Free Republic

Los Angeles -- When the immigration rights movement erupted from coast to coast beginning in March, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa embraced it with greater energy and visibility than just about any other political leader. Villaraigosa, the first Latino elected mayor here in modern times, spoke at every major demonstration in the city, in Spanish and in English, backing the calls for a fair path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. He was lauded by many of the demonstrators as a champion of their cause. But the normally voluble mayor was uncharacteristically restrained in discussing the issue in an interview last...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Faced with growing pressure from Southern states, the Bush administration wants the military to come up with ideas to help solve security problems along the U.S. border with Mexico. In back-to-back moves this week, the Pentagon began exploring ways to lend support at the Southern border, while the House on Thursday voted to allow the Homeland Security Department in limited cases to use soldiers in that region. At the Pentagon, Paul McHale, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, asked officials to offer options for the use of military resources and troops -- particularly the National...

Senate leaders say they have reached a deal to revive a broad immigration bill that could provide millions of illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens. The agreement doesn't involve provisions of the law, but it does end, for now, a lingering political standoff. The agreement brokered by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., breaks a political stalemate that has lingered for weeks. Key to the agreement is who will be negotiating a compromise with the House and its tough enforcement-only bill. The House passed much more strict immigration legislation in December. It...

Federal authorities announced the arrests yesterday of four construction supervisors and 76 illegal immigrants at a Kentucky home-building company, continuing a promised government crackdown on employers that rely on illegal labor. The arrests at Fischer Homes, a leading builder in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, followed the April 19 arrests of seven current and former managers and more than 1,100 workers for Ifco Systems North America Inc., a subsidiary of a Dutch manufacturer of plastic crates and wooden pallets. The effort comes as Congress debates plans to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. "We will continue to bring criminal actions against employers...

<p>Immigration-reform activists are fighting a bill working its way through Congress that would make it easier for public universities to charge in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrants.</p> <p>The bill, called the Dream Act, would repeal a 1996 federal statute that discourages states from granting residency benefits to undocumented immigrants. The bill would primarily benefit children of illegal immigrants who were raised in the USA and graduated from a U.S. high school. It also would enable those children to eventually become legal citizens.</p>