Immigration sweep nets 280 with criminal records

“Immigration agents arrested 280 people in California in their biggest push yet to round up suspected illegal immigrants with criminal records in local communities, authorities said Friday.

More than 400 agents and local law enforcement officers fanned out across the state in the three-day search led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

‘These are not people who we want walking our streets,’ ICE director John Morton said. ‘We’re going to focus on those people who choose to pursue a life of crime in the United States rather than pursue the American dream of education, hard work and success.’”

(The Associated Press: Immigration sweep nets 280 with criminal records)

ICE to Audit 1,000 More Companies in Immigration Crackdown

“Immigration enforcement officials said Thursday that they were expanding a program for auditing companies that might have hired illegal immigrants and had notified 1,000 companies this week that they would have to undergo such a review.”

(Source: ICE to Audit 1,000 More Companies in Immigration Crackdown – NYTimes.com)

Detroit-based task force targets crime spilling over U.S. border

“The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unveiled today a 50-member task force comprised of federal, state, local and Canadian agencies designed to combat cross-border crimes.

The Border Enforcement Security Task Force, or BEST, will focus on national security and terrorist threats, human smuggling and trafficking, contraband smuggling, money laundering, bulk cash smuggling, transnational gang activities and other criminal acts. The team, which is the third along the northern border, covers 721 miles. The initiative will be housed in the federal building downtown.

‘For those who are involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking or selling firearms, the international border really doesn’t exist,’ said Terrence Berg, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. “

(Detroit-based task force targets crime spilling over U.S. border | detnews.com | The Detroit News)

Napolitano: local partners essential in the fight against terrorism and border security

“Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today delivered remarks at the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Conference in Denver, Colo., emphasizing her commitment to enhanced information sharing with state and local law enforcement partners to combat threats of terrorism.

‘Effective information sharing is essential to our partnerships with state and local law enforcement as we work together to secure our country,’ said Secretary Napolitano. ‘DHS will continue to strengthen fusion centers and other collaborative initiatives across the country to enhance our capabilities to combat terrorism and serious crime.’”

(Source: Napolitano: local partners essential in the fight against terrorism and border security)

At least 4 people shot in Mexico-U.S. border incident

“The San Ysidro Port of Entry on the U.S.-Mexico border in California was temporarily closed Tuesday after four people were wounded by gunfire that erupted from three vans packed with than 70 people headed from Mexico toward the border, officials said.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer also fired their guns, said Angela Decima, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Border Patrol.

Three of the casualties were critically wounded, said San Diego, California, Fire Department Spokesman Maurice Luque. The fourth person wounded was in a separate vehicle, said Decima.”

(Source: At least 4 people shot in Mexico-U.S. border incident – The CNN Wire – CNN.com Blogs)

Feds to start immigration crackdown on contractors

For federal contractors, it’s time to start checking whether employees are able to legally work in the United States.

Beginning Tuesday, the federal government is requiring federal contractors to use the E-Verify system to check the immigration and citizenship status of the people they hire and assign to new federal contracts.

“Don’t panic about this. You do have time, but the time will pass quickly, so vigilance is important,” Bonnie Gibson, a partner with New York-based Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy law firm, told hundreds of contractors who dialed in to a conference call last week for an explanation of the Obama administration’s latest immigration enforcement rule. (AP)

What US Homeland Security collects about you

Any time a person crosses the US border, the Department of Homeland Security assigns travelers with a “risk assessment” score to divine their likelihood of any involvement with a terrorist cell or criminal activity.

That score is calculated by feeding a large volume of personal information into an automated system (rather imposingly) called the “Automated Targeting System,” or ATS. But what sensitive dirt the DHS stores about the average person isn’t generally known. (Register)

Immigration official says agents will no longer have to meet quotas

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday in Los Angeles that he has ended quotas on a controversial program designed to go after illegal immigrants with outstanding deportation orders.

John Morton, a career prosecutor who took over as assistant secretary of Homeland Security in May, said during a meeting with reporters that he planned to make more changes soon. The “fugitive operations” program, he said, should do what it was created to do — target absconders who have already had their day in court. (LA Times)

Networks smuggle cocaine into Canada

Deep in the jungles of Peru or Colombia, a kilo of cocaine can be bought for as little as $3,000.

By the time it makes the 7,000-plus-kilometre journey to the streets of Vancouver, that kilo is worth as much as $30,000.

It is that huge increase that fuels the greed of B.C. crime groups, who have developed sophisticated north-south networks to smuggle coke into Canada and their currency commodities — marijuana and synthetic drugs — south. (Vancouver Sun)

Heightened security at U.S.-Canada border catching few terror suspects

Two Border Patrol agents board a bus in upstate New York, asking everyone “What’s your nationality?” Prove you’re allowed to be here.

A canine barks at a knapsack. Its owner is a legal Chinese refugee with fear in her eyes. Border Patrol agents have found her with a marijuana cigarette. Hours later, she’s still being detained.

This is the face today of the U.S. Border Patrol in the North. Operating up to 100 miles from Canada with a federal mandate to catch terrorists, agents now crouch in the Vermont snow, ride horseback in Montana and patrol ferry terminals in Washington state. For thousands of working immigrant families, it is a frightening specter. (Seattle PI)

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