Free Republic

Tomorrow, the Judiciary Committee will hear testimony from Americans who lost loved ones to criminal alien violence. On Sunday’s Meet The Press, Chuck Todd made a declaration that would surprise these devastated families: “We couldn’t find a single study that links violent crime and immigration.” Apparently neither Mr. Todd nor his research staff ever thought to look up the government’s own 2011 report on criminal alien activity, published by the Government Accountability Office. The 2011 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report documents crimes committed by foreign alien nationals inside the United States. It counts as an alien any immigrant who...

Some 2.5 million illegal immigrants have flowed into the United States under President Obama, with 790,000 rushing in since 2013, according to a new analysis. Calculations from the Center for Migration Studies and the Pew Research Center indicate 1.5 to 1.7 million aliens joined the illegal population from 2009 to 2013 — either overstaying a temporary visa or sneaking into the country, according to a Center for Immigration Studies report out Monday morning. The immigration watchdog's analysis of Census Bureau data also showed that an additional 790,000 illegals entered from the middle of 2013 to May of 2015, for a...

resident Barack Obama and Pentagon officials confirmed on Tuesday their plans to cut 40,000 troops from the United States Army over the course of the next two years, which is expected to affect domestic and foreign Army bases and installation. However, there has been no mention of cuts to the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program initiated to enlist immigrants including those enjoying the benefits of Obama's executive order creating DACA. The force reductions will mean that the active-duty Army will experience cuts from its current size of about 490,000 soldiers to about 450,000. It will become...

Business mogul and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may have surprised some people when he recently told an estimated 2,000 people attending the FreedomFest conference in Las Vegas that he loved “legal” immigrants, Mexico, and Mexicans. But Trump said he favors building a wall to protect the U.S. border with Mexico as a way to prevent people from entering the United States illegally, especially those who were criminals in their native countries and are prone to engage in illicit activities in America such as drug and gun-related offenses, as well as murder. One of the most powerful moments occurred...

Donald Trump’s insult of John McCain’s war record on Saturday has led to nearly universal condemnation from his Republican primary adversaries. More importantly, it might also be the well-anticipated moment when Trump’s popularity in the GOP race comes crashing down. Whatever happens next in the campaign, though, it’s fair to say that the damage to Trump’s national personal standing and miniature media empire has already been done. That happened the instant he entered the race by attacking Mexican immigrants as “criminals” and “rapists,” and it happened thanks largely to an unprecedented grassroots response by Latino-Americans, Latino immigrants, and the broader...

Immigrant-rights advocates predicted 2015 would be a banner year for their cause, with new breakthroughs that would make the Golden State more welcoming. For the first time in more than two decades, illegal immigrants can apply for driver's licenses. Prospects were good for a sweeping package of bills to expand protections for people in the country illegally. And Gov. Jerry Brown agreed to spend millions on free health care for low-income immigrant children -- and even create a new position in his administration: director of "immigrant integration." But all that optimism quickly dimmed July 1, when an illegal immigrant from...

He may not have a shot at becoming president, but Donald Trump has already succeeded in uniting America — one nation, awash in snark. Pundits from the left and the right have declared open season on the Donald. As longtime Democratic strategist Paul Begala told The Washington Post, “I am a person of faith — and the Donald’s entry into this race can only be attributed to the fact that the good Lord is a Democrat with a sense of humor.” Or, as conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News: “This is the strongest field of Republican candidates...

PLAINFIELD, Iowa — As presidential hopeful Scott Walker toured a farm in this tiny town where he lived as a child, he was confronted by an undocumented worker from Mexico who is living in Wisconsin and demanded to know why Walker does not support President Obama's plan to give temporary status to some undocumented workers, including parents of children who were born in the United States. "We're a nation of laws," Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin, repeatedly told Jose Flores, 38, who was joined by two of his four children, Luis, 7, and Leslie, 13, who had tears rolling...

Being president of the United States is serious business, not a reality TV show. This is especially true for the next president, who will have a big job ahead after the failures of the Obama administration. Our challenges are too complex — and the future of our country too important — to let egos, inflated rhetoric, and emotion take the place of thoughtful discussion. I made the case recently for why GOP policies are the best to create opportunity across the country for families of all backgrounds. I’ve held up my home state’s reforms in economic, education, and sentencing policies...

About 2.5 million people have immigrated to the United States illegally since President Obama took office, 790,000 of them in the last two-and-a-half years, according to a new analysis of immigration and census data. The data marks an improvement over illegal immigration rates from 2000 to 2006, when 500,000 to 600,000 people entered the country illegally each year. But it nevertheless shows just how far the country still is from stemming the tide of illegal immigrants, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), which conducted the new analysis. “While the level of new illegal immigration is lower than a...

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Thursday condemned his rival Donald Trump for making incendiary remarks about illegal immigration. “I think candidates ought to lay out proposals to solve problems rather than basically prey on legitimate fears and concerns,” Bush told reporters after speaking at a technology company. -snip- Bush pointed to the killing this month of a woman on San Francisco's waterfront, allegedly by an immigrant who had felony convictions and had repeatedly been deported to Mexico – a case that Trump has repeatedly highlighted on the campaign trail. “The system broke down for her and her family, and...

“Be nice or leave.” That is the admonition given by a friendly Chattanooga neighborhood nestled just across the Tennessee River, between the Lookout and Signal mountains. Obviously there are some who did not heed that advice. Who would have thought that a tragedy like we have just seen could have happened in such a nice place? The answer may surprise you. We brought it upon ourselves! The murderer in this instance was Youssef Mohammad Abdulazeez. And political correctness being what it is, CNN would not use his name for fear it might suggest that he is a Muslim. In a...

A law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the details and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the pickup slammed into the side of the limo. The crash occurred around 6 p.m. along Route 48 in Cutchogue, on the North Fork of Long Island. Limousines are common in the area for people visiting the numerous wineries there. Flatley said the driver of the pickup ran from the crash scene, but was caught and arrested and faces a driving while intoxicated charge. His identity was not immediately released and he remained under police guard at...

Traveling by Jeep, boat and foot, Tribune-Review investigative reporter Carl Prine and photojournalist Justin Merriman covered more than 1,900 miles over two months along the border with Mexico to report on coyotes — the human traffickers who bring illegal immigrants in the United States. Most are Americans working for money and/or drugs. This series reports how their operations have a major impact on life for residents and the environment along the border — and beyond.

From the Conservative Tribune: “Right now American conservatives are arguing over the idea that the US should provide at least a minimum safety net for citizens who fall on economic hard times and need assistance to get back on their feet. One thing conservatives are not arguing about, however, is the idea that too many freeloaders consider such assistance an entitlement and abuse it for as long as they can. The use of food stamps is a case in point. More and more families use food stamps as their primary means of receiving not only groceries but also questionable items...

After a new law went into effect in January, more than half of all new driver's licenses issued in California this year have gone to people who are in the country illegally, the state said Friday. The California Department of Motor Vehicles reported it has issued roughly 397,000 licenses to people who live in the country illegally. A total of 759,000 licenses were issued in the first six months of the year.

Brendan Bordelon has a piece up on the home page on Scott Walker taking a pass on commenting on Trump on grounds that he doesn’t want to discuss other candidates, which strikes me as entirely reasonable. The conventional wisdom demands that Republicans devote themselves to denouncing Trump, but candidates are foolish to do this unless it serves some other purpose. Jeb has criticized him repeatedly, even after he said he was done with it. I don’t know why he really needs to get drawn into a war of words with Trump, but at least this accords with Jeb’s orientation toward...

Jeb Bush made it clear in a visit to Carson City on Friday that he doesn’t think anti-immigrant rhetoric being pushed by Donald Trump will put a Republican in the White House next year. “We had better stop having our angrier voices be the ones people hear,” he told a town hall meeting of about 300 people at Silver State Charter School. Without mentioning Trump by name, he attacked the people he said are “preying on people’s fear and anger.” He said his campaign will be inclusive not divisive, that he plans to campaign in Hispanic neighborhoods, college campuses and...

Presidential candidate Jeb Bush has returned to Northern Nevada, this time to hold a town hall event in Carson City. Bush visited Reno in May, before officially announcing his bid for president The former Florida governor held the free event at the Silver State Charter School, located at 900 Mallory Way, beginning around 9:15 a.m. Friday. -snip- Immigration was not mentioned in the planned speech but brought up in the last question during Q&A. Bush emphasized needing more effective ways of controlling the border and using new technologies like the “virtual fence” and “biometric technologies” to do so. Considering legal...

California lawmakers and activists are spearheading a first-in-the-nation plan to let undocumented immigrants buy Obamacare health insurance. Supporters say the California proposal, which would need federal approval and couldn’t start until 2017, is the next logical step in expanding health insurance to a population that was intentionally excluded from the president’s health-care law. But uniting the two highly combustible issues of Obamacare and immigration could reignite a fierce health-care reform controversy. There’s no guarantee the California plan still winding through the state’s legislature will succeed, even with Democrats in control of the statehouse, the governor’s mansion and the White House....