Free Republic

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday said she was ordering the immediate release of 191 inmates who are locked up on Rikers Island for what she called “technical” violations of their parole from state prison. Hochul made the announcement before signing into law the “Less Is More Act” that will stop the state from putting ex-cons back behind bars for missing appointments with their parole officers, violating curfew or testing positive for drugs or alcohol. The measure is set to go into effect on March 1, but Hochul said the ongoing crisis at Rikers meant there was no time to wait,...

The following is a first-person report of refugees trying to flee to Greece. It’s 10 p.m. at night and we’re boarding a Greek Coast Guard vessel on the island of Lesvos. The captain assures us we will pick up 150 Muslim refugees in the Aegean Sea tonight. It’s an every night occurrence and part of an underreported illegal immigration and refugee crisis in Europe. They come from places like Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Africa. Many Americans heard about Europe’s huge influx of refugees in 2015 and 2016. But they may not have heard the rest of the story, which Full...

Chancellor Angela Merkel joined dozens of young people of immigrant background in Berlin on Tuesday to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Germany’s Basic Law, or constitution. The event was hosted by Deutschlandstiftung Integration (DSI), a foundation that in 2012 founded the Geh Deinen Weg (“Go Your Way”) program to help young and ambitious people of immigrant background find a way into the German job market. The purpose of the event was to highlight the connection between the Basic Law and the lives of those of immigrant background in Germany. Many of the dignitaries who spoke at the event quoted the...

No-go zones are growing rapidly in the suburbs of all of France's main cities. Shanty towns built by illegal migrants from Africa and the Middle East have sprung up in parts of Marseilles and Paris in the last few years. Islamization is everywhere. In hundreds of mosques, imams deliver fiery anti-Western speeches. Churches are vandalized. The number of rapes is rapidly increasing. Groups of veiled women roam the streets and insult the "immodest", unveiled, women. Macron's most important project since he was elected has been the creation of new Islamic institutions destined to adapt France to Islam -- not to...

Those who prefer their mobile phone to remain anonymous are in for a shock in Germany, as ministers agreed on Wednesday to require anyone buying a pay-as-you-go SIM card to present ID. “You could buy a prepaid phone today in the name of Donald Duck,” Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said after the weekly cabinet meeting. “Knowledge is power. And we want to oppose terrorist organizations powerfully,” he went on in a press conference defending the new anti-terror law that the rule falls under. […] “The new anti-terror package mixes up widely varying enlargements of powers for the security services...