Free Republic

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...

When President Donald Trump suspended the refugee program on day one of his current administration, thousands of people around the world who had been so close to a new life in America found themselves abandoned. Many had already sold possessions or ended leases in preparation for travel. They had submitted reams of documents supporting their cases, been interviewed by U.S. officials and in many cases already had tickets to fly to America. As part of Trump’s crackdown on both legal and illegal migration, the Republican president has upended the decades-old refugee program that has served as a beacon for those...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday that it had made dozens of arrests in New Orleans just one day after launching Operation Catahoula Crunch, the latest federal immigration operation cracking down on criminal illegal immigrants. "Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens harming them, their families or their neighbors," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "In just 24 hours on the ground, our law enforcement officers have arrested violent criminals with rap sheets that include homicide, kidnapping, child abuse, robbery, theft and assault." [snip] The men, all with criminal histories,...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Trump administration officials overseeing the immigration crackdown launched this week in New Orleans are aiming to make 5,000 arrests, a target that some city leaders who oppose the operation say is unrealistic and would require detainining more than just violent offenders. It’s an ambitious goal that would surpass the number of arrests during a two-month enforcement blitz this fall around Chicago, a region with a much bigger immigrant population than New Orleans. Records tracking the first weeks of the Chicago operation also showed most arrestees didn’t have a violent criminal record. Alejandra Vasquez, who runs a...

The ongoing federal immigration operations in Minnesota targeting Somali immigrants living in the country illegally have created fear and unease for many in the Twin Cities. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara joined 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS on Wednesday night and reiterated that police don’t participate in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. Because of that, O’Hara didn’t confirm any ICE operations, something ABC News confirmed through multiple sources on Wednesday. However, O’Hara did note that the city’s 911 dispatchers have received “a dramatic increase” in calls reporting apparent ICE activities. The chief says he’s already noticed more businesses closed and...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is reportedly creating a new internal database of non-U.S. citizens who work for or are affiliated with the agency — a move that could include thousands of doctors, nurses, contractors, trainees, and even military veterans.According to a memo obtained by The Guardian, the VA is ordering its offices nationwide to identify every non-citizen who is "employed or affiliated" with the department. That includes part-timers, contractors, medical trainees, and volunteers.The information is reportedly scheduled to be compiled into a report for Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins by Dec. 30.A VA spokesperson confirmed to The Guardian that...

Dec 2 (Reuters) - Officials in Minneapolis on Tuesday said they were not aware of imminent federal immigration raids targeting the area’s Somali community, which has come under blistering attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump in recent days. Anti-immigration rhetoric was a major part of Trump's campaign and since taking office in January he has overseen an aggressive campaign by masked federal agents across the country that has instilled fear in immigrant communities and prompted protests and backlashes in the cities targeted. During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump ratcheted up his inflammatory rhetoric about Somalis, saying they had contributed...

A federal judge late Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from making widespread immigration arrests in the nation’s capital without warrants or probable cause that the person is an imminent flight risk. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington granted a preliminary injunction sought by civil liberties and immigrants rights groups in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Officers making civil immigration arrests generally have to have an administrative warrant. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, they may make arrests without a warrant only if they have probable cause to believe the person is in the U.S. illegally...