• ICE broadening investigation against Chipotle

    Federal immigration officials are broadening their investigation of Mexican fast-food chain Chipotle to include restaurants in Virginia and D.C.; Chipotle was already forced to fire hundreds of employees in Minnesota after an audit found that many of its employees had used forged documents; the investigation is part of the Obama administration’s efforts to clamp down on companies hiring undocumented workers; ICE agents are conducting “I-9 audits” in which investigators pour through hundreds of I-9, payroll, and other hiring forms; their goal is to spark the same level of care and compliance that companies have for tax forms; last year Ice agents audited 2,740 companies, resulting in a record $7 million in fines

  • Successful border program ensures consequences

    A new immigration policy will end voluntary deportations; Border Patrol agents will no longer be busing illegal immigrants to the border and then walking them to where they crossed so they can return to Mexico; “No mas,” said Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) commissioner Alan Bersin; “No more returns without consequences.”

  • Bus bombing signals tough road ahead for Philippines

    Al Qaeda-linked Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf is continuing its attacks in the Philippines; the latest attack, in Makati City, has killed five; last year, the same terrorist organization claimed responsibility for killing 116 people in a burning ferry in Manila Bay, the deadliest terrorist attack in the country’s history; lawmakers propose installing CCTVs on city buses

  • Arizona sheriff: Gunfight with Mexican cartels imminent

    Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Paul Babeu says an armed conflict between his deputies and cartel members within the next thirty to sixty days is likely; a gun battle is all but certain, Babeu said, because his deputies and members of a regional SWAT team are now routinely working to stop smugglers from pushing cargo through Pinal; the cartels have stepped up their tactics in Pinal County by reinforcing smuggling routes with armed guards to ward off potential bandits, in addition to stationing more lookouts on high points of the landscape

  • ATF budget cuts hurt efforts to stop illegal guns heading to Mexico

    The proposed budget cuts for the ATF could seriously undermine Project Gunrunner, the Obama administration’s efforts to stem the flow of guns across the border to drug cartels; White House budget office proposed cutting nearly $160 million, or 12.8 percent, from the ATF’s budget; under federal rules, the last personnel hired are the first to be fired, and in the last several years the ATF has primarily focused on hiring for the border initiative; in 2009 alone, ATF agents seized 2,589 firearms and 265,000 rounds of ammunition headed across the border; so far, agents have traced more than 65,000 guns in Mexico back to the United States

  • DHS border security searches of electronics questioned

    Debate continues over DHS’s search and confiscation of materials at international U.S. borders; the latest case to make the headlines is that of David House, 23, an MIT researcher whose laptop, flash drives, and cameras were confiscated at the U.S.-Mexico border by DHS on his way back into the United States after a vacation in Mexico; House writes in a blog post that he is one of few individuals who are able to visit Manning in his detention facility in Quantico, Virginia

  • Sweeping overhaul of Canada-U.S. security

    Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama will today (Friday) authorize the most sweeping overhaul of Canada-U.S. border and security cooperation in decades; the agreement gives Washington a much bigger say in Canada’s border security, immigration controls, and information-sharing with American law agencies; the agreement could pose the biggest challenge to Canadian sovereignty since the free-trade negotiations of the 1980s

  • More states weighing in on immigration debate

    More states are pushing for stricter immigration enforcement laws as frustration across the country grows; Indiana, Maine, South Dakota, Colorado, and Texas are joining the ranks of states like Kentucky and Nebraska that have introduced tough Arizona-style immigration laws; at the core of the debate is the controversial provision that requires police to stop and check an individual’s papers to verify if they have entered the country illegally; this provision in the Arizona law has already been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge; last week Wyoming legislator rejected the introduction of such a bill

  • New Jersey's detention center expansion underway

    With the growing number of deportations of illegal aliens from the United States, federal officials expect demand for space to rise within coming years; Newark county officials are awaiting approval by federal authorities to upgrade and expand the Essex County Correctional Facility, significantly increasing its detainee capacity. The county’s proposal would provide a less punitive setting for detainees along with improved medical care, amenities, and federal oversight

  • More than eighty handguns smuggled on passenger flights to U.K.

    An American man successfully smuggled more than eighty handguns aboard passenger flights to the United Kingdom; the man was only apprehended after British investigators tipped off American officials; the suspect transported as many as twenty handguns by breaking them up and placing them in his checked baggage; at one point TSA officials discovered multiple firearms in his bags, confronted him, and allowed him to board the plane with the weapons; U.S. authorities arrested him as he tried to smuggle sixteen handguns on another flight; it is estimated that he took more than a dozen flights in this manner

  • Mexican drug cartels use catapult to launch drug packages across border

    Mexican drug smugglers have tried different methods to smuggle drugs into the United States — double-walled cargo containers, light planes, semi-submersibles, human mules, tunnels, and more; now, there is a new method: U.S. National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station in Arizona observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the International Border fence last Friday evening; Mexican troops dispatched to the scene found a 3-yard tall catapult stationed about twenty yards from the U.S. border on a flatbed towed by a sports utility vehicle; the catapult was capable of launching 4.4 pounds of marijuana at a time

  • Mexico Federal Police Take Delivery of UH-60M BLACK HAWK Helicopters

    The United States has delivered three UH-60M BLACK HAWK helicopters to the government of Mexico’s Federal Police; the aircraft are the first of six advanced helicopters designed to support Mexico’s law enforcement operations as part of the Merida Initiative, a security cooperation agreement between the two countries

  • Mississippi Senate approves Arizona-style immigration bill

    Mississippi estimates it has 90,000 illegal aliens in the state, and that it spends $24 million in education and $35 million a year in health care on them; An Arizona-style bill has passed through the Mississippi state senate and now heads to the state house

  • New government move to crackdown on undocumented workers

    The Obama administration creates new unit to target major companies hiring undocumented workers; the new unit, composed of fifteen auditors, will work under the supervision of ICE; in 2010, ICE conducted nearly 3,000 audits that led to a record $7 million in fines on companies; critics say large companies mostly avoided prosecution; this new unit will work specifically to audit large companies

  • SBInet, the sequel

    DHS has begun the process of contracting to replace the SBInet system it scrapped last week by issuing a request for information (RFI) on interconnected surveillance towers; the department’s plan calls for acquiring proven, ready-made technology tailored to the terrain of each border region, as opposed to the now-defunct $1 billion SBInet; DHS is looking for tools that will offer automatic, continuous wide-area surveillance that are largely open, or not tied to any one brand’s proprietary technology