Free Republic

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, in Europe for a trade mission, will preach the virtue and necessity of “assimilation” in an extended foreign policy speech Friday that will touch on his family’s own immigrant experience. Speaking to the conservative Henry Jackson Society in London, the potential Republican presidential candidate will contrast his parents’ decision to come to the United States from India 45 years ago with the mind-set of newer-generation European immigrants who subscribe to radical Islam. Story Continued Below “My dad and mom told my brother and me that we came to America to be Americans — not Indian-Americans,” Jindal...

The late Martin Luther King Jr., and his “I have a dream” speech are being used in an effort to fight President Obama’s executive action to grant worker amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. At issue: Jobs taken by illegals that America’s minorities, specifically blacks and legal Hispanics, need. “Was that Dr. King’s dream?” asks the ad produced by Californians for Population Stabilization and launched this week on national cable news networks leading up to Monday’s celebration of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. The ad is the latest anti-Obama move by his critics of immigration reform and...

Border Security: As terror-torn France and other European countries put curbs on Islamic immigration, the Obama administration is waving foreign Muslim nationals into the U.S. in record numbers. According to a recent Center for Immigration Studies report, America between 2010 and 2013 imported more people from Muslim countries than Central America and Mexico combined. And now, with the president's executive amnesty, the welcome mat is bigger than ever. That's a major shift in immigration flows — and one that poses a major national security threat. If just a fraction of these nearly 300,000 new Muslim immigrants follow in the footsteps...

On his way out of the door, his final day as a U.S. Senator, Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) released a blistering oversight report that finds the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) isn’t “successfully executing any of its five main missions.” Coburn’s criticisms include, but also predate, the Obama administration. Among the key findings: · DHS spent $50 billion over the past eleven years on counterterrorism programs but cannot demonstrate if the nation is more secure as a result. · 700 miles of the Southern border remain unsecured. · DHS is not effectively administering or enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. Only...

Some 40 asylum-seekers refused to leave the bus when they arrived at their destination in rural northern Sweden, demanding that they be taken back to Malmö or "some big city". When the transport arrived at a housing centre in Grytan south of Östersund the asylum-seekers didn't like the look of what they saw. "I am 75-years-old and come from the Middle East. Then I get sent to a place that looks like this," said a man from Syria to the local Östersunds-Posten daily, pointing to the icy road.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — While tens of thousands of immigrants living in the United States illegally are preparing to apply for a long-sought driver's license in California starting Jan. 2, others are being urged to think twice. Immigrant advocates say the vast majority should be able to get licenses without trouble, but they want anyone who previously obtained a driver's license under a false name or someone else's Social Security number to speak first with a lawyer, fearing a new application could trigger a fraud investigation. The same applies to immigrants with a prior deportation order or criminal record because...

The risk of being raped in Sweden during one’s lifetime is one out of four (if every raped woman is only raped once), which is probably equal to the risk of being raped in countries in war, such as Iraq or Syria. When it comes to rapes, Islamized Sweden is already in a state of war. Sweden does not publish statistics on immigrant crime. If we want to have a hint about who is committing these tens of thousands of rapes and other types of sexual assaults yearly, we can turn to another Scandinavian country, Sweden’s neighbor Norway, the country...

Fewer Americans born in the U.S. have jobs now than were employed to November 2007, despite a working-age population growth of 11 million. The amazing drop in employment highlights President Barack Obama’s slow recovery from the deep 2008 shock, but also spotlights many companies’ growing reliance on foreign migrant labor. Almost one in every two jobs added since 2009 have gone to foreign-born workers. In November 2014, one in every five U.S. jobs was held by a foreign-born worker, up from one-in-six jobs in January 2010, according to federal data highlighted by the Center for Immigration Studies. Since November 2007,...

Don't say 'illegal immigrants': Whitehall prefers 'clandestine entrants' or 'irregular migrants' to avoid 'connotations' More Buzz Words More Politically Correct Phrases, More Spin, Same Old Trying To Cause Confusion To Cover Up The Fact That Thousands Of Illegal Immigrants Are Still Entering Britain Don't say 'illegal immigrants': Whitehall prefers 'clandestine entrants' or 'irregular migrants' to avoid 'connotations' 19 December 2014 UKIP 11,920 attempts were made to enter the UK between April and July John Vine, immigration watchdog, described them as 'irregular migrants' Home Office wants to avoid 'presumption' they've done something wrong Number does not take into account those who...

In the span of four months, at least 94 children in 33 U.S. states have developed a devastating form of paralysis with symptoms similar to polio. Some require a ventilator to breathe. And some of the greatest government health minds in the country say they have no idea what’s causing it. At the same time, during the past four months, at least 12 children have died after falling ill with a respiratory virus called Enterovirus D-68 (EV-D68). Again, federal health officials are at a loss to explain the origin of the epidemic. Are the mysterious outbreaks linked? The Centers for...

The approval comes one year after Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill into law allowing certain undocumented immigrants to pay in-state college tuition rates. In 2013, Christie and Democratic leaders reached a compromise to remove a clause in the bill that also would have offered the same undocumented immigrants state aid to help pay for their higher education.“We have the opportunity to allow all children in this state now to go to college and to go to college in an affordable manner. It provides opportunity and it makes New Jersey the kind of place that all of us want to...

In small-town community centers, schools, churches and a vast city convention center, immigrant advocates are spreading the word about President Barack Obama's plan to give millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally a temporary reprieve. The November announcement promising work permits and protection from deportation made a splash, but lawyers say the events are crucial to dispel rumors about eligibility, ward off fraud, and help immigrants determine what they might need to apply. In Los Angeles, advocates are hosting an information session for as many as 10,000 people at the city's convention center Sunday. "After this big forum, we're...

In a lengthy interview on Friday afternoon, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) exposed how House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise strengthened President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty with procedural trickery former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber would envy—and they did it all in the name of pushing a bill that they told Republicans would block Obama’s executive amnesty. What’s more is that a series of interviews and recent developments indicate that Boehner’s gambit here is placing several of his top lieutenants—including at least two committee chairmen—at political risk of serious primary challenges...

Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) suggested that House Republicans are on the verge of breaking their campaign promise to fight President Obama’s administrative amnesty, as evidenced by the legislative text currently being circulated. Sessions said that the proposed language “fails to meet [the] test” established by Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, who promised earlier this year that the GOP would do everything possible to thwart Obama’s executive orders. “The executive amnesty language is substantially weaker than the language the House adopted this summer, and does not reject the central tenets of the President’s plan: work permits, Social Security and...

Judge Jeanine expertly displayed all the arrogance, hypocrisy and opportunism of Obama’s lawless executive action on immigration this week. It’s definitely worth a listen:

On immigration, the GOP primary will have little room for nuance Obama's announcement could affect 2016's probable candidates President Obama on thursday announced his much-anticipated executive action on immigration, and in doing so he lobbed a grenade squarely into the 2016 Republican primary race. ... Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush upset the rank and file earlier this year by calling for a compassionate aspproach to immigration. In April, he said undocumented workers who enter the country illegally do so as "an act of love" because they "are actually coming to this country to provide for their families." Then there's New...

With only hours before President Obama is expected to announce a major unilateral amnesty for illegal immigrants, Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill appear flummoxed at what they might do to stop him from going forward. “We’ve been trying to figure out what leverage we have. And we’re all finding it very difficult to actually stop the president in the next two months,” said Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN). Iowa Republican Steve King, however, did not lack ideas. Speaking to a scrum of reporters off the House floor, he offered a a specific, three-step plan on how to respond in the weeks...

... The youths, who call themselves Dreamers, won protection from deportation from President Obama in 2012 and continued to press him to extend those measures to others here illegally. Mr. Obama will grant deportation reprieves to undocumented parents whose children are American citizens and legal permanent residentsif they have lived in the country for five years and have not committed serious crimes, administration officials said... But senior administration officials have argued that it would be more difficult both legally and politically to make the case for including parents of immigrants in the existing program for young people who came when...

WASHINGTON (AP) — HealthCare.gov is working better, but immigrants are running into what looks like an obvious slip-up. Call it the green card glitch: The website has no clear path to upload the government identification document that shows they are legal U.S. residents, and entitled to benefits under President Barack Obama's health care law. It's a baffling omission, say consumers and counselors assisting with this year's sign-up drive. "It doesn't list the green card as an option to upload," said Elizabeth Colvin of Foundation Communities, an Austin, Texas, group that serves low-income people, including many immigrants. There's a way to...

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson warned Wednesday that the country could face another spike in illegal immigration as the U.S. economy picks up and as seasonal patterns change, though he said they have made major progress in combatting the surge of illegal immigrant children that wrong-footed his department earlier this year. “We’re determined that we need to do more ourselves for border security,” Mr. Johnson said in a speech at the National Press Club sponsored by Democratic group NDN. “I’m concerned about the possibility of another rise in illegal migration.” Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/19/jeh-johnson-us-could-face-new-surge-illegals/#ixzz3JZv6NEhX Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Illegal immigration is falling in Arizona, California and New Mexico, but rising in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according a study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. Drawing on data provided by the U.S. Census, Pew researchers reported a 21 percent increase in the number of people living in Pennsylvania illegally between the years 2009 and 2012. The Keystone State was home to an estimated 170,000 residents here illegally as of 2012, according to the study.

One of the issues that killed the Senate’s hated “Gang of Eight” amnesty for illegal aliens bill was that it allowed the amnestied illegal aliens to immediately access public benefits reserved for citizens and legal immigrants. House conservatives correctly argued that the “Gang of Eight” bill and its various House companion bills would allow illegal aliens immediate access to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and various other welfare programs, such as food stamps. While the proponents of the “Gang of Eight” bill tried to finesse the issue the bottom line was and is that once the government gives a Social Security...

The Norwegian paper The Local reported in September that asylum seekers and illegal immigrants (euphemistically called "persons living in Norway without papers") are over-represented in the country's crime statistics: Asylum seekers and visa-less immigrants in Norway are charged with twice as many crimes per head of population as Norwegians, but still account for a very small proportion of overall criminality, a new report has said. [Emphasis added] The authors of the report from the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), in the typical, apologetic style of officialdom, felt compelled to add: "This is so little that it has minimal significance...

A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows that the state with senators who both voted for the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, which cleared the Senate in June, has 71 percent of its job growth going to foreign-born workers, including legal and illegal immigrants. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) both voted for Senate Bill 744, which CIS calculated would have roughly doubled the number of new foreign workers allowed into the country and would have given legal status to millions of illegal aliens already in the country had the legislation been passed by...

An election-watch group is suing Maryland over the alleged presence of noncitizens on the state’s voting rolls. The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, asserts that individuals who opted out of jury duty because they were not legal U.S. residents have cast ballots in at least three Maryland elections. Based on the number of potential unqualified voters identified in Frederick County, up to 7 percent of Maryland’s registered voters could be illegal immigrants, according to estimates. “Their continued appearance on these lists makes it nearly impossible for Maryland law to prevent these declared noncitizens from casting votes...

A member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights told President Obama Monday that the administration’s reported plan to grant work permits to millions of illegal immigrants of illegal immigrants would have a harmful effect on black American workers. Peter Kirsanow, a Republican appointee to the panel, said in a letter to the president and to the Congressional Black Caucus that issuing millions of work permits to potentially low-wage workers “will devastate the black community.”

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined to address a Breitbart News report about a “surge” of immigration ID’s requested by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. ... A draft solicitation for bids issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Oct. 6 says potential vendors must be capable of handling a “surge” scenario of nine million id cards in one year “to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements.”

Newser) – Three teenage girls from Denver flew overseas in a bid to join ISIS in Syria before being stopped, reports the Denver Post. The girls, ages 15 and 16, apparently were lured by a "slick" online campaign to join militants with the Islamic State, an FBI official tells ABC News. They made it as far as Frankfurt, Germany, before being detained, and all three have been returned to their families in Denver. It's unclear whether they will face charges. The Voice of America first reported the incident, saying that two of the girls are of Somali origin, while the...

Calling it "“an irresponsible overreach of the executive branch’s authority.," Senator Charles Grassley, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, is criticizing an executive order issued by the president that would allow at least 100,000 Haitian nationals into the United States to be "reunited with their families." A similar program that reunited Central American children with their parents had a fraud rate of about 70%. “The rebuilding and development of a safe and economically strong Haiti is a priority for the United States. The Haitian Family Reunification Parole program promotes a fundamental underlying goal of our immigration system — family reunification,”...

“We are in a dangerous place in the world, perhaps more dangerous than in the past 10 years.” That’s what former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff had to say when he visited The Heritage Foundation recently. And with reports of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, often referred to as ISIS, all over the news, it’s not hard to see why. As Chertoff noted, terrorist groups have proliferated “from Africa east to Afghanistan.” Frightening images of beheadings and other forms of graphic violence are all too common. And news that some Americans have gone to the Middle East...

Illegal immigrants have the same constitutional right to bail that U.S. citizens do, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in a decision striking down an Arizona statute designed to make sure criminals without any community ties didn’t flee in the face of a looming trial. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 9-2 decision, ruled that Arizona’s voters, who passed the statute in a 2006 referendum, were actually trying to punish illegal immigrants rather than trying to reduce the risk of flight by those charged with serious felonies. The judges said bail isn’t allowed to be used as...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Michigan toddler Madeline Reid died Friday in her parents' arms. Doctors say she'd been battling Enterovirus D-68 when her heart failed. Lab tests will have to confirm the Enterovirus was directly responsible for the death of Madeline, 4-year-old Eli Waller of New Jersey, and 4 others. Nearly 700 people, mostly kids, have been infected with Enterovirus D-68 in 46 states....

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) has taken the lead in two new polls released on Wednesday as his opponent Greg Orman again endorsed amnesty for illegal immigrants during Wednesday's debate. In a Fox News poll, Roberts leads Orman, the liberal Democrat running as an "independent," by 5 points. Roberts leads Orman by a point in a CNN/ORC poll. Three weeks ago, Orman was leading Roberts by six points. In Wednesday's debate, Roberts accused Orman of supporting amnesty after Orman tried to convince voters that he did not. The Kansas City Star reports that Orman does indeed support "a path to citizenship...

Two immigration groups have filed legal complaints against the Obama administration for kicking over one hundred thousand Obamacare customers off their insurance plans without sending notices in their native language, Modern Healthcare reports. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and Philadelphia’s Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMACC) have both filed complaints with Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights. The groups believe the Obama administration’s move to end the health plans of customers who failed to prove their legal immigration or citizenship status violate customers’ rights as immigrants. The Obama administration terminated 115,000 customers’ Obamacare...

There are four places in the United States set up to handle a patient sickened by the Ebola virus, and Missoula is one of those. .... And any hospital equipped to care for a tuberculosis patient can care for an Ebola patient, according to Dr. George Risi, an infectious disease specialist who recently returned from spending 20 days in a Sierra Leone Ebola ward. Accompanied by St. Patrick’s intensive care nursing director Kate Hurley, Risi helped local clinic staff care for up to 95 patients at a time. While untreated Ebola kills more than 70 percent of its victims, more...

We’ve got a problem in the Twin Cities that is based in our large and still growing population of Somali immigrants. Somalis have been immigrating to Minnesota for more than twenty years now. They have taken advantage of all the services that our state and local institutions offer. They have been welcomed with open arms, in Minnesota’s characteristic style. Yet Minnesota’s Somali community — a/k/a “Minnesotans” — is the most fertile ground in the United States for the recruitment of terrorists by foreign terrorist organizations in Africa and the Middle East. We are concerned that they may choose to return...

HOUSTON, Texas -- Gangs operating in Falfurrias, Texas have allegedly been the recipient of “a massive amount” of inbound wire transfers. The transfers are believed to be extortion payments to local gang members who allegedly kidnap illegal immigrants who are found hiking through the ranches of Brooks County to avoid the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint. The immigrants are then held hostage until money is wired into the gang members – usually around one to three thousand dollars. The local gang members grab up the illegal immigrants they find on the roadways or in the ranches of Brooks County,” said Congressman...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Mike Michaud (Maine) says he is opposed to the idea of curtailing the eligibility for welfare payments to illegal immigrants. “These people have undertaken a long, arduous, and often dangerous journey to get here,” Michaud said. “That took courage and determination. Welfare payments are a meager reward for enduring these treks. It would be niggardly of us to deny them after they’ve crossed the finish line.” Under Maine law, illegal immigrants are not eligible for state funded welfare payments. Nonetheless, several cities have defied the law and paid out public funds to them. Portland disburses over...

BOSTON (AP) — Federal immigration officials say a four-day enforcement operation in New England has ended with the arrest of 81 immigrants, including those convicted of crimes, fugitives and those accused of other immigration violations.

Conservatives rightly point out that America is a nation of laws. No one should be exempt. That's why many oppose amnesty and other paths to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are here now. "If they want to be in America," the argument goes, "they ought to return to their own countries and apply for a visa legally. America should not reward law breaking." That sounds sensible -- but what happens when the immigrant does that, goes to the U.S. embassy and says, I'd like to work in America legally? He gets paperwork to fill out and is told to...

Immigration: California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a repeal of 1994's overturned Prop. 187, calling it a law that "has no place on the state's books." What do you call a man who claims voters' choices have no place in government? In most places out there, the name would be "tyrant," even if the word seems a bit fancy for the increasingly unpopular Gov. Brown. Because the hard fact remains that in 1994, millions of California's voters, by a margin of 59% to 41%, voted in favor of denying "free" welfare, education and other benefits to illegal immigrants on the clear...

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research, "the estimated share of legal Muslim immigrants entering the U.S. each year has roughly doubled, from about 5 percent of legal immigrants in 1992 to about 10 percent in 2012." And this rise in Islamic immigration has been accelerated by a series of moves by Barack Obama. For example, earlier this year the Wall Street Journal reported on a decision by the Obama administration to bring thousands of additional Syrian refugees into the country by the end of this year… U.S. plans to resettle thousands of Syrians displaced by their country's civil...

An international watchdog organization has slammed Israel for its treatment of thousands of African migrants, saying it is forcing them to leave the country at grave personal risk. In a report issued Tuesday, Human Rights Watch says Israeli authorities have coerced almost 7,000 Eritrean and Sudanese to return to their homes, where they may face serious abuse. For the past several years Israel has been placing thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese migrants in hardscrabble detention centers in the Negev desert. Citing statements by senior Israeli officials including former Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Human Rights Watch says the aim of...

During Thursday night's California gubernatorial debate against Republican Neel Kashkari, California Governor Jerry Brown (D) revealed that nearly 30% of the state's schoolchildren are either illegal immigrants or do not speak English. Brown, who recently said that illegal immigrants from Mexico were "all welcome in California," praised his administration's immigration policies. He said that California is "setting the pace" on immigration laws and mentioned bills he signed that gave driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, made California a sanctuary state (Trust Act), and granted in-state tuition to illegal immigrants (CA DREAM Act).

(CNSNews.com) - The number of foreign-born individuals holding jobs in the United States hit a recorded high of 24,639,000 in August, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS has been tracking the number of foreign-born workers annually since 2005 and monthly since 2007. The BLS does not distinguish between foreign-born individuals who are in the United States legally and those who are here illegally. “The foreign born are those who reside in the United States but who were born outside the country or one of its outlying areas to parents who were not U.S. citizens,”...

Enforce laws at your political leisure. Name recess appointments when there’s no recess. Legislate through regulation. Rewrite environmental laws. Rewrite immigration policy. Rewrite tax legislation. Bomb Libya. Bomb Syria. All by fiat. All good. The only question now is: what can’t Barack Obama do without Congress? How about joining binding international agreements without the Senate’s consent? Also, good. The New York Times reports that Obama, who failed to pass sweeping domestic climate-change legislation in his first term, is “working to forge a sweeping international climate-change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from...

A new report puts the price of educating the thousands of illegal immigrant children who recently crossed into the U.S. at a whopping $761 million this school year -- as some school systems push for the feds to pick up the tab. The estimate comes from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which issued a report on the 37,000 “unaccompanied minors” – who mainly are from Central America – after analyzing data from the Department of Health and Human Services and education funding formulas in all 50 states. The numbers underscore the concerns critics have raised for months about...

The total number of working-age (16 to 65) immigrants (legal and illegal) holding a job in North Carolina increased by 313,000 from the first quarter of 2000 to the first quarter of 2014...The number of working-age natives with a job declined by 32,000 over the same time.

As federal officials grapple with a crisis-level influx of Central Americans who are showing up at U.S. borders, NBC 7 Investigates found at least three immigrant families released to a Santee shelter kept in deplorable conditions. According to a contract provided to residents of the “House of Hope,” the home is an outreach ministry of the Faith Family Christian Center, run by Pastor David Barrett. Conditions inside the “House of Hope” A resident led us through the shelter on Prospect Avenue, navigating our news crew through piles of bedding visibly covered in flies, fleas and maggots. At least eight, bedraggled...

a Pew Research Center report released today shows that a new wave of Puerto Ricans leaving their island's severe economic woes has been finding its way to Central Florida and rapidly changing the ethnic and political makeup of the country's largest swing state. Florida, which has played a crucial role in the past two presidential elections, has 29 electoral votes that could play a crucial role in the 2016 presidential race.