Free Republic

Federal immigration agents made nearly 500 arrests of individuals wanted for deportation during a national operation aimed at so-called “sanctuary cities." “Operation Safe City focused on cities and regions where ICE deportation officers are denied access to jails and prisons to interview suspected immigration violators or jurisdictions where ICE detainers are not honored,” the agency said in a statement Thursday. ICE executive associate director Matthew Albence told reporters in a conference call it's the first time an operation was directed at cities that don't fully cooperate. "It's probably the first of many," he said. At least 101 arrests were made...

Diana Montelongo came to the United States as a 6-year-old from Mexico, brought by her parents in search of a better education. Now a graduate of UC Berkeley, Montelongo teaches math in Natomas to middle school students. The day after the 2016 election, she decided to share her story. “I came into the classroom and students were crying and hugging each other,” Montelongo recalled. “There were students that had to be sent home because they were afraid their parents were not going to be there when they returned.” Montelongo, 23, is one of about 5,000 educators working in California schools...

A federal appeals court revived Texas’s anti-sanctuary city law Monday, allowing key parts to take effect — including a prohibition on cities and states trying to thwart cooperation with deportation officers. Police and sheriff’s departments also are required to comply with detainer requests when the federal government asks that illegal immigrants be held for pickup, under the 3-0 ruling by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Last week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and uber-liberal Congresswoman Barbara Lee held a press conference with fellow open-border and amnesty advocates. They wanted to discuss their proposed legislative deal to grant legal status to the 800,000 DACA recipients who are losing that status following President Trump’s executive order to phase out the program. Suddenly, a small crowd of irate illegal alien youth crowded the stage, stole the show, and demanded complete amnesty for all illegals in the country: not just for themselves, but for their parents, their siblings, for anyone else who has broken into this country. Pelosi lost...

There’s an old legal saying that goes, “Hard cases make bad law.” Essentially, what that means is that when you try to take an extreme case and use it as the basis for general laws, the end product doesn’t work very well. In this case, when you try to take the most sympathetic group of illegal aliens and craft a law around them, it’s going to create a huge mess. Setting aside the fact that illegals of any age are breaking the law and that could be the entire list 1-5, there are a number of other reasons that young...

On Valentine’s Day, the WhiteBox art gallery in New York City hosted a runway show with a political twist. The diverse group of models featured in “Illegal Fashion” wore dresses made of canvas, linen, burlap, and recycled paper. Painted with splotches of bold colors, the garments bore provocative phrases like “I am illegal,” “deport me,” and “ICE me.” Artist Maria de Los Angeles curated the show with Juan Puntes de Los Angeles also designed the dresses modeled. The 29-year-old has a personal connection to the garments, as well as to the messages painted on them. “I’m undocumented,” she says. “So...

About 100 young people gathered on the lawn of East High School in Wichita on Friday for a student-led rally in support of a program that protects children who were brought to the United States illegally from being deported. Carrying signs and shouting “Build more bridges, not more walls,” the high-schoolers said they wanted to show support for the legal shield known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it would end the program, leaving Congress a six-month window of time to try to save it. “We are here because we have...

Violeta Gomez-Uribe, 32, goes to kickboxing classes in Brooklyn. Eduardo Garcia, 22, lifts weights at the gym, in between classes and two jobs. Apolinar Islas, 34, who came to New York from Mexico when he was 15, said he walks around in “zombie mode” and tries to stay off social media to avoid “the tsunami of confusion.” All of them are recipients of DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protects undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children from deportation and lets them work legally in this country. They have felt a whiplash of...

The Trump administration is drafting a new policy to quickly deport more than 150,000 child migrants from Central America who arrived alone in the U.S. illegally, creating a new class of undocumented migrants. The Department of Justice and Homeland Security is drawing up a policy proposal in a series of memos, according to two sources with knowledge of the internal debate who spoke to the Miami Herald. As it stands, the plan would allow for teens and children who arrived in the U.S. illegally by themselves to be put on a fast track to deportation when they turn 18. Most...

Like many high school seniors, Indira Marquez Robles thinks a lot about her future. She knows what college she wants to go to (Bryn Mawr) and what she wants to be when she grows up (an immigration attorney) but she also doesn't know if she'll be at risk for deportation in the next six months. Marquez Robles is a beneficiary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Because the 17-year-old Houstonian's DACA will expire on March 21, 2018, she doesn’t have any option but to wait and see if Congress passes legislation that would grant her some form of...

The Resistance wants a showdown with Donald Trump, and looks like it will get its wish soon. Our Democrats would make California a “sanctuary state,” setting up a confrontation with the federal government over fundamental questions of who gets to enter the country, who gets to stay and how the rules will be enforced. Meantime, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Wednesday announced the state is suing the Trump administration yet again. This time, California wants to block the president’s proposed border wall on the grounds that it would be bad for the environment. Since when does the environment trump...

“We are paying taxes, we are contributing to the community, and we just ask that we be represented. “ Carlson replied that America’s officials are supposed to represent U.S. citizens and asked, “Why do you have the right to demand anything?” “I don’t understand on what grounds you make these demands.” Carlson said that, if he went to another country and made the type of demands Ceja is making, they’d tell him to “Buzz off”: "If I show up in someone else’s country and I say, ‘You know what, I demand to have a voice in the political system here,...

ABC is developing a comedy about an undocumented family with “New Girl” writer and co-executive producer David Feeney, Variety has learned. Titled “Sanctuary Family,” the single camera comedy would follow a hard-bitten husband and empathetic wife who butt heads over the chaos created when they provide sanctuary for their undocumented nanny and her family. This is the latest project about immigration to go into development at the broadcast networks in recent weeks. Gina Rodriguez has set up Latino-led series at CBS and The CW. At CBS, drama “Have Mercy” centers around a Latina doctor who is unable to practice when...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Target Corp and PepsiCo Inc on Wednesday joined an expanded group of nearly 800 companies calling in a letter for U.S. legislation to protect immigrants brought into the country illegally by their parents from deportation, according to organizer FWD.us. A group of businesses less than half the size and weighted toward technology companies sent a similar letter in August, before President Donald Trump said he would end the program. Both letters were spearheaded by FWD.us, a pro-immigration group co-founded by Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.

Undocumented immigrants are shunning California in favor of Texas, with the Lone Star State’s undocumented population growing nearly five times as fast as California’s, new federal data show. About 2.9 million undocumented immigrants lived in California during 2014, according to new estimates from the Department of Homeland Security. The undocumented population in California grew steadily from 2000 to 2008, dropped sharply during the 2007 recession, rose again and remained essentially flat from 2011 to 2014. Overall, California’s unauthorized immigrant population grew by 16 percent from 2000 through 2014. The undocumented population in Texas, by comparison, grew by 75 percent from...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that illegal immigrant parents who brought their children to the U.S. in defiance of the law “did a great thing,” giving the country an infusion of successful young people. Mrs. Pelosi’s comments strike a dissonant note from many analysts, who while saying the Dreamers are sympathetic since they had no say in the decision, say the parents do deserve blame for creating the problem. He comments came after she was shouted down by protesters earlier this week who interrupted her at an event, and demanded she do more to protect all illegal immigrants....

Places of worship and private charities in Texas and Florida are playing a pivotal role in the recovery effort from hurricanes Harvey and Irma because so many storm victims are immigrants in the country illegally – and therefore ineligible for federal disaster aid. FEMA rules allow people in the country illegally to apply for disaster aid on behalf of children under 18 years old with legal status, but many worry about the government sharing information with immigration authorities. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston is hosting workshops for immigrants to explain FEMA eligibility and answer other questions.

Though the administration has begun to put supports in place for undocumented students affected by President Donald Trump’s decision to end a program that shielded them from deportation, some say SIU is lagging behind other Illinois universities. “Since the undocumented body of students is smaller [here], the urgency is lower,” said Martha Osornio, an undocumented student and a senior studying cinema and photography from Chicago. “Other universities are all doing workshops and things to help their larger populations of undocumented students.” The University of Illinois system’s flagship campus has a website dedicated to providing resources for undocumented students, open.illinois.edu. Here,...

The Tompkins County Immigrant Rights Coalition launched a rapid response network and hotline for immigrants last week in an effort to “stand in solidarity with undocumented immigrants.” Volunteers who are part of the network will respond to calls from people in the area if they are being pursued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and are facing arrest, detention or deportation. When called, a team of volunteers will arrive at the scene or otherwise document the event, including a description of the persons arrested, the identification of law enforcement agencies present at the arrest, the location where the person...

In Minnesota, more than 6,200 individuals have been granted DACA status. A similar number might have qualified for the program but never applied. And some, like 29-year-old Alejandra Cruz, were never eligible. She was 20 when she entered the United States, and DACA covers only those who arrived before reaching age 16. The vulnerability that DACA recipients are feeling is familiar territory to her, though she insists she is not afraid. "This country depends on the immigrant community," she said. "And this country needs to recognize that." She doesn't usually volunteer that she's undocumented and not enrolled in DACA, but...