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Former senator says Vargas should stay in U.S. Former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) said Sunday that Jose Antonio Vargas, the former Washington Post reporter who came out last month as an illegal immigrant, should be allowed to "become an American." "It's a difficult problem, and what we need to do is find a way in which Jose can continue to contribute to this country," Martinez said on ABC's "This Week." "He wants to be an American," Martinez continued. "This is a great thing. This is the Fourth of July. We need to talk about the fact that this is a...

I’m not celebrating Cinco de Mayo today because there is nothing to honor in the memory of Mexico Independence. Mexico is attempting so hard to become dependent on the United States that it has became a laughingstock and shame among nations. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. I will not be celebrating the day because there is no longer any Mexican national unity, there is no longer any Mexican national pride, and there is no longer any bravery among Mexicans. There is only the conspiracy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmoMGrBs5wc Are we really surprised?

President Barack Obama called Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) on Tuesday to gauge his support for a comprehensive immigration reform bill, a sign the White House is serious about pushing the issue in Congress this year. Obama’s outreach to Brown is part of a quickly hatched, coordinated effort with congressional leaders to thrust the volatile immigration debate back to the front burner. At a joint House and Senate leadership meeting late Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to House leaders that he would put an immigration bill on the floor this year—and he secured a commitment from House Speaker Nancy...

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, are believed to be on the cusp of introducing a new bill in the Senate on Comprehensive immigration reform. The Schumer/Graham initiative combines enforcement with earned legal status for immigrants who are out of status or came in illegally. Washington sources say they are ready to introduce the bill "any day now."

PHOENIX (AP) — Cattle rancher Rob Krentz often helped illegal immigrants he found stranded on his sprawling Arizona ranch. Then two weeks ago, he and his dog were gunned down shortly after he reported spotting someone who appeared to be in trouble. Foot tracks were followed from the shooting scene about 20 miles south, to the Mexico border, and authorities suspect an illegal immigrant. The killing of the third-generation rancher has become a flashpoint in the immigration debate as politicians cite the episode as further proof that the U.S. must do more to secure the violent U.S.-Mexico border. (snip) Krentz's...

McCAIN: My view is you need a physical fence. But we all know that unless physical fences are surveilled, and then people just punch holes in them. And so I saw in Iraq on my visit there that their ability to serveil areas is that we have the technology now. (snip) McCAIN: After the border is secured, then obviously we have to address the issue of the 12 million people who are still in this country illegally. I don't know what ... American public opinion will take. But one of the key elements, as was in our previous legislation, is...

The opening minutes of “The Senators’ Bargain,” a documentary film appearing tonight on HBO2, show Senator John McCain at a congressional hearing in 2006, reading out loud from a newspaper article describing the death from desert broiling that befalls many immigrants trying to cross the border illegally. “The brain cooks and the delirium starts,” the Republican senator from Arizona reads somberly, explaining why he will join Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, one of the most liberal Democrats, to sponsor a bill to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants. The documentary, directed by Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini,...

This weekend, dozens of Southern Californians plan to march in Washington for immigration reform, joining thousands of activists from around the country. Today, a different group of Southern Californians – members of the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce – heard from a U.S. senator who took a lot of political heat for his efforts at immigration reform. The question arose at lunch during the Chamber’s annual lobbying trip to Washington. What did Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona think the U.S. should do about the “flood of immigrants” “running over” California? McCain cosponsored the last major immigration reform bill with...

WASHINGTON -- Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Chuck Schumer of New York discussed major immigration reforms Thursday with President Barack Obama at a White House meeting. Graham, a Republican, waded back into a political minefield on a controversial issue that has prompted conservative activists across the nation to vilify him since he helped lead a failed Senate bid to overhaul the immigration system in 2007. Obama has faced more recent criticism from Latino lawmakers and advocacy groups accusing him of failing to deliver on a 2008 campaign promise to help the 12 million undocumented workers in the United...

Presidential nominee in 2008 faces GOP primary fight. BY JOSEPH WEBER Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, said in an interview Monday that his planned primary challenge to Sen. John McCain will portray the four-term incumbent as a not-so-conservative Republican who has "enabled" President Obama and his failed economic and security policies. "I'm giving Arizona Republicans a clear choice between a consistent, common-sense conservative . . . or someone who describes himself as a maverick but is a moderate," the outspoken Mr. Hayworth told The Washington Times' "America's Morning News" radio show. Mr. Hayworth, 51, quit his job Friday as...

A recently introduced immigration reform bill in the U.S. House of Representatives could potentially end a federal immigration program currently used by the Town of Herndon to empower its local officers to enforce federal immigration law. In March 2007, the Herndon Town Council voted to make Herndon the first incorporated town in America to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train and empower local officers to enforce federal immigration law under a program called 287(g). Prince William and Loudoun counties and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park also partner with ICE in the 287(g) program. But as of...

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A new dissent Republican group may be forming in Northern Ireland. The organization would include dissidents that have defected from the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA. The group will not have a name, with the deliberate aim of confusing members of the security forces.

Schumer: “Borders Now Secure” $1 Trillion in Extra Health Care Costs by Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. thelastcrusade.org Charles Schumer (D-NY), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says that the borders are now “secure enough to move forward on immigration reform.”Mr. Schumer’s statement comes on the heels of the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Robert Rosas, who was gunned down by members of a Mexican smuggling ring in July.Five suspects have been taken into custody by Mexican law enforcement officials.Immigration reform for Mr. Schumer, according to the Minuteman PAC, is the granting of full amnesty to all illegal aliens who...

President Obama will abandon a controversial immigration crackdown, sought by his predecessor, to pressure U.S. companies to fire 9 million workers with suspect Social Security numbers, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced yesterday. Instead, Obama will mandate that federal contractors confirm the identities of 4 million workers against federal databases beginning in September, pushing ahead under pressure from Senate Republicans with another long-stalled Bush administration initiative. Napolitano said her department will rescind a 2007 rule, tied up in federal court, that would have sent Social Security "no-match" letters to 140,000 U.S. employers. The notices were to warn companies to resolve...

DUBLIN, Ireland – A security alert has been issued today in the Northern Ireland town of Ballykinler, the site of a British Army base.

At least John McCain is back to his old self. This assumes, of course, at some point he wasn't.Believe me, he was. (See the entire 2008 campaign).He's back to being the crotchety old Republicrat spitfire, Mac the Mav.That reach-across-the-aisle, strolling-down-the-median joie de vivre he possesses (and can beckon at will) is throttling up for the new administration.Goodie gumdrops.Since the time is just about right for McCain to ride the wave of ascendancy back into the good graces of the media (who, you'll recall, once upon a time, had rockets in their pockets for him when he was still their beloved...

One of the lessons from this election is the destruction of the myth that Republicans who support amnesty for illegal aliens would do well among Hispanic voters. No presidential candidate worked harder on illegal immigration amnesty than John McCain. In 2005, he sponsored an amnesty bill that became known as the McCain-Kennedy bill (co-sponsored by Sen. Kennedy). When that bill failed, he tried again the following year, with a variant of the McCain-Kennedy bill. That bill also failed. Unfazed, he tried yet again in 2007. If any one of those bills had passed, at least 10 million illegal aliens would...

An immigration activist says the Republican Party lost any real chance of retaining the White House the day John McCain won the GOP primary. William Gheen is president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, or ALIPAC. Throughout the presidential campaign, Gheen ardently refused to support John McCain because of the Arizona senator's continued support to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Gheen believes McCain was counting on GOP voters to march into the booths at the last minute, hold their noses, and elect him out of fear of Obama. He notes while many Republicans reluctantly made that choice, a...