Free Republic

Illegal crossings along the US-Mexico border plummeted to a 55-year low in fiscal year 2025 – with the vast majority of unlawful attempts to enter the country taking place during the final months of the Biden administration. Federal authorities apprehended a total of 237,565 migrants along the southwest border during the period between Oct. 1, 2024 and Sept. 30, 2025, according to data released Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The figure is the lowest fiscal year total for apprehensions since 1970, when authorities caught 201,780 migrants attempting to cross the...

BROADVIEW, Ill. (WLS) -- Federal agents were seen clashing with demonstrators outside of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday morning. Chopper 7 was over the scene near 25th and Lexington, where at least eight demonstrators appeared to be detained. The pushing, shoving and apparent arrests happened shortly after 9 a.m., and it there is no sign of it not letting up. That clash came after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino were seen on the ICE facility's roof just before 8 a.m. Noem and Bovino were accompanied by several...

A notice calls the people the U.S. military recently killed on suspicion of drug smuggling in the Caribbean Sea “unlawful combatants.”President Trump has decided that the United States is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels his team has labeled terrorist organizations and that suspected smugglers for such groups are “unlawful combatants,” the administration said in a confidential notice to Congress this week. The notice was sent to several congressional committees and obtained by The New York Times. It adds new detail to the administration’s thinly articulated legal rationale for why three U.S. military strikes the president ordered...

An alleged Sinaloa cartel leader admitted President Trump’s aggressive border policies have made the illegal work of the powerful Mexican drug gang more difficult in an interview with CNN. An anonymous member of El Chapo’s former gang explained that Trump’s immigration and drug policies have put a damper on their black-market tradecraft in a bizarre interview with the news station’s senior national correspondent, David Culver, in the back of an SUV. “From killing to coordinating smuggling operations, he says he’s done it all,” Culver said, referring to Trump. “Do you think what President Trump has been doing has been making...

We now have confirmed reports of all commercial traffic into Canada are blocked. Here in the WNY area, we have Interstate 190 clogged, due to this delay. WE are told it's some kind of malfunction, but so far, it appears to be nationwide. No further details from Ottawa.

Niagara Falls is at a 'breaking point' with 'thousands of asylum seekers' taking refuge in the popular tourist hotspot, the city's mayor has warned. The famous southeastern Ontario city has more migrants per capita than any other city in Canada, Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati told The Telegraph. The influx has placed strain on the city's services, hospitals and schools, Diodati claimed, adding that 'our shelters are full, our transitional housing is full, the drug problem is like it's never been before'.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed five bills Saturday designed to push back against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies, a package of legislation he described as a defense of the state’s values of diversity and inclusion. “There’s a word you’ve never heard uttered from the President of the United States’ lips, certainly not Stephen Miller,” Newsom said during the signing ceremony in downtown Los Angeles. “That’s pluralism. We practice pluralism. It’s a deep point of pride. Those values are under assault.” Several of the new laws focus on public schools. One requires staff to notify students and parents when Immigration...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Fears are growing among the Chicago area's immigrant community on Mexican Independence Day, with several reports of arrests on Monday. Democratic Congresswoman Lauren Underwood said since the ICE surge in operations in the Chicago area began on September 6, 250 individuals have been taken into custody. Underwood said the individuals who are detained are transferred to detention centers in Indiana and Wisconsin. People are working to find out where those who were detained are being held Tuesday morning. The immigration facility in Broadview is supposed to be a main processing hub immigration arrests. Democratic state Senator Karina...

BOSTON (AP) — Immigrants are being detained while going to work, outside courthouses, and at store parking lots in Metro Boston as President Donald Trump targets so-called sanctuary cities in his effort to ramp up immigration enforcement. As families hole up in homes — afraid to leave and risk detainment — advocates are reporting an increased presence of unmarked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles sitting in parking lots and other public areas throughout immigrant communities, where agents appeared to target work vans. One man captured a video of three landscapers who were working on the Saugus Town Hall property...

(Reuters) - An extraordinary spat is occurring within the U.S. judiciary concerning a flurry of Supreme Court decisions backing President Donald Trump, with judges voicing confusion over the rulings issued on an emergency basis while a Trump-appointed justice accused some of them of defying the nation's top judicial body. These decisions have let the Trump administration implement contentious policies that were impeded by judges who had cast doubt on the legality of the Republican president's actions. In issuing such opinions, the Supreme Court has offered little or no reasoning for its actions. That has caused exasperation among some of the...

CHICAGO (AP) — The streets in some of Chicago’s liveliest neighborhoods are quiet these days. Public schoolteachers want online learning for families scared to venture out. And houses of worship are urging people to carry identification everywhere they go. As the nation’s third-largest city awaits a much-hyped federal intervention, residents are making changes in their daily routines. President Donald Trump has promised Chicago will see a surge in deportations and National Guard troops as he targets Democratic strongholds. While the feeling of being vulnerable isn’t new, especially among immigrants, many say this time the fear is deeper and the preparations...

The Trump administration is suing migrants with removal orders and issuing fines of up to $1.8 million to pressure them into self-deporting, immigration attorneys tell ABC News. In recent months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revived a rarely enforced 1996 law, using it to issue fines to migrants with deportation orders as part of the administration's aggressive immigration crackdown. ICE said it had issued more than 10,000 fines. The fines include between $100 and $500 for each unlawful entry or attempted entry, and up to $998 per day, assessed for up to five years, for failing to comply with a...

President Donald J. Trump made finishing the border wall a central campaign promise — and he continues to deliver. Using existing funding halted by the Biden Administration and new funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill, the Trump Administration is swiftly moving forward to build hundreds of miles of new border wall and make other technological and safety improvements that will make the southern border the most secure in modern history.From The Washington Times:“Just months into his new term, Mr. Trump already has 100 miles of border barrier in the works and Capitol Hill just approved an additional $46.5 billion...

CHICAGO (Reuters) -A normally raucous, colorful parade to mark Mexican Independence Day in Chicago turned quiet and nervous on Saturday as U.S. President Donald Trump signaled he intended to ramp up deportations in the nation's third-largest city. In a break from traditional celebrations, twirling folklorico dancers decked in glimmering jewelry and billowing, multi-colored dresses distributed "know your rights" pamphlets to sparse crowds in the city's historically Mexican Pilsen neighborhood. "This place would normally be packed," Eddie Chavez, a lifelong Pilsen resident, said while waving a Mexican flag in a lone row of lawn chairs along the parade route. "Now it's...

“We have the most secure border in the history of this nation."IRVING, Texas — Border czar Tom Homan said Friday night that he was “amazed” at how quickly the Trump administration was able to secure the southern border. Speaking at the second annual State Freedom Caucus Summit near Dallas, Homan said illegal immigration was down 96% under President Donald Trump. Homan told the state lawmakers gathered at the conference that “even I am amazed” at how quickly the administration was able to shut down illegal immigration. “We have the most secure border in the history of this nation,” Homan said....

It’s tomato season and Lidia is harvesting on farms in California’s Central Valley. She is also anxious. Attention from U.S. Immigration Control and Enforcement could upend her life more than 23 years after she illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as a teenager. “The worry is they’ll pull you over when you’re driving and ask for your papers,” said Lidia, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition that only her first name be used because of her fears of deportation. “We need to work. We need to feed our families and pay our rent.” As parades and other events celebrating...

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has signed a waiver to ensure the expeditious construction of approximately five miles of new 30-foot-tall border wall in Starr and Hidalgo Counties in the U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector in Texas... ...Currently, CBP has approximately 100 miles of new border barrier in various stages of construction and planning, funded with appropriations from prior years. In addition, CBP was appropriated $46.5 Billion for border barrier system construction in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1)”, which was signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025.

Ever go fishing, catch a fish and release it only to have it take the hook again? You're watching that happen right this minute. Donald Trump issued an executive order about the desecration of the US flag (not that many actually read it). The order does not explicitly criminalize flag burning but directs the Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, to "vigorously prosecute" individuals who violate existing laws in ways that involve flag desecration, such as public nuisance, disorderly conduct, or property destruction. It also instructs federal agencies to refer cases to state or local authorities when...

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami came to New York City on Nov. 8 to attend a U.N. summit as U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies explored new information tying his regime's intelligence services to Sept. 11 and to previous anti-American terrorist attacks, Insight has learned.The information is coming from a variety of sources and shows a clear pattern of operational contacts between the Iranian government and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization. These contacts include joint planning of terrorist operations, military training of bin Laden operatives inside Iran and by Iranian personnel in Syria and Lebanon, financial assistance to clandestine terrorist and surveillance ...

The border wall separating the United States and Mexico is being painted black to make it too hot for migrants to climb. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem revealed the project was a specific request from Donald Trump as the president celebrated 'ZERO releases' of illegal migrants into the country. 'In the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black it gets even warmer,' Noem said during a press conference in front of the wall on Tuesday. She noted the structure is already hard to climb and near impossible to dig under, but said Trump's latest measure will help...