Borders/Immig

Report challenges criticism of Secure Communities
A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), an non-profit Washington, D.C.-based organization supporting low immigration, examines the outcomes of ICE’s Secure Communities program and how those outcomes, in CIS words, “have been misleadingly described in one widely circulated study published by the Warren Institute at the University of California, Berkeley Law School”
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Holder: Repercussions of Fast and Furious will be felt for “years to come”
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress last Thursday that guns lost as a result of the botched “Fast and Furious” operation will be found at crimes scene on both sides of the border “for years to come”
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Clamping down on corrupt border patrol agents
With millions of dollars in drugs and money being funneled across the border, temptation lurks at every corner and government officials are not immune; 134 former or current border patrol agents have been arrested or indicted on corruption charges in the last seven years
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Congressional Hispanic Caucus moves against Alabama immigration law
Representative Luis Gutierrez (D – Illinois) is stepping up his attacks against Alabama’s immigration law by seeking to enlist DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano; this week Gutierrez and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with Secretary Napolitano to request that top federal immigration officials make it clear that immigration enforcement is a federal matter and out of states’ jurisdiction
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Study calls latest ICE deportation figures into question
A recent Syracuse University study found that DHS’ latest deportation figures were incorrect and that the majority of deportations in Colorado for the last fiscal year were not in fact high-priority criminals as the agency claimed
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DHS will provide immigration data demanded by House Republicans
The Obama administration has agreed to provide information requested by House Republicans regarding its Secure Communities program and the process it uses to determine which illegal immigrants should be deported
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DHS launches wide-ranging review of immigration court cases
DHS said it will begin reviewing about 300,000 deportation proceedings to implement prosecutorial discretion measures laid out in a June 2011 ICE memo. The review is intended to allow overburdened immigration judges to focus on deporting foreigners who committed serious crimes or pose national security risks.
DHS will comply with subpoena regarding non-deported aliens
House Republicans want to know how the Obama administration decides which aliens to deport and which aliens to allow to remain in the United States. DHS says it will comply with a congressional subpoena seeking DHS records on the issue.

California leads nation in E-Verify adoption despite concerns
In the past year California saw a 37 percent surge in E-Verify enrollment by businesses, making it the largest adopter of the system in the United States; unlike other states that have made E-Verify mandatory for public and private employers, California legislators recently passed a law that bans local governments from forcing businesses to sign on to the program
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Illinois Congressman helps worker fight South Carolina immigration law
Representative Luis Gutierrez (D – Illinois) is wading into South Carolina politics by fighting to prevent a local worker from being deported by federal immigration authorities. On Wednesday Gutierrez appeared in a Charleston Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on behalf of Gabino Sanchez, who had been arrested on a traffic violation and found to be an illegal immigrant
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Sector Report for Thursday, 1 December 2011: Border / Immigration control
This report contains the following stories.
* Coyotes using GPS and smartphones to smuggle immigrants, avoid capture

* Lawmakers question DHS on lack of regulations for Mexican truck program

* CBP to unveil new metrics for border security

* Also noted
Plus 1 additional story.
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Coyotes using GPS and smartphones to smuggle immigrants, avoid capture
Human smugglers, or coyotes, have increasingly taken advantage of GPS equipped smartphones to sneak illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border; using the GPS capabilities of smartphones, coyotes stand at elevated points to carefully guide groups of illegal immigrants
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Lawmakers question DHS on lack of regulations for Mexican truck program
The cross-border trucking pilot program with Mexico is entering its sixth week and DHS has yet to issue official enforcement guidelines to law enforcement agencies
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CBP to unveil new metrics for border security
Next February Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will release a new set of metrics to determine safety along the U.S.-Mexico border; according to a recently released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, CBP will no longer measure border security in terms of “operational control”
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Fixing a broken border
Terry Goddard, the former attorney general of Arizona, argues that to curb illegal immigration effectively the federal government must target drug cartels and smugglers, aggressively cutting off funding and freezing assets; Goddard argues that current measures to bolster border defenses are costly and ineffective as cartels will continue to find ways to smuggle drugs and immigrants across the border because it is simply too lucrative a practice
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