Free Republic

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday gave what one attendee described as a quintessential Trump speech before a group of Hollywood conservatives — brash, self assured, and plenty of humor. Trump’s appearance before Friends of Abe — a fellowship of showbiz right-of-center professionals — was met with protests outside the Luxe Hotel in Brentwood over remarks he has made about Mexican immigrants. Chanting “Donald Trump has got to go” in English and Spanish, the protesters drew occasional honks from passing cars on Sunset Boulevard, with a heavy presence of Los Angeles Police Department officers on watch. But Trump told...

..But what about Trump’s contention that Mexico is sending us criminals and rapists? In fact, the very opposite is true. Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal, like all immigrants, have lower rates of criminal behavior than the native born... ...As for incarceration rates, immigrant men ages 18 to 39 are less than half as likely to be incarcerated than native-born men the same age, according to the Ewing study. Mexican men are even less likely to be incarcerated: Their rates are one-third that of natives with similar demographic characteristics. And Salvadoran and Guatemalan men are incarcerated at one-fifth the rate of...

AUSTIN — The late Caskie Stinnett, a travel writer and magazine editor, is credited with this quote: “A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way you actually look forward to the trip.” I thought about Stinnett’s quote — and more on that later — when I heard Gov. Greg Abbott would host Mexico’s Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade and a small delegation of Mexican officials this past Thursday. Abbott is not a diplomat but as the leader of the Texas government he and his guests discussed trade, infrastructure and relations between...

White Americans are far more rape-y than Mexicans can ever hope to become. Demonizing Mexicans as rapists is a time-honored tradition of American letters and politics. The idea that hombres are fundamentally devious perverts hell-bent on violating the honor of white and Mexican women alike is soldered on the American psyche—even though it’s based on goddamn lies. This canard gained national prominence recently when Donald Trump angered any American with a soul after saying, “When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best...They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.” But his stereotyping of Mexicans as sexual predators wasn’t...

Days after Mexican illegal alien Francisco Sanchez confessed to murdering Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco, the Center for Immigration studies published a highly-detailed map revealing the counties, cities, and even entire states where officials defy U.S. immigration law.

On trips to Panama, I love staying at the Trump hotel. The service is excellent, the rooms are plush (with a bathtub in the center of the bedroom), the ocean view is breathtaking, the espresso machine is incomparable and Trump Jr.’s looped television message tells me I am a VIP. Not bad for around $150 per night. I think the order in which I began receiving phone calls about Donald Trump’s attacks on immigrants is revealing. Friends from Central America were the first to call, asking if I had heard the insulting comments from the owner of the hotel I...

“… Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” – Martin Niemoller, anti-Nazi pastor Donald Trump set off a firestorm with his recent remarks about Mexico. Good, he’s hit a nerve. At his campaign kickoff announcement at Trump Towers, Trump said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you (gesturing to audience member), they’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee made clear on Sunday that he sees some immigration issues differently than his Republican presidential rival, Donald Trump. “What I have been doing is focusing on what my own views of immigration happen to be, rather than weighing in on getting in this battle of, are we with Trump or against Trump?” Huckabee said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I say some things very differently. I say every night, I get on my knees and thank God I’m in a country people are trying to break into, rather than one they’re trying to break...

I was skeptical that Trump was really running, but now that the boats are burned behind him, watch out. He is set to be Herman Cain squared — an early-nominating-season phenomenon with a massive media megaphone. As for his instantly notorious Mexico comments, they did more to insult than to illuminate, yet there was a kernel in them that hit on an important truth that typical politicians either don’t know or simply fear to speak. “When Mexico sends its people,” Trump said, “they’re not sending their best.” This is obviously correct. We aren’t raiding the top 1 percent of Mexicans...

Rep. Steve King, who himself came under fire for making controversial comments concerning immigrants, says he appreciates Donald Trump's "scrappiness" and that there is truth behind his comments on Mexicans. (SNIP) "I have been down to the border and the number I come back with is 75 percent are sexually abused on the way to the United States," said King. "I say in Donald Trump's defense, somebody is doing that to the kids being raped and abused. It's reasonable to conclude they are Mexicans." (SNIP) The 13th and 14th Amendments were ratified to "end slavery and make sure there were...

Univision. NBCUniversal. Macy's. They've all severed ties with 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump over remarks he made about immigration and Mexicans. The two broadcast powers have refused to air the Miss Universe pageant, which Trump partially owns, on July 12, and Mexican officials affiliated with the outdated pageant have said they won't send a representative to the event. Trump has responded in-kind with harsh remarks, particularly through Twitter, setting ablaze any potential future relationship with these companies. However, while Trump has been battling on multiple fronts, he believed he has the backing of the golf world. “I’ve had tremendous support...

<p>Washington (CNN)—Presidential candidate Donald Trump touched on a wide range of issues in an interview aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," including his continued support for traditional marriage, immigration issues with Mexico and his desire to bring outsourced jobs back to the U.S.</p>

Republican presidential hopeful and billionaire real-estate mogul Donald Trump sent a scathing letter to Univision’s CEO Friday, banning the network’s staff from his Miami golf resort. “Please be advised that under no circumstances is any officer or representative of Univision allowed to use Trump National Doral, Miami — its golf courses or any of its facilities,” Trump wrote to CEO and President Randy Falco. “Also, please immediately stop work and close the gate which is being constructed between our respective properties,” Trump added. “If this is not done within one week, we will close it.” The billionaire, known for his...

The GOP presidential candidate spoke freely about race as a new poll puts him second in the field of Republican presidential contenders. The entertainment division of Univision Communications Inc. has announced that it is severing ties with the Miss Universe Organization, which is part-owned by Donald J. Trump, after recent reports of Trump's disparaging remarks toward Mexicans. "At Univision, we see first-hand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country," a statement released by UCI reads. "We...

Recently, in Mexico, the candidates for mayor of the Mexican city of Guadalajara included a famous Mexican clown named Lagrimita. And in the United States, now that Donald Trump has filed the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, the ranks of Republican presidential hopefuls expanded to include an anti-Mexican clown. “The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems,” Trump said to supporters at Trump Tower where the real estate mogul declared his bid for the GOP nomination. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best…They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re...

Nine people have been killed and 18 hospitalized in a shoot-out between rival biker gangs at a recruitment event in a Texas restaurant on Sunday afternoon. What started as a physical fight in the bathroom spilled out into the bar and rapidly escalated to involve chains, clubs, knives and gunfire across Twin Peaks Bar and Grill in Waco, local media reports. Diners, including young children, scrambled and many took shelter in the freezer as hundreds of gang members ran rampage around the booths, according to KXXV.

Team Hillary is pushing Julian Castro as her VP nominee. “The Republicans are making a big push for the Hispanic vote, so that makes Castro an obvious pick.” Julian Castro, and his twin brother, Congressman Joaquin, were early backers of 2008 Clinton......the odds of Mrs. Clinton picking another woman for the ticket are “zero” .... which eliminates Wendy Davis, the liberal darling of Texas Democrats. --SNIP--That leaves Julian Castro. At just 40 years old, he’s a a two-term mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and is Obama’s HUD Secy. The Castro brothers — twins born to a single mother whose grandmother...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a likely candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, speaks Spanish in a new video celebrating Cinco de Mayo. The video was released by Bush's political action committee, which described it as "a message for the entire Hispanic population in the United States, but especially those of Mexican origin." Bush is fluent in Spanish. "Cinco de Mayo is an honorable date when Mexico, our neighbor, bravely defended itself against a foreign intervention," Bush said. "Here in the U.S., Cinco de Mayo has become a day where we celebrate our ties with Mexico and the great...

Good morning Austin: I had a story in Saturday’s paper on the startling fact that, with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, two of the first three announced candidates for the Republican presidential nomination for president are Hispanic. In other words, if America elects its first Latino president in 2016, that president would almost certainly be a Republican. Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, at best there could be a Hispanic candidate for vice president, with most of the speculation concentrated on Julián Castro, the former San Antonio mayor who is now serving as President Obama’s secretary of housing and urban development....

Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas, a few days ago became the first formally declared presidential candidate for next year’s election. Although Cruz is a Latino of Cuban-American background, I want to give five reasons (there are more) why most Latinos will not or should not support Cruz, who was just elected two years ago. The first reason is that he seems to have little affinity with Latinos, including the large Mexican-American population in his own home state of Texas. Indeed, Cruz is an anomaly in that state due to his Cuban-American background. He was raised outside of the state...