Free Republic

VIDALIA, Ga. — For years, labor unions and immigrant rights activists have accused large-scale farmers, like those harvesting sweet Vidalia onions here this month, of exploiting Mexican guest workers. Working for hours on end under a punishing sun, the pickers are said to be crowded into squalid camps, driven without a break and even cheated of wages. But as Congress weighs immigration legislation expected to expand the guest worker program, another group is increasingly crying foul — Americans, mostly black, who live near the farms and say they want the field work but cannot get it because it is going...

I think the current controversy over immigration reform points to a larger issue in America today, which is that Americans are essentially split on the very idea of what America is and should be. It used to be that Americans mostly agreed that in order to attain citizenship, immigrants had to not only come to this country legally but also demonstrate, after training and study in the American system, that they believed in the unique United States Constitution and embraced what it means to be an American. Though that still occurs in the naturalization process, we seem to have abandoned...

It’s a good thing Jan Brewer is a politician and not a journalist. The Associated Press recently struck the term “illegal immigrant” from its lexicon. Not so Arizona’s feisty governor — and she’s not backing down on this one. Brewer defended her use of the word during an interview with a clearly irritated ABC News Senior National Correspondant Jim Avila, who repeatedly pestered Brewer to change her language, to no avail: “I’ve heard you use the phrase over and over and over again. They’re insulted by the term, ‘illegal immigrant.’ That that brands a person. What they do is illegal...

(JNS.org) A small Massachusetts town has become a growing refuge for Egyptian Christians fleeing persecution in their homeland. Milford, located approximately 40 miles from Boston, has been drawing increasing numbers of Christians from Egypt, bolstering an existing community of Egyptians who settled in the area in the 1980s and founded St. Mark’s Church in nearby Natick, Mass. “Milford is one of the most famous cities that has a lot of Egyptians,” Maged Saad told the Boston Globe. “It is just by luck. We have no experience in USA, but we just asked one friend. He is here also.” As a...

“Never before have I seen such contempt for law enforcement officers as what I’ve seen from the Gang of Eight” - Chris Crane, ICE Agent union president.- Last week, ICE union chief Chris Crane won a stunning initial court victory in his lawsuit against the Obama Administration. As we reported, Federal Judge Federal Judge Reed O’Connor told the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they had no power to refuse to deport illegal aliens, and that he was likely to strike down Obama's virtual "DACA" amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. The ruling stunned Washington, and Crane's lawsuit could derail...

MOSCOW — Russian police and security agents have detained 140 people at a mosque in Moscow on suspicion of involvement with Islamic extremism.A statement from the Federal Security Agency reported by Russian news agencies said among those detained in the Friday action were 30 citizens of unspecified foreign countries.The detentions come a week after the two suspects in the fatal Boston Marathon bombing were identified as originating from the Russian region of Chechnya and sympathizing with Islamic extremists.

Conservative legal group obtained Agriculture Department flyerYou need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children'Program in all 50 Mexican consulates in the U.S. helps push food stamps A Spanish-language leaflet that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided to the Mexican Embassy in Washington advises border-crossing Mexicans that they can collect taxpayer-funded food stamp benefits for their children without admitting that they're illegal immigrants. Underlined and in boldface type, the document tells immigrants who are unlawfully in the United States that, 'You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking...

<p>Non-citizen immigrants lawfully residing in California would be eligible for jury duty under a bill that cleared the Assembly on Thursday.</p> <p>Current state law allows only United States citizens to serve on juries. However, the state Constitution does not restrict immigrants residing legally in California from being summoned. Assembly Bill 1401 would no longer exclude "lawfully present immigrants" from jury lists drawn in part by the Department of Motor Vehicles records. The bill was written by seven Democrats on the Assembly Judiciary Committee, including the chairman, Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont.</p>

She's an honor roll student and accomplished violinist. She also refuses to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Enidris Siurano, a student at Damascus High School, was born in Puerto Rico. Siurano says she hasn't recited the pledge since seventh grade to protest the political situation there. "The government that's there should be the one that's running it, not one that's miles and miles away," she said. But only recently has her refusal caused so much turmoil that she and her family turned to the ACLU of Maryland. "Enidris was repeatedly directed by her teacher to stand," said an...

Above: ICE Union President Chris Crane, who filed the lawsuit against DHS.- In a stunning order, a federal judge Wednesday said that the Obama administration is likely violating the law by telling immigration agents and officers not to arrest illegal aliens they deem "low priority", in a lawsuit brought by ICE agents that could derail Obama’s plan to undermine immigration enforcement nationwide.Federal Judge Reed O'Connor said in a court order Tuesday that Congress, not the president, sets priority for arresting illegal immigrants, and said the law requires them to be put in deportation proceedings.“The court finds that DHS does not...

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on welfare, sponsored by tax payers. Tsarnaev, now dead, is suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon last week. "Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned," reports the Boston Herald. "State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012...

The Mother Of The Boston Bombing Suspects Was Arrested For Shoplifting Last Year Grace WylerApril 19, 2013Natick Police A woman believed to be the mother of Boston bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev was arrested last year for shoplifting at a Cambridge Lord & Taylor department store, according to a police briefing in the Natick Patch. Here's the June 13, 2012 report from the Natick Police: 7:42 p.m.: Loss prevention from Lord & Taylorcalled to report they had detained a shoplifter. Zubeidat K. Tsarnaeva, 45, of 410 Norfolk St., Apt. 3, Cambridge, was arrested and charged with larceny over $250...

The key to giving Republicans a fighting chance to win the presidency, is to end immigration to America, which will permit the immigrants who are already in America to assimilate to American values. Asian voters supported Obama with higher percentages than Hispanics. Asians gave Obama 73 percent of their vote, while Hispanics gave Obama 71 percent of their vote. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-08/asian-voters-send-a-message-to-republicans.html I agree with Ann Coulter. More immigration will kill the Republican Party, and by extension, destroy American values and the American identity. The insane people at the Republican national committee, think that they can strengthen the Republican Party by importing...

"We had an interesting discussion about why fewer students are coming to, particularly from Japan, to study in the United States, and one of the responses I got from our officials from conversations with parents here is that they're actually scared. They think they're not safe in the United States and so they don't come," Kerry tells CNN.

The term "illegal immigrant" dehumanises and criminalises people who are denied the opportunity to obtain authorisation. Language has been in the news lately. Last Tuesday, on April 2, the Associated Press announced it would no longer use "illegal immigrant" to refer to people living in a country without permission. The previous week, Alaska Republican Congressman Don Young referred workers in his father's farm as "wetbacks", although he subsequently apologised for the racialised slander. Why is language so important? What are people so upset about? The word "wetback" is a reference to the fact that many people who cross into the...

The cost of amnesty just keeps getting higher and higher. I was dumbfounded the other day when I heard some far-left progressive politician crying that the costs were too high for illegal aliens to apply for citizenship. He stated that when he first was elected, the cost was $90 to go through the application process but now the cost has risen to $700. In his eyes, illegal aliens paying anything for getting US citizenship is grossly unfair. However, the real kick in the pants is that all of this is unfair to the US taxpayer. Let’s take a look at...

From www.MrVirtualPresident.com: IMMIGRATION (Virtual Town Hall meeting - Redlands, CA)March 30, 2013 Virtual President Bill Whittle takes a question on immigration at a Virtual Town Hall meeting located not far from the Mexican border.

John McCain, on a visit to the border town of Nogales, Ariz. with colleagues Chuck Schumer, Michael Bennet and Jeff Flake, bore witness, firsthand, to one of the challenges Congress will face as it attempts to craft immigration legislation: securing the border. Standing at the country’s Southern border, McCain tweeted:

by John HillStand With ArizonaWebsite | Facebook | Twitter Releasing illegal alien criminals - it's not just for Arizona anymore... In a political hissy fit, the Obama administration canceled White House tours and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released thousands of detainees ahead of the implementation of sequestration, all in attempt to make the public “feel” the effects of the forced spending cuts. But effort has largely backfired on Obama from a public relations standpoint, with children being denied access to “the people’s house” and the American public outraged at the potential harm from the release of illegal immigrant...

In Washington, everyone has their issue. But it's probably safe to say that Stephen Bassett's is a little more colorful. Bassett, the executive director of the Paradigm Research Group, wants the U.S. government to lift what he calls the "truth embargo" and acknowledge that extraterrestrials are real and are engaging the human race. "Think of me as a very committed political activist like any other, whether it's the civil rights movement, or the gay rights movement, or the women's rights movement, or any other," he told Yeas & Nays. Though his movement is a wee bit more alien. Bassett and...