Free Republic

Illegal Aliens: A Few Myths to Keep in Mind . . . Mexico City. Last Tuesday the Pew Hispanic Center announced that 41 percent of Mexicans surveyed in February and 46 percent questioned in May stated they would live in the United States if given "the means and opportunity." Indeed, two out of 10 people interviewed said they were prepared to enter the U.S. illegally. These figures could have amazing consequences because our Spanish- speaking neighbor has a population of nearly 106 million inhabitants.

SAN DIEGO – Rep. Brian Bilbray called Wednesday for increased immigration enforcement well beyond the border, but local law enforcement leaders said they could not take on a federal mandate to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. Bilbray, R-Carlsbad, made his comments during a hearing held at the Border Patrol station here within site of the U.S.-Mexico border, one of several such sessions Republican leaders in the House of Representatives plan to hold around the country to focus more attention on the immigration issue. Bilbray said the recent debates on illegal immigration show that not enough has been done to find and...

1. Pass HR 4437 HR 4437 is the House Border security bill that was passed last December. It secures our border and issues tough new fines and sanctions against employers hiring illegal aliens. HR 4437 must be passed. The Pence plan is the only way to do that. The Senate simply will not vote on HR 4437 as it stands. Pence’s plan would force them to vote on it totally intact. Sadly, politics, particularly in the Senate, dictates that Pence’s plan is the only viable option. Politically, this is the only play for conservatives who want to solve the problem....

SAN DIEGO -- Folks say this border city has been brazenly invaded by an unsavory and disruptive element that opportunistically puts its own interests before the greater good. I never believed it -- until lately. But what can I say now that America's Finest City is crawling with Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives, who have come here to hold hearings on immigration reform? San Diego plays host this week to the first of a series of public hearings on this combustible issue. The first hearing -- "Border Vulnerabilities and International Terrorism'' -- will be led by Rep....

Bringing San Diego to the forefront of the immigration debate, House Republicans will hold field hearings on the issue Wednesday at an Imperial Beach border patrol station. Two opposing immigration bills from the House and Senate will head for negotiations after the hearings senators and representatives are holding across the country this summer. San Diego area representatives have been heavily involved in the debate, some authoring sections of the House bill. Measures proposed in the House bill, H.R. 4437, include: making illegal presence in the country a felony, building 698 miles of fencing along the border, requiring employers to use...

Dueling immigration hearings Wednesday in San Diego will present opposite portrayals of illegal border-crossers: Congressional testimony will center on terrorists and criminals, while immigrant testimonials will beg compassion for illegal immigrants. Border-area law enforcement officials are likely to testify in the congressional hearing Wednesday that terrorists, drug cartels and gangsters are crossing the porous southern border in increasing numbers to harm Americans. Most witnesses have given similar statements to Congress before. A later counter-hearing by human-rights activists at a San Diego public park will offer testimonials about how immigration enforcement policy is costing the lives of people who are determined...

Mexican politicians continuously demand more visas for their citizens, an expanded guest-worker program, and "regularization" of illegal aliens living north of the Rio Grande. While neglecting to mention that the United States admits nearly one million legal newcomers each year, they also fail to publicize: (1) the extremely high salaries they receive, often—in the case of federal and state legislators—more than their counterparts in developed nations that have substantially longer annual sessions, (2) the generous stipends that they grant themselves, including year-end aguinaldos and end-of-term bonuses of tens of thousands of dollars known as bonos de marcha, and (3) the...

LOS ANGELES - A potentially powerful expatriate voting bloc likely will have little effect on Mexico's presidential race because of the illegal status of many who live in the United States. Thousands of Mexican expatriates streamed into border towns Sunday to vote in their homeland's elections and others were allowed to cast absentee ballots for the first time. Still, many more were disenfranchised by their fear of crossing the border as undocumented residents. "I really wanted to vote, but I don't have papers so I couldn't go to Mexico" to get a voter card, said Adriana Lopez, 27, a housewife...

MEXICO CITY - Mexicans voted Sunday in a tight presidential race to decide whether their country becomes the latest Latin American nation to move to the left, choosing between a shopkeeper's son promising to save the poor and a conservative calling his rival's free-spending populism dangerous. The campaign, which exposed Mexico's painful class divisions, was the first since Vicente Fox's stunning victory six years ago ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Polls predicted a close race between conservative Felipe Calderon, 43, of Fox's National Action Party, and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 52, a...

The reason why Mexico is having chilly relations with the United States because we are importing Mexico's poor and the American tapayer is paying for them. Mexico refused to do nothing about the corruption that is pervasive in all levels of government. There is a massive crime wave being committed more and more by Mexican nationals against American citizens. Could this also be another reason why there is a chill between Mexico and the United States?The author of the piece does not touch this.

Story on the House of Representatives start on hearings on immigrants. The fur will fly on this one.

What are Hispanic groups and the Democratic Party have to fear about the upcoming immigration hearings by the GOP?What are they hiding?I thought that they would be glad that they are finally to air their views in the public.

Republican Senate leaders are considering how to revive immigration legislation and cut a deal with the more hard-line House, a sign of increasing GOP concern that inaction on the emotionally charged issue could hurt the party with voters in November. For months, House and Senate Republicans have steadfastly defended their respective positions. The House has insisted on tougher border and deportation provisions only. The Senate, allied with President Bush, has demanded that a crackdown be coupled with an overhaul of immigration laws, including a broader guest worker program and a pathway to legal status for the estimated 12 million people...

Hispanic leaders said Friday that Republican plans to hold national hearings on an immigration bill are a stall tactic aimed at delaying immigration reform and attracting more votes for the GOP this fall. Latinos do not pose a threat to the government and should be valued for their economic contributions, said Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers of America with labor leader Cesar Chavez. "We have to let people know what the truth is. This is a distraction," Huerta said. House Republican leaders scheduled the hearings to get feedback on a Senate-passed bill that would offer legal status...

Republican Senate leaders are considering how to revive immigration legislation and cut a deal with the more hard-line House, a sign of increasing GOP concern that inaction on the emotionally charged issue could hurt the party with voters in November. For months, House and Senate Republicans have steadfastly defended their respective positions. The House has insisted on tougher border and deportation provisions only. The Senate, allied with President Bush, has demanded that a crackdown be coupled with an overhaul of immigration laws, including a broader guest worker program and a pathway to legal status for the estimated 12 million people...

While most civil-rights leaders, including Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, support illegal aliens and amnesty, many African-Americans believe they do so as partisan Democrats and not in the best interests of blacks in America. A national coalition of American blacks who support enforcement of US immigration laws, commended the decision by the leadership of the House of Representatives to hold field hearings later this summer. While the White House and the Senate are backing legislation that would grant amnesty to more than 12 million illegal aliens and flood America’s labor market with millions more new foreign workers, opposition to...

That's right. Your eyes are not deceiving you. You can save $20 off the cover price of what is sure to be the most important book of the year – Tom Tancredo's "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security." Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. In his first book ever, the courageous Colorado congressman who has led the national fight against illegal immigration, and for real border control, lays out the specifics of his plan to put America's national security ahead of politics. Officially released this week, this book is destined to become a No. 1 best-seller – perhaps,...

The Republicans running the House may not be as smart as they think they are. They may have misread the public mood, which prompted them to press GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert to put off immigration negotiations with the Senate until September. They also may have misread some in their very own party. A poll being released today by the conservative Manhattan Institute and conducted by the Republican Tarrance Group shows most of the 800 likely GOP voters questioned want a solution now, even one that deals with the 12 million illegal immigrants here. Some of those surveyed even will accept...

Letters to the Editor: 06.23.06 It's about safety I recently wrote to Congressman Ortiz to let him know I believe that having secure borders is, first and foremost, a national security issue. His answer was interesting. While he agreed that security was a major concern, he ranked it alongside the need for low-wage workers. He also thought that, "unifying families and creating a path to citizenship is (sic) important." He thought that "Having private citizens patrol the border is not a solution, neither is constructing a border wall." But he offered no solution of his own. He did say, "As...

In a move that could bury President Bush's high-profile effort to overhaul immigration law until after the midterm elections, House GOP leaders yesterday announced a series of field hearings during the August recess, pushing off final negotiations on a bill until fall at the earliest. The announcement was the clearest sign yet that House Republicans have largely given up on passing a broad rewrite of the nation's immigration laws this year. They believe that their get-tough approach -- including building a wall along the border with Mexico and deporting millions of illegal immigrants -- is far more popular with voters...