Free Republic

The surge of illegal immigrants surging across the border and overwhelming detention centers has been called a “humanitarian crisis” and ascribed to increased violence in Latin America. But a new poll of those immigrants shows that Obama’s promise of amnesty needs to assume much more of the blame: The main reason the subjects chose this particular time to migrate to the United States was to take advantage of the “new” U.S. “law” that grants a “free pass” or permit (referred to as “permisos”) being issued by the U.S. government to female adult OTMs traveling with minors and to UACs. (Comments:...

Newspapers in El Salvador and Honduras are encouraging their countries’ young people to head north to the United States, promising them an easy life courtesy of the welcoming Obama administration. “During their stay, in addition to accommodations and food, children receive English classes, play sports and participate in targeted programs while immigration authorities contact their families,” La Prensa of Honduras wrote, Newsmax reported Wednesday. Diario El Mundo in El Salvador, meanwhile, quoted Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson as praising the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

A source tipped me off last week to a curious occurrence: It seems that two planeloads of illegal aliens were recently shipped to Massachusetts. The first reportedly landed at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford. According to my tipster, approximately 160 illegal immigrants arrived on that flight and stayed nearly a week before being transferred to a Department of Homeland Security site and then released. The second flight reportedly was diverted from Hanscom to Boston's Logan Airport this past weekend. I am told that both Massachusetts and New Hampshire officials were on hand. I reached out to Hanscom AFB...

As if the political drama were not powerful enough, chaos erupted at the election night headquarters shortly after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor conceded his stunning defeat to tea party backed conservative David Brat. Cantor addressed his supporters for about four minutes at a suburban Richmond hotel ballroom, then boarded SUV without taking questions from supporters scurrying after him. Then it got really rambunctious. In the room of downcast Cantor supporters, a new energy suddenly erupted — but not the kind they wanted election night. A group of immigration activists stormed the ballroom, screaming and waving a flag. “What do...

About 50 years ago, archeologists discovered a scroll with hieroglyphics that appear to be a young girl, kneeling down while holding an oval object above her head. Next to the girl is what seems to be a young boy who is falling violently to the ground beside her. Seeming to appreciate the significance, this mysterious message was whisked away by aides to then-President Lyndon Johnson. Just last week, the riddle reappeared in an unauthorized leak to an investigative reporter by an unidentified employee of the Democratic National Party. It seems that many years ago the papyrus image was interpreted by...

THOMPSON SPRINGS, Grand County — Four people were killed and four others critically injured after a van that was apparently involved in a human smuggling operation rolled multiple times on I-70 Friday morning. About 4:30 a.m., approximately 34 miles west of the Utah-Colorado border ... Investigators believe a ninth person, possibly a woman, walked away from the scene. That person had not been located as of noon. "We're looking at this as possibly being a human smuggling case," Royce said. The Utah State Bureau of Investigations, Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were assisting the Utah...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said he would strive to be like Lyndon Johnson, the Democrat famous for expanding the U.S. welfare state through the "Great Society," if he were elected president. According to the Miami Herald, Bush made those comments Wednesday night in San Antonio, Florida at Saint Leo University, while speaking about education, immigration, and energy policy. Bush did not address Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty programs, about which Ronald Reagan once famously quipped, "We had a war on poverty, and poverty won."

Nearly 200 murderers, over 400 rapists, and 300 kidnappers in the U.S. illegally were released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while awaiting deportation proceedings, according to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies. A total of 36,007 criminal illegal immigrants that were being processed for deportation were freed in 2013. Together, they committed nearly 88,000 crimes, according to the report, published Monday. “I was astonished at not only the huge number of convicted criminals who were freed from ICE custody last year – an average of almost 100 a day — but also at the large number of...

Florida students who are living in the country illegally would qualify for in-state college tuition rates under a bill passed by the Florida Senate. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/01/4092361/fla-senate-approves-in-state-tuition.html#storylink=cpy

Sarah Palin was asked to respond to Jeb Bush’s recent comments that illegals are here out of an ‘act of love’. Palin responded: I think that anybody who breaks a law in America as their first action, putting their first foot on our homeland illegally, it may be an act of love from their heart but it’s illegal. They’re called illegal immigrants for a reason.

Arlette Lozano came to this country 18 years ago from Mexico at age 8 when her mother sent her and her 3-year-old brother across the border with the help of a coyote — someone paid to smuggle people across the border. Despite the barriers, there are options for immigrants in Lozano's position to find health insurance and medical treatment. Here are some suggestions. Medi-Cal coverage. A 2012 federal law provides temporary work authorization and relief from deportation to undocumented children and young adults who arrived in the U.S. before turning 16. It's part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals...

Marco Cervantes applied to five colleges and was accepted to all of them. His plans after high school were filled with libraries, books and a prospective degree — until his college financial aid office asked him for his Social Security number. As an immigrant without documentation, Cervantes did not have one to give. He was told he would be classified as an international student and charged out-of-state tuition — a rate he could not afford. “It just really didn’t make any sense to me because I had gone to high school and lived in North Carolina since I was 3...

People in the country illegally could become licensed to practice law under bill language approved Thursday by the Florida Senate. The change, if eventually passed by both chambers and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, could immediately benefit a Tampa Bay man who entered the country as a child and stayed long beyond his family’s tourist visa. Senators passed the language on close voice votes as amendments to a family law bill. The vote came after more than an hour of debate, including supporters quoting from the Bible and reading aloud the “Give me your tired, your poor” poem...

On a sunny weekday morning just east of downtown Los Angeles, a crowd of about 75 people rallied outside the LA County/USC Medical Center. They toted signs with slogans like “Healthcare is a Human Right” and “Salud Para Todos” (“Health for All”). “How can we say we live in a just and humane society,” said one speaker, “without providing for the sickest and most vulnerable among us?” Los Angeles, with its massive low-income population and largest concentration of immigrants anywhere in the country, may be the epicenter of the continuing uninsured crisis in America. Somewhere around one million county residents...

"Millions of illegal immigrants are getting bigger tax refunds than you are."

CHICAGO - Mayor Rahm Emanuel is inviting young immigrants in the United States illegally to apply for internships, volunteer positions and summer jobs. Emanuel's office announced Friday that the so-called dreamers are welcome to apply for nearly 23,000 positions. Online: http://www.cityofchicago.org/newamericans

Lost in the overall shuffle concerning the many problems with Obamacare’s exchanges is the central problem of enforcement of those aspects of the law the president hasn’t waived or delayed yet – including the particular challenge when it comes to verifying the immigration status of those applying for taxpayer subsidized insurance. On April 1st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a new guidance document to health insurers. The CMS guidance says that people whose immigration status is uncertain will be presumed eligible for subsidized coverage in Obamacare’s marketplaces while a further review is pending. Emphasis mine: If there...

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is done being patient. There was a time when an Oval Office meeting with President Obama could buy their silence. But no longer. On Friday April 4, the CHC sent a six-page letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson demanding that Obama use "all legal means available" to "suspend, delay, or dispense with the deportations of immigrants who would qualify for legal status and protection under S. 744." At no point does the letter bother to call for new legislation or the passage of S.744. Instead, the CHC just demands that Obama enforce current...

If President Obama means what he says about wanting an immigration system that reflects American values, helps the economy and taps the yearnings of millions of Americans-in-waiting, he is going to have to do something about it — soon and on his own. It has been frustrating to watch his yes-we-can promises on immigration reform fade to protestations of impotence and the blaming of others. All Mr. Obama has been saying lately is: No, in fact, we can’t, because Republicans and the law won’t let me. Mr. Obama is correct when he complains that long-term immigration repairs have been throttled...

Of all the things to be nostalgic for, infectious diseases probably don’t make it onto many lists. However, if you happen to pine for the good old days when measles was an active public health threat, I have good news for you. The anti-vaccine crowd is bringing it back. There is currently an outbreak of measles in New York City. Considered eliminated in the United States in 2000, last year saw a record number of outbreaks around the country. It’s only three months into 2014, and not only is the nation’s largest city seeing cases in several boroughs, but other...