Immigration at the Border
Utah Police Say “Local Agencies Can’t Solve the Immigration Problem”
Salt Lake City's local NBC channel reports that many residents are up in arms about a new state immigration law (SB 81) that would allow police to question individuals' legal status, among other stringent requirements on everyone from employers to landlords. The Salt Lake Police Department's Chief Burbank has been opposed to the immigration bill from the beginning and, according to some sources, has said he will not participate in its enforcement. There have been growing national concerns about the involvement of local police in the enforcement of immigration law. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for civil rights infractions associated with his police department's partnership with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Burbank is justifiably cautious in his opposition to enforcing a law that he believes requires law enforcement to racially profile individuals to determine whether they are undocumented or not. Read More
Rev. Al Sharpton Demands Sheriff Arpaio’s Resignation
In an act of solidarity with the immigrant community, National Action Network’s Reverend Al Sharpton and ACORN's Chief Organizer and CEO, Bertha Lewis called for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s resignation and an end to racial profiling on a national media call today. Never one to miss the national spotlight, Sheriff Arpaio is currently the focus of a Department of Justice investigation for abuses of the 287(g) program, “alleged patterns of discriminatory police practices, and discrimination based on a person’s national origin.” Rev. Al Sharpton charged Sheriff Arpaio with egregious civil and human rights violations: I am calling for an end to the civil and human rights violations being committed in Maricopa County, the termination of the 287(g) program through which local agencies can enforce Federal immigration laws, and the immediate resignation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The egregious nature of Arpaio’s abuses, marking him as the Bull Connor of the 21st Century, demands nothing less. Read More
ICE Agent Sues ICE Agents for Storming His House
We've heard the stories about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents terrorizing immigrant families by kicking in doors in the middle of the night and separating mothers and fathers from their children. However, in an ironic twist, Customs and Border Protection Officer Jim Slaughter is filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security after ICE agents showed up at his doorstep and demanded to search his home. According to Slaughter: "My wife said is this candid camera and that kind of ticked him off a little bit and he says no mam you need to step back... I said do you realize I'm a U.S. Customs K-9 officer at San Luis, Arizona and they all just froze. The lead agent, his eyes got real big, and he's like what? You are?" Read More
Napolitano Navigates Border Problems in a Broken Immigration System
Late last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano met with Mexican officials and announced yet another re-focus of her agency's objectives: hundreds of border patrol agents will be paying just as much attention to what goes into Mexico as to who comes out of it. In other words: NAPOLITANO: ...from now on, when trucks come into this port, they are going to see something they haven't seen before, and that's southbound inspections. Agents haven't diverted their attention from stopping drugs and undocumented immigrants from entering the United States. Rather, hundreds of additional agents are being redeployed to stop the weapons and cash that flow into Mexico. This new initiative comes just one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted: Read More
House Hearing Shows 287(g) “Sets Police Profession Back to 1950’s”
In response to evidence piling up suggesting that the 287(g) program is experiencing an array of problems, the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law and the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties held a hearing today to learn more about the program's alarming effects. Members of the Subcommittees heard testimony from Julio Cesar Mora, a 19 year old native-born US citizen who told of how he and his father (who has had his green card since 1976) were stopped in their car on the way to work, patted down, handcuffed and taken to a place where many workers were being held by officers in black uniform and ski masks. After several hours Julio and his father were released after proving their legal immigration status. Mora said: Read More
Maricopa County Halts Sheriff Arpaio’s Immigration Funds
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona has voted to postpone the acceptance of $1.6 million from the state to help pay for County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s controversial immigration enforcement tactics. Observers said the decision could signal that the board is concerned by federal inquires into… Read More
LIVE: Joint Hearing on Local Immigration Enforcement
In response to a growing array of alleged civil rights infractions and incidences of racial profiling associated with the the 287(g) program, the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law and the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties are holding a hearing investigating… Read More
Moving Beyond the Failed Immigration-Enforcement Legacy of the Bush Era
A new report from America's Voice highlights both the immense challenge and enormous opportunity confronting the Obama administration as it devises a new approach to immigration enforcement that moves beyond the failures of the Bush era. As the report describes, Bush attempted to burnish his immigration-enforcement bona fides by "getting tough" on undocumented workers rather than the employers who exploit them. While families and communities were torn apart through worksite raids, most of the employers who willfully violated both labor and immigration laws for the sake of higher profits walked away with the corporate equivalent of parking tickets. Moreover, while federal agents and specially deputized state and local police officers chased down run-of-the-mill undocumented immigrants, scarce law-enforcement resources were diverted away from the pursuit and prosecution of violent criminals. Read More
Mexicans Choosing to Weather Economic Storm in Home Country
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered reviews of many operational aspects of the immigration and border security system and has even delayed a series of proposed immigration raids and other enforcement actions at U.S. workplaces. Yet while many of the Bush administration's "attrition through enforcement" tactics are being re-evaluated and scaled-back, potential migrants in Mexico and elsewhere are expressing less interest in coming to the U.S. This past weekend, a Houston Chronicle article pointed out that as "jobs in the U.S. dry up" many Mexicans "reverse course for survival" and may "never leave Mexico at all." The article echoes research showing that undocumented immigration is driven by economics and that the tens of billions of taxpayer dollars spent on immigration enforcement over the past two decades have done virtually nothing to dissuade undocumented immigrants from coming here when there are jobs to fill. Read More
Olbermann: “Immigration Detention Centers as Bad as Gitmo”
As part of his "Still Bushed!" segment, Keith Olbermann compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities to Guantanamo Bay as part of his countdown: OLBERMANN: Number one, Gitmo Jr.-gate. Imagine the Bush government having instituted a system of near Gulags and other detention centers so vast that it can hold not a couple hundred people, but rather 400,000 foreigners and even Americans of foreign birth. They don‘t get to see lawyers. They don‘t get their detentions individually reviewed by judges. They don‘t get supposedly minimum standards of jail, cleanliness or hygiene. They don‘t get out for at least ten months. And ten months is considered lightning fast. Some new piece of nightmare reporting by Seymour Hirsch? Some fantasy of the far left? No. These are the ICE facilities courtesy of George W. Bush. Read More
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