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Honduran President Juan Hernandez has blamed U.S. drug policy for sparking violence in Central American countries and driving a surge of migration to the United States, according to an interview published today. Hernandez, who took office in January after winning on a pledge to be tough on crime, said only a drop in violence would curb the wave of families and unaccompanied minors fleeing Central America. A surge in minors leaving Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have overwhelmed temporary detention facilities on the U.S. border. 'Honduras has been living in an emergency for a decade,' Hernandez told Mexican daily newspaper...

PHOENIX - A new state bill would make it against the law for an illegal immigrant to use public resources

Republican lawmakers on Tuesday accused the Obama administration of flouting the law by releasing asylum seekers into the community while their cases are being heard, on the heels of a controversial new directive that raised security concerns about the asylum system. "It is apparent that the rule of law is being ignored," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Tuesday, speaking generally about the asylum system. Lawmakers, though, specifically cited a newly uncovered Immigration and Customs Enforcement document that showed thousands of asylum seekers were released while awaiting a decision. The document, obtained and reviewed by FoxNews.com, showed that...

After the calamitous debut of Healthcare.gov, Obamacare enrollment is now rising steadily, offering much-needed good news about a program that has been bombarded with criticism. The bad news: There’s still a serious flaw in the Affordable Care Act that will require more than a few lines of code to fix. Immigrants—including 11.7 million undocumented people—are either explicitly barred from accessing federal benefits or face significant restrictions on Medicaid and other programs for the poor. Excluding immigrants was a key concession offered to moderate Democrats and conservatives, who insisted that no tax dollars go toward the undocumented. But keeping immigrants out...

New York politicians push legislation to allow undocumented immigrants to apply for a driver's license The number of deported immigrants under President Obama is approaching the 2 million mark and immigration reform has become once again no more than a rapidly-fading illusion. Yet, here in New York, some politicians and community leaders are working to alleviate the immigrants’ situation by allowing the undocumented to legally apply for a driver’s license. “A driver’s license will provide undocumented immigrants much more employment flexibility,” said state Sen. José Peralta who, along with Sen. Adriano Espaillat and with the support of Make the Road...

A man police say is responsible for a deadly hit-and-run that killed a teen and a toddler pleads not guilty to all charges and rejects a plea deal that could have had him spending 120 days in jail. Instead, 18-year-old Uriel Flores will take his chances with a jury trial, claiming he did not cause or run away from the accident on Sharon Road West in September that killed 19-year-old Shaquise Sharvelle Bush and a 3-year-old boy in her car. A traffic camera photo caught Flores turning a corner in his white Chevy Silverado truck next to Bush's Mercury. The...

Editor's note: Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. (CNN) -- Last week, I had the honor to visit the Fast for Families tent on the national mall. The fasters welcomed me with open arms and a smile despite their struggle. The tent was full of messages of encouragement, expressions of admiration and symbols that remind every visitor of the reason for the fasters' sacrifice: the rights of immigrants and a House vote on the Senate immigration bill. Volunteers explained the meaning behind each symbol: a shoe they found abandoned in the desert represents the...

New Jersey Sens Robert Menendez and Cory Booker will join activists in Washington, D.C., for a 24-hour fast in support of immigration reform. “I’m sure that there are those who said, when Dr. King led marches and boycotts, that that was extreme and not herding the cause of movement to civil rights. I’m sure that there are those who considered Rosa Parks’ defiance in sitting in the front of the bus and not the back of the bus not productive,” Menendez said in a video posted Wednesday from the fast. “So history teaches us that while we would love to...

A bombshell revelation, as the News 4 Tucson Investigators uncover exclusive information about an illegal immigrant on the job, with a badge and gun, working as a law enforcement officer in southern Arizona. The investigation in this case began when a man applied for a visa to stay here in the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began their own background investigation on that man. That's when they learned he has a sister, who is an officer with the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The News 4 Tucson Investigators discovered that officer, Carmen Figueroa, has actually been working for DPS...

Inaction is no longer an option. Washington needs to begin making progress on issues important to our nation. Inaction is costing families, communities, businesses and local governments; our national economy and progress are harmed when Congress delays tough decisions. State and local government are where the rubber meets the road; this is where policy is implemented and services are provided to residents. California is becoming a majority-minority state and Alameda County is home to persons of diverse racial, ethnic and national backgrounds, including many immigrants. Approximately 31 percent of all county residents are foreign born, approximately 43 percent speak a...

Elizabeth, NJ – December 10th, 2013 During the week that Congress will close for 2013 without having passed an immigration reform bill, a group of Jersey residents locked themselves together in the street that serves as an entrance to the Elizabeth Detention Center (625 Evans St.) to protest the President’s deportation arbitrary quota policy and call on him to stop removals and expand deferred action instead. “We can’t let more families to be separated. We can’t wait for Congress. After what I saw my family go through I want to help other families that are in the same situation,” explains...

All three men who immigrant-rights groups are campaigning to have released from the Adelanto immigrant-detention center have felony criminal records, authorities said. In a Nov. 25 protest outside the center and during a subsequent lobbying campaign to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, activists from several groups have been asking for the release of Carlos Hidalgo, Artyom Karapetyan and Jose Santos Maltez, so the men can be with their families. Karapetyan is a legal permanent resident of the United States, and Hidalgo and Maltez are undocumented immigrants, said Johnathan Perez, a statewide coordinator for the Immigrant Youth Coalition, one of the...

Rep. Jared Polis said Friday the key problem with health care right now is that illegal immigrants aren’t included in Obamacare, and said part of the solution is to pass a bill granting them citizenship rights. The House is debating a GOP-written bill that would allow Americans to keep their health plans that have been canceled under Obamacare, but Mr. Polis, a Colorado Democrat, said the chamber should instead be looking at ways to make sure everyone in the country is covered by the Affordable Care Act — including illegal immigrants. “American citizens are essentially being forced to pay for...

NEW ORLEANS -- The population of undocumented workers in Louisiana is estimated to be around 65,000 according to the Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project. Angela Castro is one of those 65,000. Castro came to New Orleans from Honduras shortly after Hurricane Katrina when opportunities for work were ripe and plentiful. She's since had two children. Castro says she and many undocumented immigrants often avoid attention. On Thursday, they sought it. "We're all human beings. We have the right to remain in this country. In my country it's very poor. I came here to work, and this is where my...

Legislation to provide financial aid and other assistance to college-bound illegal immigrants is gaining political support in New York a year after the idea withered in Albany and Washington.