Free Republic

The headlines say federal troops are coming to Illinois. ICE is calling for National Guard protection. Governor J.B. Pritzker is howling about federal overreach, while the media frames it as another Trump stunt.But let’s be clear: the issue at hand is much larger than safeguarding ICE personnel.This is power politics, pure and simple.Let me explain: urban areas like Chicago are mini-states with single-party rule under Democrats; Chicago hasn’t had a Republican mayor in nearly a hundred years. The urban areas are then power bases for Democrats to have undue influence over the rest of a given state. Illinois is actually...

The Justice Department on Thursday warned California officials, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), against engaging in an “apparent criminal conspiracy” to arrest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued the letter to Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Attorney General Rob Bonta and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins after the former House speaker suggested Wednesday that local police could arrest ICE agents if they violate state laws while carrying out immigration enforcement operations. “Rather than supporting and working with federal law enforcement professionals, California politicians, including U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco District Attorney...

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday night that the Justice Department has opened investigations into Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot over sustained efforts to dox and obstruct federal immigration agents. While speaking with Fox News, host Jesse Watters asked about recent comments from former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who announced a new project aimed at “unmasking” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents nationwide. “We want to create a centralized archive of all the purported criminal actions of ICE and CBP agents,” Lightfoot said of her new website while...

The City of Portland assisted a controversial anti-ICE organization in securing a vacant office space on the ground floor of an apartment building directly across the street from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, which has been under siege by demonstrators, many of whom are involved with Antifa networks, since early June. The Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition (PIRC), a taxpayer-funded non-governmental organization (NGO), is known for conducting trainings on how to disrupt ICE operations, as well as providing guidance to illegal immigrants on the best practices to evade apprehension by federal authorities. [snip] According to a letter obtained...

A judge in August ruled that Habba was serving without legal authority. The Trump administration’s efforts to keep Alina Habba as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey faced a key test today, as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments about whether or not to overrule a district judge’s August ruling disqualifying Habba from her role. The Third Circuit’s three-judge panel – consisting of Senior Judges D. Brooks Smith and D. Michael Fisher, both George W. Bush appointees, and Judge L. Felipe Restrepo, an Obama appointee – did not say when a ruling should be...

A federal appeals court ruled on Oct. 20 that President Donald Trump may deploy National Guard troops to deal with violence directed against federal immigration facilities in Portland while the case works its way through the lower courts.

President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court, for the first time, to clear the way for him to use National Guard troops to support the president’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation drive.Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed an emergency appeal with the high court Friday, seeking to lift lower-court rulings that are currently preventing Trump from deploying National Guard troops he pressed into federal service to aid Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel in Illinois.Sauer argued that a temporary restraining order issued by a federal district judge in Illinois “improperly impinges on the President’s authority and needlessly endangers federal personnel...

My daughter’s death exposes how Illinois’s criminal justice and sanctuary policies failed her. President Donald Trump is in an ongoing struggle with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, with Pritzker seeking to slander or stymie every effort Trump makes to restore law and order in the streets of Chicago and in Illinois more broadly. That struggle for law and order is personal for me. My daughter died after allegedly being left unresponsive in the home of an illegal alien from Mexico, and Illinois’ politicians put him right back on the streets. On Feb. 19, 2025, my daughter Megan, a vibrant 37-year-old and...

Cook County will now prohibit the use of county owned property, resources, and personnel for civil immigration enforcement. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said the executive order is yet another move to safeguard against federal immigration enforcement she said has “instilled fear rather than promote fairness and justice.” Agents have been prohibited from using county facilities and personnel time for ICE investigations without a criminal warrant since an ordinance was put in place in 2011. “It is critical that the government’s interactions with the public adhere to our nation’s laws and values,” Preckwinkle said in a statement Thursday. “Yet,...

Key Points A federal judge blocked the Trump administration, for now, from firing federal workers during the ongoing government shutdown. The order came five days after the administration issued reduction-in-force notifications to more than 4,000 federal workers.

Los Angeles County leaders declared a local state of emergency in the region Tuesday, according to local officials. News of the proclamation was shared in a news release online by LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath's office. The measure was said to be a response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across LA County, which is home to more than 10 million people and one of the U.S.'s largest immigrant populations. The county can now offer to support residents financially who have been impacted by the raids, including rent relief and accessing state funds for any legal aid. "What’s happening...

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has vowed to prosecute Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in a post-Trump era. Pritzker made the comments during an interview with FOX 32 Chicago this week as ICE agents step up their efforts across the city of Chicago. “The tables will turn one day,” Prtizker explained. ”These people should recognize that maybe they’re not gonna get prosecuted today, although we’re looking at doing that, but they may get prosecuted after the Trump administration because the statute of limitations would not have run out.” The 60-year-old added that he had spoken with Illinois Attorney General Kwame...

I gave GROK information from Devin Nunes' interview in which he said starting in 2015, and the investigation(s) of Donald Trump's potential Russia collusion, started by Hillary, forwarded by Obama, and resulting in in the Mueller Investigation, which was followed by the Ukraine whistleblower hoax, the Hunter Biden laptop investigation, and the classified documents raid at Mar A Lago. I asked Grok to provide information to help me identify select officials (i.e., to exclude Grassley, Durham, Nunes etc.) and agents who worked across multiple investigations and to provide the number of years those people worked on those investigations (Grok calls...

Mike Davis just dropped a bomb on Fox News during his chat with Maria Bartiromo… and if what he’s saying turns out to be true, we’re not just talking about another political scandal, folks. We’re talking about the indictment of the century. Ironically, for years, the left and their media puppets told America that “Russian collusion” was the crime of the century. But the real crime, as Mike cleverly points out, wasn’t anything that Trump did… it’s what the Obama-Biden-Hillary crew unleashed on President Trump. The Crossfire Hurricane hit job wasn’t just the usual political dirty tricks. It was the...

Since immigration-enforcement agents began their descent on Chicago, acting with seemingly unprecedented speed and ferocity, Evelyn Vargas and her colleagues at Organized Communities Against Deportation have been in a frenzy. They help run an emergency hotline that refers people who have been detained to immigration lawyers and directs their families to support services such as food pantries, emergency housing, and mental-health care. (On a single day last week, it took 800 calls.) And they oversee a team of 35 “rapid responders” who have been sprinting across the city to film arrests, aiming for at least two to arrive on the...

In issuing her decision, U.S. District Judge April Perry said, “I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration’s] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement. … DHS’ perception of events are unreliable.”

Democrats are using arguments for states’ rights as a cynical ploy to paint themselves as victims of an oppressive federal government.There’s an old adage that says history doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme. As the past few years have shown, Democrats aren’t too keen on history, especially American history. In fact, they hate American history so much that they probably don’t realize they’re repeating it.In their rebellion against Trump’s constitutional purview and mandate to enforce immigration laws, Democrats have resorted to using almost the exact same talking points that southern leaders used leading up to the outbreak of the Civil...

In a pair of interviews by Maria Bartiromo (1, 2), Devin Nunes said Hillary started the Russia collusion hoax to keep Donald Trump from being elected. Obama continued the collusion hoax. Then Mueller and his team continued the collusion hoax. When Mueller completely flamed out because there was no intelligence that tied Trump to Russia, they launched the Ukraine whistleblower hoax. Then we had the Hunter Biden laptop, and the raid at Mar A Lago.All of that was done by, basically, the same two dozen people and media operatives that are all involved in perpetuating these hoaxes. Although these crimes...

President Trump has unleashed new weaponry in his war against Democrats, liberals and the left. Over the past four weeks, he has initiated what amounts to a unique form of partisan civil war designed to amass power in a nominal democracy and defang, decimate and defund the opposition. Trump’s assault on the left combines the use of the available tools of violent conflict — the military, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE in particular — with the prosecution of critics (and people he just doesn’t like), cuts of essential funds for liberal institutions, the use of regulation to threaten...

The following is a refreshing podcast by John Solomon which shines a vigorous light on the ongoing 'grand conspiracy' against President Trump. The podcast is 38 minutes in length so my notes are rough and I will post them in two parts. The introductory text posted below the podcast at the link follows: John Solomon ReportsRussiagate Revisited: Uncovering the TruthIn this Just the News special report, John Solomon tackles the grand conspiracy against President Donald Trump. Senator Ron Johnson unpacks the intricate web of political scandals that have shaped the recent landscape of American politics. From the Ukraine impeachment to...