Free Republic

EDCOUCH — The mid-April incident looked like a typical one for the Edcouch Police Department: two men caught and charged with multiple counts of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon while committing a home invasion. But something stood out to Police Chief Jose Perez as one of the suspects was being interviewed by his officers. The male suspect, who said he lived in the Elsa area but was really an undocumented Mexican citizen, said in Spanish to watch out for the Mara Salvatrucha-Treces, also known as the Maras or MS-13. The group has ties to Central America but began forming...

DISCLAIMER The July 27, 1990 Regulations, “Aliens and Nationality: Asylum and Withholding of Deportation Procedures,” mandated the creation of a new corps of Asylum Officers to provide an initial, nonadversarial adjudication of asylum claims. Asylum Officers use asylum law, interviews with asylum applicants, and relevant information on country conditions to determine the merits of individual claims for asylum. As specified in the Regulations (8 CFR 208.12), as amended, such information may be obtained from “the Department of State, the Office of International Affairs, other Service offices, or other credible sources, such as international organizations, private voluntary agencies, news organizations, or...

With an estimated 11 million or more illegal immigrants in the United States, it's clear that existing border policies have become a joke. They too often ignore the labor needs of the economy and, well, where do we begin about the lack of enforcement? The laws against illegal immigration and hiring undocumented workers are poorly enforced, when they are enforced at all. Past efforts to update U.S. immigration laws have taken years. The task is among the most ticklish and difficult facing Congress, with social and economic ramifications along with diplomatic and domestic security impacts. Some weeks ago, a serious...