Free Republic

Harry Reid: 'Decriminalizing border crossings is not something that should be at the top of the list' Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in an interview published Tuesday that decriminalizing border crossings "is not something that should be at the top of the list" for 2020 Democrats. “There are so many more important things to do,” the Nevada Democrat told Vice News, saying that the decriminalization of crossing the border illegally “should be way, way down at the bottom of the list.” He added: “People want a fair immigration system. They don’t want an open-door invitation for everybody...

“I never thought that we’d be in this paramilitary type of engagement. It's a war on the border," said Captain Stacy Holland with the Texas Department of Public Safety. Holland leads a fleet of 16 state-of-the-art helicopters that make up the aviation assets used by the Texas DPS to fight Mexican drug cartels. In recent years, the cartels have become bolder and more ruthless. They cross the border with AK-47s on their backs, wearing military camouflage. They recruit in prisons and schools on the American side. Spotters sit in duck blinds along the Rio Grande and call out the positions...

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's government is warning its citizens about travel to Arizona because of a tough new immigration law there. The travel alert from the Foreign Relations Department urges Mexicans in Arizona to "act with prudence and respect the framework of local laws." It says that the law's passage shows "an adverse political atmosphere for migrant communities and for all Mexican visitors." It says that once the law takes effect, foreigners can be detained if they fail to carry immigration documents. While enforcement details are not yet clear, the alert says "it should be assumed that any Mexican citizen...

It didn’t take long for Obama to use the race card and blame Americans for his own failures, this time Arizona for enforcing immigration law to protect its people and our nation’s borders. Governor Brewer: "We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act. but decades of inaction and misguided policy have created a dangerous and unacceptable situation.” This is a perfectly legitimate action by state government that Obama called “misguided” as he instructed the ‘justice’ department to “see if its legal”. Obama said that the federal government should reform immigration at the national level–or “leave...

Fear has settled over this border town of 1,700, about 50 miles southeast of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, epicenter of that country's bloody drug war. Mexican families fleeing the violence have moved here or just sent their children, and authorities and residents say gangsters have followed them across the Rio Grande to apply terrifying, though so far subtle, intimidation. At schools in Fort Hancock and nearby Texas towns, new security measures and counseling for young children of murdered parents have become a troubling part of the day.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A senior US senator cautioned Monday against deployments of national guard troops to the US border with Mexico, saying such a move would be "premature and possibly counter-productive." In remarks prepared for a special hearing in the Texas border city of El Paso, Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also warned against the alarmist tone of a US debate over drug violence in Mexico. "The idea of dispatching the national guard to the border is premature and possibly counterproductive," he said. His remarks echoed those of senior administration officials who in recent days...

Murky self-described patriot groups call them "terrorists." On combative talk radio shows the term is "illegal aliens." Advocates for immigrants prefer the Emma Lazarus-evoking "economic refugees." The most common label attached to the estimated 12 million foreign-born people living in the United States without visas may be "illegal immigrants," even though some grammarians argue that the adjective can modify actions and things (like left turns and hallucinogenic drugs) but not people. President Bush, a proponent of offering citizenship to at least some of them, has used the more optimistic and implicitly promising term "undocumented immigrants." ....... Tumbling in the air...