Free Republic

The Department of Justice has released new quarterly numbers, as required through an executive order signed by President Trump earlier this year, detailing how many foreign born individuals are currently incarcerated in the U.S. federal prison system. According to the numbers, one-in-five individuals were born outside of the U.S. and a significant number are illegal aliens. From the Alien Incarceration Report: A total of 58,766 known or suspected aliens were in in DOJ custody at the end of FY 2017, including 39,455 persons in BOP custody and 19,311 in USMS custody. Of this total, 37,557 people had been confirmed by...

Without options and on the verge of losing the protections that allow them to remain in the only country they know, hundreds of undocumented youth have descended on the nation’s capital, putting everything on the line to pass the bipartisan DREAM Act. These courageous men and women have staged sit-ins and “die-ins” at the offices of members of Congress - Republicans and Democrats alike - to urge them not to vote for a spending bill without this critical piece of legislation. Some Democrats have demonstrated political courage in their steadfast commitment to voting against any spending bill that does not...

Jose Antonio Vargas, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and activist who in 2011 revealed that he unknowingly entered the U.S. with false documents as a child, will publish his debut memoir with HarperCollins imprint Dey Street Books. Vargas' book will be titled “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen.” Vargas, a member of the team that earned a Pulitzer for reporting on the Virginia Tech shooting for the Washington Post in 2008, was born in the Philippines, where he lived until he was 12. In 1993, he moved to the United States to live with his American grandparents, initially unaware that...

In this op-ed, Jung Woo Kim and Jonathan Jayes-Green explain how Black and AAPI immigrants have been impacted by recent changes to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) policies in the United States. Kim manages membership development for the Korean Resource Center and volunteers for National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC). He resides in Los Angeles, California and is a DACA recipient. Jayes-Green is a queer undocumented Afro-Panamanian and a co-founder of the UndocuBlack Network, a multigenerational network of Black undocumented people organizing their communities and building power.

OWENSBORO, Ky. – After their father was deported in late November, four Owensboro children will enter foster care unless their family finds a way to send them to Mexico. “I want us to go to Mexico, to be with our dad,” Cecily Cuahua, 10, said from her aunt’s living room in early December. Cecily’s three younger siblings quickly nodded in agreement. But sending the children to Mexico is no easy feat. They are American citizens. Their father, Antonio Cuahua, 35, was their sole caregiver and without him here to apply and pay for their immigration documents, the children’s relatives are...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California, flush with cash from an expanding economy, would eventually spend $1 billion a year to provide health care to immigrants living in the state illegally under a proposal announced Wednesday by Democratic lawmakers. The proposal would eliminate legal residency requirements in California’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, as the state has already done for young people up to age 19. It’s part of $4.3 billion in new spending proposed by Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat who leads the budget committee. While federal funds cover at least half – and as much 95 percent –...

My name is Jasmine Lopez, I’m 11 years old and I’m a U.S. citizen. If Congress doesn't take action now, I may not have my mom with me for the holidays. Why is this important for me? Because I’ve already experienced something close to losing my dad, and I don’t want that to happen ever again. I was born in Florida, but both my parents were born in Mexico and are living in the U.S. undocumented. Even though they were always careful when driving to work or to the grocery store, one day things got real for all of us....

A Woodland mother fears her husband may be moved to Arizona and deported to Cambodia as early as this week, after an October immigration sweep that pulled 100 people off streets across the country. Forty-three-year-old Saerang Ye was on his way home from work as a mechanical engineer when he was picked up by ICE about a block from his home. He's been jailed at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Facility ever since -- he and his family having little idea about what's going on with his case. Brought to the states when he was just 6, Ye lost any protection...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began physically testing the southwest border wall prototypes this week, according to a spokesperson for the department. Construction of eight wall prototypes in the San Diego sector were completed on Oct. 26. Six companies were chosen to build eight sample walls -- four made of concrete and four constructed of “other materials.” Last week, CBP officials began training, safety and security procedures, as well as scheduling to set up the testing. The physical testing will include attempts to scale and breach the prototypes. Officials will use items such as jackhammers, saws and hydraulic tools...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — It took nine days for Beatriz Morelos Casillas’ life to be completely upended. On July 23, Ms. Casillas — who goes by Betty — was stopped by an officer in Painesville, Ohio for a routine traffic citation. Because she was in the country without authorization, the mother of four was detained and slated for removal from the U.S. Just over a week later, Casillas was back in Mexico, a country she had not seen in nearly 20 years, with only her jeans and the shirt on her back — and no legal way to reunite with...

SAN DIEGO -- The federal government, in the most complete statistical snapshot of immigration enforcement under President Trump, says Border Patrol arrests plunged to a 45-year low while arrests by deportation officers soared. The Border Patrol made 310,531 arrests during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, a decline of 25 percent from 415,816 a year earlier and the lowest level since 1971. Despite the significant decline, arrests increased every month since May - largely families and unaccompanied children. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose officers pick up people for deportation away from the border, made 143,470 arrests, an increase of...

The United States notified the United Nations that it will no longer take part in the global compact on migration, saying it undermines the nation's sovereignty. The US has been a part of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants since it was formed last year. The declaration aims to ensure the rights of migrants, help them resettle and provide them with access to education and jobs.

Mystery solved? After Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez abruptly announced his retirement Tuesday and endorsed a successor without revealing his future political plans, Fox News has learned the outspoken immigration advocate will be testing the waters for a potential 2020 presidential bid. Few national political figures could be more ideologically opposed on the issue of immigration than President Trump – who wants a border wall and has fought to suspend immigration from some Muslim-majority countries – and Gutierrez, who blasted even the Obama administration over legal deportations.

... When parents are deported, children suffer. This is true for children who remain in the United States, separated from their deported parent(s), and for those who leave the country in order to preserve the family’s unity. Many go back and forth, interrupting their educational progress and the development of social attachments. Luis Zayas, dean and professor of social work at the University of Texas, Austin, has studied the mental health consequences facing children whose parents have been deported. His research has found that children who remain in the United States after a parent is deported experience “depression, possible conduct...

This week, families across our state are unboxing their Thanksgiving décor, choosing table cloths, and deciding who is going to be responsible for what dish this coming Thursday. It’s that time of the year when we communities come together, put family disputes aside and get in the holiday spirit. Unfortunately, this holiday season comes with a different taste for many as hundreds of Iowa families will eat their Thanksgiving meals with uncertainty, anxiety and fear. The lives of hundreds of families across our states are at risk thanks to Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies. Many of your immigrant friends and...

When Kathia Sotelo Calderon found out that the lump on her neck was thyroid cancer, she wondered how she’d pay for treatment. The 19-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico, who was brought to the U.S. by her parents when she was 7, had no health insurance. As a noncitizen, she didn’t think she was eligible for Medicaid, and she couldn’t buy a plan on the state or federal health care exchanges. While the 2010 Affordable Care Act substantially reduced the number of Americans without health insurance — from nearly 50 million in 2010 to 28.8 million in 2017, estimates from the...

An illegal immigrant was charged this week in the death of a New York socialite who was found bludgeoned to death in her hilltop estate two years ago, the end result of an elaborate international manhunt. Esdras Marroquin Gomez, 32, pleaded not guilty Monday at his arraignment on a murder charge in the death of 83-year-old Lois Colley, according to the Westchester County district attorney's office, who said he was indicted by a grand jury last year. "The murder scene was horrendous," Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino said. "From our evaluation, we believe the murder weapon was a home...

Two years ago, as others in California were limiting cooperation with federal immigration agents, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department welcomed them into its jail. Sheriff Margaret Mims gave U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unrestricted access to databases and private rooms to interview inmates. She reorganized release times so agents could easily pick up people who had served their sentences. The policy sparked outrage among immigrant rights groups, who called it a pipeline from incarceration to immigrant detention, one that they said disproportionately and unfairly affects Latinos. “We are not anti-immigrant for working with ICE,” Mims said in defense of the...

PORTLAND, OR - A man who threw bodily fluid on women at grocery stores in the Portland area pleaded guilty to third-degree sex abuse charges. Manuel Banuelos-Alcala, 47, pleaded guilty on Oct. 30. He was returned to ICE custody and ordered to be deported from the U.S. He was arrested in May after police asked for the public’s help tracking down a suspect accused of throwing semen on women at grocery stores in southwest Portland. There were similar reports in Beaverton and Milwaukie, as well. Banuelos-Alcala was arrested when officers conducting a follow-up investigation at a Safeway store on Southwest...

OMAHA, Neb. - 6 News has learned an illegal immigrant set to be deported has now been accused of sexually assaulting Metro children. He's also accused of trying to intimidate his alleged victims from behind bars. Victor Garcia-Fuentes is already in custody at the Douglas County Jail on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold. Now he faces 4 counts of child sexual assault. Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine told 6 News: "3 of them are contact charges. 1 is a penetration charge. So these are very serious charges." Kleine said the children range in age from 5 to 12 years-old....