Borders/Immig

Border patrol needs better training, diversity, and resources
Homeland Security NewsWire’s executive editor Eugene Chow recently got the opportunity to catch up with Lee Maril, a professor at East Carolina University and the director of the university’s Center on Diversity and Inequality Research; Maril specializes in border security and immigration issues along the southern border and recently published The Fence: Human Smuggling, Terrorists, and Public Safety along the US Mexico Border; in his interview with HSNW, Maril discusses the government’s ongoing attempts to build a virtual border fence, improving the border patrol, and the motives behind the latest push for a fence along the border
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Environmentalists challenge DHS border base expansion plan
Environmentalist groups challenge a plan by DHS to build a new border patrol base on National park Service Land in Arizona, near the U.S.-Mexico border; the groups argue that DHS fails adequately to assess the effects of the department’s border-security and enforcement activities along the U.S.-Mexico border, including tripling the size of its base in the desert
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Tomato giant fined for hiring illegal workers
Last week, the largest year-round grower of greenhouse tomatoes in the United States was fined $600,000 for knowingly hiring undocumented workers; Eurofresh Inc., pled guilty to the charges of employing illegal workers and now faces a five year probation
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Unusual smuggling tunnel found near California-Mexico border
Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) continued to gather evidence following the discovery of an incomplete pipeline-style smuggling tunnel last Thursday afternoon; the tunnel originated beneath the floor of a vacant Mexican supermarket
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Texas bills government $349 million for illegal immigrants
Earlier this month in a letter to DHS secretary Janet Napolitano, Texas governor Rick Perry blamed the federal government for failing to secure the border and requested $349 million to help cover the costs of detaining illegal immigrants; when she was governor of Arizona, Napolitano would also regularly send the Department of Justice invoices seeking reimbursements for illegal immigration-related expenses by the state of Arizona
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San Jose halts gang violence, ends ICE partnership
Two months after it began its alliance with immigration officials to crack down on gang violence, the San Jose Police Department in California announced that it was ending its partnership with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency; on 24 June, two ICE agents stepped in to help San Jose which was struggling to contain its highest murder rate in twenty years
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Sector Report for Thursday, 25 August 2011: Border / Immigration control
This report contains the following stories.
* North Dakota receives $10 million for border security

* Obama administration seeks hold on tough Alabama immigration law

* Union Pacific settles drug fines, invests $50M in border security

* Also noted
Plus 1 additional story.
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Obama administration seeks hold on tough Alabama immigration law
The Obama administration has requested a federal judge to temporarily block a tough new immigration law set to take effect in Alabama on 1 September
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Union Pacific settles drug fines, invests $50M in border security
Railroad giant Union Pacific Corp. agreed last week to invest $50 million to help protect the U.S.-Mexico border and to improve supply chain security; the announcement comes as the settlement of an ongoing dispute between the railroad company and U.S. border officials over nearly $500 million in fines
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Mexican trucks cited for 1 million violations since 2007
Trucks transport roughly $275 billion worth of goods — or 70 percent of the total — that pass between the United States and Mexico annually; the trucks from Mexico, however, often fail to meet U.S. safety standards
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Rampant insider hacking at U.S. immigration agency
A yearlong investigation by the DHS Inspector General has revealed multiple instances of insider hacking at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS); the inspector general found that employees had accessed management-level email and other confidential files
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ICE breaks up international artifact smuggling ring
Immigration officials recently broke up an international gang of thieves who were using the Orlando International Airport to smuggle ancient artifacts into the country
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CBP, railroad settles smuggling dispute
Smugglers use trains which go from Mexico to the United States to smuggle drugs and other contraband. In the last few years, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) has imposed fines totaling millions of dollars on Union Pacific Railroads for carrying the smuggled goods — even though UP maintained it knew nothing about the illegal shipments; CBP and UP have now settled their dispute
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DHS cracks down on sham universities
DHS officials are cracking down on sham universities that make millions of dollars by preying on foreign students, especially those from India, with promises of student visas; in January, officials shut down Tri-Valley University in California on suspicion of visa fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering; officials believe that the university made millions of dollars by giving foreign nationals illegally obtained student visas
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Sector Report for Thursday, 11 August 2011: Border / Immigration control
This report contains the following stories.
* Immigration from Mexico down to "almost nothing"

* Border fence knocked down by rain water

* Record number of immigration bills introduced in 2011

* Also noted
Plus 1 additional story.
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