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Researchers at the University of California-San Diego develop GPS-based cell phone application aiming to help illegal immigrants by directing them to prepositioned water bins in the desert; critics say this amounts to aiding law-breaking, while supporters argue this is the humane thing to do
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The only thing we can say for sure about 2010 is terrorists, criminals, and mother nature will surprise us at some point during 2010; still, based on what we do know, we offer a short list of topics we predict will dominate the homeland security discussion in the coming year – from whole-body scanners to 100 percent air cargo screening to social Web sites to communication interoperability to the consequences of climate change (or is there a climate change?)
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Canada has a long borders, and before 9/11 the Canadian federal government made it easier for travelers to cross into Canada at remote border crossing where security is not as tight as it is in major cross points; a new study says this system must change because it is not secure enough
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A husband and wife from Hull trying to take a ferry to Rotterdam for Christmas shopping were denied boarding after the ferry’s crew refused to accept the U.K.’s new biometric ID card as a means of identification; the couple applied for the card when it was offered on a voluntary basis to the public in Greater Manchester; the card is meant to allow travel across Europe as an alternative to a passport, but the crew, saying they had never seen such a card before, insisted on the couple producing their passports; since the couple had left their passports at home, they could not take their trip
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For the first time in Arizona, a company employing illegal immigrants has been punished for violating the law; the company has its business license suspended for ten days and was put on a 3-year probation; the punishment is symbolic because the company is already out of business
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The U.K’s. £1.2 billion e-Border scheme would mandate that, say, someone flying from the United Kingdom to Spain would be required to submit their name, date of birth, and passport details ahead of a flight and well before they got to the airport, or face the risk of being prevented from boarding; the EU says this violates the union’s rules on free movement within the EU region.
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An Illinois Democrat introduces an immigration reform bill that would allow illegal immigrants currently in the United States to gain legal status and possibly citizenship; they would have to demonstrate they had been working, pay a $500 fine, learn English, and undergo a criminal background check, among other provisions; unlike previous proposals in Congress, they would not have to return to their homeland first, something known as “touchback”
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Illegal border crossers into the United States are becoming more sophisticated – the latest is a GPS application which is supposed to help crossers evade Border Patrol agents – but those in charge of protecting U.S. borders are also employing advanced technology to keep the border secure.
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Visits to the United States by Canadians have dropped since 1 June, when the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative began requiring new documentation for cross-border land travel; DHS agrees to advertise alternatives to passports as valid border-crossing documents.
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UAV update
To increase the long-range reconnaissance capabilities over water, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection take deliver of a maritime variant of the Predator B UAV; the Predator B UAV has already proven its value to homeland security over the U.S. land borders and the Great Lakes region
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A 27-year old Chinese woman, deported from Japan in 2007, was allowed back in Japan after biometric scanning failed to identify her as a deportee; the reason: the skin patches from the digits on her right and left hands were removed and then re-grafted onto the matching digits of the opposite hand; she was arrested after she tried to arrange a fake marriage to a Japanese man.
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Australia begins to collect biometric information seeking protection under the Australian Visa program; for the next six months, the program will be implemented in Sydney and Melbourne and will be voluntary; at the end of the pilot the government will consider national compulsory expansion of the process.
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Immigration
Economic confidence spurs U.S. companies to hire more college graduates and apply for more work visas for non-U.S. skilled workers; if this demand for visas continues, the H-1B cap for the 2010 fiscal year may be met in a matter of days to early next year
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Nuclear matters
Thirty Cubans fleeing Cuba landed near the off-limits cooling canals for the Turkey Point nuclear power plant; the migrants stayed — undetected — in the high-security area for about six hours; Florida Power & Light learned the Cubans had landed on its property only when a member of the group phoned the plant’s control room hours after the group’s arrival
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CBP officers performed almost 66 million inspections of travelers, seized almost 145 tons of illegal narcotics, and apprehended more than 42,000 immigration violators during federal fiscal year 2009
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The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, or C-TPAT, program was supposed to list trusted shippers with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, so that these shippers’ trucks would have to spend less time at border checkpoints; trouble is, drug traffickers know this, and they use the system to smuggle their shipments into the United States
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Border security
Work on beefing up security along the U.S.-Mexico border is often hobbles by environmental concerns and private property rights; DHS secretary Janet Napolitano said her department would have to delay pursuits of illegal immigrants while waiting for horses to be brought in so agents do not trample protected lands, and warns that illegal immigrants will increasingly make use of remote, protected areas to avoid being caught
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Immigration
Government figures show a 23 percent drop in the number of illegal immigrants caught trying to enter the United States in the past year, and a 67 percent decline since 2000; debate over immigration reform re-opens on the Hill, but the main problem remains what to do with the twelve million illegal immigrants already in the United States
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The last of the 600 radiological monitors along the U.S.-Canada border has been deployed (at Trout River, New York, on the Quebec border); DHS says it is now scanning 100 percent of all vehicle traffic entering from Canada and Mexico — plus all mail and courier packages from Mexico and a further 98 percent of all arriving seaborne container cargo — for radioactive threats
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There are many facets to the debate about the best way to handle illegal immigration into the United States, but for the 210 U.S. border counties, where the economy and immigration are tied closely together, tighter immigration control means slowdown in business activity
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The long view
Social Acceptance of Immigrants Working as Politicians or Judges Is Low
Often, the dominant society develops negative attitudes towards immigrants and their descendants because their integration is too successful – and not because they are unwilling to integrate. A possible explanation for negative attitudes towards successful immigrants could be the dominant society’s fear of immigrants occupying influential and value-based occupations. This applies, for example, for immigrants working in local politics or law.