The federal government has completed 500 miles of the 670-mile planned fence along the Southwest border. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff expects another 100 miles to be completed by the time Barack Obama takes office on January 20.
NumbersUSA has thousands of members who are too old to ever enjoy the better American future for which they fight. And, yet, fight they do with all their heart -- none more so than Alan Kuper, 84, of Cleveland. The day before he died of stomach cancer last weekend, he sent out an email to hundreds of his friends calling for more activism in his triple causes of U.S. population stabilization, immigration reduction, and environmental sustainability.
Federal authorities Wednesday arrested six people, including two with Pittsburgh ties, on charges that they operated a network of staffing services with more than 100 illegal workers from Eastern Europe.
The suspects hired workers from Russia, Ukraine, Estonia and Lithuania -- knowing their temporary visas had expired and assigned the workers to businesses in Pittsburgh, Monroeville and Ohio, prosecutors say. The defendants are accused of trying to hide the illegal workers' immigration status by providing housing, as well as transportation to and from work.
The Unicoi County Sheriff’s Department will participate in a federal program that will provide more training in handling issues related to illegal aliens that also could be used in other cases.
Sheriff Kent Harris and Lt. George Berry met Tuesday with two representatives of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency from New Orleans. The sheriff’s department had inquired about taking part in a program in which it would be able to take illegal aliens to a federal holding facility.
A Texas county filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court this week in the latest bid to stop construction of hundreds of miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In asking the court to review a lawsuit previously dismissed by a federal court judge, lawyers for El Paso County contend that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff overstepped his legal authority when he waived 37 federal laws that could have slowed or blocked construction of fencing along the border.
Farmers would have an easier and cheaper time securing foreign guest workers under pending Bush administration rules.
The controversial changes to the so-called H-2A guest-worker program could cut wages and speed worker recruitment. They also would relax requirements for providing foreign workers with housing and transportation.
"The Department of Labor is going to weaken oversight and enforcement," Bruce Goldstein, the executive director of the Farmworker Justice Fund, charged Wednesday.
The Macon County Sheriff's office is stepping up its role in immigration enforcement by partnering with Henderson County in an effort to speed the process of identifying illegal aliens.
Henderson County is one of seven in North Carolina participating in the newly formed 287(g) program. As part of the new cooperative effort, Henderson's sheriff's office can access federal immigration records. The county will also work with 17 western counties, including Macon, to assist in identifying and even detaining suspected illegals.
Federal Immigration agents have arrested 15 illegal immigrants working as contract janitors at the BP refinery in Whiting, Ind.
The 11 men and four women arrested Wednesday by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement worked for an Illinois janitorial company. Fourteen are from Mexico, and one is from Guatemala.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/dec/10/news/chi-ap-in-bp-illegalworkers
