Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO ---- Ten school districts statewide and three nonprofit organizations filed a lawsuit against the state Wednesday for allegedly testing non-English-speaking students in English and then labeling them and their schools as "failing" under the state's implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind law. The lawsuit, filed in federal Superior Court in San Francisco, demands that the state test its 1.6 million non-English-speaking students in a "language and form" they understand, as mandated in the federal education reform law. The lawsuit is asking the state to change the way it tests students who do not yet understand English,...

English Language Bill Will Unify America and Take Our Nation Back By Kevin Fobbs May 17, 2005 When the founding fathers decided to use their collective wisdom to create the United States of America, I am quite sure that they did not feel it necessary to specifically define English as the official language for our nation. To them it was an absolute no-brainer. Just as it was also assumed that marriage was between a man and a woman; that is, Adam and Eve -- not Adam and Steve. But like most time-held traditions of our nation, English as the unspoken...

Hillary gets it. Hillary Clinton says she's against illegal immigration. And she would fine employers who hire illegal aliens. Pundits say the New York Democrat is using this hot-button issue to position herself for the 2008 presidential election. It's a way to hit Republicans from the right. Polls show huge majorities of both Republicans and Democrats oppose illegal immigration -- and are frustrated that President Bush won't do a thing to stop it. But this issue does not belong to the right. Or it shouldn't. Illegal immigration hurts most liberal causes. It depresses wages, crushes unions and kills all hope...

MEXICO CITY - Mexico will send a diplomatic letter to the United States protesting the extension of a wall along the U.S.-California border, officials said Friday. Ruben Aguilar, a spokesman for President Vicente Fox, said the president would also continue to pressure the U.S. government to approve a migration accord that would allow more migrants to work legally north of the border. President Bush proposed a temporary work program last year, but it has stalled amid opposition in Congress. Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said Thursday that Fox had instructed him to send the diplomatic letter with the message...

Raul Garcia-Gomez, 19, is suspected of shooting two Denver police officers at about 1 a.m. Sunday after they refused to let him re-enter a baptismal party. Detective Donald Young, 44, died at the scene after being shot from behind three times in the back and head.

Arizona Gov Shoots Down Official Language Bill * Lawmakers Are Considering Similar Proposal May 10, 2005 8:00 am US/Eastern PHOENIX (AP) Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a bill Monday that would have made English the state’s official language and required that government business be conducted in English. Supporters said the measure was needed to encourage assimilation of immigrants, but opponents said it was an attack on illegal immigrants. In her veto letter, Napolitano said non-English speakers should be encouraged to learn the language, but that the bill did not do anything to achieve that. Lawmakers have yet to fund adequately school...

President Bush may be heading for a catastrophic political crash over illegal aliens, and if he doesn't start paying attention to the problem, he could go down in history as another president whose stewardship ended in disaster. The ghosts of Presidents Johnson (both Andrew and Lyndon) and Nixon may soon haunt this White House. Story Continues Below More to the point, thousands or hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – of Americans may die because the bipartisan chattering class "fiddles while Rome burns," to cite the old metaphor. At his April 28 news conference, not a single reporter – not...

Behind the counter at the busy Hart Lane driver testing center here, Rosa King looked over the man's fistful of documents, including a Mexican birth certificate and a separate, typewritten English translation. The translation, Ms. King explained in Spanish, was not exact enough. It would have to be redone. When the man returned, he would be eligible for a card bearing his photograph, date of birth, height, eye color and the words "Not Valid for Identification." Tennessee is one of only two states that issue two different driver's permits: a license, for citizens and permanent residents; and a certificate for...

When opponents of the “Real ID” legislation announced a rally for illegal immigrants and their allies in Montgomery County, MD, there was one immigration-related group I was absolutely certain would not show up: The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the people responsible for actually enforcing our immigration laws. Casa de Maryland and others claimed 5,000 people would gather on Saturday to protest the “Real ID” Act working its way through Congress, and many of these people would be illegal immigrants themselves, we were told. If I were looking for immigration criminals, it’s exactly where I would be. That’s why...

Latino and immigrant support groups are mobilizing against the proposed Real ID Act, a federal law that would prohibit states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Immigrant support groups say Real ID would make roads less safe and could erode national security, not improve it. "It will make millions of people that live in our nation hide even more," said Gustavo Torres, executive director of Casa de Maryland, a Latino advocacy group. "They are going to keep driving, keep working, but now they are going to be even more scared to participate in our society, to cooperate with police...

"Congressman Reconquista": Immigration Reformers Not Welcome In GOP by William Norman Grigg May 7, 2005 According to Utah Congressman Chris Cannon, a shameless flack for the illegal immigrant lobby, those committed to protecting our borders cannot be true Republicans. During a May 4 Washington, D.C. forum sponsored by the Latino Coalition, Representative Chris Cannon (R-Utah), a congressional point man for the Bush administration’s illegal immigrant amnesty proposal, suggested that fellow Republican congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado "ought to reconsider his membership in the Republican Party," reported the Rocky Mountain News. While Rep. Tancredo, like most politicians, has a lot to...

LIKE MANY other southern Arizonans, I am deeply grateful to the few dozen vigilantes calling themselves Minutemen who set up camp along the Arizona-Mexico border last month. That few people around here were much impressed with a bunch of retirees in camouflage playing soldier, and that there turned out to be almost as many reporters as patriots on the ground, was irrelevant: We were just thrilled by the publicity. We’ve been trying to get the rest of the country to notice what’s going on down here for years. U.S. immigration policy has turned the Arizona desert between Tucson and the...

A new opinion poll by Zogby International indicates Americans are hardly pleased with the Bush administration on the subject of illegal immigration. The poll, cited on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" program yesterday, noted a huge majority – 81 percent – believes local and state police should help federal authorities enforce laws against illegal immigration. Only 14 percent disagreed. Voters were also asked, "Do you support or oppose the Bush administration's proposal to give millions of illegal aliens guest worker status and the opportunity to become citizens?" Only 35 percent gave their support, and 56 percent said no. "A majority opposed...

Friday, May 06, 2005 - SACRAMENTO -- Stymied in his efforts to allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, has found a backdoor way around the ban with a proposal that would exempt undocumented motorists from vehicle-impound laws. Under current law, for 30 days police can impound the vehicle of a motorist caught driving without a valid license. Cedillo's bill would exempt those who don't have a license simply because they are not legal U.S. residents. Cedillo said law enforcement resources should be dedicated to going after serious driving offenses such as drunk driving, not...

WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Tancredo ought to reconsider his membership in the Republican Party, a Utah congressman said Wednesday after the two GOP lawmakers put an intraparty rift over immigration policy on full public display. "I think he ought to consider his views and decide whether they're consistent with the Republican Party," Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said of the Colorado congressman after the two clashed repeatedly during a forum sponsored by the Latino Coalition, a Hispanic business group. Advertisement Cannon, a leading proponent of President Bush's proposed guest- worker program, has had a running feud with Tancredo, an opponent of...

Many Hispanic activists, Mexican citizens and perhaps even members of the Mexican government believe the American Southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico. They refuse to accept the legality of the U.S. annexation of Texas in 1845, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the Mexican-American War, which gave large parts of Mexico to the U.S., or the 1852 Gadsden Purchase of Mexican territory now in Arizona and New Mexico. Story Continues Below A Zogby poll found that 58 percent of Mexicans agreed with the statement, "The territory of the Southwest U.S. rightfully belongs to Mexico," and therefore they believe they don't...

An illegal alien, Hernandez will be deported from the country at the end of his prison term for murdering his boss at a Utah job site ....... Some form of closure came Tuesday for two families as a man convicted of murdering his boss at a Lehi job site was sentenced to five years to life at the Utah State Prison. Jesus Hernandez, 34, pleaded guilty in March to shooting and killing his employer, Joseph Crummy, 38, of Salt Lake City, on Jan. 9, 2004, over a labor dispute at the Traverse Mountain development in Lehi. Crummy's widow, Brenda, and...

The violent MS-13 -- or Mara Salvatrucha -- street gang is following the migratory routes of illegal aliens across the country, FBI officials say, calling the Salvadoran gang the new American mafia. MS-13, which has a significant presence in the Washington area, and other gangs are spreading into small towns and suburbs by following illegal aliens seeking work in places such as Providence, R.I., and the Carolinas, FBI task force director Robert Clifford said. "The migrant moves and the gang follows," said Mr. Clifford, director of the agency's MS-13 National Gang Task Force. "If you follow the construction trade, this...

In the predawn semidarkness of a small West Toledo apartment, Dae and Yung Jung stumbled toward the thumping at their front door. Seconds later, officers in dark jackets emblazoned with Homeland Security crammed into the couple's living room demanding passports and drivers' licenses. Mrs. Jung was escorted to jail. Upstairs, the couple's son, Andrew, hid, stunned and baffled. Now, five weeks later, immigration officials still press for Yung and Dae Jung's deportation to their native land, South Korea. But the couple - Dae Jung is a sushi chef; Yung Jung is a longtime school volunteer - are finding that their...

A national pro-immigrant organization composed of religious, labor and union groups, to be unveiled today in San Antonio, is to call on leading Texas politicians to quit debating and enact laws giving legal work and residency to undocumented immigrants. The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform will start in Texas and is to expand to other border states and the rest of the nation, said Luis Figueroa, an attorney with the San Antonio office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. It was formed now because changing the country's current immigration system is expected to be a top issue...