Free Republic

California is moving quickly to protect undocumented immigrant students as top officials Monday outlined steps to guide school leaders, inform parents and provide mental health support to anxious students and families at elementary schools through university campuses. This deployment of reassurance and resources at public schools, where every child has a right to an education regardless of immigration status, is designed to counter President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office Jan. 20. Trump has repeatedly threatened to order mass deportations to address what he characterizes as the harms of illegal immigration.

Two more city migrant shelters have closed up shop as the flood of asylum-seekers into the Big Apple continues to plummet. More than 400 families were being sheltered at the 19-story, 506-unit complex at 1760 Third Ave. at East 97th Street, once a massive dormitory for CUNY Hunter and Baruch College students and other education entities. Meanwhile, the El Rancho hotel at 37-01 White Plains Road in The Bronx had served 15 families. A representative from El Rancho said the hotel, which is now empty, will start renovations to prepare for reopening again as a commercial hotel. It is unclear...

PITTSBURGH — An undocumented immigrant is behind bars in Allegheny County, charged with the attempted homicide of a 70-year-old man. The victim was shot through his stomach and out his lower back in a random attack while visiting his brother at Corner View Nursing and Rehab Center in Larimer on Wednesday. Rawvil Yamil Brito Chirinos is also charged with aggravated assault, robbery and reckless endangerment. Police say he robbed the victim of his gold wedding band and cash, before shooting him in the stomach. According to court paperwork, Brito Chirinos then tried to pawn off the victim’s ring right down...

An illegal alien from Mexico, deported 16 times from the United States, is accused of killing a 64-year-old man from Bailey, Colorado, in a vehicle crash. Ignacio Cruz-Mendoza, a 47-year-old illegal alien, has been arrested and charged with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, reckless driving, and driving without a commercial driver’s license in connection to the death of 64-year-old Scott Miller. According to the Colorado State Patrol, Cruz-Mendoza was driving a semi-truck for the Indio, California-based Monique Trucking company on Highway 285 near Conifer, Colorado, when the vehicle veered off the road, causing the pipe and angle iron he was carrying...

Former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Rome, Georgia on Saturday called out President Joe Biden for apologizing for calling Georgia nursing student Laken Riley's murderer an illegal and not an "undocumented immigrant." Trump added Biden has no remorse or compassion. "We are profoundly honored to be joined today by the family and loved ones of Laken and some of her great friends," Trump said. "I met them. They're so incredible. The whole whole group is incredible. To Laken's parents, John and Allyson and her sister Lauren, her roommate, Connolly. And all of those who loved Laken and...

During a portion of an interview with MSNBC set to air on Saturday’s broadcast of “The Saturday Show,” President Joe Biden stated that he regrets using the word “illegal” to describe the “Undocumented person” who is the suspected killer of Laken Riley. Host Jonathan Capehart asked, “I noticed the look of surprise on your face when you walked into the chamber and you saw Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). It was priceless. You feigned shock at seeing her. But, during your response to her heckling of you, you used the word ‘illegal’ when talking about the man who allegedly killed...

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told CNN that President Joe Biden “should have said undocumented” on Thursday after he said Laken Riley was “killed by an illegal” during his State of the Union address. During an interview with Pelosi following Biden’s speech, CNN anchor Dana Bash said, “Madam speaker, one of the clearly ad-libbed moments was during the section about immigration,” before playing a clip of Biden referring to 22-year-old Riley – who was murdered last month – as “Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.” Pelosi replied defensively, “Now he should have said...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Wednesday night on MSNBC’s “All In” that “undocumented Americans” were the people Democrats cared about most. Anchor Chris Hayes asked, “From my 20 years covering this issue, the trade is this, They want more border security enhancement, Democrats want a path to citizenship. This time around, the negotiation didn’t have a path to citizenship. It was entirely on their terms in order to get Ukraine funding, right.”

Senate Democrats are deeply divided over an emerging border deal that some Democratic lawmakers fear will include harsh asylum policy reforms plucked from the House-passed Secure the Border Act in order to win GOP backing of long-delayed funding for Ukraine. A growing number of Senate Democrats, including Latino caucus members, are sounding the alarm over leaks that say the administration is prepared to support new authority to expel migrants without asylum screenings and expand their detention and deportation. They worry they’ll get blindsided next week if Senate negotiators reach a deal on border security and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer...

A Russian man flew from Europe to LAX without a passport, visa or plane ticket last month, and officials have no idea how he did it. Neither, it seems, does the man himself. Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava faces a charge of being a stowaway on an aircraft related to a Nov. 4 flight, but according to a report by Jason Koebler published jointly by 404 Media and Court Watch, he “was not a stowaway in the traditional sense.” “[Ochigava] seemingly interacted with flight crew, ate two meals on the plane, spoke to other passengers on the flight, and, at one point...

As Los Angeles braces for the largest U.S. hotel worker strike in recent memory, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown L.A. announced it reached a tentative deal for higher pay and benefits Wednesday evening with the union representing its employees. More than 15,000 union employees at 62 hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties are scheduled to walk off the job as soon as Saturday after their contracts expire at midnight on June 30. They are seeking higher pay, which might allow them to live in more expensive areas closer to their jobs, as well as improved benefits...

A bipartisan House duo has introduced a new immigration measure that would offer a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants in the U.S. while investing in border security. The bill comes on the heels of a GOP-passed House bill all but guaranteed to fail in the Senate, which places severe limits on asylum. Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) see their legislation as having a better chance for success that the hardline GOP bill, charging undocumented workers a “1.5 percent dignity levy” in taxes and other fees that will pay for both border security and job training...

The man accused of stabbing eight and killing two in Las Vegas on Thursday walked free from another violent crime charge last year after the district attorney failed to prosecute in time. Court documents exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com reveal that Guatemalan alleged undocumented migrant Yoni Barrios, 32, was charged in 2019 with criminal domestic violence by Los Angeles district attorney Jackie Lacey, who has since stepped down. Had he been convicted, Barrios would likely have been imprisoned and deported and would not have been free to commit the senseless slaughter on the Vegas strip this week.

We’ve seen things going down a very dangerous road in places like the U.K. when it comes to restrictions on free speech. As we previously reported, British police have even arrested people for a meme posted on social media because it caused someone “anxiety.” But if that wasn’t bad enough, here are South Wales Police allegedly telling James Harvey, a citizen journalist, that he should take down a post in which he used the term “illegal” and “undocumented alien” in a video because if someone sees it and takes offense, he could be pursued for a “hate crime.” How insane...

Katia Escobar was preparing to start college at the University of Houston last year, excited about the prospect that Congress might soon pass legislation that would wipe out the barriers she faced as an undocumented “Dreamer,” brought to the U.S. from Mexico illegally by her parents when she was a year old. But today, the once bright hopes of Escobar - and millions of other Dreamers - have all but evaporated. Despite President Biden’s brief renewed pledge in his State of the Union address to push for a “pathway to citizenship” for Dreamers, farmworkers and essential workers, the prospect for...

Legislation (S.343-A/A.3412-A) Applies the Legal Standard of Extortion or Coercion to a Person Threatening to Report Another Person's Immigration Status Governor Kathy Hochul today signed legislation (S.343-A/A.3412-A) classifying certain threats to report a person's immigration status as extortion or coercion under New York law. Threats to report a person's immigration status can currently be treated as a crime in cases of labor trafficking and sex trafficking, but were not previously treated as potential extortion or coercion offenses. "New York is built on the hard work and determination of generations of immigrants, and we need to support people who are trying...

More than 10 million U.S. citizens share a household with an undocumented immigrant, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data by immigration advocacy group FWD.us. Nearly half of those U.S. citizens, 4.9 million, are children who have at least one undocumented parent. The report shows the extent to which undocumented immigrants are integrated in their communities, with 22 million people living in mixed status households.

A federal court in California on Thursday ruled against President Trump's order to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census count for apportioning congressional seats, dealing the administration its second court loss over the July executive memorandum. A panel of three judges for the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California ruled that the memo was unconstitutional and violated laws governing the census. "The policy which the Presidential Memorandum attempts to enact has already been rejected by the Constitution, the applicable statutes, and 230 years of history," the panel wrote in a 90-page decision. The order forbids the Commerce...

The Supreme Court has cleared a path for the Trump administration to exclude undocumented immigrants from representation, potentially altering the balance of power in Congress for the next 10 years. The court Tuesday cut short the census count by two weeks, which census experts and civil rights advocates say risks producing a less accurate count. Then on Friday, the court said it would review President Trump’s efforts to omit unauthorized immigrants when apportioning congressional seats. That decision overturned a lower court’s order that had blocked the Commerce Department and Census Bureau from including information about the undocumented when they deliver...

On July 21, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce ordering that undocumented people counted in the 2020 Census be excluded from consideration when determining the number of U.S. Representatives each state is allotted in the U.S. House of Representatives. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville, auxiliary bishop of Washington and chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration issued the following statement: “As we have stated before, we urge all people to be...