Free Republic

**SNIP** Mary Ann Mendoza, whose police officer son was killed in 2014 by a drunk-driving illegal immigrant with a criminal record, said on "Fox & Friends" that minority leaders Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) are "committing treasonous acts" when they place the rights of illegal immigrants above legal Americans. "Every politician in D.C. should be listening closely to the American people right now because we have woken up," she said. "We are tired of the lies that come out of their mouth." Mendoza said Democrats shouldn't concentrate on investigating President Trump for crimes and instead focus on how...

A city with historic origins made history again when the first new federal interstate in almost 30 years opened in town. On Aug. 9, federal, state and local officials gathered at a scenic overlook on Interstate 11 in Boulder City to officially open the highway. “When we work (and) collaborate together, we reach great heights, like today,” said Mayor Rod Woodbury. The 15-mile stretch of I-11 runs from Henderson to the Hoover Dam and goes around Boulder City. It is expected to reduce travel times between those areas by as much as 30 minutes, according to the Nevada Department of...

The Border Patrol on Wednesday (19 Dec) unveiled a new mobile video surveillance system along the U.S.-Mexico border in California that can look into the mountains with infrared scopes in the day and at night. “It’s game-changer for them,” ...“One agent who goes on patrol can multiply his vision many many miles.” The camera systems are carried on Ford F-150 pickup trucks outfitted with surveillance towers. Five of the vehicles will be used by border agents along San Diego’s southern border beginning Friday (21 Dec).

GUATEMALA CITY The Latest on an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy who died in U.S. custody (all times local): 10:30 p.m. New Mexico authorities say an autopsy performed on the 8-year-old Guatemalan boy who died in U.S. custody shows he had the flu. The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator says in a statement late Thursday that more tests need to be done before a cause of death can be determined for Felipe Gomez Alonzo.

The mayor of Tijuana, Mexico, revealed during an interview with a documentary filmmaker on Thursday just how much the migrant caravan is costing the city each day. Juan Manuel Gastelum, 64, spoke to Charlie Minn and the details of the interview were reported by Shelby Montgomery of ABC-7 KVIA. Gastelum announced that the caravan is “hitting us hard. It’s costing us 550,000 pesos a day.” In American dollars, that is the equivalent of approximately $28,000. In an interview with Milenio Television last month, Gastelum said, “Tijuana is a city of immigrants, but we don’t want them in this way. It...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D.-Texas) took to the House floor on Dec. 12 to explain why, especially in the Christmas season, a shutdown of the federal government should be avoided. “This is a season where many in our Nation draw together with families and worship and celebrate,” Jackson Lee said. “It is a very honored time,” she said. “People of the Christian faith are engaged in the recognition and acknowledgment of the birth of baby Jesus. It is a holy time. It is a time when families need resources. Government workers need to ensure that their families are provided for,...

A Texas company (SLSCO) has been awarded a contract ($287 million) to erect nearly 30 miles of fencing along California's border with Mexico.

Working on Christmas Eve and through the government shutdown over border wall funding, President Donald Trump tweeted he had authorized the construction of a 115-mile stretch of border wall in Texas. "I am in the Oval Office & just gave out a 115 mile long contract for another large section of the Wall in Texas," President Trump tweeted Monday night. "We are already building and renovating many miles of Wall, some complete. "Democrats must end Shutdown and finish funding. Billions of Dollars, & lives, will be saved!" Working in the Oval Office after canceling his trip to Mar-a-Lago in Florida...

The new governor of the Mexican state of Puebla and her politician husband were killed Monday in a helicopter crash in central Mexico, according to the head of their political party. Puebla governor Martha Erika Alonso and her husband Senator Rafael Moreno Valle died in the crash, as did the pilot, co-pilot and a fifth passenger, according to Public Security and Civil Protection Secretary Alfonso Durazo. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also confirmed the deaths on Twitter Monday evening. He offered his condolences to the victims' families and vowed a transparent investigation into the cause of the Christmas eve crash....

The U.S. government released a surveillance video from a recent grenade attack at the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara. The FBI released the video to seek help in identifying two of the gunmen believed to have played a role in the attac

For those who remain, their chances of legally entering the U.S. diminished this week after the Trump administration and Mexico’s government announced Thursday that immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. will be forced to wait in Mexico while their cases are reviewed —a process that can often take well over a year. So as authorities in both countries continue to debate policy with no long-term solution in sight, many migrants are hunkering down for months, or possibly years, in a purgatory of makeshift accommodations and spotty services. Coello, who said he had organized committees of migrants along the entire caravan...

The eastern coastline of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, a mecca for tourists, may have been walloped by a tsunami between 1,500 and 900 years ago, says a new study involving Mexico’s Centro Ecological Akumal (CEA) and the University of Colorado Boulder. There are several lines of evidence for an ancient tsunami, foremost a large, wedge-shaped berm about 15 feet above sea level paved with washing machine-sized stones, said the researchers. Set back in places more than a quarter of a mile from shore, the berm stretches for at least 30 miles, alternating between rocky headlands and crescent beaches as it tracks...

Trump was quick to respond to Corker's comments on Sunday - calling the senator out on social media for poor polling numbers after the president failed to endorse him. Corker has denied this and has claimed Trump actually had called him to ask the Tennessee lawmaker to run again. "Bob Corker was responsible for giving us the horrible Iran Nuclear Deal, which I ended, yet he badmouths me for wanting to bring our young people safely back home," Trump tweeted. "Bob wanted to run and asked for my endorsement. I said NO and the game was over. #MAGA I LOVE...

FULL TITLE: LINDSEY GRAHAM BERATES DEMOCRATS FOR ACTING ‘LIKE CHILDREN’ ON BORDER WALL FUNDING, SAYS TRUMP SHOULD ‘BREAK ‘EM NOW’ South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham on Friday berated Democrats who refuse to compromise with President Trump on border wall funding. Fox News host Shannon Bream introduced Graham as having “three words for Republicans on the border wall, ‘let’s dig in,'” then asked the South Carolina senator where things are headed next. WATCH:

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced Thursday that the U.S. has secured an agreement with Mexico so that immigrants claiming asylum will be returned to Mexico as their cases are processed -- a bid to end the practice known as “catch-and-release.” Nielsen made the announcement Thursday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, telling the committee that the goal is to crack down on migrants falsely claiming asylum, only to be released into the U.S. and escape the radar of immigration officials. “But by the time the courts have issued their orders, most of these illegal aliens have vanished...

Maybe this is how Donald Trump gets out of his present public-relations jam on the border wall — assuming he wants an out, that is. Mexico will now keep asylum applicants on the other side of the border, thanks to an agreement reached between the two countries announced today. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo framed it in tough language:

As the migrant “caravan” continues to dominate headlines, many of us are focusing on protecting the rights of those who are fleeing violence in their homelands. I recently traveled to Tijuana where I volunteered at a legal information table under a tent outside of Benito Juarez sports complex, a temporary shelter for roughly 6,000 Central Americans. What I saw was appalling, and a direct result of the fabricated crisis created by this administration. One fact about the shelter became immediately clear. The shelter did not, in fact, provide shelter. It is an uncovered sports arena, which provided no refuge from...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced a new policy Thursday that will require asylum-seekers who enter the country illegally to return to Mexico while they await decisions on their asylum claims. According to prepared remarks before Congress by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the U.S. has reached a deal with Mexico that will allow border agents to begin turning back immigrants who cross the U.S. southern border between legal ports of entry. "They will have to wait for approval to come into the United States. If they are granted asylum by a U.S. judge, they will be welcomed...

Mexican government cooperating with new policy, Nielsen saysAsylum-seekers who crossed Mexico to reach the U.S. will be shipped back to Mexico to wait while their cases are being processed, the Trump administration announced Thursday, taking a bold and controversial step to try to head off new waves of illegal immigration. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Mexico is on board, and will offer humanitarian visas and work permits so the migrants can live while they wait for a decision from American authorities. The administration’s goal is to keep people from abusing the U.S. asylum system by making bogus requests then,...