Free Republic

The nation’s Catholic bishops are jumping into the increasingly contentious battle over immigration reform by backing President Barack Obama’s pledge to act on his own to fix what one bishop called "this broken and immoral system" before Republicans assume control of Capitol Hill in January. In an unscheduled address Tuesday at the hierarchy’s annual meeting, Seattle Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, chairman of the migration committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the USCCB would continue to work with both parties to pass comprehensive immigration reform. But, Elizondo said, given the urgency of the immigration crisis and the electoral...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Marco Antonio Quiroga was brought to New York from Peru at the age of three by his mother, who was fleeing an abusive husband. In Queens, Quiroga’s mother taught him to live in the shadows. She taught him that revealing his status as an undocumented migrant would put the whole family in jeopardy. So when Quiroga realized he was gay, he was already practiced in keeping secrets. “That was a big struggle for me,” he says. “I had to hide myself from society and I also had to hide the fact that I was gay because I could lose the...

Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona is pushing his Republican colleagues to try to block the president from using executive action on immigration, but his plan is likely to hit strong resistance from House leaders. The federal government is currently funded through a continuing resolution that runs out at midnight on December 11. Salmon, echoing similar calls from Republican senators Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Mike Lee of Utah, proposes that Congress pass a bill that would fund the government until early next year. If the president moves ahead with his executive amnesty, the expiring continuing resolution would give Republicans an...

Nearly every high school senior applied for Tennessee Promise, but a small percentage of them may not be eligible for free community college tuition. Before getting the state funding, students must apply for federal financial aid — which leaves undocumented students behind. Tennessee has about 6,000 high school students who are undocumented, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The governor’s speech introducing Tennessee Promise may have encouraged that hope: “To every student, from every kindergartner to every high school senior, we will promise that he or she can attend two years of community college or college of applied technology absolutely...

... Failure to solve this crisis effectively perpetuates the status quo, where an underclass of men and women work for unlawfully low wages, undermining businesses, and are less likely to report being victimized by crime for fear of being deported. It's why traditionally Republican-friendly organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have pushed for lawmakers to develop a comprehensive solution, and why immigrant-rights groups have grown so impatient with the Obama administration's promises of help. The president's administration deported more people in five years than his predecessor, George W. Bush, deported in eight years, according to the Pew Research Center....

The president and his advisers bet against Latinos in this last election — and they lost. Whatever the claims to the contrary, the administration delayed executive action on immigration to protect Democratic Senate candidates in red states. Latinos represent the fastest growing demographic in the electorate and the best opportunity Democrats have for building an overwhelming electoral coalition that could reliably defeat G.O.P. monetary and turnout advantages. But Democrats are not entitled to Latino votes. Like voters of all racial and ethnic groups, Latinos have the right to ask that candidates address their concerns directly.

President Obama said once again that he won't wait on Congress to start making changes to America's immigration system. In an appearance Sunday on CBS' Face The Nation, Obama stood by his recent statements that he'll use executive action to enact changes before the end of the year, but told host Bob Schieffer that he still wants Congress to act on the issue, too. Everyone agrees, Obama said, that the U.S. doesn't have the capacity to deport 11 million people.

House Republicans will have their largest majority since the 1930s next year, but that doesn't mean Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) job will be easy.The House GOP leadership's struggles in keeping members in line over the past four years have been well documented. Some of the incoming freshmen will likely join the ranks of conservatives who frequently oppose leadership initiatives.Among the new freshmen, for instance, is one congressman-elect who has called Hillary Clinton the "anti-Christ," another who has suggested Muslims don't deserve First Amendment rights, and yet another who has declared himself open to the idea of the United States invading...

Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet “Jan The Man” Napolitano who helped give hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens a stay of deportation now says she backs Barack Obama’s plans to grant broad, unqualified amnesty by executive action. In a recent interview, Napolitano told the Washington Post, “If Congress refuses to act and perform its duties, then I think it’s appropriate for the executive to step in and use his authorities based on law … to take action in the immigration arena.’’ In her speech titled “Anatomy of a Legal Decision,” given in Georgia in an obvious attempt to stir up...

FULL TITLE: 'I'm an American Without Documentation': The Trials and Tribulations of an Undocumented College Student Originally from a small town in Nayarit, Mexcio, Nestor Gomez always had a passion for a career in Engineering that is deeply rooted in his love for the environment. In most ways, Nestor is like any other college student. However, Nestor is a very ambitious individual. Nestor Gomez is an undocumented immigrant. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 1.5 million undocumented students currently reside in the United States. Of those students, approximately 765,000 arrived in the United States before turning sixteen. On June 15,...

Stolen lives, that is how families refer to the death of their loved ones at the hands of criminals who were present in the country illegally when these men and women’s lives were stopped short. German immigrant and single mother of her only child, Sabine Durden spoke at the Sunday event in tribute to her son Dominic. The 30-year old sheriff dispatcher and pilot was killed when a Guatemalan illegally present in the United States and driving without a license caused the accident that left him dead. Jamiel Shaw, Jr. was a high school football star with a very bright...

Absent the credible threat of impeachment, Obama will pardon millions of illegal aliens. There is high anxiety over President Obama’s impending unilateral amnesty order for millions of illegal aliens. How many millions? The estimates vary. On the low end, 3 to 8 million, assuming some correlation to the potential beneficiaries of the president’s already existing amnesty decrees (including DACA or Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals). On the high end, as many as 9 to 34 million, factoring in likely categorical expansions of amnesty and their ramifications over the next several years. The nation overwhelmingly objects to Obama’s immigration lawlessness, but...

OREGON CITY, Ore. — Twice illegally entering the United States, once deported, a man from El Salvador finds himself in a familiar spot of facing deportation. Aguirre pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in August and agreed to enter a diversion program. His blood-alcohol level was .12. He’s been living at the Augustana Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland since September after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at his house in Fairview to arrest him. Aguirre has a criminal past in Oregon dating back to 1999 when he was convicted of selling drugs to undercover police officers in...

After surviving a primary challenge and winning a general election, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) declared that he heard his "marching orders" from Kansas voters to be conservative. "I've heard my marching orders loud and clear," Roberts, a Marine veteran, said during his Tuesday evening victory speech. "I will be bold. I will be conservative. And I will be constructive." Roberts, who has been against amnesty legislation since the 1980s, survived his primary challenge against Milton Wolf because there was no daylight between Roberts and Wolf on illegal immigration....

One year after the surge began of illegal migrant children across the southern U.S. border, courts are buckling under the load of deportation cases, while immigration rights activists are sounding the alarm that many children can't get fair hearings because they are without legal representation. According to data obtained by Politico, courts convened over 800 hearings per week between July and October. More than half the 11,392 cases on the calendar during that time were given continuances because children had no legal counsel, adding to the backlog for courts in the coming months and increasing the burden on the limited...

Illegal aliens plan a showdown with President Barack Obama at the White House at high noon Nov. 7. Central American Solidarity Association of Maryland (CASA de Maryland) Executive Director Gustavo Torres is supposed to lead the revolt. This being a national security measure, the government is mum on which federal agency will take the lead on protecting the president. Either the secret service or Immigration Customs Enforcement is the likely leader. “Particularly in light of this critical juncture on the future of our country, the president must act decisively, broadly, and quickly,” Torres says in a press release Nov. 6....

Eighty percent of voters polled on Election Day say new jobs should go to Americans and legal immigrants, not to illegal immigrants, including the potential beneficiaries of President Barack Obama’s planned executive amnesty, says an election-day poll of 806 voters. “Voters overwhelmingly prefer an immigration system that protects American workers,” says a memo released with the poll by Kellyanne Conway, founder of the polling company. “Members of Congress should feel confident that voters will support actions using the power of the purse to protect American workers from Obama’s executive amnesty threat,” the memo said.

Maria Praeli stood crying at the podium as she held the hand of her mother, Chela Praeli. Maria Praeli, 21, has a special status bestowed by President Barack Obama on young adults brought here as children by their undocumented parents that allows her to go to school and work without fear of deportation. But Chela Praeli, a psychiatrist when she was living in Peru, but who now cleans houses for a living, lacks that protection. “The thought of her being taken away from me is unbearable. My mother deserves to be included in President (Barack) Obama’s administrative relief,” she told...

California Division of Motor Vehicles is preparing for roughly 1.4 million new driver’s license applicants after Jan. 1. That’s when Assembly Bill 60, or the Safe and Responsible Drivers Act, goes into effect. FOX40 spoke with a Maria Rodriguez, an undocumented immigrant living in West Sacramento who plans to apply for a license under the new law. “It’s the best thing that could have happened to us in California. We’ve been waiting for it for many, many years,” Rodriguez said. The DMV is encouraging all eligible applicants to start preparing for their drivers tests early. When Nevada adopted a similar...

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”...