Free Republic

The Trump administration this week onboarded more than 80 new federal immigration judges, in its latest push to expedite deportation cases and further its government-wide crackdown on illegal immigration, Justice Department officials said Thursday. The Justice Department, which oversees the U.S. immigration court system, swore in 77 permanent immigration judges and 5 temporary immigration judges, a group that officials described as the largest class of immigration judges in the department's history. The additions come after the ouster of dozens of immigration judges across the country by the Trump administration over the past year. When President Trump took office, the Justice...

A Catholic diocese in New Mexico is challenging an effort by the Trump administration to seize part of its southern border property through eminent domain for the construction of a border security wall. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces filed a complaint against the federal government over plans to acquire roughly 14 acres of diocesan land for border security purposes. Filed last week, the lawsuit argues that the proposed land seizure would interfere with access to Mount Cristo Rey, a popular pilgrimage site featuring a 29-foot-tall statue of Jesus Christ overlooking the border region. Located near the borders of...

Suddenly, they aren't so terrified of returning to their home countries anymore. And they are skipping their bogus asylum hearing cases left and right. The most infuriating thing about the border surge is not simply the breach of the unguarded border, but the string of lies that premised it -- the fake claims of asylum of the illegal migrants, claiming to be persecuted and terrified of returning to their home countries, which as anyone with a lick of sense could surmise had no merit whatsoever. It was obvious enough in the absence of crises around the world, in the country-shopping...

The federal government last week revealed it intended to use eminent domain to wrest a 1.3-mile stretch of New Mexico borderland from the Catholic diocese for a border barrier, but church officials in federal court filings Friday argued that doing so would violate their religious freedom. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol first announced last summer that it intended to build a border wall along the southern skirt of Mount Cristo Rey in Sunland Park, which the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces owns. Officials told Source NM at the time that site “was a major human smuggling infiltration site...

BREAKING: US Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks tells me he is resigning, effective immediately. "It's just time," Banks tells me. "I feel like I got the ship back on course. From the least secure disastrous chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen. Time to pass the reigns, 37 years its time to enjoy the family and life."

The Trump administration has moved to seize more than 14 acres of land owned by the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces to expand border‑wall infrastructure near Mount Cristo Rey in southern New Mexico, according to court documents reported by KVIA. The effort puts federal border‑security construction on a collision course with religious‑freedom protections tied to one of the region’s most significant Catholic pilgrimage sites. If approved by a judge, the action could disrupt annual pilgrimages and set a legal test for using eminent domain against religious institutions along the U.S.-Mexico border. The civil case was filed at the request of...

WASHINGTON — Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lamented the delay in immigration enforcement actions until the final year of President Biden’s term — despite having testified to Congress several times while in office that the US border was “secure.” In an appearance Tuesday at Politico’s Security Summit, Mayorkas discussed aspects of the “broken” immigration system in America, acknowledging that a “low bar” for those expressing “credible fear of persecution” allowed too many migrants into the country during the Biden administration. More than 8 million entered by the start of the 46th president’s final year in office — before Biden...

The U.S. has built roughly 50 miles of primary border wall along the southern border, 5.5 miles of buoy barriers in the water and 13.2 miles of secondary barriers, Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott told Congress on Thursday (16 April 2026)... ...Scott told Congress the effort is now "ahead of schedule and we're below budget." (Planned to complete before the end of President Trump's current term - already fully funded) By the numbers: The agency anticipated that it could build about 10 miles of wall per week (at peak pace), according to an interview with the Washington Examiner....

Was this illegal part of a Venezuelan or Cuban military intelligence operation? Why, again, was he let in? Joe Biden's open borders may be about more than just replacing the electorate. The New York Post found that one of the most malevolent of the border surgers, a Venezuelan illegal named Leonel Moreno, who famously urged other illegals to squat in Americans' homes and waved hundred-dollar bills around to boast of his public benefits on TikTok, is being investigated by the feds for his military intelligence work for the Marxist dictatorship back home. According to the Post: Joe Biden's open borders...

British men Ali Mohammed Ali Abdullah, Hameed Mohammed Nagi, Ibrahim Ayyub Khan, and Mohammed Sultan Saleh were caught illegally sneaking into the U.S. in a remote part of Maine, per court records.

Donald Trump has branded Mexico a narco-state, accusing it of failing to control its border.

The Trump administration must restore the legal status of potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the United States legally through a Biden-era pathway, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said the Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully last year when it sent a notice telling many of the over 900,000 immigrants who used the CBP One app: "It is time for you to leave the United States."

... Asked on CNN whether ICE agents would leave airports once TSA officers start getting paid, Homan said, “We’ll see.” “It depends how many TSA agents come back to work, how many TSA agents have actually quit and have no plan of coming back to work. I’m working very closely with TSA administrator and the ICE director to decide what airport needs what,” he said.

https://x.com/USBPChief/status/2031050259032326558 Chief Michael W. Banks @USBPChief Illegal smuggling routes along the Rio Grande historically used by criminal cartel organizations are being destroyed. This is modern border security, and we are just getting started! @USCG@JointTFSBMarch 9, 2026

It’s no secret that Iranian terrorists are here in the U.S. Democrats’ open border policies made their infiltration much easier. U.S. counterterrorism agencies are on high alert for potential retaliation after the American government joined Israel in launching a coordinated operation named Epic Fury against Iran over the weekend. Already, at least two Americans have died and more than a dozen have been injured after a 53-year-old gunman, reportedly clothed in an Iranian flag T-shirt and “Property of Allah” sweatshirt, opened fire at an Austin bar one day after the strikes commenced. While it’s unclear if this alleged terrorism...

What will the war to give Iranians the chance to ‘seize control’ of their destiny mean for U.S. homeland security? We’re about to find out. As of late Sunday, at least three U.S. military members will be coming home in caskets — among the first casualties of the Trump administration’s “regime change” campaign in Iran. There will “likely be more” to come in the days ahead, President Donald Trump warned. He said U.S. operations in Iran will continue continue until all of the administration’s objectives are met. The details of those objectives remained foggy Sunday. While the days-old military operation...

Former President Joe Biden joked about his age and shamelessly bragged about his record on illegal immigration during a rare post-presidency speech on Friday. “I’m getting pretty old,” Biden, 83, told the crowd in South Carolina, after he needed to pause his speech to cough. “Forty times two, plus a lot more.” Biden repeatedly insisted that voters shouldn’t be concerned about his age in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. The former president dropped out of the race about a month after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump – which he blamed on a cold and not his...

The U.S. military shot down a Customs and Homeland Security drone on Thursday evening, which led to the abrupt closure of airspace over Fort Hancock, Texas, lawmakers said. At 6:30 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Administration closed the airspace, citing “special security reasons.” The FAA’s official notice of the closure currently says the closure will remain in effect until June 24. As it turns out, the “special security reasons” involved a friendly fire incident in which the U.S. military shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using a laser-based anti-drone system. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), the top Democrat...

(The Center Square) – Federal agents continue to pursue visa fraud and forced labor crimes across the U.S. perpetrated by Americans and noncitizens who exploited a border crisis and loopholes in a weak visa system, prosecutors argue. The prosecutions come as Mexican smuggling operations at the northern border continue to be thwarted, The Center Square reported. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington announced this week 61 indictments against six people in the Tri-Cities and Yakima areas for extensive visa fraud, victim tampering, aggravated identity theft, mail and wire fraud, visa fraud and other charges. Two people...

Californians have been trapped in Mexico as cartel violence engulfed a popular tourist city and spilled towards the US border. Americans in Puerto Vallarta were urged to stay indoors as narco gangs went on a bloody rampage after leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes was killed in a military raid on Sunday. Carnage spread up the west coast of the country through Sunday, with reports of attacks getting closer to the States in Baja California while gunfire erupted at Guadalajara International Airport. Cars and businesses were also set on fire further across the country...