Free Republic

The bill also includes a sweetener for Virginians. Under the old provisions shot down by the Supreme Court, the Old Dominion was one of nine states with histories of voter discrimination required to get federal approval before they changed their election procedures. Under the new proposal – which aims to update the formula dictating which states are subject to the extra scrutiny – only four states would be forced to seek such approval. Virginia is not among them. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), a long-time voting rights champion and a lead sponsor of the updated protections, noted Thursday that Rep. Spencer...

Add another to the lengthy list of contests between powerful Republican incumbents and Washington far-outsiders: An economics professor from Henrico, Va., Dave Brat, will announce his entry into the race for Eric Cantor’s House seat on January 9. He has already hired John Pudner of Concentric Direct as his consultant. “I want to be Eric Cantor’s term limit,” he tells National Review Online. That’s not an easy prospect by any stretch of the imagination, and Cantor is certainly not throwing in the towel. Rory Cooper, a spokesman for Cantor, tells NRO: “Congressman Cantor is proud to serve the people of...

It may come next week or maybe six months from now, but House Republicans will decisively determine whether to kill immigration reform or make a real attempt at passing it. No one would be surprised if Speaker John Boehner chose the former option. But the longer Boehner takes to decide, the more ground he cedes to states dominated by single party politics and eager to craft immigration laws in the face of a crippled Congress. Congressional inaction has left millions of families increasingly living in two parallel universes. Republican-run states turn cops into border patrol agents and cut undocumented immigrants...

Twelve-year-old Jason Penate spent the holidays hanging close by his father. They picked out a Christmas tree and decorated the front window of their Gainesville, Va., home with candy canes, and Jason tried very hard not to think about whether his father would still be here in the new year. Jorge Penate, a Guatemalan national who came to the United States illegally in 1997, has a hearing scheduled Monday that will determine whether he can stay in the country. A drunken driving arrest two years ago launched deportation proceedings and cast his family’s future into uncertainty.Jason wrote a letter to...

In his press conference on December 20th, President Obama urged the House of Representatives to support the Senate’s immigration bill, which passed 68-32 in late June. Among the concerns cited by Americans who oppose reform are that immigrants will take their jobs, drive down wages, increase criminal activity, burden the welfare system, and reshape the cultural dynamic of the country. These concerns are mostly ill-founded. The legitimate concerns have real solutions, and a more open immigration policy will be a net benefit for all Americans... Highlights from Article: - A 2013 study by the American Action Forum states that "immigration...

Above: Bob Clark, director of classic "A Christmas Story",and his son were killed by a drunk illegal alien on 4/4/2007. by John HillFor many Americans, Christmas means something else besides faith, family, food (and presents). It means movies: It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol (pick one), Miracle on 34th Street. On Christmas I often watch a modern classic: A Christmas Story, the irreverent adaptation of Jean Shepherd's memoir of Christmas memories from childhood. Many of our readers also caught this extraordinary film (at least) once yesterday, as the cable network TBS shows it non-stop for 24 hours every year at Christmas....

An illegal alien suspected of causing a traffic accident and killing movie director Bob Clark, whose “A Christmas Story” has come alongside “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street” as a perennial holiday must-watch, has been placed under an immigration hold by federal authorities. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency placed the hold on Hector Velazquez-Nava, 24, a Mexican national who was living in Los Angeles as an illegal immigrant, according to a report from Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee. Agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the hold means Valezquez-Nava, when his Los Angeles court proceedings...

<p>President Barack Obama said on Friday that while Congress' failure to pass immigration reform this year was disappointing, he is hopeful about the prospects for success in 2014.</p> <p>"Immigration reform is probably the biggest thing I wanted do get done this year," he told reporters at the White House during his year-end press conference.</p>

President Obama and his top Democrat on Capitol Hill appear to have reset their sights on the Republican-controlled House passing comprehensive immigration reform, instead of a step-by-step process, as lawmakers leave Washington for the Christmas holiday break. The president on Friday appeared to urge the House to back the comprehensive, bipartisan immigration bill the Senate passed this summer -- a departure from recent comments that suggested Obama was OK with the lower chamber’s apparent piecemeal plan.

Although the Republican Party Platform opposes abortion and homosexual marriage, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which provides funds to GOP candidates, is providing money to two Republican candidates who are homosexual, and who support gay marriage and abortion. One of the candidates, Carl DeMaio, has also received $15,000 from the political arm of House GOP leaders Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), meanwhile, has spoken out and said that individual House members can contribute directly to candidates, but dues that he and other members pay to the NRCC should not necessarily go...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor pleaded for Republican unity here Saturday as he prodded his party to offer more solutions that make voters feel like they have their backs on “kitchen table” issues. The congressman, who represents a district around Richmond, told about 500 party activists during a lunch at The Homestead resort that the GOP does not need to compromise its core principles. “If we want to win, we must begin to offer solutions to the problems that people face every day,” he said. “We have not done this recently and it has allowed the Democrats to take power,...

An aggressive timeline for passing comprehensive immigration reform may become a reality based on two significant developments on Capitol Hill. One of them is that House Speaker John Boehner has hired an Immigration Policy Director who has deep experience in overhaul efforts. The other is that in recent weeks, various Texas business interests have told Quorum Report that Boehner has been telling them that he will start holding immigration votes not long after the filing deadline has passed. This, of course, runs counter to conventional wisdom that says immigration votes in the House will have to wait until 2014.

In my years working in the computer industry I have encountered many workers on H-1B visas. The most highly skilled among them were of average skill. On H-1B labor condition applications, employers using skills-based prevailing wage claims classified 56 percent of the H-1B workers at the lowest skill level (of four). For those not familiar with the industry, this creates an apparent contradiction. Why do employers crave below-average workers?

Businessman Vance McAllister has won the special runoff election for a vacant northeast Louisiana congressional seat, notching an upset win over fellow Republican Neil Riser, according to the Associated Press. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, McAllister, a political newcomer, led Riser, a state senator who had won the support of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and much of the state’s GOP congressional delegation, 59.7 percent to 40.3 percent. McAllister will succeed former GOP Rep. Rodney Alexander, who resigned in August to take a job in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration after spending more than a decade in the House. Riser...

The Democratic National Committee is launching Spanish-language online ads and robocalls targeting Republicans on the government shutdown, it announced Thursday. The effort is the third phase of a broader campaign this week that has been hitting Republicans in their home states, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), as well as early voting states Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The Spanish-language calls and Twitter, Facebook and Google ads launching Thursday will target Latino voters in...

The Obama administration appears to be on the verge of a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran after three and a half decades of low-level warfare. Now comes the hard part: convincing Congress. Skeptical lawmakers are gearing up to thwart efforts to lift the pressure on Iran. Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) warned this week that he may introduce legislation making it harder for President Obama to loosen existing sanctions, while several others have vowed to slap on new ones. “The United States should negotiate from a position of strength, not weakness,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a possible 2016...

Republican Rep. Jeff Denham will break with his party and back a broad immigration reform proposal supported by Democrats. The California congressman told Univision that he would become the first Republican co-sponsor of an immigration bill written by House Democrats that would bolster border security and provide a pathway to citizenship for many of the 11.7 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. “Yes, I will be the first Republican coming together on this full bill dealing with all aspects of immigration,” he told Univision anchor Jorge Ramos in Spanish during an interview that will air on “Al Punto” this...

A Republican congressman from a heavily Hispanic district is breaking ranks from his party to join Democrats in an eleventh-hour push for a broad immigration overhaul before the end of the year. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) plans to sign on as the lone GOP member with 185 Democrats to co-sponsor a plan that would give millions of unauthorized immigrants the chance to attain citizenship. -snip- “I’m the first Republican,” he said in an interview. “I expect more to come on board.”

WASHINGTON — With immigration re-emerging as the topic of focus in Washington, an unusual coalition of business executives, Republican Party activists and evangelical leaders will descend on Capitol Hill early next week to pressure House Republicans to pass their own legislation. The debate threatens to create another schism in the Republican Party and to further alienate a major source of campaign contributions; several corporate executives interviewed this week said they were considering withholding donations from lawmakers who get in the way. The push by conservatives will begin Tuesday morning with a news conference featuring, among others, Al Cardenas, the chairman...

<p>A petition posted online by an activist group tied to the leftist MoveOn.org is calling for the immediate arrest of key Republican Party leaders on Capitol Hill, alleging they’ve committed egregious acts of betrayal against the United States.</p> <p>The text posted at MoveOn Petitions: “I call on the Justice Department of the United States of America to arrest Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Speaker of the House John Boehner and other decision-making House Republican leaders for the crimes of seditious conspiracy against the United States of America.”</p>