Free Republic

Members of the largest ethnic Somali community in the United States expressed frustration on Tuesday, fearing a backlash after the attack on a Kenya shopping mall by a Somalia-based Islamic group that has recruited fighters in Minnesota. It was unclear whether any of the attackers were connected to Minnesota's Somali community. But Somali-American leaders in Minneapolis were quick to condemn the assault after early unconfirmed reports identified one or more of the attacking al Shabaab rebels as recruits from the United States. At least 20 young ethnic Somali men have left Minnesota since 2007 to join al Shabaab in Somalia,...

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) urged their House Republican colleagues to pass immigration reform legislation in a closed-door meeting Wednesday, with the Speaker arguing his conference would be “in a much weaker position” if it failed to act. A divided House Republican conference met for more than two hours in the basement of the Capitol to begin hashing out a response to the sweeping immigration bill the Senate passed last month. -snip- He (Issa) said the House would deal with the 11 million illegal immigrants, but that the conference viewed them not as a uniform block,...

Indianapolis— Five students arrested at an immigration protest at the Indiana Statehouse Monday will not face deportation. Federal authorities lifted detention orders against the illegal immigrants Tuesday evening. The detention was lifted shortly after the five declared a hunger strike Tuesday. The students say the hunger strike will last until Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R) vetoes the immigration bill he has previously promised to sign. The students were part of a protest that went all the way to the front door of the governor's office. Senate Bill 590 would make illegal immigrants pay much higher tuitions. The cost would be...