Free Republic

WEST COVINA -- Eileen Olson has a bone to pick with Wells Fargo bank. Despite being a longtime customer, the 80-year-old plans to take her business elsewhere if the bank does not stop allowing Mexican immigrants to open accounts using a matricula consular identification card. Olson and about 20 others gathered Saturday morning outside the Wells Fargo branch on Barranca Avenue in West Covina, protesting the bank's recent practice. "They give illegals advantages they don't give some citizens," Olson said. "It's not right. It encourages more illegal aliens to come." A spokeswoman from Wells Fargo & Co. said the bank...

ESCONDIDO ---- The presence of the Mexican Consulate at a recent public event has a City Council member and a school board president fuming that the city is promoting illegal immigration, and they are demanding to know who invited the agency. Councilwoman Marie Waldron has called on Escondido officials to determine who invited the consulate to the city's Civic Faire, a community event held at Grant Middle School on May 21 to highlight available city and social services to the mostly Latino community along East Mission Avenue. A mobile consulate unit set up at the fair allowed Mexican nationals to...

For the first time in Ashland — and with no questions about immigration status — Mexican-born residents of the valley flocked to get a highly valued card called the matricula consular, a secure ID card that enables them to open bank accounts, get a driver’s license and start on the road to work and legal residency. The optically scanned, photo ID cards were given to 200 locals by the Mexican consulate from Portland, whose officials travel to the main towns of Oregon once a year for that purpose. The process took place at Our Lady of the Mountain Catholic Church...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Although reshaping U.S. immigration law is a priority of President Bush's second term, his proposal for a guestworker program wasn't on the table as the Republican-controlled House took up an immigration bill this week. Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, sponsor of the bill scheduled for a vote Thursday, said his legislation deals with border security. Including Bush's guestworker proposal or other measures would muddy the debate and mark all immigrants as terrorists, he said. "I think they are two separate issues. The immigration question is something the Judiciary Committee will handle later on,"

The National ID card is back in the news, as Congress is getting set once again to debate the issue. You will remember that late last year, Congress passed (and the President signed) legislation which starts us down the road to a National ID card. In the name of preventing alien terrorists from operating in this country, the so-called Intelligence Reform bill gave federal bureaucrats unprecedented new powers to force changes in state-issued driver's licenses -- including, possibly, the addition of computer chip technology that can facilitate the tracking of all U.S. citizens. Now, the House will be debating new...

H.R.418 is a measure before the House that will strictly control use of drivers'licences by illegal aliens and Grsssfire has sent a petition with over 110,000 signatures to Congress urging their support. They also gave a phone number,202-224-3121, by which one can contact one's representative in DC. To my amazement I delivered my message to my congressman's office in less than two minutes! Everyone concerned about illegals and the threat some potentially pose to national security should become involved!

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 - Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader, said Tuesday that conservatives might be able to compromise with President Bush on his proposal allowing illegal immigrants to work in the United States legally. Such a compromise could entail, for example, requiring illegal immigrants to return to their native countries to apply for the program, Mr. DeLay said. Advertisement Mr. DeLay said he talked recently with the president, who has advocated a guest worker program that would be open to workers who are currently in the country illegally as well as to newcomers.

FEBRUARY 7, 2005 - Action 4 News undercover cameras catch Border Patrol agents dropping off illegal immigrants at a local bus station by the van load. How do we know the immigrants are not possible terrorists? You'll soon find out we don't! Could this be a sign of border breakdown? New Year's Eve morning agents pull up to the Valley Transit bus station in Harlingen, open the back of their van and a hand full of illegal immigrants jump out. But that's just the beginning, six days later more illegal immigrants were set free, free to travel anywhere they want...

A Wake County Superior Court judge on Friday refused to stop the state from enforcing new rules that would make it harder for Mexican immigrants to get driver licenses and state-issued identification cards. Wake Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens said the state Division of Motor Vehicles had the authority to stop accepting Mexican identification cards and other forms of ID without holding public hearings. Two Latino groups filed suit Thursday to try to block the state from enforcing the rules until the public had a chance to comment on them. Barring a successful appeal, the state will begin enforcing the...