Free Republic

Apprehensions of migrant families have increased 150 percent over the same period in 2014 The number of unaccompanied children caught by Border Patrol has more than doubled The new flows come after a year of declines in illegal crossings across the southwest border MISSION, Texas -- The numbers of migrants crossing the Rio Grande illegally have risen sharply in recent weeks, replaying scenes from the influx of Central American children and families in South Texas last year. Once again, smugglers are bringing hundreds of women and children each day to the Mexican banks of the river and sending them across...

Raleigh, N.C. — The man charged in the hit-and-run deaths of two Wake Technical Community College students on Friday night has a history of driving while impaired and was deported in 2011 from the United States, according to prosecutors. At a first court appearance Monday afternoon, a judge raised the bond for Mateo Guzman-Palacios, 32, to $510,000. He faces two counts of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, driving with a suspended license, failing to stop at a red light and two counts of felony hit-and-run. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security also issued a detainer for Guzman-Palacios to notify local...

Australia has for the first time used one of its new lifeboats to send a group of 56 asylum seekers back to Indonesia in a move that is likely to plunge the bilateral relationship to a new low.Fairfax Media has interviewed a large group of would-be refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh who scuttled their wooden vessel six days ago in an attempt to avoid being pushed back to Indonesia.Instead they were picked up by an Australian Navy vessel, HMAS Stuart, and kept overnight before being transferred to a Customs and Border Protection vessel.The men said they were tricked into thinking...

WASHINGTON - One of the House of Representatives’ longest-serving Republicans now says he meant “no disrespect” when he used the term “wetbacks” to describe migrant workers his family once employed. His comment, which drew a strong rebuke from the House speaker, flies in the face of his party’s effort to improve outreach to minority groups.

The subject of immigration (and evidently, illegal immigration) has proven to be a divisive issue for conservatives. There are divergent opinions as to which policies should be pursued vis-à-vis the 12 million illegal immigrants who reside in the country. However, as conservatives, there are certain fundamental goals and red lines that we should all unite behind as we commence debate on this issue. Any so-called comprehensive immigration reform proposal that is worth more than a bucket of spit must ensure the following: ■we are not saddled with 12 million new consumers of the welfare state; ■we don’t have 12 million...

President Obama met with the newly elected President of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto yesterday. While the press focused on the Administration’s talking points for discussions on a wide range of issues from energy to climate change, the real concern is that the Mexican economy is far out performing the U.S. and the new immigration concern is increasingly from Americans illegally moving to Mexico. Nowhere is this trend more challenging than in California, which was just awarded the booby-prize by 24/7 Wall Street survey, as the “Worst Run State” in the United States. The State has unemployment: 10.1% (2nd highest), Budget...

The 2010 Yearbook from the National Council of Church USA is out and the news continues to be good for Catholics. The Catholic Church, the nation's largest at more than 68 million members, reported a slight membership loss in 2009 (for the year 2007) but rebounded . . . with a robust growth of 1.49 percent in 2008. Other groups that posted significant gains were the Mormon Church (Latter Day Saints) which grew 1.71 percent to 5,873,408 members and the Assemblies of God grew 1.27 percent to 2,863,265 members. The big losers: mainline Protestants continue their slide Presbyterian Church (USA),...

"The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican 'wetbacks' to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels of the Federal Government." Dwight D. Eisenhower

Once again, the "border jumper issue" writers are IGNORING the Slumlords. The Media & "team Pelosi/Reid/Obama want to ignore the Fact that "illegals" ARE moving into our Slums. The Slumlords, that Welcome and prey on "Wetbacks", aren't Freepers or Republicans.

Vast tracts of our most treasured public lands, supposedly set aside in perpetuity for Americans, are no longer controlled by the United States government. Instead, they have been invaded and taken over by Mexico’s violent criminal drug organizations to grow marijuana. Even more shocking: Mexican cartels have been growing marijuana for at least 10 years in Sequoia National Park, one of the crown jewels of the system. Nature-loving hikers are compelled to accept that parts of Sequoia are "no go zones" during the growing season. These Mexican marijuana messes are an ecological disaster. They are not innocent little plots that...

Arizona’s Supreme Court chief justice has agreed to enforce the Hispanic Bar Association’s demands of banning the terms “illegal” and “aliens” in all of the state’s courtrooms. Claiming that the terms are inflammatory, the president of Arizona’s Hispanic Bar Association, (known as Los Abogados) has asked state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor to stop using them at trials or hearings because they create perceptions of judicial bias. In a strongly worded letter to the chief justice, Los Abogados’ president says attaching an illegal status to a person establishes a brand of contemptibility, creates the appearance of anti-immigrant prejudice and...

AUSTIN - A proposed detention facility for suspected illegal immigrants was labeled a "holding pen for wetbacks" on a public meeting agenda written by a rural city council member.Charles Laws, 75, apologized Thursday for using the derogatory term but defied calls from state lawmakers and officials in nearby Austin for him to resign as Mustang Ridge's mayor pro tem and as general manager of a local water supply company. "If I hadn't been in such a hurry I would have said ‘illegals' or something like that, but that's a term that I grew up with out here and everybody said...

Drug War: Mexico's battle against drug traffickers is getting dicier by the day. Officials there have asked for U.S. aid, and we should give it to them. But they must be serious about victory. Late last year, Mexico's new president, Felipe Calderon, made an impressive start by tackling drug traffickers as soon as he was sworn in. His boldness was a direct response to Mexican voters, who told IBD on election day that nothing mattered to them more. It wasn't hard to see why. Like a rat infestation, Mexican drug dealers had grown strong in an earlier atmosphere of ineffectual...

Millions of migrants have crossed illegally from Mexico into the United States. Their experience could hardly be more real. But now at a controversial theme park in Mexico, tourists can pretend to be an illegal migrant. Torch, check. Heavy boots, check. Willingness to hide under bushes, check. Ability to see in the dark, an advantage. Preparation for what, you might think? A hike across Dartmoor? Try a night out in a theme park. But when I say theme park, do not think Alton Towers or Disneyland. Think, instead, illegal migrants. Because now you can pretend to be an illegal migrant...

Illegal immigrants planning to cross the desert and enter the US on foot are to be given hand-held satellite devices by the Mexican authorities to ensure they arrive safely. Those who get lost or fall sick during the dangerous four-day crossing will be able to activate the device, to alert frontier police on both sides of the border. The satellite tracking service will require would-be illegals to register their intentions before setting off — a paradoxical move, given that secrecy is necessary for success — but Mexican authorities are predicting that about 200,000 devices will be handed out when the...

It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I only have room for about 700 here so let me be more concise. Just the other day, an editorial cartoon, set in the 1600s, depicted a rowboat full of Pilgrims coming ashore in the New World and encountering a group of Indians constructing a log wall to keep them out. Standing next to a boulder marked "Plymouth Rock" (in case you didn't get it) on the shoreline, one of the Indians, with his arms folded in an unwelcoming position and a disapproving frown on his face, blocked their way....

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's Congress was swayed Tuesday by a 7-year-old boy on a mission to save his mom. Second-grader Saul Arellano, a U.S. citizen, appeared in Mexico's 500-member Chamber of Deputies to plead for help in lobbying Washington to stop the deportation of his mother, an illegal immigrant who has taken refuge in a Chicago church. His efforts paid off with a resolution calling on the Bush administration to suspend the deportation of Elvira Arellano and any other illegal immigrant parents of U.S. citizens. If the U.S. agrees, it would "create a precedent that will benefit more than 4.9...

LAGUNA BEACH – City officials are violating federal law by collecting fees from workers at a day-labor site in Laguna Canyon without checking immigration status, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest group, filed the lawsuit against the city on behalf of Eileen Garcia and George Riviere, Laguna residents who have questioned the site's legality to City Council members in the past. The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, contends day laborers are charged a $1 referral fee each day they work, and that employers using the site get $5 for each day...

RAMONA – Clint Hamilton says he'd rather be playing softball with his 10-year-old daughter. Instead, the Ramona resident said “patriotic duty” pushes him to spend at least 20 hours a week trying to stop day laborers from gathering outside the downtown grocery store where he once shopped. A one-man Minuteman army, Hamilton videotapes and photographs people hiring workers and said he's been criticized and threatened. “All I ask them to do is get out of our parking lot,” he said. Hamilton, 44, speaks in calm tones and wears a U.S. Border Patrol baseball cap. “I'm basically a nice guy,” he...

Only 483 Guard Working on Mexican Border Jun 30 9:35 PM US/Eastern By AARON C. DAVISAssociated Press Writer SACRAMENTO, Calif. On the deadline to have 2,500 troops along the Mexican border, the National Guard said Friday that only 483 were in position and working with the U.S. Border Patrol as the Bush administration had directed. But Guard officials said more than 2,000 others were somewhere inside the four southwestern border states, training or helping plan the deployment. He and Bush administration officials argued Friday that the presence of troops in those states spelled success in the first stage of...