Free Republic

From a theater in Las Colinas that screens Indian films to a Sunday Mass in Spanish at a Rockwall church, the changes spurred by the 1 million immigrants who have settled in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the last 15 years are obvious. The region remains one of the fastest-growing major metropolitan areas in the nation, with at least a third of its growth fueled by people moving here from outside the U.S. But its emergence as one of the country's major gateways for immigrants holds a few surprises, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis. The suburbs of North...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Six teenagers at West Mesa High School faced charges Friday after a police officer said the students jumped him. Steven Anzures is a senior at West Mesa. He gets good grades, and he's excited about college. But, Anzures said Albuquerque police officers jumped him, and his younger brother, Ray, while they were at school. "(The officer) shoved his knee in my face and started scraping it on the pavement," Steven Anzures said. "He was all bleeding on the side of his face, and his eyes were closed," Ray Anzures said. The teens said the fight started when...

A majority of Republican voters favor an immigration plan that would allow illegal immigrants to apply for temporary work visas and have a path to permanent residency, a poll released Monday found. The poll suggests that the party's rank-and-file are not divided on immigration the way their leaders in Congress are, said GOP pollster Ed Goeas, president of The Tarrance Group, which conducted the survey. "Republican voters are, in fact, not split on this," he said. "It is clear that (they) strongly favor a comprehensive immigration reform plan that combines the stick of tighter borders and tougher enforcement with the...

TAMPA - Xenia Ruiz will tell you she's an American, but on paper, she's not. Born in Mexico City, she was whisked into this country at the age of 8 months, her parents fearful after a rash of kidnappings. English became her first language, Spanish her second. "Every day in school, I would get up and pledge the allegiance to the flag and sing patriotic songs," the high school senior said. "In my heart, in my mind-set, I am an American." A student visa protects her from deportation, but she's ineligible for in-state college tuition, the state's Bright Futures scholarship,...

It's a premise worthy of Hollywood: An adult goes undercover as a high school student. Drew Barrymore did it in the movie Never Been Kissed and it was considered cute. Johnny Depp did it to catch teenage criminals in the TV show 21 Jump Street and it was edgy. But for a 27-year-old illegal immigrant who spent a month acting the part of an 18-year-old at Pasco County's Mitchell High School, the scheme led to arrest and likely deportation. He tells authorities the only reason he posed was to get a good education. It's a story more tragic than sinister,...

SANTA FE, N.M. -- Gov. Bill Richardson said he will support the Legislature starting impeachment proceedings against state Treasurer Robert Vigil. The state Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request from the governor that would have allowed him to appoint an interim treasurer. State Treasurer Robert Vigil would have been able to temporarily step down with pay and have a gubernatorial appointee run the office. But the court has ruled unanimously against that. The court said it lacks the authority under the state constitution and law of New Mexico to consider the request. Richardson said he respects the court's decision,...

TRINITY - The class schedule for 17-year-old Josue Oswaldo Ramirez-Mejia looked a lot like those of his classmates at Mitchell High School: American history, language arts, economics and government, personal fitness. Since Aug. 26, he had been just another student in this bustling, overcrowded Pasco County school. But on Tuesday, Ramirez-Mejia's lost wallet betrayed his secret. He was 27, not 17. The woman who registered him was his sister and not, as school officials were told, his mother. His school transcript was a forgery. So was his birth certificate. He was a Guatemala-born illegal immigrant who authorities say broke the...

U.S. immigration policy is untenable. The promised once-and-for-all reform of 1986, which granted certain undocumented workers amnesty and vowed stricter enforcement, was a dismal failure. President George W. Bush 19 months ago proposed immigration reform that would permit workers to apply for legal residency — but with no path to citizenship. His announcement actually spurred an increase in illegal entry by immigrants hoping to get in before the reforms were enacted. But nothing happened. Though the president recently promised Arizonans he would work with their governor to secure the border with Mexico, his administration has all but abdicated leadership on...

Sorry, Bugs Bunny, you had it right the first time. Don't take that left turn at Albuquerque, or you might end up as hypocritical as the hometown Tribune newspaper. Their one-sided talk radio coverage would have the Warner Bros. character asking, "what's up, doc?" While quick to attack Rush Limbaugh and "right wing" talk radio this weekend, the Tribune has to date apparently said nothing about Air America's sleazy funding scandal, where $875,000 in taxpayer funds seem to have been diverted from an inner-city community center, to the liberal radio network. That's despite the existence of a local Air America...

The arrests Friday of state Treasurer Robert Vigil and former Treasurer Michael Montoya on extortion charges "marks the beginning, certainly not the end," of the investigation, U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias said. Vigil and Montoya were indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts each of extorting more than $687,000 from an investment adviser in exchange for contract work from the Treasurer's Office. An FBI affidavit for searches conducted Friday at the Treasurer's Office and the homes of Vigil and Montoya alleges an even larger corruption scheme involving hundreds of thousands more dollars. Iglesias said the purpose of the...

Many of us yearn for a place and time where all are fairly tested, where everyone has an equal opportunity to become heroes in the eyes of the dusty children that follow behind. A place too big for fences. Out from this misty world of history, myth and dream stepped the indomitable Elfego Baca -- survivor of one of the most uneven gunfights in Western history. Elfego instigated and prevailed in the dramatic three-day battle that came to be known as the "Frisco War." 1884 was a time of increasing hostilities not only between the Apaches and settlers, but also...

Some Chinese drill crew members already have arrived in western Colorado, preparing to start drilling for natural gas in the Piceance Basin. An official with Denver-based Western Energy Advisors, which brokers arrangements for the Chinese crews and exploration and production companies, said he was unfamiliar with specific crews’ schedules, but that some crews and rigs could be expected to arrive in western Colorado now. Several western Colorado residents on Wednesday reported seeing drill rigs arriving or being set up in the area. Western Energy Advisors worked with federal agencies to arrange for visas for the Chinese crews, said Bill Croyle,...

ACLU suspends southern chapter over Minuteman issue A Minuteman eyed the Arizona border in April Last Update: 06/21/2005 8:16:26 AM By: Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico has suspended its Las Cruces chapter. The suspension followed revelations that a member of the group’s board was heading the formation of a Minuteman-style organization in New Mexico. The ACLU says the move was to make sure the leader of the New Mexico Minutemen no longer had authority to act or speak on behalf of the ACLU. The Minutemen group is a spinoff of the controversial...

"If we went down to the Camelback Inn today in Phoenix and arrested everyone who’s working there illegally, the place would probably shut down," McCain was quoted as saying in The Hill, a nonpartisan newspaper covering politics in the nation’s capitol.

Why Does Governor Napolitano Think Arizona Should have the Lowest Security Standards in the Nation? Governor Janet Napolitano made a big show of sending a “bill” to the federal government for the costs of illegal immigration, complete with tough talk and finger-pointing. However, by vetoing meaningful reform in her own backyard, she is turning a blind eye to fraud, identity theft and other crimes committed in Arizona by illegal immigrants. I sponsored Senate Bill 1511 -- “secure and verifiable identification” -- to establish a standard for identification used by state and local government as recommended by FBI testimony. The FBI...

As part of the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill, Congress voted to support legislation for the use of federal troops on the Mexican-American borders. The National Border Control Council and the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed the legislation mandating the stationing of U.S. troops on the Mexican-American border to support the U.S. Border Patrol. [SNIP] On a more personal note, Virginia Sen. George Allen said, "Legal immigration has been and is the lifeblood of our nation. My own mother followed the process and emigrated to the U.S. from Tunisia after World War II. I have the greatest respect for the ingenuity,...

This is a dynamite article, but unfortunately can't give you anything but the link under the FR rules because it's USA Today. http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050518/ts_usatoday/mexicansgotoarizformedicalhelp/nc:716

Feinstein targets agricultural workers. Senator plans to introduce an industry-specific bill, rather than a sweeping measure on immigration. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday that she ... plans to introduce her own measure to provide a path toward legalization only for longtime undocumented agriculture workers. Feinstein, D-Calif., said any new guest-worker program – even one requiring employees to eventually return to their home country – would be a "magnet for illegal immigration" and something she could not support. SNIP Under Feinstein's idea, which hasn't yet been finalized, longtime undocumented agricultural workers would get a "blue card," allowing them to continue to...

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. What about the fifth time? On four separate occasions during Martin Chávez's two terms as Albuquerque mayor, the ACLU has raised serious, well-substantiated concerns about the constitutionality of the mayor's pet legislative projects. First, there was the 1999 teen curfew ordinance. Then there were two radical sex offender laws and an anti-panhandling ordinance, all of which were touted as "the toughest laws of their kind in the country." Four times we asked the mayor to reject these bills as unconstitutional, and four times he ignored us. Four times...

The United States is about to make it more difficult for people to get a driver's license. The Real I.D. act would standardize license requirements nationwide - forcing all 50 states to verify that each applicant is in the country legally. Some say the bill, passed by Congress this week, is the first step toward establishing a U.S. national ID card. For almost a century, each U.S. state has been responsible for issuing its own driver's licenses. There has been no national standard. Eleven states currently grant licenses to non-citizens. A license can be used to do many things in...