Free Republic

President Donald J. Trump will welcome President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the United Mexican States to the White House on Wednesday, July 8, 2020, as part of their continued partnership on trade, health, and other issues central to regional prosperity and security. The two leaders will recognize the historic United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that entered into force on July 1, 2020, and their shared effort to ensure North America continues strengthening its economic ties while working to combat the coronavirus pandemic.The USMCA is the largest, fairest, and most balanced trade agreement ever negotiated and contains innovative provisions to...

The new North American free trade agreement that goes into effect Wednesday was touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as an engine of American job creation. But Japan's automakers are largely opting instead to keep operations in place and pay Mexican workers more or even just pay tariffs. The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement requires 40% or more of parts for each passenger vehicle be manufactured by workers who are paid at least $16 per hour as a condition to make them tariff free in the region. Trump hailed that feature as a way to boost production in the U.S., which has a...

Elizabeth Jo Shirley, of Hedgesville, West Virginia, has admitted to unlawfully retaining a document containing national defense information and committing international parental kidnapping, the Department of Justice announced.Shirley, 47, pled guilty to one count of “Willful Retention of National Defense Information� and one count of “International Parental Kidnapping.�  Shirley admitted to unlawfully retaining a National Security Agency (NSA) document containing information classified at the TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION (TS/SCI) level relating to the national defense that outlines intelligence information regarding a foreign government’s military and political issues.  Shirley also admitted to removing her child, of whom she was the...

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking a pass on a meeting this week with U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Trudeau’s office says he wishes the two countries and their leaders well but Trudeau will remain in Ottawa for a cabinet retreat and a scheduled sitting of Parliament. Lopez Obrador is travelling to D.C. in part to celebrate the entry-into-force of the new North American free-trade deal and had expressed hope Trudeau would join as well. Trudeau’s office says the prime minister will continue to work with both countries to ensure the agreement becomes a...

Mexican military forces killed a total of 16 gunmen from a faction of Los Zetas in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas... The shootout took place on Friday early morning in the Los Fresnos neighborhood when members of the Mexican army were patrolling the streets of Nuevo Laredo. The soldiers encountered a convoy of SUVs filled with cartel gunmen in military-style uniforms, Breitbart Texas initially reported... The deceased gunmen are believed to be members of a paramilitary group known as Hell’s Troops or Tropa del Infierno. The group is part of the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas....

Two girls attending a birthday pool party in California were fatally shot and three others were wounded, according to reports.

The Northern Mexican state of Sonora — which borders Arizona and a small portion of New Mexico — is toughening border restrictions this weekend as both regions experience a surge in coronavirus cases. In anticipation of the Fourth of July weekend, the state government announced plans to place filters at Sonora's main border cities to turn back tourists and those traveling for other nonessential purposes. “We are all going to be on alert at this time to prevent them from coming, whether they are Mexicans living in the U.S., Americans or those who want to come to spend the weekend...

Senators aim to limit Trump's ability to remove troops from Germany BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 06/29/20 03:19 PM EDT A bipartisan group of senators is trying to place limits on President Trump's ability to remove troops from Germany unless the administration is able to meet a slew of requirements. The proposal, spearheaded by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), would prohibit the administration from reducing the number of active-duty troops in Germany below 34,500 unless the Pentagon can certify to Congress that it is in the national security interest of the United States and would not negatively undermine European alliances or NATO....

A 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit California around 10:45 a.m. local time Wednesday. The epicenter was near Cartoga, about 180 miles north of Los Angeles. People at several businesses near Lone Pine and Bishop told ABC News the while the shaking was "intense," they didn't see any damage. Several rockslides were reported in Inyo County. Some shaking was felt in LA. This comes a day after a 7.4 magnitude quake hit Mexico, near the resort of Huatulco, killing at least six people and damaging hundreds of homes, according to The Associated Press. At least six others were hurt, including two people...

1.  On November 30, 2018, the United States, Mexico, and Canada entered into the Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (the “USMCA�), attached as an Annex to the Protocol Replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement with the Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (the “Protocol�), and on December 10, 2019, the United States, Mexico, and Canada amended the USMCA through the Protocol of Amendment to the Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada.  The Congress approved the Protocol...

We're busy up here with COVID, another New York Times story based on people familiar with the situation, another day of former V.P. Joe Biden hiding in the basement, and lots of rumors about President Trump dropping out. Down in Mexico, the situation is not about rumors. Last week, Mexico City police chief Omar García Harfuch was gunned down near his Lomas de Chapultepec home in Mexico City. For the record, I'm very familiar with that part of Mexico City. It's upscale and exclusive. How did people with high-powered rifles enter this supposedly secured neighborhood? The assassination attempt happened at...

Provo police have confirmed that one person was shot during a protest Monday night near the police department. The victim, a 60-year-old Provo resident, remained hospitalized Tuesday but was “stable,” according to police. The man was not part of the protest or counter-protest that had been going on, but was just driving in the area, said Provo Police Sgt. Nisha King.

SAN DIEGO -- With counts of COVID-19 patients now rising rapidly just north of California's border with Mexico, hospital executives here are asking federal officials to move "immediately" to screen the tens of thousands of people crossing every day from densely populated Tijuana, a city of 2 million people, and other parts of the Baja peninsula.Chief executives of two major California healthcare systems sent a sent a letter late Tuesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. They worry their systems will be overrun, not only from local San Diego cases, but from people who traverse the border unknowingly...

“Transmission is increasing in the state,� said California Governor Gavin Newsom said plainly at his Monday coronavirus press briefing. Accordingly, Newsom said he would likely be using the “dimmer switch� to toggle back reopening measures in more hard-hit counties. He said there were seven counties, including Los Angeles, that likely would need to “reinstitute community measures.�Right now, that involves the closing of bars and nightclubs. Newsom indicated that he would leave it to county officials to determine the appropriate measures. But if counties are not effective in remediation, “I am committed to intervening,� said the governor. “We are considering a...

 Gavin Newsom continues to kill Californians with Covid-19 to get mail-in-voting. First he was one of 5 Dem governors to force Covid-19 patients in to nursing homes where they could infect and kill the most people. Hey, he had to get Covid-19 numbers up to lock down the state ASAP.‘Playing Russian Roulette’: Nursing Homes Told to Take the Infected 6/29/2020, 6:41:13 PM · by ransomnote · 23 repliesnytimes ^ | April 24, 2020 | Kim Barker and Amy Julia Harris California, New Jersey and New York have made nursing homes accept Covid-19 patients from hospitals.   Congressmen Steve Scalise is...

(CNN) - Chris Van Gorder says he's seeing a telling trend in the hospitals he runs. Coronavirus patients are showing up in emergency rooms after calling 911 from the US-Mexico border. "They'll literally come to the border and call an ambulance," says Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health, a hospital system in southern California. The rise in ambulance traffic from the border, which several officials described to CNN, is a symptom of the pandemic's spread in the region -- and a sign of the many connections between communities in both countries. "There just is not a wall for...

At an anti-deportation march in Irving on Saturday, one of the leaders told the mostly Hispanic crowd, "We want to send a message that there is no division in our community. We are one." But some Hispanics were there to undermine that statement and demonstrate a sticking point in the immigration debate: Many Hispanics are among the strongest opponents of illegal immigration. "We've been here 38 years, and we deserve to be here, not some illegal immigrants," said Eva Hinojosa, whose parents were from Mexico. "They should go back to their own country; they don't belong here." She and her...

TUCSON — “My record is 30 minutes,” Magistrate Judge Bernardo P. Velasco of Federal District Court here said one afternoon, describing the speed with which he had sealed the fates of a batch of 70 migrants caught sneaking into the country. Each of the accused had 25 seconds, give or take, to hear the charges against him, enter a plea and receive a sentence. This is a part of the battle against illegal immigration that many Americans have never heard of. Known as Operation Streamline, it is the core of a federal program that operates in three border states, using...

ROMA, February 6, 2005 — Stone offerings in cemeteries and candles on Friday nights have been a tradition for some local families for generations. Some of those traditions bear a lingering memory of the Sefardim — Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th and 16th centuries. Many settled in northern Mexico, practicing their religion in secret and changing their names to hide their heritage. Some even converted to Catholicism. “Eventually, the Inquisition got all the way up here,” said Noel Benavides, a local historian. “Some of them didn’t relinquish their religion; some were executed if they didn’t accept...

The Trump administration doesn't have the authority to divert Pentagon funds to construct additional barriers on the US-Mexico border, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, days after President Donald Trump's visit to a section of the wall in Arizona. In a 2-1 ruling, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said that the transfer of $2.5 billion circumvented Congress, which holds the authority to appropriate money.