Free Republic

Linval Lindsay, a Jamaican immigrant, teared up when he finally became a naturalized American citizen Monday — decades after serving in the United States Army. Immediately following the New York City naturalization ceremony, which was broadcast live on Fox News, Lindsay spoke with “Fox & Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt. “I was drafted more than 50 years ago. Served in, went up to Greenland. Went up to Greenland twice. I came back. The Army has been my, one of the best two years of my life, really,” Lindsay replied. “My mother cried, I’m so happy she cried. Today I’m happy.” Earhardt...

Liberalism/progressivism/environmentalism/ feminism/socialism/communism created new generations of young Americans who are devoid of patriotism Legal immigrants from around the world came to the New World to work hard, find land, and worship freely. Many died in the process during the arduous voyage across the sea, in the wilderness they were attempting to settle, from industrial accidents in factories they toiled in, from disease, or in battles with the natives. All had to stop at Ellis Island for proper identification and quarantine when necessary. They were desperate but proud men and women who did not immigrate to become wards of the welfare...

The New York Times reported Monday that a sanctuary bill in a liberal Maryland county faced "surprise" opposition from the county's legal immigrant communities. "Sanctuary Bills in Maryland Faced a Surprise Foe: Legal Immigrants," the Monday headline read. The Times‘ Sabrina Tavernise reported on a sanctuary bill that was shot down in Howard County, where one in five residents were born outside the country and Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one. The legislation would have made Howard County a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, requiring the jurisdiction to not fully cooperate with federal immigration officials. It turns out the county's legal...

America welcomes legal immigrants with open arms and generosity but, if there is ever any doubt, after proper and thorough vetting, then, as my Virginian friend had suggested, “when in doubt, leave them out,” they don’t have what it takes to become a Prince William County Chairman, Corey Stewart, Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia, said during a press conference, “On behalf of the Board of Supervisors of Prince William County, I’m requesting the Trump administration to identify, detain and remove the 7,500 criminal illegal aliens that we have handed over to ICE over the past 10 years.” According to...

Cruz has long supported higher levels of legal immigration. When he cited concerns over wages and subsequently backtracked on increasing the levels of guest workers and legal immigrants, many saw a new policy intended to appeal to Republican grass roots, but also the influence of the Senate's foremost immigration hawk. The controversial argument that immigrants, both legal and illegal, are depressing the wages of the lower and middle class has become something of a calling card for Alabama senator Jeff Sessions. Over the past decade, his office has essentially served as ground zero for the war against comprehensive immigration reform...

Illegal aliens demand their own Bill of Rights Millions and millions of legal aliens past and present must feel pretty betrayed and foolish that they have followed the law, spent endless hours filling out paperwork, paid expensive fees, waited and waited, traveled to immigration offices sometimes in faraway places at great cost to them, subjected themselves to interrogations, fingerprinting, medical tests to prove that they were healthy, undergoing financial cross-examination to make sure they would not become a burden to American society, in order to legally immigrate to the United States as resident aliens. They want a chance at the...

African immigrants make up a small share of the U.S. immigrant population, but their numbers are growing – roughly doubling every decade since 1970, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census data. There were 1.8 million African immigrants living in the U.S. in 2013, up from 881,000 in 2000 and a substantial increase from 1970, when the U.S. was home to only 80,000 foreign-born Africans. They accounted for 4.4% of the immigrant population in 2013, up from 0.8% in 1970. The growth is evident among recently arrived immigrants. When compared with other major groups who arrived...

Two new reports from the Center for Immigration Studies show very high rates of welfare use by immigrants. The first, released last week, looked at all immigrant households, legal and illegal, and found that 51 percent accessed one or more welfare programs. This week we released a second report, looking at the same data but separating out legal and illegal immigrants. While we found that illegal-immigrant households make significant use of welfare, here I want to focus on the far bigger problem of legal immigrants’ welfare use. Three-quarters of all immigrant households using welfare are headed by legal immigrants....

As illegal immigrants continue to seek legal status under President Obama's executive actions, the waiting list to enter the United States legally grows longer, as does the waiting time for those in the pipeline. American born Jimmy Gugliotta, who currently lives in Santiago, Chile, with his Argentinian wife and their children, has been waiting more than a year and a half for visas to bring his family to the U.S. He doesn't understand why going through the process legally puts him behind people who sneak into the U.S. illegally. "It's really sad to see that we've been put in the...

While the administration struggles to move forward with its plan to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants, the list of foreigners trying to get into the United States legally has surged to 4.4 million, over 100,000 more than last year, according to the State Department. Those on the list either have a family member who is a U.S. citizen or green card holder, sponsoring their entry, or an employer wants them. The list grew by 100,085 over last year. And more than a quarter of them, 1,323,978, are Mexican. ... unlike illegals slipping over the border, many of those on the...

HealthCare.gov’s new EZ application for coverage can’t be used by legal immigrants or naturalized U.S. citizens, prompting concern that many Hispanics and Asians will go right back into long enrollment queues this year. The Obama administration has placed a high priority on signing up more Latinos under the health care law for 2015. As the nation’s largest minority group, Hispanics tend to be younger and more likely to be uninsured. An administration official says there have been significant improvements in the application process for immigrants, and more are expected in the future. But advocates are unimpressed. “The whole idea was...

HOUSTON, Texas Individuals and families immigrating to the U.S. legally are required to pay for and undergo medical examinations by approved physicians; those who are deemed as having "inadmissible health-related conditions" are not allowed into the country. But the same standards are not applied to illegal immigrants, many of whom remain in the U.S. despite testing positive for diseases that would prevent law-abiding migrants from entering. ...tens of thousands of Central Americans entering the U.S. illegally. Some ...individuals have tested positive for illnesses including tuberculosis, chicken pox, and other viruses...most of them are not immediately deported. .. they stay and...

President Obama’s much-rumored executive order granting legal status to potentially millions of illegal immigrants will be “disastrous” to African-American job seekers and a slap in the face to others proceeding through the tedious legal immigration process, charges a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Peter Kirsanow, a black commissioner on the eight-member panel, warned in a letter (below) to Obama this week that giving legal status to undocumented workers will pave the way for them to take the few jobs that blacks, especially African-American men, need. “I write to remind you of the disastrous effect of illegal immigration...

For immigrants working toward the American Dream, some employers are now helping them reach their dream of becoming Americans. Health clinics, hotels and a clothing factory are pairing up with immigrant advocates to offer on-site citizenship assistance as one of the perks of the job in greater Los Angeles, Miami, Washington and Silicon Valley as they aim to make naturalization more convenient for the 8.5 million legal immigrants eligible to become U.S. citizens. The effort is billed as a win-win for both employee and employers: Workers avoid legal fees and having to shuttle to and from law offices to complete...

Republicans are getting a lot of unsolicited advice about how to recover from last year's defeat, and most of it is either ignorant or coming from people who don't have Republican party victories in their game plan. One of the worst of these bits of advice is that Republicans should join a bipartisan push for immigration amnesty. Amnesty advocates shrink from using the word amnesty and try hard to shroud their message in deceptive words. So let's understand their vocabulary: reform, comprehensive, earned legal status and path to citizenship are all code words for amnesty. At the recent conservative jamboree...

Billy O’Donnell wasn’t looking for a story because, as he readily noted, “My grandmother never did anything earth-shattering.” Yet he couldn’t help adding, “But we sure could learn a lot from her.” Her name was Delia Lane and she died last week at 106. To me, she symbolized the American Dream,” he said. “She was 18 when she came here from Ireland where she grew up on a farm in the village of Kilskeagh, one of the fields of Athenry. She came because there was no work back home. Usually we picture immigrants making a tough voyage, but she always...

Two women, both legal immigrants to the U.S., were answering questions and collecting signatures on what might seem an unlikely ballot initiative: one that would crack down on illegal immigrants living in Washington state.

ALBANY — In a major rebuke of federal immigration policy, Gov. David A. Paterson announced on Monday that he would create a special pardon panel to review cases involving legal immigrants who are at risk of deportation for minor or old convictions. Mr. Paterson’s move will give many immigrants facing deportation renewed hope and places the governor into the middle of the country’s immigration debate. The announcement comes as the federal government has taken an increasingly hard line in its interpretation of existing immigration law, leaving a growing number of legal immigrants who have criminal records facing deportation. “Some of...

The Holy Father sent a telegram to European bishops gathered in Spain this week for an international conference on immigration. In his message, he urged the Catholic leaders to work to give immigrants the "firm hope" that their rights be recognized. The Pope's message was presented by Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio to the 8th Congress on Immigration, convened by the Council of European Bishops' Conferences in Malaga, Spain on Tuesday. In the letter written by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone on the Holy Father's behalf, the Pope greeted and thanked all those on hand for the conference, which is...

In a Gandhi-inspired protest, foreigners working legally in the United States sent thousands of flowers to a top immigration official yesterday to draw attention to their complaints about job-based visas.The official, Emilio Gonzalez, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, arranged for trucks to haul the bouquets of roses, carnations and other flowers to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md. “The reaction from the patients, family and staff was overwhelming,” said Michael Briggs, an American Red Cross employee at Walter Reed who helped distribute the flowers. “They were very appreciative, and...