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New Orleans Latest Locality to Shift Costly Immigration Enforcement Burden Back to Feds
New Orleans has stopped honoring detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials—the first Southern city to do so—now that the Orleans Parish sheriff’s office will no longer detain people who are suspected of being undocumented immigrants. According to The New York Times, the sheriff’s office will “decline all ICE detention requests except when […]
Read MoreMcCain says immigration reform will create jobs
August 12, 2013 Bob Christie, The Kansas City Star PHOENIX — Sen. John McCain is trying to convince Arizona business leaders to support immigration reform by touting its impact on the state’s economy. McCain said Monday that giving the 11 million people in the country without legal status a path to citizenship will create jobs and end […]
Read MoreTurning up the Heat on Congress Over Summer Recess
August recess is in full swing, and the plans to show Congress how badly Americans want immigration reform “back home” are well under way. While August is always a time to remind Members of Congress about crucial issues, this year’s immigration events, meetings, and rallies are occurring at a time when Members of Congress, particularly […]
Read MoreArizona Governor Jan Brewer Still Cannot Connect the Dots Between Immigration Reform and Border Security
Anti-immigrant politicians suffer from a chronic inability to understand that immigration reform must be truly comprehensive if it is to be effective. That is, all facets of the extremely complex U.S. immigration system must be fixed at the same time if the system as a whole is to function properly—everything from border enforcement to family […]
Read MoreCourts Continue to Reject Arizona Style Laws, Even as House Embraces SAFE Act
Last year, in Arizona v. United States, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the federal government, rather than the states, has both the responsibility and the authority to enforce immigration law. Leaving immigration enforcement to the whims of individual state legislatures and law enforcement officers was, according to the Court, likely to undermine the federal framework […]
Read MoreHow to Have Productive Conversations on Immigration
In preparation for the August recess, the Immigration Policy Center released a new guide to answering the tough questions on immigration. This is perhaps a misnomer, as the issues we cover—the intersection of crime, the economy, integration, and immigration—aren’t so much tough as they are complicated. There is plenty of evidence available on the significant […]
Read MoreU.S. Ag Secretary: Immigration reform key for Fla. industry
Anthony Clark, The Gainesville Sun July 31, 2013 Comprehensive immigration reform is critical to secure the workforce needed by Florida’s multibillion-dollar agricultural industry and would benefit the broader economy, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in an interview with The Gainesville Sun. Vilsack has been on a media blitz with reporters in farm states to emphasize […]
Read MoreThe Criminal Alien Program (CAP): Immigration Enforcement in Prisons and Jails
The Criminal Alien Program (CAP) is an expansive immigration enforcement program that leads to the initiation of removal proceedings in many cases. While CAP has existed in one form or another for decades, there is still much to be learned about the program, how it is organized, and how it works. What is known is that CAP extends to every area of the country and intersects with most state and local law enforcement agencies.
For years, the CAP program has operated with little public attention and many of its elements have only recently come to light following FOIA litigation against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The information obtained through the lawsuit regarding CAP’s current organization and staffing suggests CAP is not a single program, but a loose-knit group of several different programs operating within ICE. Other than a small number of staff responsible for the administration of CAP at ICE headquarters, there is no dedicated CAP staff. Rather, ICE pulls personnel and resources from across the agency to perform CAP-related functions.
The ICE declarations and deposition also explain how CAP functions within prisons and jails. There appears to be little consistency in, and little or no policy governing, how CAP cooperates with state and local law enforcement agencies in different regions and in how CAP interacts with detainees in different facilities. Instead, CAP appears to function as an ad hoc set of activities that operate differently across the country and across penal institutions, raising questions about the adequacy of oversight, training, and accountability of the personnel implementing CAP.
This information confirms that there is still much about CAP that remains unknown or unclear. Given the breadth of CAP, the centrality of its role in immigration enforcement, and its large impact on the immigrant community, it is critical that ICE clarify how CAP operates.
Anti-DACA Lawsuit Dismissed!
Crane v. Napolitano, the lawsuit brought by Kris Kobach on behalf of several ICE officers opposed to implementing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program, was dismissed today on procedural grounds in a U.S. district court in Texas. The court held that the Civil Service Reform Act, a law governing federal employment disputes, barred […]
Read MoreWhy Citizenship Matters in Immigration Reform
As the August recess approaches, the debate surrounding immigration reform and citizenship will shift away from Washington and into town hall meetings and events in local communities. In anticipation of this, today the AFL-CIO hosted an event on citizenship featuring among others, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Representative Xavier Becerra (D-CA). Both men emphasized the […]
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