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White House chief of staff John Kelly said in an interview set to air Saturday that the majority of people who enter the U.S. illegally do not “assimilate” easily into modern American society. “The vast majority of the people that move illegally into the United States are not bad people … but they’re also not people that would easily assimilate into the United States into our modern society,” Kelly told NPR.

California will issue driver's licenses to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants once the Obama administration grants them work permits, the state Department of Motor Vehicles says. The state's decision is the opposite from Arizona's, where Republican Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday afternoon signed an executive order outlawing driver's licenses for anyone who benefits from the new federal deportation relief. The starkly different responses from neighboring states show that the benefits of the new federal directive could vary depending on where young immigrants live. The Obama administration left it up to the states to decide if they will issue...

by John HillStand With ArizonaBarack Obama's Tantrum-on-the-Tarmac in Phoenix Wednesday has given an unprecedented boost to the memoir of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. In the 48 hours since Obama confronted Brewer over her depiction of their July 2010 Oval Office meeting - turning his back and walking away from her as she was still talking - her book, Scorpions for Breakfast, has exploded up the charts on Amazon.com. SWA staffers took a screenshot of the book's rank of #344,761 an hour after the confrontation, and noticed that it had exploded to a stunning #26 by Friday morning: an increase of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House subcommittee on Wednesday authorized a subpoena against the Homeland Security Department for information about illegal immigrants who have been identified but not deported. The authorization cleared the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration policy and enforcement by a 7-4, party line vote. Democrats voted against the measure, saying it was premature to issue a subpoena because Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is cooperating with the committee. House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, says the subpoena authorization is necessary because the Obama administration hasn't responded quickly enough to his request, which was made in...

ATLANTA – Jessica Colotl has always tried to keep a low profile — obeying the speed limit, making sure her lights work properly — knowing that a brush with law enforcement could lead to her deportation and cost her a college diploma. After a few close calls, her fears were realized last spring, when she was stopped for a minor traffic violation, charged with driving without a license and turned over to immigration authorities. She spent 37 days in a detention center in Alabama before they let her out and said they would give her a year to finish her...

An East Boston teen was held on $1,500 cash bail today on charges she gave birth to a newborn baby boy last month and then tossed him out a window where he was left abandoned crying in a trash-strewn alley. Eva Flores, 18, was charged in East Boston District Court with reckless endangerment of a child and assault and battery of a child under 14 with injuries, authorities said today. She is also being held on a federal immigration detainer.

Lawn work at Romney's home still done by illegal immigrants Ricardo Saenz, owner of the company that employed illegal immigrants, worked on Romney's lawn recently. By Maria Cramer and Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff; and Connie Paige, Globe Correspondent Standing on stage at a Republican debate on the Gulf Coast of Florida last week, Mitt Romney repeatedly lashed out at rival Rudy Giuliani for providing sanctuary to illegal immigrants in New York City. Yet, the very next morning, on Thursday, at least two illegal immigrants stepped out of a hulking maroon pickup truck in the driveway of Romney's Belmont house, then...

Approximately 50 Collin County students, some as young as 12 years old, took to the downtown streets Wednesday to protest an immigration bill authored by State Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney. House Bill 39, authored by Paxton and State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, would require students entering college to provide information that would establish their residential status and allow colleges to “reclassify” current students as nonresidents. The bill is currently pending in the House Committee on State Affairs, of which Paxton is vice chairman, according to state legislative records. The middle school, high school and college students marched down Chestnut and...

Q: Thank you. Scott, I have a question on a possible solution. Mexico's President, Vicente Fox, is demanding that the walls now along the U.S.-Mexican border be torn down, saying that they're discriminatory and against freedom. At his meeting with Fox next week, will the President agree to tear down the walls, or will he insist they be kept? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the focus of next week's meeting is on strengthening our security and expanding our prosperity in the hemisphere. It's a trilateral meeting with Canada and with President Fox. They're going to have lunch after the morning meetings, but...

CALEXICO — Illegal aliens float down the New River to waiting vans, climb in, then ride to points north, west and east. If the guy driving the van needs to get past a checkpoint he might drive on the wrong side of the road, endangering the people in the van and other motorists. This in-our-face illegal immigration, putting U.S. citizens and the aliens at risk, happens every day in Calexico and all along the U.S.-Mexico border. Since President George Bush announced his plan to offer temporary legal status to immigrant workers, more people are crossing that border, people seeking a...

New Effort Launched to Give Drivers Licenses to Illegal Immigrants Immigrant advocates are promoting a new attempt to allow illegal immigrants to obtain drivers licenses. The moved has prompted a number of prominent conservatives to gear up for a fight. Advocacy groups are counting on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to make good on his promise to reconsider a law giving illegal immigrants the right to drive, as long as security issues are adequately addressed. Petitions in support of a new bill were dropped off at the governor's office on Wednesday. Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, has pushed for similar laws several...

In 1992 a Mexican woman began working illegally under an invalid Social Security number.  Six years later, when she obtained a valid Social Security number, Social Security gave her credit for the wages she had earned illegally.  The woman started receiving Social Security disability benefits in 1999 and, according to Social Security’s Inspector General, from 1999 to 2002 she collected more than $583 per month in benefits. From 1971 through 1979 a Mexican man illegally worked under his father’s Social Security number and, before collecting benefits, had these wages transferred when he acquired his own Social Security number. From 1999...

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider legislation this Thursday that would provide illegal alien students with amnesty and in-state tuition rates at U.S. colleges and universities. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2003, S.1545, has support from 35 cosponsors and the bill's original sponsor, Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT). We need your help to defeat this pro-illegal alien legislation. The markup is scheduled for this Thursday, Oct. 16, at 9:30 a.m. Please read our ACTION ALERT . At his first post-election news conference, California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger reaffirmed his opposition to legislation...

One of the S.F. Chronicle's problems is how it regularly shrieks over every single breath or action taken by Attorney General Ashcroft. They are particularly unnerved by his efforts to rid us of the terrorist cells functioning brazenly in this country. One would think that the elites in this country: the academics, the media and the politicians would be fighting to protect our nation with common sense ideas. They aren't. They're standing shoulder to shoulder with those that would destroy us. The only common sense in this nation emanates from the common man. Joe Lunchbucket is far more in tune...