Interior Enforcement
Office of Inspector General (OIG) Finds 287(g) Program Still Riddled with Flaws
DHS’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released an updated report on the Performance of 287(g) Agreements which provides the same dreary account of the program as the first one. The April 2010 OIG report found that ICE and its local law enforcement partners have not complied with the terms of their 287(g) Memoranda of Agreement (MOAs), that the standards by which deputized officers are evaluated are not in line with the stated objectives of the 287(g) program, that the program is poorly supervised by ICE, and that additional oversight is necessary. It included 33 recommendations to improve the program, 28 of which, the new report finds, still remain open. Read More
Another Lawsuit Against Arizona’s SB1070 Moves Forward
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton denied motions by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu last week to dismiss a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs against Arizona law SB 1070. Counsel for the plaintiffs, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, and the National Immigration Law Center, alleges that SB 1070 unlawfully attempts to regulate immigration and would result in widespread racial profiling. The lawsuit is one of seven originally filed against SB 1070. Read More
Utah Leaders Balk at Arizona-esque Immigration Enforcement Bill
With midterm election campaigning well underway, some local candidates are lifting up state and local immigration enforcement legislation as a means to garner public support. Unfortunately, as is often the case when politics meets reality, not everyone is on board with local enforcement laws like Arizona’s SB1070—key provisions of which were enjoined by a federal district judge in late July. Over the last few months, state leaders in Ohio, Idaho, Nebraska and Houston have either heavily edited or voted not to pursue state immigration measures, citing costly lawsuits, court battles and the dubious constitutionality of such laws. This month, state leaders in Utah are also balking at an immigration measure modeled on the controversial Arizona law. Read More
The American Immigration Council Addresses Problems with Draft Immigration Detainer Policy
Washington D.C. – The American Immigration Council has joined a number of organizations in formally commenting on a proposed detainer policy issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Detainers are requests from ICE to local law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to hold people – whom they suspect may be… Read More
Counties Say No to ICE’s Secure Communities Program, But is Opting Out Possible?
Earlier this week, the Santa Clara (CA) Board of Supervisors and the Arlington County (VA) Board both voted unanimously to opt-out of the Secure Communities program—an ICE program that shares the fingerprints of individuals booked into jails with immigration databases. However, Today’s Washington Post claims that opting out of Secure Communities “is not a realistic possibility, and never was.” The Secure Communities program, launched in 2008, is currently active in 658 jurisdictions in 32 states, according to ICE, who plans to activate the program in every jurisdiction in every state by 2013. It remains unclear, however, whether the program is voluntary. Read More
Smoke and Mirrors: FOIA Reveals ICE Deception in Secure Communities Program
BY MELISSA KEANEY, NATIONAL IMMIGRATION LAW CENTER The misnamed Secure Communities program appears to be a nothing but smoke and mirrors—a federal program operating without adequate supervision or safeguards. The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) signature immigration enforcement program. The government documents NILC obtained show that ICE’s public statements about the Secure Communities program do not reflect what goes on behind closed doors. Read More
Truth Held Hostage: Dissecting the Lies about Kidnapping in Arizona
Arizona politicians who support the state’s sweeping anti-immigrant law (SB 1070) are not particularly fond of facts. For instance, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) has made all manner of ludicrous statements about unauthorized immigrants typically carrying drugs, killing cops, and leaving headless bodies in the desert. But the most hypocritical of the anti-immigrant statements made by politicians such as Brewer concern kidnapping. Not only do Brewer and company pretend that kidnappers are lurking behind every corner in Arizona, but they usually neglect to mention that unauthorized immigrants are the primary victims of the kidnappings that do occur. In other words, the kidnapping of unauthorized immigrants is being used as a justification to crack down on unauthorized immigrants. This is a nonsensical policy that attacks the victims rather than the perpetrators of the crime. Read More
New Data Shows ICE Fails to Focus on Serious Criminal Threats
In the past, IPC has reported on the 287(g) and Secure Communities programs and concerns that these partnerships between the federal and local governments have not succeeded in prioritizing serious criminals. New information sheds additional light on these programs and once again confirms that, despite pronouncements from ICE, they continue to identify, detain, and deport people who have not committed serious crimes and present no threat to our communities. Read More
Immigrant Women: The Silent Victims of a Broken Immigration System
Even though there are approximately 19 million foreign born women in the U.S.—accounting for 12.3% of the female population—we tend to hear very little about them. A closer look at the female immigrant population reveals many important facts—immigrant women are incredibly diverse in terms of country of origin, time in the U.S., citizenship rates, income, poverty, and labor market participation. This week, the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) released a report, Reforming America’s Immigration Laws: A Woman’s Struggle by Kavitha Sreeharsha, a senior staff attorney at Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program and a fact sheet detailing the demographic makeup of immigrant women in the U.S. Read More
Enough is Enough: State Legislators Fight Arizona Copycat Laws with Progressive Immigration Policies
Tired of restrictionists introducing “get tough” anti-immigration legislation in their states, state legislators are pushing back with progressive immigration policies of their own. On a telebriefing yesterday sponsored by the Progressive States Network and the National Immigration Law Center, state legislators from Arizona, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Utah discussed what they are actively doing to push back on the recent uptick in statewide anti-immigrant legislation. From public education campaigns to health, wage protection and enforcement legislation, these state leaders are fed up with the status quo. Read More
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