Free Republic

Immigrant-rights activist and former Santa Ana schools trustee Nativo Lopez was jailed in Los Angeles Thursday after being indicted by the grand jury there for eight felony counts alleging voter fraud. Los Angeles arrest records show that he was booked into the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, and is being held in lieu of $55,000 bail. Los Angeles District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said he faces a mental competency hearing on Aug. 6. The Mexican American Political Association, of which he is president, responded with a press release today. “Let it be known that he will be fasting in stance with...

EDINBURG - Community activists renewed their call Monday for federal officials to close South Texas' immigration checkpoints in the event of a mandatory hurricane evacuation. Checking the legal status of every evacuee would discourage people from leaving in advance of a storm and slow down the overall process for others, the migrant rights advocates said protesting on the first day of the 2009 hurricane season. "We think this could cause a tragedy of enormous proportions," said Corinna Spencer-Scheurich, an attorney with the South Texas Civil Rights Project. "We have been working to get a clear and safe answer to the...

Yuki Lin , born on the stroke of midnight this New Year’s, became the winner of a random drawing for a national Toys “R” Us sweepstakes. The company had promised a $25,000 U.S. savings bond to the “first American baby born in 2007.” However, Yuki lost her prize after the company learned that her mother was an undocumented U.S. resident. Instead, the bond went to a baby in Gainesville, Georgia, described by her mother as “an American all the way.” The toy retailer soon found itself in the midst of the country’s heated immigration debate. Under mounting pressure, Toys “R”...

In an Oregon case, a Mexican national said he wasn't told he could call his consulate The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against two foreign nationals who said their convictions should be overturned because the police did not advise them of their international treaty rights to contact their consulates. The ruling involved cases from Oregon and Virginia and centers on the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, an international treaty that gives foreign nationals in the U.S. the right to contact their consulate if they are arrested. The same rules apply to Americans who are arrested in one of the...

Agendas of MEChA, La Raza, MALDEF, and Southwest Voter Registration Projects These are transcripts of live, recorded statements by elected U.S. politicians, college professors, and pro-illegal alien activists whose objective is to take control of our country "by vote if possible and violence if necessary!" 1. Armando Navarro, Prof. Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside at Latino Summit Response to Prop 187, UC Riverside, 1/1995 "These are the critical years for us as a Latino community. We're in a state of transition. And that transformation is called 'the browning of America'. Latinos are now becoming the majority. Because I know that time...

POMONA - A group running from coast to coast for immigrants' rights may have an extra skip in its step today after scoring a symbolic victory from Pomona city leaders Monday night. The City Council passed a resolution late Monday condemning a federal proposal for tough new immigration restrictions -- a decision made on the heels of a colorful morning rally staged by the runners on City Hall's steps. The vote followed nearly two hours of public comment, much of it in favor of the resolution. City council members, concerned about the resolution's language, however, proposed amending portions of it...

<p>HIGHTSTOWN, N.J. &#8212; A group known for fighting against illegal immigrants was asked to leave a Washington Township diner while a Hispanic civil rights conference took place in the borough on Sunday, Washington police said.</p> <p>The New Jersey Division of Civil Rights and the Mercer County Hispanic Association sponsored a civil rights conference for Hispanics on Sunday at St. Anthony of Padua Church. The meeting came in the wake of a series of raids for illegal immigrants in the area by the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.</p>

Experts: Resources too scarce for Prop. 200 enforcement More Updates By ANANDA SHOREY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOENIX - Federal immigration officials don't have the resources to punish illegal immigrants who may be reported by government workers under a recently approved Arizona initiative aimed at cracking down on fraud, immigration experts say. State and local government workers who don't report illegal immigrants who apply for some benefits and services could go to jail or face fines under Proposition 200, which voters passed Nov. 2. Federal officials won't be responsible for enforcing the state law, but they will have to deal with...

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday announced a nationwide campaign to recover what it says are civil liberties that the government has "rolled back" since Sept. 11, 2001. The $3 million campaign -- which the group calls the largest mobilization of resources in its 80-year history -- hit the Seattle area yesterday with the airing of the first of several television ads portraying Attorney General John Ashcroft willfully doing damage to the Constitution. Both nationally and locally, the ACLU is also threatening litigation to repeal measures it considers threats to civil liberties, and it has begun lobbying state lawmakers to...