Free Republic

Senior Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli said Monday he doesn't think President Trump sent the wrong message by giving his first prison commutation to a man who was one of the nation's largest employers of illegal immigrants. The acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a hardliner on immigration policy, said the Trump administration's message is one of toughness, not leniency, after raids this month of seven food processing plants in Mississippi resulted in 680 arrests. "I don't think so," Cuccinelli said, regarding whether the 2017 release of Sholom Rubashkin sent the wrong message. The former Iowa meatpacking executive...

It was the first time Trump has used the presidential power...Sholom Rubashkin, who ran...the country's largest kosher meat-processing company...Rubashkin's longtime attorney, Guy Cook, praised the decision, saying his client "has finally received justice." "The sentence previously imposed was unfair, unjust and essential a life sentence," he said via email. "President Trump has done what is right and just. The unrelenting efforts on Rubashkin's behalf have finally paid off."

For months, CBS News has been following the deepening troubles of tiny Postville, Iowa, population 2,200. Now the shutdown of the town's main employer following a federal immigration raid has Postville at the point of desperation... Postville, Iowa was just decorated with holiday cheer. But looks can be deceiving. "In the last few weeks - it's really gone downhill dramatically," says Mayor Bob Penrod. With empty streets - and shuttered shops - this small town is facing economic calamity. Penrod is taking steps this weekend to declare a state of emergency here - but not a natural disaster - rather...