Free Republic

A federal judge ruled Monday that President Trump’s phaseout of the Obama-era DACA program is legal, adding heft to the administration’s defense but doing little to solve the ongoing court quagmire. The ruling does not overturn two other federal courts, who had previously blocked the phaseout, which was supposed to take effect Monday. But it does offer a needed boost as the Justice Department appeals those other two rulings.

Last week President Trump announced a new 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent hike on aluminum imports. Foreign leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the move "unacceptable" and the European Union threatened to respond to the U.S. with their own tariff. Try it, Trump dared. He'll just add a new tax on European cars.British Prime Minister Theresa May shared her own "deep concerns" with Trump directly in a phone call on Sunday. What he should have done was pursue "multilateral action," May reportedly told the president.At least one person sees where Trump is coming from.Sen....

We are on the losing side of almost all trade deals. Our friends and enemies have taken advantage of the U.S. for many years. Our Steel and Aluminum industries are dead. Sorry, it’s time for a change! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! 7:10 PM - 4 Mar 2018

“The group, led by Democrat Senator and Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman, Patrick Leahy, arrived in Cuba last weekend to review changes in Washington’s policy toward the island since President Donald Trump assumed office in January 2017. During the press conference, Leahy mentioned the meeting that he and his colleagues held yesterday with Cuban President, Raúl Castro…During the press conference the Senator for Vermont criticized the new direction taken by the Trump administration with regard to Cuba policy.” (Cuba’s Communist party paper, Granma.)The rest of the U.S. delegation consisted of senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jim McGovern (D-MA),...

Evan Siegfried has probably assured himself of a few more appearances on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show. Siegfried is the sort of Republican that Reid reveres: the kind willing to take nasty shots at President Trump. On today’s show, Siegfried said that Trump wouldn’t have imposed the tariffs on steel and aluminum: “if the President had been doing things with Forbes magazine other than getting spanked, and he had actually read it, he would have known it’s bad for the economy.” Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

The U.S. government has awarded a Montana-based company a contract worth more than $73 million to design and build replacement fencing along 20 miles (32 kilometers) of the U.S.-Mexico border in southern New Mexico, officials confirmed Wednesday. Existing vehicle barriers west of the Santa Teresa port of entry will be replaced with taller bollard-style barriers.

A federal court ruled that the Trump administration has the power to waive environmental laws in order to speed up construction of the border wall. The ruling Tuesday has paved the way for President Donald Trump to construct his border wall, which the state of California and environmental groups have been trying to prevent, according to The Washington Times. U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, who Trump has previously called biased by Trump due to his Mexican heritage, made the ruling that will allow the administration to waive environmental laws and build sections of the wall. The judge said...

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled against an environmental challenge to President Trump’s border wall, delivering a win to the Trump administration in a decision that allows construction plans to move forward. In a 101-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel wrote that both Congress and the executive branch “share responsibilities in protecting the country from terrorists and contraband illegally entering The case involved the Trump administration’s ability to ignore environmental laws in the construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The project had been challenged by several environmental groups and the state of California. The ruling will...

Immigrants detained for removal proceedings may be held indefinitely and are not entitled to a bail hearing, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The ruling means that immigrant detainees, who are sometimes held for months and years on end, have no recourse to challenge their confinement. Justice Samuel Alito delivered the opinion for the court, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch joined most of Alito’s opinion, though they also wrote to say they do not believe the court had jurisdiction to hear the case.

Still no word on the turrets and sharks with lasers idea, but we’re holding steady… SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Tuesday sided with President Donald Trump’s administration and rejected an attempt by the state of California and environmental groups to stop the government from building a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. The lawsuit filed in a San Diego federal court alleged that Trump’s proposed wall violates federal environmental standards, as well as constitutional provisions regarding the separation of powers and states’ rights. The plaintiffs asked U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel to stop the administration from...

Federal officials confirmed Tuesday that they launched a big immigration enforcement action this week in Northern California, after remaining silent for three days.

Accused MS-13 members laugh in court near victim’s family Five accused members of the bloodthirsty MS-13 street gang palled around like they were having a grand old time in court Tuesday as the family of a 16-year-old girl they’re accused of slaughtering looked on grimly from the gallery. Enrique Portillo, Alexi Saenz, and Jairo Saenz laughed and grinned amongst themselves, their shackles clanking, as prosecutors said they’d yet to hear if the Justice Department will allow them to seek the death penalty for the murder of best friends Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas in Brentwood in 2016.

President Trump’s threat to pull ICE and the Border Patrol out of California hasn’t been enacted (yet) so immigration enforcement activities are still taking place. Following the big sweep in the Los Angeles area, individual investigations are still being handled and CBS San Francisco brings us another of the heartbreaking tales of a family being separated by the evil forces of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is a particularly curious bit of coverage given how these stories normally go, and we’ll get to why that is in a moment. It starts out as so many of these tales do, with...

Stuart Varney: There Is No Penalty For Illegals Voting In California… VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEv02zSjjwM&feature=youtu.be _______ Leftist politicians driving rift within California: Varney _______________

Mexico ranks 135th on the Transparency International index of 180 countries | The latest global corruption index indicates that Mexico continues its slow but steady downward slide and remains within the ranks of the world’s most corrupt countries. The 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Mexico in 135th place on the list of 180 countries with a score of 29, one point less than the previous year. Compiled by the non-governmental organization Transparency International, the index scores countries between zero and 100, zero being highly corrupt and 100 very clean. Sitting at the bottom of the index, with a score of...

A tentative plan for President Donald Trump to host his Mexican counterpart in Washington has been put on hold, the White House confirmed Saturday. Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto have agreed that now is not the right time for Pena Nieto to make his first visit since Trump took office more than a year ago, according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. U.S. and Mexican officials will continue to talk and work together, the official said. The Washington Post cited U.S. and Mexican officials in reporting late Saturday that the plan...

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox offered his condolences to the victims of the Florida high school shooting before adding that the tragedy is "what you get" with "aggressive and violent language" from the Trump White House. .... "We need harmony. We need love. We need happy communities," Fox said... Full Title: "Former Mexican Pres. Fox: FL Shooting 'What You Get' With 'Racist' Trump's 'Violent Language'"

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested this week that “mowing the grass” near the U.S.-Mexico border so that illegal immigrants can’t be smuggled through thick vegetation would be a more effective measure to secure the country than President Trump’s proposed border wall. “I’m not the wall’s biggest advocate in Congress,” Mrs. Pelosi said in an interview with The Arizona Republic. “But I do know that representatives in the House and senators in that body from the border areas have some serious objection to a wall, because they know how detrimental it can be to the community trade, to all the...

Today I read Bill Kristol’s assessment and realize that the House GOP leadership has no idea what they are doing on the topic of border security, which absolutely requires a long, strong, high, double-sided fence with a road running between the two fences. This “fence project” is a necessary though not sufficient condition to border security, emphasis on “necessary.” Other things, like visa reform, are also key, but the double-sided fence is what voters want to see built. Consultants and pollsters have told the House GOP leadership that they must be for “border security,” but that they cannot be for...

House Republicans were sprinting to the finish line Thursday to secure every last vote to pass an emergency funding measure to address the humanitarian crisis on the southern border in a dramatic and chaotic final day of the summer session. Though a few House Democrats will join the GOP majority to back a $659 million emergency funding package, Republicans don’t want to rely on them to get the necessary votes to secure final passage. Still, some conservatives were reticent ahead of votes expected Thursday afternoon, even after House Republican leaders threw some red meat to the right by adding a...