Free Republic

On April 23, 1918, with the U.S. in the depths of World War I, Fred Rodewald, a German immigrant homesteader who had settled with his family on 320 acres in eastern Montana, uttered a sentence that forever changed his life. He suggested that Americans "would have hard times" if Germany's kaiser "didn't get over here and rule this country." That remark earned him 2 years in prison for violating Montana's Sedition Act. When he went off to the penitentiary in Deer Lodge, the 42-year-old Rodewald left behind a pregnant wife and eight children. An armistice ended the war less than...

FEDS VOW TO GET TOUGH ON ILLEGALS Tue Aug 23 2005 17:15:30 ET Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, acknowledging public frustration over illegal immigration, said Tuesday that the federal government's detention and deportation system must be fundamentally restructured. "We have decided to stand back and take a look at how we address the problem and solve it once and for all," Chertoff said during a breakfast meeting with reporters. The NEW YORK TIMES is planning a front page placement for the Chertoff comments on Wednesday, newsroom sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. The unusually blunt assessment by the nation's top immigration...

Foreign workers flee ranchers who brought them By Bruce Finley The Denver Post Yellowjacket Pass, Colo. -- With his boots caked with manure and face spattered with blood, Peruvian shepherd Tomas Santa Maria corrals bleating lambs by the hundred in a green mountain pasture in northwest Colorado. He chases them as they dart beneath ewes, hoists them one by one, holds their kicking legs and thrusts them forward belly-first for castration. Following his native tradition, Santa Maria performs the castration with his teeth. The sheep industry, a longtime mainstay of the western Rocky Mountains economy, has come to depend on...

The Underground Labor Force Is Rising To The Surface Robert Justich and Betty Ng, CFA January 3, 2005 PDF: http://www.bearstearns.com/bscportal/pdfs/underground.pdf Illegal immigrants constitute a large and growing force in the political, economic, and investment spheres in The United States. The size of this extra-legal segment of the population is significantly understated because the official U.S.Census does not capture the total number of illegal immigrants. In turn, the growth of the underground work force is increasingly concealing the economic impact of this below-market labor supply. Our research has identified significant evidence that the census estimates of undocumented immigrants may be capturing...

<p>On any given day, Juan Francisco Aparicio will drive his children to the doctor's office, his wife to the grocery and himself to work. Yet, he doesn't have a drivers license.</p> <p>He can't apply for one because he doesn't have a Social Security card, which he can't get because he is not a legal resident. He moved to Illinois seven years ago from Sacatecas, Mexico, and, like hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers who lack a license, drives a car anyway. Every day.</p>

<p>In union halls, churches and community centers, a national campaign modeled on tactics from the civil rights movement slowly is taking shape to champion the cause of immigrants.</p> <p>The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, patterned after the bus rides that 40 years ago challenged segregation laws in the Southern states, is a national initiative that aims to push for immigration reforms this fall. The new freedom riders will set out from Minneapolis and eight other cities in late September and converge in Washington, D.C., and New York for rallies.</p>

You're suing Los Angeles Terence Jeffrey This may be the first that you've heard of it, but the fact of the matter is you're suing Los Angeles -- and you're winning. But that's not good news. Winning may cost you money. It definitely will cost people in Los Angeles some freedom. This is a story that began at the ballot box. In 1994, Californians voted 59 percent to 41 percent for Proposition 187. "Essentially," the Los Angeles Times reported then, "the proposition would bar illegal immigrants from public schools, and prohibit public agencies from providing them with non-emergency health and...

Tens of thousands of men of South Asian, Arab and Muslim origin are debating whether to comply with a new US immigration registration programme. The fear is that they may be detained or deported and so separated from their families. Since the programme began, 1,200 men have been directed to attend deportation hearings. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri has said the issue will be high on the agenda of his current US visit. The new rules have led to a sense of panic in immigrant circles, especially the large Pakistani community. Unfulfilled dream The new registration programme has two...