Free Republic

Remember the laughter and snarky comments from the Left and its Ministry of Information when Texas governor Rick Perry activated one thousand Texas National Guard soldiers for duty at the southern border? “Ha ha they’ll just stand around like wooden Indians and watch ‘undocumented immigrants’ walk by,” we heard from people Beltway liberals who hate conservatives, especially conservatives with a drawl. The Left is about to get another lesson about underestimating those who live in “fly over country.” There is a local website (callthecops.net) that is reporting what Perry’s plan actually involves. Contrary to what has been postulated – even...

When Gov. Rick Perry of Texas announced plans to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to help with the border crisis, it came with a power unexpected by some. By deploying them himself rather than through Washington, he has the power to order the troops to make arrests and apprehensions, something Guard troops in past border deployments have been prohibited from doing. Immigrant rights advocates and others, including former federal officials involved in previous National Guard mobilizations, said the troops would lack both training and federal oversight, creating a risk of civil rights violations and deadly encounters with immigrants.

Central American Delegation Meets in McAllen The purpose of this training derives from the need for cooperation between Central American countries to put an end to the wave of illegal immigration. Vice ministers and consular officials from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador gathered in McAllen today, a result of the multiple visits and exchanges in the last few months between Central American officials with the united states for the purpose of addressing the influx of undocumented immigrants from such countries. The meeting came about after a summit in Central America last week where plain international, an organization that works to...

<p>Here we are down on the border at the Rio Grande, Texas.</p> <p>Border Patrol staging area. Humblegunner pointed out they have a pretty rockin' deer stand!</p>

The American people cheered – starved for any crumb of leadership and faithfulness to constitutional duties – at the news of Governor Rick Perry calling out the Texas National Guard to patrol the Texas-Mexican border. Then, within the hour, Texas officials conceded that the inadequate contingent of 1,000 guardsmen will not actually do anything but stand around. Texas officials now admit that the 1,000 guardsmen will simply be a “visual deterrent” – for appearances only. The Texas government argues that the Texas National Guard will not have authority to arrest anyone under the Posse Comitatus law. But that is absurd....

 by Gina Cassini | Top Right NewsWhere was this for my son's pool party last weekend?We must have spent 3 hours making water balloons for the kids, and my fingers were sore afterwards.Very soon, I'll be able to do it in mere minutes. My fellow Texan and inventor Josh Malone, along with his kids, developed a much faster way to replace the time-consuming process of filling water balloons.Malone's device, which can fill 100 balloons in a minute, attaches to the hose directly for one-time use. He calls it "Bunch O Balloons" and launched a Kickstarter campaign for the manufacture-ready project. It's called the"Bunch...

Officials have said that more than half of all children initially placed in shelters have gone on to be reunited with at least one parent already living in the United States, and 85 percent of all children have been placed with a close family member.

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Chairman is calling on President Obama to cut off all business pending between the Export-Import Bank and Russia because of the nation’s recent actions in Ukraine. “The situation in Ukraine grows worse every day,” wrote Texas U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling in a letter to Obama, Sec. of State John Kerry, Sec. of Treasury Jack Lew, and others. “Russia bears responsibility for this conflict, including the atrocity of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, because Russia is supplying the separatists with advanced weapons and encouraging their attacks on aircraft and on the...

Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price was arrested today as a result of a 13-count indictment which claims the powerful Texas Democrat took $950,000 in bribes. Wiley's attorney, Billy Ravkind, confirmed that he was arrested early Friday morning and is in Federal custody. The indictment indicates Wiley received the bribes in the form of cash, cars and property and that he and his political operatives used the ill-gotten gains to commit tax and mail fraud. For the full indictment, please access the following link. The indictment charges that, among other things, Price and his accomplices used his office and stature...

HOUSTON — When Gov. Rick Perry of Texas announced plans to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to help with the border crisis, it came with a power unexpected by some. By deploying them himself rather than through Washington, he has the power to order the troops to make arrests and apprehensions, something Guard troops in past border deployments have been prohibited from doing. Immigrant rights advocates and others, including former federal officials involved in previous National Guard mobilizations, said the troops would lack both training and federal oversight, creating a risk of civil rights violations and deadly encounters with immigrants.

After the Federal Aviation Administration extended its ban on U.S. flights to Israel for another 24 hours Wednesday following reports of Hamas rockets falling close to the Tel Aviv airport, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released a statement suggesting the decision had motives outside of just protecting the safety of American travelers. Asked about his statement at a briefing this afternoon, State Department spokesperson Marie Harf called his comments “ridiculous and offensive.” “Did President Obama Just Launch an Economic Boycott of Israel?” Cruz asked on his website, before answering his own question affirmatively. “The facts suggest that President Obama has just...

Why would you spend millions of dollars sending troops to the border who can't actually detain anyone? That's what some Texas sheriffs of border towns are asking in the wake of Gov. Rick Perry's plan to send 1,000 National Guards members to the Texas/Mexico border in the next month, according to the Dallas Morning News. For them, it would be more useful to spend the money on hiring more deputies and police, aka people who are allowed to detain migrants. “I don’t know what good they can do,” Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio told the Dallas Morning News. “You just...

Rick Perry explained why Texas had to act

House Democrats are lining up in staunch opposition to the Republicans' push to send the National Guard to the southern border. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has called on President Obama to use those troops to help personnel already on the ground. On Monday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) deployed the Guard to his state’s border, and a GOP border working group is soon to release policy recommendations expected to include similar plans. But the Democrats contend the use of the Guard would do little to help a situation in which many of the new arrivals – thousands of them...

House Republicans are considering a plan that would deploy the National Guard to the border, change trafficking laws and beef up judicial and law enforcement resources in response to the surge of child migrants into the United States. A GOP working group on border issues briefed members Wednesday on its policy recommendations for the emergency funding bill, which lawmakers are scrambling to finish before they leave town for a five-week summer recess. Republicans were adamant that policy changes must be part of the spending package, setting up a standoff with Democrats who have declared them a non-starter. "What the president's...

It’s an odd tale of two very ideologically conservative icons coming down on very different sides of the crisis of unaccompanied immigrant children flowing into the United States. Radio and television personality Glenn Beck and former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin have come out diametrically opposed to each other on what the nation should do to help—or not help—these children. The mainstream press, or as she would call it, the “lamestream” press, doesn’t pay much attention to Palin any more, but she is frequently quoted in outlets like the Breitbart News and conservative newspapers such as the...

Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst (R) reported that the vast majority of illegal immigrants coming over the southern border are not unaccompanied minors... ...the unaccompanied children represent some 12%-20%. ...We're focused on that 80, the 85% of which a quarter according to the border patrol, have a criminal record”

Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst (R) reported that the vast majority of illegal immigrants coming over the southern border are not unaccompanied minors in an appearance on Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown.” “Our effort in Texas is not focused on the unaccompanied children...we are focused on-the unaccompanied children represent some 12%-20%. We're focused on that 80, the 85% of which a quarter according to the border patrol, have a criminal record” he said ...

Using Facebook, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz responded to a Sunday night episode of HBO's "True Blood." The show revolved around a vampire bloodbath at a fictional Ted Cruz fundraising event held at the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The episode is laced with insults aimed at the GOP and coins the term "Republi-cunt." Cruz labeled the episode "misogynist and profanity-ridden" and then added that he was surprised "HBO is suggesting that hard-core leftists are blood-sucking fiends...." Of all the places I never thought to be mentioned, HBO's True Blood vampire show would have to be near the top of...

There were only a few ways Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) could react to HBO’s “True Blood” portrayal of Texas Republicans being murdered at a fictitious Cruz fundraiser. He could have ignored it, or laughed it off. But he went political. A scene in Sunday’s episode took place at the George W. Bush Presidential Library, where a Cruz function was being held. The vampires who went made disparaging comments about the Republicans in attendance (What do you expect? It’s Hollywood.) and then there was a vicious bloodbath. (We admittedly do not watch “True Blood,” so we can’t offer further context, but...

There’s a lot of talk about optics in politics, and generally speaking, I am wildly opposed to the notion of optics. Optics refers to how one is viewed by the general public, how one’s actions are perceived. Optics are, in essence, a manipulation of perception. In my opinion, the top priority on a politician’s mind should not be optics, but actions. Actions–if they are driven by noble intent–should speak for themselves. Action should not require extra manufacturing. However, there is something to be said about making sure one’s actions are not perceived negatively, thus undermining one’s entire political philosophy.We have...

Howdy everyone!! We're loading up the FReepercampmobile today and will be departing for Texas this afternoon. God willing, we will arrive McAllen Texas sometime Thursday night and will plant our flag at our border encampment on the American bank of the Rio Grande River!! We had planned this expedition several weeks ago and were intending to urge Governor Perry to call out the Texas Guard and or Texas militia units at his disposal and also to learn first hand what's happening at the border and to protest the government's lawless actions there. The president will not secure the border, will...

On July 3, 2014, Texas Governor Rick Perry told Members of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security that urgent federal action was required to stem the humanitarian and national security crises unfolding along the Texas-Mexico border. After almost three weeks of inaction by the Obama administration, yesterday, Gov. Perry directed Texas Adjutant General John Nichols to immediately begin preparations for the deployment of up to 1,000 National Guard troops to the U.S. – Mexico border. These troops will support the Texas Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) ongoing law enforcement surge, Operation Strong Safety, which is focused on combatting criminal...

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced Monday afternoon that he is sending 1,000 members of the Texas National Guard to the U.S.-Mexican border. “Over the years I have repeatedly called on the federal government to live up to its responsibility of protecting this great nation by securing the border,” said Perry, who added that he will “not stand idly by while our citizens are under assault and little children from Central America are detained in squalor.” Under assault might be an understatement. According to Perry, more than 203,000 illegal aliens responsible for committing more than 640,000 crimes, including 3000 homicides, have...

Southwest Key Programs is the largest provider of services to unaccompanied children in the United States. The group has illegal child units in seven states.An Austin-based company has received over $120 million so far this year to shelter illegal immigrant children.(VIDEO-AT-LINK) KEYE TV reported: More than $100 million of federal grant money this year has gone to an Austin based company that runs unaccompanied minor shelters across the country. Its website says Southwest Key Programs is the largest provider of services to unaccompanied children in the United States. Their headquarters is in Austin, Texas. A brief online description details the...

VIDEO: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Sending the National Guard to the Border Watch our interview with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott from tonight’s ON THE RECORD and sound off!See the Video Here

I find it interesting that all of Texas' Most Wanted criminals are categorized as "White." Gotta boost those crime numbers!

Mexico’s Secretariat of the Interior is set to implement restrictions. MEXICO.- La Bestia, the train that hundreds of Central Americans travel on top of and in between its wagons on their journey through Mexico to the U.S. border, may no longer be used for this purpose. According to Mexico’s Secretariat of the Interior, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, measures are being taken to restrict non-permitted use of the train. La Bestia has already claimed the lives of many migrants riding on it, and has also resulted in hundreds of injuries (including dismemberment) to those who have fallen off it. In an...

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/4773527/events/3206474 Live coverage of Texas Governor's Press Conference.

Former Congressman Ron Paul defended the Russian government on Sunday and slammed Western leaders for spreading "propaganda" after a Malaysian Airlines plane was allegedly shot down by Kremlin-backed separatists in Ukraine. "Western politicians and media joined together to gain the maximum propaganda value from the disaster. It had to be Russia; it had to be Putin, they said," the former presidential candidate wrote. "While western media outlets rush to repeat government propaganda on the event, there are a few things they will not report." One of those unreported things, Paul claimed in his weekly "Texas Straight Talk" column, was the...

The political arm of the Planned Parenthood abortion business says it will spend as much as $3 million in Texas to elect pro-abortion gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and other pro-abortion candidates. Cecile Richards, the president of America’s biggest abortion corporation was in the Lone State State to push her plan. Cecile Richards, president of the national advocacy group Planned Parenthood Votes, said the effort aims to draw differences between Democrat Wendy Davis and Republican Greg Abbott, the state attorney general, in the campaign for governor. wendydavis12“When women have a chance to know the difference between candidates, they won’t vote for...

FALFURRIAS, Texas—Two Americans were killed in the Israeli war against Hamas on Saturday. One of the men was a Texan with dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship. The two were killed when an APC they were riding in was struck by a Hamas anti-tank weapon. The Texan was identified as Sean Carmeli, according to an article on the website JPUPDATES. The other American was identified Max Steinberg. The identities of the men were confirmed by a government official who spoke to Breitbart Texas on condition of anonymity. Carmeli was from the town of South Padre, Texas, according to his Facebook page. He attended...

Gov. Rick Perry is expected to announce Monday that he will activate up to 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the Rio Grande Valley, state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, confirmed Sunday night. Perry wants these troops to bolster the work already being done with a surge of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, said Hinojosa's spokesperson, Jennifer Saenz, who added that the governor gave the Rio Grande Valley delegation notice prior to the planned 2 p.m. announcement on border security......... In Iowa on Sunday, Perry told a small group at a VFW hall that if President Barack Obama fails...

Gov. Rick Perry to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to RGV Texas Gov. Rick Perry plans to announce he will activate the Texas National Guard at a news conference Monday in Austin, said state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen. Hinojosa did not have details of the effort, but an internal memo from another state official’s office said the governor planned to call about 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the Rio Grande Valley — at a cost of about $12 million per month. The memo was provided to The Monitor on the condition of anonymity because the information is...

Calling all citizens and patriots! Protest Obama's lawlessness on the border! Prepare to defend the border, repel invaders!! Obama's continuing lawlessness is totally out of control and is now threatening our very existence as a free Republic. Not only is he not securing the border, he's doing the exact opposite. They tried getting a "Dream Act" through the congress to give amnesty to young illegal aliens, but it was rejected by the representatives of we the people in congress, so the president has unconstitutionally "passed" his own "Dream Act" and is now enforcing it rather than the immigration laws legally...

Migrant Crisis Expands North From Border, Into Arid Texas Wilderness By MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE 70 miles north of the border, a Texas county finds itself overwhelmed by 911 calls from lost migrants Since 2009, Texas' Brooks County has found the bodies of more than 400 immigrants Daniel Zamarripa loaded his police dog into the back of his patrol car and set out to track his quarry — immigrants circumventing the local Border Patrol checkpoint. Zamarripa, 27, is one of 15 reserve deputies brought in to assist the Brooks County Sheriff's Office, whose four deputies have lately found themselves overwhelmed by 911...

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says Russian President Vladimir Putin bears direct responsibility for the downing of the passenger jet over eastern Ukraine last week. “I think Putin is responsible and complicit for what happened,” Rep. Michael T. McCaul, Texas Republican, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I believe that we are — Mr. Putin is — returning to a Cold War mentality.” “We’re seeing that happen with Crimea being annexed, we’re seeing that happen with the Russian-speaking peoples in Ukraine and all throughout the Baltic states now where I think his long-term strategy is to...

We had about a hundred people present at our anti-illegal alien protest in Sacramento today. We had people representing Oath Keepers, Overpasses for America, Free Republic and other groups, including a contingent of volunteers from the Bolinas Border Patrol. There was only one counter protester that I'm aware of and in the end she gave in and took up an American flag and a "Secure the Borders" sign. I overheard her say, "OMG, I've always been a flaming liberal and now I'm a member of the tea party!" But she was also an admitted lunatic and possibly an escapee from...

Heritage Action called for the end of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, making an argument that dovetails with legislation offered by Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) as a solution to the border crisis.The Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano denounced the program in a Thursday op-ed.  ’The president’s 2012 policy for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, regardless of the Oval Office’s intent, sets a precedent that encourages further unlawful migration, particularly among minors,” Carafano wrote. ”It leaves those in the program mired in uncertainty as to their future status. It resolves nothing, encourages the problem to grow and is a detriment...

Should the Democrats nominate Elizabeth Warren for President in 2016, as a draft-Warren movement, some liberal pundits and enthusiasts at this week’s Netroots Nation convention believe? Should Republicans nominate Ted Cruz, who has kept his options open with frequent trips to Iowa and New Hampshire? In some ways, Cruz and Warren are mirror images, and the cases for and against them are surprisingly similar. But there are also some critical differences.Before 2008, the idea of a presidential contest between two first-term Senators in their (by then) fourth year in Washington would have seemed ridiculous; in 1988, Dan Quayle was roundly...

First those Texans took our jobs. Then they took our money. Well, to be precise, Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna’s leg. A group of Illinois soldiers stole it fair and square – back in 1845. During the U.S. war with Mexico, Santa Anna skedaddled from the battle on a donkey and left his prosthetic leg behind in a carriage along with a bag of gold and a freshly cooked chicken. A group of Illinois soldiers ate the chicken, gave the Army the gold and kept the leg. One of the soldiers traveled about Illinois charging 10 cents for...

The number of Americans who see illegal immigration as the nation's most pressing problem has spiked from 3 per cent to 17 per cent since May, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday. That percentage now tops government corruption, the U.S. economy, jobs, health care and every other hot-button issue, driven by a flood of tens of thousands of illegal immigrant children pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border. 'We are all connected. We can't just build a wall or a fence and say no more,' Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis tweeted on Tuesday. 'This is America. Our doors are open.' The...

Kgb USA Inc. has informed the Texas Workforce Commission that it plans to carry out a “mass layoff” in San Antonio. The call center company, which does business as Conduit Global, expects to eliminate 225 positions by Aug. 31. Conduit Global officials say the layoffs are a result of an unexpected cancellation of services by one of the company’s clients. Conduit Global notes in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) letter filed with the Texas Workforce Commission that it is hopeful the layoffs can be minimized by the “potential award of a large customer care contract.” If a...

Today at the Mexican Consulate just south of downtown Houston a protest against the illegal alien border surge was staged by concerned patriots. Apparently the word got out to the opposition forces. There were 25 to 30 illegals and associated supporters there as well. Our side numbered from 40 to 50 while I was on site. We were staged on opposite sides of the street. The illegals (they proclaimed themselves so, chanting "undocumented and unafraid") had a small public address system and had a designated wise-ass on the mike leading chants and taunts which actually were pretty comedic. The...

Has Bolinas gone Tea Party? That’s what one nationally known uber conservative seems to think—as Free Republic founder Jim Robinson claimed recently that residents of the quirky beachfront enclave had enlisted in the ranks of the Texas border militias on the patrol for illegals. Robinson, writing on the Free Republic website last week about “defend(ing) the border” to “protest Obama’s lawless open borders policies,” name checked the hippy-ish coastal community in his fight to protect America from, if recent headlines are any indication, thousands of desperate children fleeing poverty in the Hispanic third world. “We have independent units from the...

We round up our 25 favorite films set in Texas. If you’ve seen them, maybe it's time to see them again. If you haven’t seen them, what are you waiting for?

Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) has been begging the federal government for years to secure America’s southern border. Now, as America faces what some are calling an “invasion” of illegal aliens, Perry said the time may come that Texas is forced to secure its roughly 1,200 mile border with Mexico with or without the federal government’s help. “We’ve been able to shut down illegal activities in certain sectors with our different operations that we’ve had,” Perry said on The Glenn Beck Program Thursday. “But I think there’s a point in time where you say, ‘You know what? This 1,200 mile border has to...

Dear Mr. (my name): There is a crisis brewing that disproportionately impacts border cities, putting a strain on their physical infrastructure. Sharing the physical burden of housing so many people relieves the immediate pressure on a handful of cities. We have a professional responsibility to assist other municipalities, just as we would in the aftermath of a natural disaster. There is a growing humanitarian need. We have a personal responsibility to assist human beings in distress. These are not undocumented workers flooding here to take low paying jobs. These are children, some as young as 2 or 3 years of...

As I’ve noted here before, the current crisis of unaccompanied minors crossing the border has had one upside. It has forced the actual GOP stance on immigration out into the open, increasingly boxing Republicans into a position where their main solution to the broader immigration crisis is effectively advocating for maximum deportations from the interior, including of the DREAMers. Now, as the battle over the crisis continues to roil the political landscape, the point is being underscored by none other than Ted Cruz: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz plans to take a hard-line stand that could rile up conservatives just as...

The other day at the Texas driver’s license center, while paying for my required in-person renewal, the clerk said it was time to take my fingerprints. What? Really. Quietly, earlier this year, the Texas Department of Public Safety began requiring full sets of fingerprints from everyone who obtains a new driver’s license or photo identification card. Until now, if a person never got arrested, most likely his or her fingerprints would never get recorded and placed in a government database. [] The new fingerprinting program is only one aspect of the state’s 21st-century security system. Since 2010, Texas has used...