Free Republic

President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón agreed Thursday to remove most restrictions on trucking across the U.S.-Mexico border, sparking furor from the Teamsters and raising concerns for truckers on both sides of the border — for different reasons. The American Trucking Association praised the announcement, saying it will promote trade. The Teamsters and certain trucking companies oppose the deal, saying it sacrifices American jobs when unemployment is high so that big business can save money partly by hiring cheaper drivers. The Obama-Calderón plan comes 17 years after passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which permitted cross-border...

Concerned about the Obama administration's plan to grant amnesty to illegal aliens? Guess what. It's already happening. According to The Houston Chronicle: The Department of Homeland Security is systematically reviewing thousands of pending immigration cases and moving to dismiss those filed against suspected illegal immigrants who have no serious criminal records, according to several sources familiar with the efforts. Culling the immigration court system dockets of noncriminals started in earnest in Houston about a month ago and has stunned local immigration attorneys, who have reported coming to court anticipating clients' deportations only to learn that the government was dismissing their...

EL PASO - Virtually every law enforcement agency on both sides of the border is meeting in El Paso today to address a mutual concern: Border threats. An exercise is designed to evaluate international, inter-agency, and intra-agency communication and emergency response capabilities. The exercise is being held from 11:30 a.m. to noon at the El Paso Border Patrol Station at 9201 Gateway. Participating agencies include the U.S. Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the El Paso Police Department, the El Paso Fire Department, the Red Cross, Emergency Medical Services, and parallel...

Reporting from Mexico City - Drug traffickers fighting to control northern Mexico have turned their guns and grenades on the Mexican army, authorities said, in an apparent escalation of warfare that played out across multiple cities in two border states. In coordinated attacks, gunmen in armored cars and equipped with grenade launchers fought army troops this week and attempted to trap some of them in two military bases by cutting off access and blocking highways, a new tactic by Mexico's organized criminals. In taking such aggressive action, the traffickers have shown that they are not reluctant to challenge the army...

... & pardon these 2 Saturday, November 24, 2007 The degrading, draconian and disgraceful incarceration of former Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean indicates President George W. Bush, the self-anointed compassionate conservative, is capable of stone-cold stupidity. By doing their duty along the near-lawless border with Mexico, Messrs. Ramos and Compean have become tragic symbols of this nation's gross incompetence regarding enforcement of immigration law.

FBI alert triggered by 'Mideast' truckers Pair reportedly tried to put unleaded gasinto 18-wheeler at Colorado gas station Two men described as 'Middle Eastern' seen driving a semi-truck that made a stop at a Colorado gas station are the focus of a nationwide alert issued by the FBI, according to a report by KUSA-TV in Denver. The men driving the 18-wheeler reportedly stopped at a Hess station Thursday afternoon in the town of Byers, about forty miles east of Denver. The FBI’s Joint Terrorist Task Force got involved when an attendant saw the men apparently trying to put unleaded gasoline...

DENVER - Concern among members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorist Task Force has surfaced in Colorado. A semi-truck driving through the state on Thursday afternoon apparently triggered a nationwide alert going out to law enforcement agencies across the state Friday night. Only a few specifics of the alert were released. Apparently, it stems from what happened at a Sinclair gas station in Byers around 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Byers is about 40 miles east of Denver on I-70. Two men described as Middle Eastern in an 18-wheeler with a white tractor truck apparently tried to put unleaded gasoline into the truck....