Free Republic

Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday that if President Barack Obama wants to tackle immigration in his last two years in office, he can’t do it through executive actions. “We can’t have a circumstance in which we are going after a problem as meddlesome and potentially divisive as immigration by executive action only, this has to go through the people’s representatives,” the former secretary of state said in an interview with Brian Kilmeade of “Fox and Friends.” “That’s our system, that’s the Congress.” Rice said that after Republicans dominated the midterm elections, the American people need to “watch what happens now”...

President Obama gave a post-election press conference in which he pretty much took a pass on all of that stuff about acknowledging the public’s rebuke of his party or seeking common ground with the Republicans who will now control a co-equal branch of government. Instead, he “reiterated…that he intends to use his executive authority to stem deportations of some undocumented immigrants before the end of the year.” In other words: amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, on the unilateral authority of the president. The President has always been pretty free about making petulant threats to bypass his domestic opponents. He...

President Barack Obama took a major gamble when he punted executive action on immigration earlier this fall to try and save red-state Senate Democrats – and it didn’t pay off. Vulnerable Senate Democrats who publicly opposed executive action, from Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina to Mark Pryor in Arkansas, weren’t spared from defeat by the delay. Instead, it may have well have hurt Democratic Sen. Mark Udall in purple Colorado, a state with a significant Latino electorate who voted the incumbent out. With steep Democratic losses, Obama is left with a Republican-controlled Senate, whose leaders are already warning Obama...

The heated debate over voter fraud and illegal voting has largely occurred without reliable data on the extent of the problem, but that may be changing with a new study that is gaining significant attention, including Guy Benson’s piece on Townhall. The study publicized by The Washington Post has shown that noncitizen voting may be much more common than most people probably suspect, and could have changed the result in close elections. Those findings also call into question other aspects of an electoral system that is effectively policed by the “honor system,” as Hans von Spakovsky has argued elsewhere.Federal law...

Powhatan Family Grieves Loved One After Deadly Hit and RunCHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) - A Powhatan family is grieving after their loved one is killed in a hit and run bicycle crash. 28-year old Kevin Merryman was killed on Midlothian Turnpike near Courthouse Road at 6:00 a.m. Saturday. Hit-and-Run Driver Among Those Sought in Wayland-Area AccidentLEIGHTON TWP., MI (WHTC) - No names have been disclosed, but a pedestrian was struck by an apparent hit-and-run vehicle in northeast Allegan County just before 12 Midnight on Friday evening. The victim was dropped off to a residence on Division Street near 146th Avenue...

The deadly EV-D68 enterovirus epidemic, which struck thousands of kids this fall, was likely propelled through America by President Barack ObamaÂ’s decision to allow tens of thousands of Central Americans across the Texas border, according to a growing body of genetic and statistical evidence. The evidence includes admissions from top health officials that the epidemic included multiple strains of the virus, and that it appeared simultaneously in multiple independent locations. The question can be settled if federal researchers study the genetic fingerprint of the EV-D68 viruses that first hit kids in Colorado, Missouri and Illinois to see if they are...

Some Republicans claim the President has no authority to act, but they are wrong. The fact is, just as presidents before him, President Obama has broad authority to make our immigration system better meet the needs of our country and reflect our shared values. And every Administration since President Dwight D. Eisenhower has used executive authority to do just that. In addition to taking steps to make our immigration enforcement efforts more humane, there are dozens of reforms that the President can adopt. Two that could have the greatest impact involve the expanded use of his deferred action and “parole”...

“We won’t take any more excuses,” says Cristina Jimenez of the immigration-reform group United We Dream. “What we expect from the President is for him to use his legal authority to enact a program that will protect as many people from our community as possible.” At a “bare minimum,” said Pablo Alvarado, executive director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the immigration orders should include “an extension of work authorization to everyone who would qualify under the Senate bill and an end to the Secure Communities program and policies that criminalize immigrants. The President has the legal authority, the...

Maricopa Co., AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio reported that 36 percent of the criminals his sheriffs turned over to ICE “keep coming back” ... Last month a guy came back 25 times. So what is this? Either the border is really unsecure, or they're letting these guys out in the streets of Maricopa County. We got a big problem” he said. Arpaio added that releasing illegal aliens with criminal records was a “form of amnesty by the Obama administration.” ... Arpaio also said that the Mexican border has become so dangerous, law enforcement are afraid to cross,

Marcelo Marquez, the man accused to killing two sheriff’s deputies in California was in the country illegally and had been deported twice to Mexico — once in 1997, and again in 2001. Marquez, 34, is accused of killing two sheriff’s deputies Friday during a 6-hour crime spree in northern California. And Marcelo Marquez is not even his real name, it’s actually Luis Enrique Monroy-Bracamonte, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE filed paperwork Saturday to ensure he is turned over to immigration officials if he is ever released, though that is unlikely.

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The number of people who died trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped to the lowest level in 15 years as more immigrants turned themselves in to authorities in Texas and fewer took their chances with the dangerous trek across the Arizona desert. The U.S. government recorded 307 deaths in the 2014 fiscal year that ended in September — the lowest number since 1999. In 2013, the number of deaths was 445.

TALLAHASSEE — A coalition of Florida hospitals is challenging a state policy on emergency care for undocumented immigrants. Hospitals in states that participate in Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance program, are required to treat undocumented immigrants in emergency medical situations. In Florida, hospitals are reimbursed for those services by AHCA. AHCA used to pay for all emergency care for undocumented immigrants deemed "medically necessary," according to a petition filed in the Division of Administrative Hearings last week by the hospitals. But since 2010, the agency has been paying only to the point of "alleviation" or "stabilization." The hospitals argue...

Eufracia Mora and her husband run a commercial and residential painting business, and often have to drive from two to three hours for a job. The parents of two small children ride the whole way unlicensed and on edge. "I'm always nervous every time I get in the car," Mora said, "Every day I drive for work, or I drive the kids to school, I'm worried I'll see a police car." Mora is undocumented and cannot legally obtain a driver's license. She joined nearly 300 people Wednesday night for a forum on immigration issues largely focused on whether driver's licenses...

A New York school taxed by the arrival of Central American unaccompanied minors now finds itself at the center of a state investigation on its enrollment practices. The issue brought renewed negative attention to the long troubled school district of Hempstead, which has yet to accept its rapidly growing Latino population. As of last week, advocates say, at least 35 of these students who had successfully enrolled in Hempstead High School had not received instruction one single day. Other sources say as many as 70 kids are waiting to be accommodated. “There is a tough relationship between the community and...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Voter registration drives in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods here have raised concerns about how the city Board of Elections makes certain that only U.S. citizens be allowed to vote, as mandated by law. But there is little that the BOE does to ensure that. The issue is a pressing one given the neck-and-neck House battle between Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island/New York) and Democratic challenger Domenic M. Recchia Jr., a race that many believe will hinge on a relative handful of votes. Given that those in immigrant populations are seen as more likely to vote Democratic, some Republicans...

Immigrant rights groups filed a Freedom of Information Act court action in Washington, D.C. Tuesday to compel the release of documents regarding the use of the expedited removal process against families with children, including those detained at the family detention center in Artesia, N.M. The groups, in a news release, said the government has not publicly released critical information about the procedures governing its operations at the facility, despite the potentially life-threatening consequences for the women and children detained there.

Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) told Breitbart News that black workers across America should be wary of supporting Democrats because of President Obama and other Democrats’ support for immigration policies that displace them economically. "A nation owes its first obligation to its own citizens,” Sessions said in an emailed statement. “But our current immigration policy advantages the citizens of other countries over our own. Undeniably, one of the groups most hurt economically by unjust immigration policies are African-American citizens.” Sessions points to a study that Harvard economist Dr. George Borjas published with the National Bureau of...

Graciela Iniguez guesses she has spent $12,000 on traffic tickets and vehicle impound fees since she started driving 20 years ago. As an undocumented immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico, Iniguez drives without a license. But that's soon to change. Starting Jan. 1, California residents who can't prove they are in United States legally will be allowed to obtain driver's licenses under Assembly Bill 60, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last year. "This law is going to benefit us so much," she said. "Thank God, now we won't have to be afraid to drive." "Unfortunately, it's not a privilege to...

Seated at the defense table in U.S. Immigration Court in Philadelphia, the 10-year-old looked down at his feet, which barely reached the floor. Coal-eyed, he resembled a Latino Dennis the Menace, with a "fauxhawk" instead of a cowlick and clad in a shirt that read: Last name: Maker. First name: Trouble. Having entered the U.S. illegally eight months ago, the boy, Carlos, was arrested on the Texas border, given a notice to appear in court to face deportation. In a daylong court session this month, Judge Steven Morley, presiding at the federal building at Ninth and Market Streets, heard Carlos'...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to seek a vendor to produce as many as 34 million blank work permits and 'green cards' – the paperwork that authorizes illegal immigrants to live and work in the United States – as the White House prepares to issue an executive order after the Nov. 4 midterm elections. According to a draft solicitation published online, the government agency will look for a company that can produce a minimum 4 million cards per year for five years, and 9 million in the early stages. President Barack Obama has pledged that he will make a...