Free Republic

mmigration: As the President gives an amnesty speech near a hotbed of Mexican drug violence, Arizona's governor takes her case to the Supreme Court and will use prison labor and online donations to build a border fence. President Obama flew into the border city of El Paso Tuesday, no doubt over the wildfires that have plagued the politically red state and whose disaster he has chosen to virtually ignore. He may have also passed the El Paso City Hall, which last summer became a war zone as gunfire from the Mexican side pockmarked the building. He was there to tout...

Illegal Immigration: Lawmakers in 14 states are joining to restore the intended meaning of the 14th Amendment: that being a U.S. citizen requires more than just your mother sneaking past the Border Patrol. The architect of Arizona's immigration law, SB2070, announced Tuesday a new crusade to correct what he perceives as an unfortunate misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment that allows children of illegal immigrant parents to be considered U.S. citizens if they're born on U.S. soil. "This is a battle of epic proportions," Mesa Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce said. "We've allowed the hijacking of the 14th Amendment." He says...

Abuse Of Power: Our misnamed Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against an Arizona sheriff at the top of the administration's enemies list. Prosecute border sheriffs and sue states but protect the Black Panthers? Gotcha. The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, the county itself and outspoken Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The suit alleges that the sheriff's office is in violation of civil rights laws by refusing for 17 months to fully cooperate with an investigation into police practices and jail operations. The federal probe itself deals with alleged discrimination, unconstitutional searches and seizures,...

The Border: The Sunshine State's attorney general not only supports Arizona in court but has proposed a law tweaking the objections and going even further. Punishing criminals and protecting citizens sounds good to us. Florida attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum isn't waiting for the final word on Arizona's court-challenged SB1070. He's sponsoring a Florida version that deals with the legal objections while ending the concept of sanctuary cities and providing for enhanced penalties when illegal aliens commit crimes. McCollum will no doubt be accused of political motives and opportunism. He will be accused of being racist. But if...

States' Rights: A federal judge hears arguments over whether a state law that mirrors federal law on immigration should take effect next week. Can a state protect its borders when the federal government won't? U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton heard arguments Thursday on Arizona's SB1070. The law says Arizona police, during the enforcement of other laws, can inquire of an individual's immigration status if they have reason to believe that individual is here illegally. The new law is scheduled to take effect on July 29, and the U.S. Justice Department is seeking to block its enforcement largely on the flimsy...

Illegal Immigration: Democratic governors warn of an apocalyptic November if the administration pursues its war on Arizona. They fear defeat by people who want jobs, not "comprehensive immigration reform." The main topics at the National Governors Association's summer meeting were supposed to be jobs and the economy. Instead, the buzz was about immigration and the political consequences of Washington's mindless suing of a sovereign state for daring to enforce federal immigration law. "Universally the governors are saying, 'We've got to talk about jobs,'" Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, said. "And all of a sudden we have immigration going on."...

Immigration: The president tells a border state U.S. senator that if we beef up border protection Democrats will lose the bargaining chip for comprehensive immigration reform. Forget national sovereignty — sue Arizona! As the Obama administration prepares to sue the state of Arizona to block its copycat enforcement of federal immigration law, Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl reveals that in a private meeting President Obama put his party's agenda above the nation's sovereignty. Last Friday, Kyl told the audience at a North Tempe Tea Party town hall meeting: "I met with the president in the Oval Office (regarding securing the...

Immigration: Arizona's governor tells illegals if you want family unity, take your kids home with you. And a Tea Party candidate for the Senate says just being born here doesn't make you a citizen. Anchor babies, away! We've seen the photos of children holding signs at protests that read, "Don't deport my parents." They're called "anchor babies" because they're considered citizens by being born on American soil. You can't break up families, the argument goes, even to enforce the nation's immigration laws. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who had the audacity to copy federal law and then enforce it in cases...

Security: After letting Mexico's president trash Arizona's immigration law and his immigration enforcement chief say he won't enforce it, the president wants to send a token National Guard contingent to the border. There's something disingenuous about the president's plan to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops to the Arizona border to help the Border Patrol catch illegal aliens. His director of immigration and customs enforcement, John Morton, has said he might not enforce immigration crimes reported by Arizona officials, though the state's new law merely copies federal law. Morton is director of ICE, not chief justice of the Supreme Court. He...

When President Obama discussed the new Arizona immigration law with Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the White House Wednesday, he was doing something he has never done with the governor of Arizona. Although Obama has repeatedly criticized the law, he has not once talked about it with Gov. Jan Brewer, nor is any such discussion in the works. If they did talk, Brewer might ask Obama why he took a foreign leader's side against a U.S. state on the issue of illegal immigration. In a Rose Garden appearance, Calderon called the Arizona law "discriminatory" and said it will lead to...

Immigration: An Arizona official asks a good question: If California wants to boycott Arizona over the way it enforces federal law, what about the electricity California gets from there? The problem with righteous indignation is that when others call you on it and tell you to put your money where your mouth is, it can cause an embarrassing leak in your hot air balloon. Gary Pierce, a commissioner on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission, has done just that, calling the bluff of the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Pierce wrote Villaraigosa a letter saying in essence that...

WASHINGTON — A top US diplomat who reportedly compared a tough new immigration law in Arizona to China's rights record must retract his "offensive" remark and apologize, the state's two US senators demanded Tuesday. Republican Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain accused Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner of implying that the Arizona measure "is morally equivalent to China's persistent pattern of abuse and repression of its people." The letter from McCain and Kyl, obtained by AFP, cited a media report that Posner had called Arizona's controversial immigration measure part of "a troubling trend in our society" during recent US-China...

Diplomacy: The administration's apology tour continues with a mea culpa to the world's worst human-rights violator for Arizona's enforcement of U.S. immigration law. You'd think Tiananmen Square was in Phoenix. In talks last week with China on the subject of human rights, the U.S. delegation volunteered how sorry we were for Arizona's decision to protect its citizens and its border against illegal immigration — the operative word being "illegal." You would assume the Chinese broached the subject to blunt any criticism of their policies and record. But our delegates beat them to it by groveling on their own initiative in...

The spat over Arizona's new immigration expanded Tuesday as a state official dared the city of Los Angeles to follow through on its new boycott by agreeing to give up the 25 percent of electricity that city gets from Arizona sources. In a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigos, Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce said a boycott war is bad for both sides, and said he would "be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements" to end the electricity flowing to Los Angeles. "I am confident that Arizona's utilities would be happy to take those electrons...

    Welcome to The Complete Danged Truth web site. As you probably know by now, Sen. John McCain has flip-flopped and now says he is for building “the danged fence.” That’s why the J.D. Hayworth for Senate Campaign is proud to set the record straight. It’s kind of like the now long- forgotten “Straight Talk Express”  that the Senator was once so proud to ride. Here’s the truth: While Sen. McCain’s paid advertisement calls for building the “danged fence” now, he had a different message on February 24, 2010 before The Homeland Security Department’s Budget Submission for Fiscal...

Illegal Immigration: Los Angeles' city council votes to boycott Arizona for its enforcement of existing federal law. No word yet on how China's human rights violations will be treated. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. The next time the Lakers play Los Suns in Phoenix, traveling fans are advised to bring their own snacks. The L.A. City Council voted 13-1 on Wednesday to economically boycott the state of Arizona for daring to protect its borders against the crime, violence and illegal immigration that recently took the life of an Arizona rancher and has made Phoenix the kidnapping capital of...

Immigration: Arizona moves to protect its citizens from a raging border war, and the administration and its activist supporters cry racism. Why is antelope protection more important than protecting American lives?