Free Republic

[snip] ...he presided over some of the Trump administration’s most controversial immigration and security policies. In the phone interview Friday, Kelly defended his rocky tenure, arguing that it is best measured by what the president did not do when Kelly was at his side. It was only after Kelly’s departure was confirmed Dec. 8, for example, that Trump abruptly announced the pullout of all U.S. troops from Syria and half the 14,000 troops from Afghanistan, two moves that Kelly had opposed. Kelly’s supporters say he stepped in to block or divert the president on dozens of matters large and small....

About 50 people fled from a suspected immigrant smuggling truck as a Sheriff's Department car approached in Jim Wells County, Texas

Harry Reid calls House Republicans ‘crazies’ By Chris Moody | Yahoo! News – 39 mins ago "Wacko birds" are so last season. Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, a frustrated Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid referred to some House Republicans as "crazies" when asked about the federal immigration bill's chances of passing the Republican-majority House. “The speaker has said, within a period of a little over 24 hours, we’re going to pass immigration but we’re going to have Democratic votes to do it. As soon as his crazies heard that, I guess they talked to him and next...

Another loophole inserted into the new version of the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill allows Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (or any of her successors) to nix the construction of a required border security fence if she does not find it to be an "appropriate" use of resources. The new version of the bill was introduced via a so-called “border surge” amendment from Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and John Hoeven (R-ND), with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid repackaging the whole bill into the amendment.

One of the things I learned from Obamacare was that each section of the law could take many hours to understand because of cross-references to other sections and other laws. Amendments make the problem even greater. Put that problem into a 1000+ page bill, and it is almost impossible to uncover all the mischief — intentional and unintentional — buried in the language, something we are learning after the fact with Obamacare. The rush to pass the Gang of 8 1000+ page bill is another example. As if that weren’t bad enough to start, Sen. Bob Corker last night unveiled...

Top homeland security officials told Congress Wednesday they still don’t have a way to effectively measure border security — a revelation that lawmakers said could doom the chances for passing an immigration legalization bill this year. Three years after the Obama administration scrapped the previous yardstick, which measured miles of the border under “operational control,” top Customs and Border Protection officials told Congress the new measure they’re working on won’t be ready for public use any time in the near future. The revelation stunned lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who said that without a way to