New Mexico State University Family & Child Science professor Kourtney Vaillancourt says the psychological impact of living undocumented goes even further...and can adversely affect mental health. "There is those additional stressors of being seperated from family, there is the stressors of kind of living in an ambigious state where you are not exactly sure what is going to happen. You may not...

In a defiant challenge to GOP leaders, immigration hardliners in Congress announced Wednesday they will oppose upcoming legislation to keep the government open. They demanded specific provisions to stop President Barack Obama's executive actions that granted a reprieve from deportation for millions. "We aren't with our vote going to give him one dime to execute his illegal action, and we believe the American people are going to stand with us," said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., at a press conference outside the Capitol where she was joined by other House conservatives and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Cruz warned against "having a...

Four legal scholars told the president in a letter that he can legally use his executive authority to extend deportation deferrals to the parents of young immigrants, even if their children are not citizens or legal residents. In the Nov. 3 letter obtained by NBC News, the scholars said that "there is no legal requirement that the executive branch limit deferred action or any other exercise of prosecutorial discretion to individuals whose dependents are lawfully present in the United States." In fact, the scholars wrote, the law does not require they have any dependents at all. The lawyers said they...

Homeland Security officials wasted little time in ramping up for President Obama’s amnesty, posting 1,000 job openings the day after his announcement and announcing it already has space for hundreds of employees at a new space in Arlington, Virginia — an indication that it had laid its plans well before Mr. Obama said. And even though Mr. Obama said his policy is temporary, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is hiring the employees for permanent positions, at salaries of up to $157,000 a year, according to the job postings listed on the official federal jobs website. A number of the job...

U.S. President Barack Obama voiced optimism on Wednesday that a government shutdown can be avoided in coming weeks, pointing to comments from Republican leaders of Congress who oppose a budget showdown. Obama said there are enormous potential areas for compromise with the Republican Congress, mentioning tax reform, trade and paying for infrastructure projects that would create jobs.

Under questioning from Rep. Barletta, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson was unable to state how President Obama's executive amnesty benefits legal Americans: