• Documents reveal drug cartels' secret weapons, techniques

    The recent attack on Arizona’s Department of Public Safety by LulzSec has revealed that law enforcement officials in the Southwest are battling drug cartels that use a variety of sleek gadgets and hidden weapons; the sensitive documents published by LulzSec show that smugglers have become increasingly clever using a variety of methods to sneak drugs past border officials; the cartels have hollowed out cell phones to plant 180,000 volt stun guns or a .22 caliber pistol

  • ICE steps in to help California police stop violent gangs

    With local police departments struggling to protect citizens amidst deep budget cuts, some agencies are getting help from some unlikely places; In California, DHS agents are stepping in to help local police battle soaring crime rates; two agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are helping the San Jose police department battle (SJPD) street gangs as the city struggles with its highest murder rate in twenty years

  • Immigration officials incarcerate Iraq War vet over a passport

    Federal immigration officials are seeking to deport a veteran of the Army and Navy who has served with distinction in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay; authorities have held Elisha L. Dawkins in a federal lockup in Miami since May. His crime: lying on a passport application

  • Obama extends National Guard deployment along border

    President Obama has ordered the National Guard currently deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border to remain there for at least an additional three months to assist with border security; the Pentagon has agreed to spend $35 million to extend the deployment of the 1,200 National Guardsmen sent last year to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas through the end of September

  • Border agents corrupted while FBI and DHS wrangle for power

    Using sex and money, Mexican drug cartels have been increasingly successful in corrupting U.S. border agents while the federal government has struggled to stop it; since 2004 CBP has made 127 arrests or indictments against border agents for acts of corruption which include “drug smuggling, alien smuggling, money laundering, and conspiracy”; jurisdictional turf wars between the FBI and the DHS Inspector General have limited the government’s ability to investigate and prosecute corruption cases effectively; corruption is still relatively limited given the size of the U.S. border force — more than 20,000 agents

  • Border patrol seizes 159 pounds of iguana meat

    U.S. border patrol agents seized nearly 160 pounds of raw iguana meat along the San Diego border; a thirty-seven year old man attempted to smuggle the iguana meat across the border by stashing it in three coolers underneath fish

  • Railroad protests $400 million in fines for smuggling drugs

    Railroad companies are protesting nearly $400 million in fines for illegal drugs smuggled aboard its trains; under U.S. law, all shipping companies are subject to fines of $500 per ounce of marijuana and $1,000 per ounce of heroin or cocaine if U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents find drugs hidden in their cargo; Union Pacific argues that they are being punished for the actions of drug smugglers which they cannot control

  • ICE to audit 1,000 critical infrastructure companies

    On Wednesday, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced that it would audit 1,000 U.S. employers in critical food, energy, and infrastructure industries; ICE did not specify which businesses would be targeted, but did say that immigration agents would focus on seventeen sectors including agriculture, financial services, nuclear reactors, water treatment, and health care

  • Federal agencies crack down on immigration scams

    DHS, the Justice Department, and the Federal Trade Commission are joining forces to stop notary publics, or notarios, in the United States from scamming immigrants; last year, the Justice Department working in conjunction with ICE, the FBI and other agencies, prosecuted dozens notarios who falsely pretended to be lawyers and worked on the behalf of immigrants

  • Anxious Searchers Miss Multiple Targets

    Research shows that when people search for objects — say, air port security personnel screening baggage for weapons — they typically miss the second of two objects once they find the first one; missing a second target is a well-known issue called “satisfaction of search,” and it manifests itself in both airport screening and looking for cancerous tumors in a lab; now researchers find that anxiety heightened the satisfaction-of-search problem

  • Unions rally against proposed TSA cuts

    The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) is rallying against two proposed amendments that would cut the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) budget and limit its employees’ collective bargaining rights; the union is urging the Senate to reject the two amendments in the 2012 DHS budget that the House passed; the amendment to cut $300 million from TSA’s budget comes as part of a broader turf war between two House Republican chairmen

  • CBP buys upgraded aircraft for border patrol

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) purchased its new King Air 350, twin engine Multi-role Enforcement Aircraft (MEA), bolstering DHS’s capabilities of patrolling the skies along U.S. borders; designed to be a truly multi-role aircraft, the MEA is equipped with a sophisticated array of active and passive sensors, technical collection equipment, and satellite communications capabilities that can be deployed for ground interdiction operations, air-to-air intercept operations, and medium-range maritime patrols

  • Police chiefs oppose proposed Texas immigration measure

    Texas governor Rick Perry wants the legislature to pass a measure which would prohibit local police agencies from barring their officers from asking people they pull over, or otherwise detain, about their legal status in the United States; police chiefs from Houston and Dallas say the bill would impose additional costs on their already-strained budgets and would end up hampering public safety, because it would force them to divert resources and manpower to dealing with undocumented immigrants rather than criminals

  • Alabama joins E-Verify program

    Last Thursday Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed a tough new immigration bill that includes a requirement that all employers in the state to use the E-Verify system; under the law, all employers will have to verify a prospective worker’s immigration status using the E-Verify system; the law also requires that businesses check the immigration status of day laborers and contains provisions regarding transportation and rental agreements