Free Republic

About 20 volunteer U.S. lawyers gave legal workshops Friday just across the border into Mexico to Central American asylum seekers who traveled in a "caravan". The migrants plan to head to the border on Sunday, setting up a showdown with the Trump administration — which has warned that some could face detention, prosecution and deportation. As Sunday's showdown at the busy Tijuana-San Diego border crossing neared, Amnesty International hoisted a billboard promoting the right to asylum in the U.S. on a truck in Tijuana that drove around the city.

A Catholic priest who had been reported kidnapped has been found dead in central Mexico. He’s the third priest to die under violent circumstances in the past week. Prosecutors in Morelos state said a relative identified the body of Father Moises Fabila Reyes, 83. Even though he appears to have died of a heart attack, his death is considered suspicious, since he was kidnapped in early April. On Thursday, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, archbishop of Mexico City, sent out a statement, asking for “Our Lady of Guadalupe to intervene for him before her Son.” “We join the grief that seizes...

Migrants seeking asylum at the southern border must ask for asylum in the safe countries they transit, says Homeland Defense Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. “Individuals of the ‘caravan’ seeking asylum or other similar claims should seek protections in the first safe country they enter, including Mexico,” Nielsen said in an April 25 statement. The statement spotlights the administration’s legal defenses against the roughly 1,000 caravan migrants trying to get through the legal loopholes in the border wall. Attorney General Jeff Sessions used similar language in an April 23 statement about the caravan migrants, saying “these individuals—and their smugglers—ignored the willingness of...

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox called on President Trump to apologize to Mexico for his past comments describing some Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and murderers in a new interview with a CNBC podcast. In his interview with "Speakeasy with John Harwood," Fox, a frequent Trump critic, says Mexicans are "offended" by Trump's rhetoric and calls for a wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border. "We are not paying for that f----n' wall. That's for sure. And why should we? I mean, it's incredible. He's trying to [play] hardball to Mexico. We are offended. We're really offended," Fox says. "Every...

The "caravan" in the news recently, gets a lot of attention. However...the reality is, these few hundreds of people are a mere fraction, of a fraction, of the total numbers who are "apprehended" at the border every year and those numbers only represent those that are caught!In just the last full 5 years, there were over 2,000,000 foreign nationals caught by immigration on our southern border, trying to sneak in and disrespect our national sovereignty and break our laws.How many of those 2 million were "released" into the country, only to not be heard from again by immigration officials?How many...

Hundreds of Central American migrants from a caravan that crossed Mexico reunited in Tijuana on Wednesday and planned to cross the border together this weekend in defiance of threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to repel them. The timing of the migrants arrival could compromise a flurry of talks this week to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Trump has repeatedly threatened to scrap if Mexico does not crack down on the flow of Central Americans through its territory. Busloads of migrants began arriving on Tuesday at a shelter that was a five minute-walk from the border...

Some 7,667 people were killed in Mexico in the first quarter of 2018, up 20 percent on the same period last year, making it the most violent year in two decades, government figures showed Sunday.

Former attorney general feels previous president signaled then-FBI director to let Hillary 'off' the hook to protect himself Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey accused James Comey of exonerating 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton after former President Barack Obama warned the then-FBI director to “let her off” the hook. Comey, whom President Donald Trump fired in May 2017, led the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server to conduct official business as secretary of state. During an interview Friday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” Mukasey said Obama wanted Comey to let Clinton “off” the hook because...

Trump announced Monday he has directed the Department of Homeland Security to block large groups of migrants who have begun to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border and apply for asylum as refugees from Central America. "Despite the Democrat inspired laws on Sanctuary Cities and the Border being so bad and one sided, I have instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security not to let these large Caravans of people into our Country. It is a disgrace. We are the only Country in the World so naive! WALL," Trump tweeted Monday morning. Trump also said negotiations over a new North American Free...

President Trump said Monday he has “instructed” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen not to allow “large caravans of people” into the U.S. as a group of Central American migrants starts to reach the border, calling the situation a “disgrace.” “Despite the Democrat inspired laws on Sanctuary Cities and the Border being so bad and one sided, I have instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security not to let these large Caravans of people into our Country. It is a disgrace. We are the only Country in the World so naïve! WALL,” Trump tweeted early Monday. The president’s directive came as a...

Then-Deacon Juan Miguel Contreras Garcia in vocations video. The priest was murdered on Friday outside Guadalajara. A priest on the outskirts of Guadalajara has been murdered, the second priest in a week killed in Mexico.Father Juan Miguel Contreras Garcia, 33, was shot dead late Friday in Tlajomulco de Zuniga by unidentified attackers in his parish office, reportedly while hearing a confession.“We make an urgent call to build a culture of peace and reconciliation. These lamentable events call all of us to a much deeper and sincere conversion. It is time to look honestly at our culture and society, and to...

A new California pro-LGBTQ bill that would ban the sale or distribution of materials related to “conversion therapy” easily passed the state’s assembly on Thursday.CBS News affiliate KOVR reported the final tally was 50-14. Assembly Bill 2943 now heads to the Democrat-controlled Senate.The bill would make it an unlawful business practice to engage in any “transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer” aimed at “sexual orientation change efforts with an individual.” Goods would include any books or written materials, while services would encompass counseling individuals seeking to address same-sex...

The first migrants from a caravan that sparked the ire of President Donald Trump have started arriving at the US-Mexico border and asking for asylum, advocates say. About 50 Central Americans have arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, according to Juventud 2000, an organization that assists migrants in that border city. Of those, about 10 have turned themselves in to US authorities at the border. Others are waiting for a larger contingent from the caravan to arrive before they head north, Juventud 2000 Director Jose Maria Garcia Lara said.

The European Union and Mexico reached an agreement on Saturday on a new free trade deal, a coup for both parties in the face of increased protectionism from the United States under President Donald Trump. Since its plans for a trade alliance with the United States were frozen after Trump’s election victory, the EU has focused instead on trying to champion open markets and seal accords with other like-minded countries. The agreement in principle with Mexico follows a deal struck last year with Japan and comes ahead of talks next week with the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and...

The Democratic Party has never been more reliant on the support of upper-middle-class voters than it is today. And the economic fortunes of affluent Americans - and those of the typical working-class household - have rarely been more disparate. These twin developments have inspired much commentary about the class tensions beneath Team Blue’s “big tent”. There is little doubt that it would be easier to advance radical economic reform in an America where politics was sharply polarized along class lines, and working people of all races were concentrated in a single partisan coalition. It is absolutely true that a liberal...

A Minnesota grandmother who was wanted over the shooting deaths of her husband and a woman has been arrested in Texas near the US-Mexico border. Lois Riess, 56, has been on the run ever since her husband David Riess was found shot dead at their home in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, on March 23. Her second alleged victim, Pamela Hutchinson, was found dead at her condo in Fort Meyers Beach in Florida on April 9. A US Marshals Service statement says two federal deputy marshals arrested Riess Thursday night around 8.30pm at a South Padre Island, Texas, restaurant. Scroll down for...

Notorious street-gang MS-13 has reportedly ordered its members to “take out” police officers in New York; hoping to send a strong message to authorities following a serious crackdown on the group throughout the region. According to the New York Post, the NYPD is on high-alert after a confidential informant told police that gang members were given a green light to murder local police officers; particularly in the nearby town of Hempstead on Long Island. “The police have been making too many arrests and it’s time to take the streets back and take out (shoot) a cop like we do in...

Neel Kashkari has become the Federal Reserve’s foremost skeptic of the notion that the U.S. is experiencing a severe labor shortage. Kashkari, who is the president of the Minneapolis Fed, points to the lack of significant upward pressure on wages as evidence debunking the claims that the U.S. lacks workers. The logic is pretty simple: if the supply of labor is so limited relative to demand, the price of labor should be swiftly rising. The fact that the price of labor is not rising much suggests that perhaps labor is not in as short supply as some employers and special...

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 to support the Trump administration’s lawsuit against California over laws that the state passed last year to limit its role in immigration enforcement. The county will file an amicus brief at the first available opportunity, likely on appeal, said Kristin Gaspar, supervisor for District 3 and chairwoman of the board. “We’re talking about people who are crossing the border illegally, coming into this county and committing a crime and them being let loose probably to commit another crime,” said Dianne Jacobs, supervisor for District 2. “That creates a public safety issue...

An explosion of political assassinations in Mexico has cast a pall over nationwide elections slated for July 1, when voters will choose their next president and fill a slew of down-ballot posts. At least 82 candidates and office holders have been killed since the electoral season kicked off in September, making this the bloodiest presidential race in recent history, according to a tally by Etellekt, a security consultancy based in Mexico City, and Reuters research. Four were slain in the past week alone. They include Juan Carlos Andrade Magana, who was running for re-election as mayor of the hamlet of...