Free Republic

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE) set new records for enforcement activity, ended the long-standing practice of “catch-and-release” along the borders, launched major new initiatives, transformed its detention and removal process, and improved its intelligence functions. Some milestones include: Total arrests made in worksite enforcement cases was more than seven times greater than in 2002, the last full year of operations for U.S. INS. Ended “Catch-and-Release” for non-Mexican aliens existed for years and was one of the greatest impediments to border control. DHS and ICE re-engineered the detention and removal process to end this practice along the border, an accomplishment considered...

In America today there are an estimated 7 million illegal immigrants. Many say that these immigrants drive down wages for hard working Americans. Others say that they introduce new problems into our education system and drain resources from our entitlement programs. Though the problems are [somewhat] clearly defined, the solution is not. While I do not generally support the idea of giving special privileges to certain groups of people, especially ones who purposely and knowingly break the law, in this situation there is no other logical or practical solution. America is like a baker that has left a window open...

It's an issue with no clear solution, and one that has divided a nation. And now, illegal immigration has a local impact. "I mean there's proper ways to get a pass to come in here, but at the same time if I lived in Mexico, and I wanted to better myself, then I'd probably do anything I ever could to get into the United States," says Gene Butler, owner of the Roadhouse Steakhouse. Saturday morning, Wood County Sheriffs Deputies received a call from the Department of Labor, located in Charleston. "They wanted to investigate the new Holiday Inn Express going...

As the Senate is mulling the details of a compromise immigration bill hammered together by the odd couple of Sens. Edward Kennedy and Jon Kyl, and as members of Congress hear from their constituents over the Memorial Day recess, it may be worthwhile to put the issue in historical context. For most of our history, the United States had no restrictions on immigration at all. I am told that my Canadian-born grandfather was a "nickel immigrant": He took the five-cent ferry from Windsor, Ontario, north to Detroit roundabout 1896. This situation resulted from America's strong demand for labor, coupled with...

Back in 2002 - and still in May 2007 - Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) wanted the United States Coast Guard, FEMA, INS, and U.S. Customs Service to remain independent and directly responsible to the local communities they serve to increase their efficiency. USCG - "The Coast Guard and its mission are very important to the Texas Gulf coast, and I don’t want that mission relegated to the back burner in a huge bureaucracy." FEMA - "FEMA needs to be a flexible, locally focused, hands-on agency that helps people quickly after a disaster." U.S. Customs - "My coastal district also relies...

A steady stream of customers flowed into Grace Lopez-Williams' office on Jimmy Carter Boulevard. They were taxpayers, looking for help to file by this year's April 17 deadline.Many of them were also illegal immigrants.Norcross tax preparer Grace Lopez-Williams (left) talks with Ruth Santiago in the reception area of her accounting firm. She said she's seen an increase in the number of immigrants paying multiple years of back taxes, preparing for immigration reform that could require payment of back taxes for a chance at legal status.It is not unusual for people who are here illegally to pay taxes. The Internal Revenue...

RICHMOND -- Carlos Diaz broke the law when he crossed the border and took a job as an office janitor. But he's not about to break another by failing to pay his income tax. "I've been talking to other people who've done it, and I want to follow the law," said Diaz, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who squirmed in his seat at a neighborhood tax preparer's office. Tuesday is Tax Day, when millions of illegal immigrants find themselves collaborating with one federal agency -- the Internal Revenue Service -- while trying to avoid another -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement....

INVASION USA Drug smuggler left cell phone in van But Ramos-Compean prosecutor claimed no evidence against him Posted: February 10, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila The Department of Homeland Security's report on the case of imprisoned Border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean notes the drug smuggler they pursued left behind his cell phone, but there appears to be no evidence investigators made any attempt to identify him. Moreover, the disclosure directly contradicts prosecutor U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's repeated statements that there was no evidence that permitted law enforcement officers to track down the...

INVASION USA Border-agent investigator had tie to smuggler Played major role in Ramos-Compean case but name blacked out in report Posted: February 9, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com According to official documents in WND's possession, a Department of Homeland Security agent played a major role in managing the drug smuggler and conducting the field investigation in the incident that landed Border Patrol officers Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean in federal prison for more than a decade. Yet, in the heavily redacted 77-page DHS report submitted to Congress Wednesday there is no explicit discussion of the role...

"Herndon (Virginia) officials are considering applying for a federal program that would train some of the town's police officers to enforce U.S. immigration law, including the initiation of deportation proceedings."

The war over immigration reform among conservatives continues, and, as in most wars, truth has been one of the first casualties. Those who disagree with the hardening positions of people who would adopt more restrictive policies or with people who favor less restrictive measures are attacked as know-nothings, traitors or handmaidens of evil forces out to destroy the America we live in. Many conservatives reacted angrily to the way the Bush administration tried to demonize opposition to the president’s quasi-amnesty and guest-worker proposals when they were first introduced. Critics at the time were characterized as racists or “nativists” more interested...

The Daly City murder defendant who avoided trial for seven years from the time he allegedly shot a 22-year-old woman four times in the head, sliced up the body and hid it inside a storage barrel pleaded no contest to manslaughter just hours before a jury was to hear opening statements. In return for pleading no contest in the death of Xiu “Erica” Jiang, Bobby Tran, 31, will receive 30 years in prison with credit for 15 percent of time already served. Tran must serve 85 percent of the sentence and faces deportation back to Indonesia or Vietnam when released....

An eerie quiet has descended over the past week on Fulton Street, a stretch of weather-beaten apartment buildings in eastern Linda Vista that is home to a large number of recent immigrants, some of them legal residents, others not. Some people have skipped work. Others have skipped doctor appointments. Children are walking to school more frequently by themselves, neighbors say, because their parents are afraid to accompany them outside. “Today the migra was here,” explained Jose Cardenas, 30, one of those here legally, on a gray afternoon this week when the sidewalks were empty and the street deserted save for...

A civil rights lawyer demanded authorities investigate a roundup of hundreds of undocumented immigrants in what he called a desert dragnet based on racial profiling. In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, attorney Luis Carrillo claimed U.S. Border Patrol agents only pulled over Mexicans in the five-day operation known as "Operation Desert Denial." More than 600 undocumented immigrants were detained from May 19 to May 24 along Interstate 40 near Barstow. “Where are the illegal Chinese, Polish and Italian immigrants?” Carrillo demanded to know. “The fact that all the illegal immigrants detained were from Mexico is evidence of...

Business should heed Cisneros on immigrationhttp://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA060306.1D.hendricks.271c546.html http://tinyurl.com/k8ln6 David Hendricks San Antonio Express-News Web Posted: 06/03/2006 12:00 AM CDT San Antonio businesses are eerily quiet about the pending immigration reform legislation in Washington. That doesn't make sense. Given San Antonio's comfortable blend of international cultures and its pro-business stance with Latin America, this should be the first city speaking out on immigration. Politician-turned-businessman Henry Cisneros did that for San Antonio businesses Friday in an impassioned speech. He articulated what many San Antonio businesses think but are not saying publicly, especially when it comes to the growing U.S. business reliance on immigrant...

Taking a page from the Disney Corporation, the U.S. Homeland Security Department is proposing to rename the country “Americaland” and charge hefty admission fees. Individual admission fees would be in the $300 range for a three-week pass. Family admission packages would start at $1,000. “We can’t stop illegal entry, so we might as well try to turn a profit,” said Emilio Gonzalez, director of the department's Citizenship and Immigration Services. The admission packages include a variety of rides in boxcars, vehicle trunks and semi-trailers. Homeland Security staff dressed as “Uncle Sam,” “George Washington” and INS officers will be available for...

May 28, 1924: Congress establishes United States Border Patrol http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/daybyday/05-28-003.html On this day in 1924, the U.S. Congress established the United States Border Patrol as part of the Immigration Bureau, an arm of the Department of Labor. Its duties included the prevention of smuggling and the arrest of illegal entrants into the United States. During Prohibition smuggling absorbed most of the attention of the border patrol, as bootleggers avoided the bridges and slipped their forbidden cargo across the Rio Grande by way of pack mules. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt united the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of...

Carlos Guerra: The immigration smoke-and-mirrors show is coming to a head http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/columnists/cguerra/stories/MYSA052506.01B.guerra.1cbd3e7a.html http://tinyurl.com/gsbal Web Posted: 05/25/2006 12:00 AM CDT San Antonio Express-News With elections less than six months off, chances that the U.S. House and Senate will agree on the "comprehensive immigration reform bill" that President Bush promised are iffy, at best. This isn't to say that some sort of immigration bill won't pass. But with Republicans deeply divided over the issue, while competing pressure groups mount grass-roots campaigns that are clogging phone systems and e-mail servers, it won't be anything decisive. It is far more likely to be a...

A main item on the Burner is Corporal Binh N. Le, (KIA Iraq) and his parents. You'd think with all these morons who run around attempting to claim our land as theirs soverign (what ever), the illegal ( I guess some folks just don't understand that word - I bet it's those left wing professors at all the colleges, universitys, grade middle and highschools ( gawd I feel surrounded) that have perverted what illegal means.. so mom and pop citizen, when you son doesn't come home cause he done something illegal that he dicided wasn't illegal using the imigration issue...

Immigration officials made a surprise visit to a northeast Houston business this morning and questioned about two dozen workers in what may be only one of several immigration raids in the city today. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bus was parked in front of IFCO Systems on North McCarty Drive where several officials had gathered the workers. The company makes and repairs pallets, wooden structures used in shipping. A woman stopped by to check on relatives who work at the company, including a cousin. "He doesn't have papers. They say he'll be deported back to El Salvador,'' said Ana...