Free Republic

Undocumented workers in Utah will be allowed to apply for temporary legal residency under legislation signed into law last week. HB 469, the Utah Pilot Sponsored Resident Immigrant Program Act, surprised politicians with its forward-thinking approach. Under the program, illegal immigrants working in Utah can apply for legal temporary resident status if they pass a health and background check, and can show that they have not been convicted of or pled anything but not guilty to a felony or class A misdemeanor. A class A misdemeanor is an offense serious enough to be punished by a year in jail and/or...

It’s zero hour for the DREAM Act...For two years, Barack Obama failed—or, if you prefer, refused—to nudge along a major immigration bill. The last-ditch hope is that departing Democrats, and a few Republicans, somehow band together in the lame-duck session and pass a law allowing illegal immigrants who came to the United States as minors to gain citizenship. Harry Reid promised to bring up the bill for a Senate cloture vote this week. Republicans vowed to scuttle it... But as Chicago congressman Luis Gutiérrez prepares for a rally at a church in Brooklyn, the DREAM Act seems like the end...

WASHINGTON — A failure to reform the nation's immigration laws is the result of an electoral process that forces the parties to seek ideologically pure candidates, former President George W. Bush said in his new memoir. Bush proposed comprehensive immigration reform, one that would have granted citizenship to illegal immigrants who paid fines and learned English, during his second term in office, but he was rebuffed by congressional leaders in his own Republican Party. “The failure of immigration reform points out larger concerns about the direction of our politics,” Bush said in “Decision Points,” a 477-page autobiography out this week....

A Homeland Security investigation to determine why a criminally convicted illegal immigrant was released before killing a nun in Virginia is complete but the administration that promised a new level of transparency and accountability WON'T RELEASE THE FINDINGS. The case ignited fury because the intoxicated illegal alien from Bolivia already had two drunk-driving convictions and an expired license when he crashed head-on into the car of three Catholic nuns. One died and two were critically injured. Media reports subsequently revealed that federal authorities released Montano on his own regognizance while he awaited a removal hearing for nearly TWO YEARS, despite...

NO COUNTRY FOR BITTER WHITE MEN They’ve made your lawns, beds and meals for several years, but now they might be signing your paychecks. Between 2002 and 2007, the number of Hispanic-owned businesses in Texas increased about 40 percent. If money in Texas could talk, it’d speak Spanglish. While Hispanics (namely Mexicans) in New York are largely seen are the mops and rags of the workforce, in Houston they are the face of new leaders emerging in the business world. Maybe it’s because they know their audience, which happens to have a projected $3 trillion purchasing power this year. This...

Cochise County Arizona Sheriff Larry Dever says the president does not want border security unless he gets immigration reform. http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=hdkU6UZukU

President Barack Obama assured Hispanics on Wednesday he was not walking away from immigration reform while expressing disappointment that he had not delivered on a 2008 promise to overhaul U.S. policy. Obama, a Democrat who is ramping up his rhetoric against Republicans ahead of November 2 congressional elections, said only cooperation from both parties would allow reforms to advance. He blamed Republicans for backing away from reform and urged Hispanics -- an important and growing voting bloc -- to continue giving him the support they gave during his presidential campaign. "Now, I know that many of you campaigned hard for...

RANCHO CUCAMONGA - The Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino is defending its decision to hold an event in the city that rallied support around legislation that would aid undocumented young people. The gathering at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church aimed to raise awareness and promote advocacy for the DREAM Act, said John Andrews, spokesman for the Diocese of San Bernardino. The Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act would help young illegal immigrants who are illegally in the United States enlist in the military, attend college or acquire citizenship. The youth would have to meet certain requirements, such as...

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A shake-up in immigration policy may lead to deportation proceedings being dropped for thousands of aliens who entered the United States illegally but are applying to stay in the country, officials said on Friday. They said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) seeks to end deportation proceedings against detained illegal immigrants who have applications pending to become legal U.S. residents, if agents determine they have no criminal history and do not present a security threat. The policy shift emerged from an internal memorandum ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton sent last week to the agency's principal legal...

When measured by the number of criminal defendants charged with federal crimes by U.S. attorneys, the top five U.S. judicial districts for fiscal 2009 were all on the U.S.-Mexico border. In fact, these five judicial districts are the only five on the U.S.-Mexico border—covering its entire expanse from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. There are 94 federal judicial districts covering the area of all 50 states, plus Guam, the North Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. In the Southern District of Texas, which covers a stretch of border from Brownsville past Laredo, the U.S. attorney’s...

One of the most violent criminal organizations in Mexico has set up camp in Los Angeles. From here controls the distribution of the drug to other parts of the country and, as an informant, who began to recruit out of California prisons to become assassins. This is the formidable organization of the Zetas, a group of Mexican army deserters in the late 90's became the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel and then consolidated as a group of assassins that has fought wars against different mafia organizations in Mexico and has partnered with some of them. Los Zetas began his...

If this border is "secure" I'd hate to see what an unsecured border looks like!"The southern border is more secure today than at any time in the past 20 years." -- Barack Hussein Obamaimmigration speech July 1, 2010 Really? An army of hundreds of illegals, many of them criminal drug smugglers and gang members are seen in the following video provided by the Center for Immigration Studies. Cameras placed along the border have recorded these events and have failed to capture any federal border agents attempting to stop it. One of the film's producers called federal agents after finding a...

California is home to 26 percent of an estimated 2.1 million young illegal immigrants who could earn legal status with the proposed federal DREAM Act, according to a new study by the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The study released this month by the nonpartisan research center uses data from the 2006 and 2008 federal Current Population Survey, along with 2000 Census information to estimate the size of this population of children and young adults. California is home to by far the greatest number - 553,000 - of potential beneficiaries of the proposal, the study found. The study puts...

The Justice Department is expected later Tuesday to file its long-expected challenge to an Arizona state law intended to crack down on illegal immigration, two administration officials said. The law passed in April and set to take effect later this month makes illegal immigration a state crime and requires police to verify the immigration status of people stopped for other alleged crimes. The Obama administration has criticized the law and the Justice Department's challenge is expected to argue that it infringes on federal responsibilities for immigration, the officials said. Last week, President Barack Obama again criticized the Arizona law, calling...

The Justice Department could file a lawsuit challenging Arizona's immigration law as early as Tuesday, an official tells Fox News. The potential court action comes just days after President Obama delivered a speech calling on Congress to tackle a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration system. In the speech, he criticized Arizona's law and warned that national legislation is needed to prevent other states from following suit.

Seeking to inject urgency into the push for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, President Obama on Thursday called on Republicans to join the effort, telling them he can't pass a bill without them.After pushing through an economic stimulus bill and health care with barely any Republican support in the first 16 months of his administration, the president said this issue is too dangerous to tackle — for Democrats and the GOP — without having both parties involved."I'm ready to move forward, the majority of Democrats are ready to move forward, and I believe the majority of Americans are...

On the hottest flash point in the debate, Arizona's new law targeting illegal immigrants, Mr. Obama said the rules are "unenforceable" for local police. But he didn't give any indication when the administration will file an expected lawsuit seeking to block the new law, which takes effect at the end of this month. ~ Advocates on both sides of the issue say they don't expect Congress to tackle the issue before the elections, both because of the already-crowded legislative schedule and because there is no clear consensus on how to proceed.

PHOENIX -- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says President Barack Obama's speech on immigration reform provided no answers to the problem. "What a helpless speech," Brewer told News/Talk 92.3 KTAR by phone from Sedona, where she had a speaking engagement Thursday.....

IF IT’S BROKE: In an immigration address short on details, President Obama said he wouldn’t support “blanket amnesty” for undocumented workers but also called a deportation of all illegal residents unrealistic. “We can create a pathway to legal status that is fair, reflective of our values and works,” he said at American University. “Stopping illegal immigration must go hand in hand with reforming our creaky system of legal immigration.” Obama said the “majority of Democrats” are ready to vote on changes to the country’s immigration system, but that more Republicans are needed to support legislation. “The question now is whether...

President Barack Obama on Thursday blamed immigration policy gridlock on "political posturing and special interest wrangling." In a speech Thursday, Obama took Republicans to task, in particular 11 GOP senators who supported recent efforts to improve the immigration system. He did not name any in particular, but told his largely supportive audience at American University that those lawmakers had succumbed to the "pressures of partisanship and election-year politics."