Free Republic

Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega said the Central American country would no longer hold elections, further closing off any potential path for the opposition to challenge the government he leads with his wife, Rosario Murillo. Ortega, Nicaragua’s longest-serving leader, has remained in power since 2007 after previously governing during the 1980s. His current presidential term is scheduled to run through 2027. “There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” Ortega said. He delivered the remarks Sunday during a speech commemorating the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which Ortega participated in the overthrow...

The Chinese Foreign Ministry is vowing to retaliate in a dramatic escalation of tensions after it said the United States had demanded Beijing close its consulate in Houston. Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the US made the demand on Tuesday and described the US move as “unprecedented escalation”. Wang said the Chinese embassy and consulates in the US had received both explosives and death threats recently. “China demands the US revoke the wrong decision. If the US went ahead, China would take necessary counter measures,” Wang said. Wang’s disclosure came after Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of The Global Times, said on...

No sooner had the ink dried on President Trump’s executive order that broadened his original April 22 immigration pause to include several categories of temporary, employment-based visas, than globalists put up a collective howl. To powerful elitists like corporate lobbyists, immigration lawyers, the donor class and some in Congress, the concept that available jobs in the United States should go to American citizens or legally present immigrants is distasteful. The visas that President Trump put on hold until the year’s end---the H-1B, the H-2B, the J-1, and the L-1---represent either a lost job that an American would do, or a...

Despite a meeting last week with President Bush, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski is stepping down after 10 years in office without something he and the Polish people wanted badly, and something that Bush could confer with relative ease - a visa waiver. A visa waiver allows residents of a favored country to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days on business or pleasure without going through the worsening hassle of obtaining a U.S. visa. There are 27 visa waiver nations: all of Western Europe, including Scandinavia; Iceland, Slovenia in the Balkans, and Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and Brunei...

The head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service acknowledged for the first time yesterday that his agency was to blame for the visa fiasco last week involving two dead Sept. 11 hijackers and said it is considering stringent reforms that include limiting millions of foreign visitors to 30-day stays in the United States. INS Commissioner James W. Ziglar also said he is considering prohibiting anyone who has entered the United States on a tourist, business or other kind of visa from attending school here until the INS approves a change to student status. Ziglar told a House immigration subcommittee that...