Free Republic

The Optional Practical Training program must be reformed—or ended outright.For too long, many Republicans have confined their criticisms of mass migration to illegal immigration. But the truth is that our entire legal immigration system is broken—and the consequences for Americans have been nothing short of disastrous.The Optional Practical Training (OPT) program is a clear example of the urgent need for reform.Recent reports have outlined the Trump Administration’s plans to overhaul or end OPT. As I noted in a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow earlier this month, this is welcome news. It would represent a...

...We don’t have good fidelity on who any of them are." The 29-year-old Afghan man suspected of shooting two National Guardsmen yesterday in Washington, D.C., was “clean on all checks,” a senior U.S. official told CNN. The official told CNN that “the US government had been doing continuous, annual vetting of individuals since the Afghans’ arrival in the US, especially in the wake of the failed terror plot disrupted before the election last year in Oklahoma, which involved an Afghan evacuee.” But a senior intelligence official told Public, “There wasn’t adequate screening done,” of Afghan evacuees. “We don’t have good...

A harrowing US podcast documents a community’s struggle against immigration raids – and warns us about herd mentalityEarlier this year, the Trump administration reversed the convention that nobody would be snatched by immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE, by a school, church or hospital. Since then, teachers have reported classrooms a third empty, as parents are too scared to send their kids in – volunteers walk them there and back.In the Rogers Park area of Chicago, a group of citizens are organising to resist such immigration raids. Sometimes, it’s simple non-violent tactics, such as slowing officers down by walking in...

The Democrats’ latest con job is blaming President Donald Trump for former President Joe Biden’s legacy inflation and claiming that Zohran Mamdani-style socialism will solve the “affordability problem” rather than make it far worse. If the Ocasio-Cortez-Sanders-Jeffries crowd gets away with this propaganda, the next “red wave” to wash over America will be a Marxist-controlled Congress in 2026. Without question, families continue to feel the sting of Biden’s high prices — at the grocery store, at the gas pump, and in their monthly rent. Lower-income families feel it most, because they devote almost one-third of their budgets to food and...

Today, there is a level of discord within the US Federal Reserve that has rarely been seen in modern history. Nearly all experienced market analysts agree that the coming Fed policy meetings could prove unusually divisive, owing to conflicting economic views, political sensitivities, and inherent biases. The tension is palpable and has led to wild fluctuations in what markets expect the Fed will do. But, while the media fixate on who will or won’t support interest-rate cuts, what matters is not simply that the Fed is deeply divided, but how to make it more effective. To answer this question, one...

In Massachusetts, Gov. Healey boasted about blocking two gas pipelines. That’s embarrassing now.Speaking in Indiana on July 29, 2025, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Lee Zeldin, and Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, detailed moves to repeal the 2009 Obama-Biden ‘endangerment’ finding, used to justify much of their climate agenda.The politically-driven effort to force a transition from traditional power to wind, solar and battery has produced an energy crisis in blue America. Progressive-led states are beset by increasing electricity rates and declining reliability. Although their leaders uniformly blame President Trump, the costs have become so high that some on the left are finally...

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared that the United States has “only just begun to kill narco-terrorists,” a blunt call to escalate direct action against cartel operatives. Hegseth reinforced the message in a separate post, vowing that the campaign against transnational drug cartels has entered a new phase. Together, the remarks underscore a growing push inside the national security establishment to treat cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and confront them with military force.In a Friday night post on social media, Secretary Hegseth bluntly and boldly stated, “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.”The secretary doubled down two minutes...

President Donald Trump announced Friday documents signed by former President Joe Biden’s (D) “autopen” are terminated.The president made his announcement in a post on Truth Social and claimed those who operated the autopen were doing it illegally.“Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect. The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States,” Trump stated:The Radical Left Lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took...

A tour of the Mycenaean fortress and palace at Tiryns. The Megalithic Walls of Tiryns | 8:34 Scenic Routes to the Past | 48.3K subscribers | 4,722 views | November 28, 2025 0:00 Introduction 1:01 Lower Citadel 1:42 Walls 2:39 Upper Citadel 3:22 Galleries 3:54 Palace 6:35 Postern Gate

After more than 30 years in law enforcement serving and protecting my community as a police officer, constable, Fort Bend County Sheriff, an Army veteran, and six years representing this district in Congress, I have made the decision, after conversations with my beautiful bride and my girls over the Thanksgiving holiday, to focus on my family and return home after this Congress. Before making this decision, I called President Trump personally to let him know of my plans. President Trump has always been a strong ally for our district and a true friend, and I wanted him to hear it...

France’s domestic intelligence service has warned of a growing threat to Christian communities, according to a confidential report obtained by Le Figaro that links recent attacks in Europe to decades of jihadist propaganda. The warning comes in the wake of the September 10th attack in Lyon on Ashur Sarnaya, an Iraqi Christian man in a wheelchair, which investigators say reflects a persistent jihadist obsession with targeting Christians. According to France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), Islamist organizations have consistently targeted Christians, portraying them as “infidels” or “idolaters.” This rhetoric, the report says, is rooted in long-standing propaganda that casts...

More than 5,000 Afghans brought to the US after American forces withdrew from the country got flagged for “national security” issues, Department of Homeland Security data obtained by The Post reveals. In all, the feds uncovered “potential derogatory information” on a total of 6,868 people who came from Afghanistan as part of President Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome in 2021. Of that number, 5,005 came up with a national security concern, while 956 people had “public safety” concerns and 876 were flagged for fraud, according to the data. DHS provided the information to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate...

...In the wake of the shooting, the mainstream media rushed to defend Afghans in the U.S., saying we shouldn’t “condemn” an entire population based on one man’s criminal actions...

By Dr. John BergsmaHappy New Year, everyone! The Church Year begins this week with the First Sunday of Advent, and we are back to reading cycle A. There is a very ancient tradition in the Church of reading the Book of Isaiah during Advent. In antiquity, both Jews and Christians considered the Book of Isaiah to be one extended prophesy of the “age to come,” the “latter days” when the Anointed One (Heb. “Meshiach,” =” Messiah”) would arrive. The First Readings for Sunday Mass and for weekday Masses, as well as the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the...

Go Buckeyes! Beat the TUN!

New York futures out of action probably doesn’t help. But silver hits new highs in volatile conditions. In this report, we look at the factors driving gold and silver higher still. During Thanksgiving week (US markets closed on Thursday) the bullish running has been made in Asia. In European trade this morning, gold was $4,173, up $90 from last Friday’s close. Silver at $53.85, up $3.87 on the same time scale was making the running. Overnight in Shanghai, spot silver spiked as high as $55.13 surpassing previous highs, and the February future closed at $56. The situation is complicated by...

Michigan is about to become ground zero in America’s immigration fight as federal enforcement operations and detention capacity expand. At the same time, President Trump unveils sweeping plans to permanently halt migration from Third World countries and reverse millions of Biden‑era admissions following the murder of a National Guardsman in Washington, D.C., allegedly by a refugee from Afghanistan. Earlier this month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials expanded the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan. The capacity more than doubled to over 1,200 detainees — up from about 500 during the summer months, according to a report from Michigan Live....

In 2023, a 15- and a 17-year-old plotted to attack a Christmas market in Leverkusen (North Rhine-Westphalia). In online chats, the two supporters of the "Islamic State" (IS), considered a terrorist organization by German domestic intelligence, plotted to kill as many people as possible by driving a truck into the crowd of revellers. Two days before the planned attack, the teenagers were arrested after police had become aware of their online chats. The minors were sentenced to four years in prison in 2024. Cases like this are increasingly worrying German security authorities. The Federal Criminal Police (BKA) has for years...

Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have opened nearly 290,000 criminal cases related to unauthorized absence from military duty and desertion since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Prosecutor General’s Office told the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet on Oct. 14. From January 2022 to September 2025, investigators registered 235,646 cases of unauthorized absence from service and 53,954 cases of desertion. This is a sharp increase compared to the same period between January 2022 and September 2024, when approximately 90,000 cases were recorded — around 60,000 for unauthorized absence and 30,000 for desertion.

SALT LAKE CITY — Death row inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies died Wednesday from natural causes in a hospital, ending a nearly 40-year effort by the state of Utah to try to execute him. The 67-year-old Menzies was facing execution for the 1986 kidnapping and killing of Maurine Hunsaker. She was kidnapped from her job at a Kearns gas station, driven to Big Cottonwood Canyon where she was tied to a tree and her throat slit. Menzies' original execution was halted earlier this year after his attorneys raised concerns about his mental state due to his dementia, and the Utah Supreme...