Free Republic

(The Center Square) – Daycare centers that receive hundreds of thousands in taxpayer subsides did not appear to have any children when The Center Square visited the facilities this week and were either openly hostile or told journalists that they were hoping to have children in their care, but did not have an application available or anyone to talk with about enrolling a child. The focus on Washington's taxpayer subsidized daycares comes at the time federal authorities are conducting what they call a "massive" investigation into fraud in Somali-run facilities in Minnesota. According to fiscal.wa.gov, a home-based daycare on 6th...

When Congress returns next week, lawmakers will have less than a month to pass the remaining nine appropriations bills funding federal agencies in fiscal year 2026. Already, however, there are signs of further delay, with two Republican senators pledging to vote against the bill for Labor and Health and Human Services due to its inclusion of $5.69 billion for refugee assistance services. The amount is less than the $6.3 billion that HHS’s Administration of Children and Families, which runs various refugee and asylee support programs, received in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. But it is still three times higher than...

For faith leaders supporting and ministering to anxious immigrants across the United States, 2025 was fraught with challenges and setbacks. For many in these religious circles, the coming year could be worse. The essence of their fears: President Donald Trump has become harsher with his contemptuous rhetoric and policy proposals, blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages and, in a social media post, demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION.” Haitians who fled gang violence in their homeland, as well as Afghans allowed entry after assisting the U.S. in Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover, now fear that their refuge in America may...

For over a year, Elías Padilla had been saving up to make the journey from Honduras to the United States as an undocumented immigrant. As an Uber driver in the snarled streets of the capital, Tegucigalpa, it hasn't been easy for him to put money aside. On bad days he makes as little as $12 (£9) in 12 hours. Now, though, his plans are on hold. The images of undocumented immigrants in major US cities being dragged away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, their wrists in zip-ties, have deterred at least one would-be immigrant in Central America from...

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas officials are warning the public about a fraud scheme that could impact gift cards sold across parts of Texas. The Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center (FCIC) arrested three men, accusing them of stealing about $14 million from gift cards purchased at stores from Dallas-Fort Worth to Central Texas and across the Gulf Coast. In a press release, investigators with FCIC said the three men were arrested for the scheme, which was believed to have started back in May 2025. FCIC said the process they allegedly used to scam consumers is known as gift card cloning. It...

An illegal migrant has been nabbed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Louisiana after she ran a red light and crashed her car into one of the agency's vehicles, officers said. The Honduran national accidentally plowed her car being into one being used by ICE during the Operation Catahoula Crunch raid in Slidell, according to US Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino. 'Apparently she never learned the lesson that red means stop, not 'accelerate and collide with a government vehicle actively enforcing federal law'.' Bovino, the Commander of Operation At Large in California, said in a Facebook post. No injuries...

More than 125 congressional Democrats are pushing the Trump administration to withdraw a proposed rule that would open the door to denying a person a green card if they use public assistance, including Medicaid or food stamps. "This proposal punishes families for caring for their children. It would scare parents away from health care, food assistance, and early education that U.S. citizen children are legally entitled to, putting kids at risk and destabilizing entire communities," Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said in a statement to The Hill. "Congress never intended public charge to be used...

The Trump administration’s focus on immigration enforcement across the country is alleviating the heavy burden of illegals diverting public services, as school systems are reporting significant drops in enrollment after having been overrun with countless migrants, many of whom do not speak English. “One of the victims of Biden’s open border polices was America’s students whose schools became overcrowded[;] teachers, aides and resources, including for disabled students, were diverted to the millions of illegal aliens the Biden Administration flooded into our country,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told The Federalist. “President Trump is...

Today, President Donald J. Trump will award the newly established Mexican Border Defense Medal to U.S. service members for their extraordinary work to safeguard our nation’s southern border and uphold American sovereignty.Under President Trump’s decisive leadership, the southern border has undergone a profound transformation to turn back the invasion unleashed by the Biden Administration — achieving levels of security unseen in decades. By reversing Biden-era failed policies and swiftly implementing robust enforcement, the Trump Administration has restored order, deterred illegal entries, and protected American communities from the threats posed by unchecked migration, transnational crime, and fentanyl trafficking.Here’s what you need...

The Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies have heightened stress among the country’s approximately 14 million immigrants who are living in the U.S. without legal authorization. The sharp rise in dramatic arrests and deportations of immigrants over the past year has received widespread media attention. A less publicized issue is that many young, undocumented immigrants are also finding it harder to apply to and stay in college. As someone who researches teacher training and was a high school teacher in South Carolina, I have researched how restrictive education policies make it harder for immigrant students, particularly undocumented students, to receive a...

PULSE POINTS❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Trump administration is terminating “family reunification” (chain migration) parole (FRP) programs for immigrants from several nations and ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Ethiopia.👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and President Donald J. Trump.📍WHEN & WHERE: Announced Friday via a Federal Register notice and DHS press release.💬KEY QUOTE: “Parole was never intended to be used in this way, and DHS is returning parole to a case-by-case basis as intended by Congress.” – DHS news release.🎯IMPACT: FRP programs for Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras will...

CHICAGO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The windowless newsroom of The Phoenix, the Loyola University Chicago newspaper, hums like an old refrigerator. A coffee pot burbles in the corner as juniors Julia Pentasuglio and Ella Daugherty lean over a glowing laptop, updating a Google map. Each red pin marks a sighting of federal immigration agents near campus and the surrounding neighborhoods. Nearby, editor-in-chief Lilli Malone scrolls through reports from Rogers Park, a neighborhood along Chicago's lakefront where 80 languages mix. There were new pins from seven sightings that day alone - reports of vans barreling down side streets, masked immigration officers...

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened Friday to yank $73 million in federal highway funding meant for New York after an audit found more than half of the Empire State’s commercial trucking licenses were issued to foreign-born drivers in the US illegally. “What New York does is if an applicant comes in and they have a work authorization — for 30 days, 60 days, one year — New York automatically issues them an eight-year commercial driver’s license,” Duffy said during a press conference at DOT headquarters in DC Friday. “That’s contrary to the law.” “But we also found that...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A federal appeals court is blocking the release of hundreds of people detained by immigration agents during "Operation Midway Blitz" in the Chicago area, at least for now. The case centers around whether the government violated a consent decree banning warrantless arrests in certain cases. The appeals court said each detainee's case should be evaluated individually. A federal judge has ordered the release of hundreds of migrants arrested in the Chicago area, including some arrested under the Department of Homeland Security's "Operation Midway Blitz," by Nov. 21 after finding their arrests could have violated a 2022 consent...

… Among other requirements, Minneapolis' separation ordinance forbids Minneapolis police from taking part in immigration enforcement or assisting ICE agents. It also prevents city employees from investigating an individual when the only law they've violated is being in the United States illegally. City employees are also restricted from inquiring about immigration status except when required to do so by law. This week, the council presented a revised version of the separation ordinance with tougher language intended to combat ICE, amid a targeted immigration operation ordered by President Trump focused on the Somali community. The new ordinance declares the city will...

President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is celebrating a “record-breaking achievement” in immigration enforcement, touting that more than 2.5 million illegal aliens have left the United States since the president took office in late January.This week, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had successfully deported more than 605,000 illegal aliens from the U.S. since January 20 — noting the majority are illegal aliens with pending criminal charges or criminal convictions.In addition, Noem said almost two million illegal aliens have now self-deported from the U.S. during the same period, as she again encouraged...

Former President Joe Biden’s record-setting waves of mass immigration to the United States sent home prices and rents surging for the lowest-income Americans, a newly published investigation from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reveals.The report, published annually by HUD, looks at “worst-case housing needs,” which is defined as Americans who are low-income but who do not receive government assistance or welfare and who pay more than one-half of their income toward housing costs.“Between 2021 and 2023, cases of worst-case needs remained elevated at 8.46 million households, virtually the same as the 2019-to-2021 period,” the report details, pointing...

The Trump administration must stop deploying the California National Guard in Los Angeles and return control of the troops to the state, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction sought by California officials who opposed President Donald Trump’s extraordinary move to use state Guard troops without the governor’s approval to further his immigration enforcement efforts. But he also put the decision on hold until Monday. California argued that conditions in Los Angeles had changed since Trump first took command of the troops and deployed them in June. The administration initially...

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani offered advice to illegal immigrants on how to evade ICE in a video message Sunday — calling on illegal immigrants to “stand up” to the federal agents and “know your rights.” The democratic socialist positioned himself as the mayor of “more than 3 million immigrants” as he spoke following last weekend’s ICE raid in Chinatown, which was disrupted by protesters. “Last weekend, ICE attempted to raid Canal Street and detain our immigrant neighbors,” Mamdani said in a video posted on X on Sunday. “As mayor, I’ll protect the rights of every single New Yorker. And that includes...

A Mexican national was arrested Thursday after Washington State Patrol said he caused a six-vehicle pileup on Interstate 5 in Lacey when the car-hauling semi he was driving without a commercial driver's license slammed into the back of a school bus just after 7:00 am on I-5 near Martin Road in Lacey. Authorities identified the driver as Juan Hernandez-Santos, 40, of Huentitlan, Mexico, and said four people were transported to the hospital with minor injuries. Troopers said there were two adults on the school bus at the time of the crash, but no students were on board. [snip] Troopers said...