News

U.S.-Mexico border improvements discussed

Published:  

"Guard troops, many of them Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, refurbished nearly four miles of the 16-foot-high secondary fence running through and east of San Diego. They constructed 973 metal barriers in more remote areas of the border, which are designed to stop vehicles from crashing through. Guard troops flew U.S. Border Patrol agents to remote areas favored by immigrant smugglers with their Blackhawk and Huey helicopters...." http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/34705

Joe Vargo & Michelle Klampe

Official: Immigration crackdown pushes down crime

Published:  

"A Prince William County official is attributing a decline in certain types of crime last year to the county's crackdown on illegal immigrants.

A study released last week says homicides declined by 44 percent from 2006 to 2007. The incidence of rape fell 33 percent, robberies declined 23 percent, and aggravated assaults declined 18 percent...."

http://www.wric.com/global/story.asp?s=8577480

AP, 30 June 2008

Immigrant housing trial starts

Published:  

"As William Jerry Hadden's attorneys see it, the federal government is singling out their client to send a message to landlords: Don't rent to illegal immigrants.

Hadden, 69, goes on trial Monday on 24 counts of harboring illegal aliens and 24 counts of encouraging illegal immigrants to remain in the country. Hadden and his son, Jamey, who is in Vietnam, rented to 60 undocumented immigrants at the Woodridge and Cross Keys apartments in Lexington's Cardinal Valley...."

L.A. County jails to expand immigration screening

Published:  

"Sheriff's officials, who have been trained by federal authorities to screen for illegal immigrants at the jail, have interviewed nearly 20,000 inmates since the controversial program began more than two years ago. They have referred 10,840 people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for possible deportation.

Last week, the Sheriff's Department received $500,000 in county funding to expand the jail screening and to increase the number of interviewers from eight to 13.

State officials want better tracking of illegal immigrants in prisons

Published:  

"South Carolina's prisons hold 369 illegal immigrants serving sentences for killing, raping, robbing and other offenses, a population that has nearly doubled in the past five years, according to state prison officials.

Officials say they may not be the only illegals in the prisons because the system relies mostly on inmates to tell them their immigration status when they are admitted, raising questions about whose job it is to determine their status and what happens when they're freed after serving their sentences...."

Breaks in border fence have residents suspicious of DHS's plans

Published:  

"When the border fence is constructed along the Rio Grande, Fermin Leal will watch as the barrier slices through the backyards of his neighbors, bypassing his 500-acre farm in San Pedro.

The fence's trajectory, incontiguous and largely unexplained, has left many border residents suspicious of the federal government's plans.

"I'm still not sure how my land is different than theirs," Leal said. "They still haven't given us any answers....""

A McCain flip-flop on immigration?

Published:  

"In the aftermath of McCain's closed-door visit with more than 100 Hispanic leaders on Wednesday--sandwiched into a fundraising visit by the Republican contender--a conservative anti-illegal immigration activist who attended the meeting contended McCain was offering conservatives one view of immigration reform while telling Latinos another.

Border governors worried about National Guard pullout

Published:  

"he thousands of National Guardsmen sent to reinforce the U.S.-Mexican border two years ago have almost completely withdrawn, despite pleas from border-state governors once skeptical of using soldiers to catch illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

When the Guard was posted along the southern frontier in 2006 to help the strapped Border Patrol, critics warned that sending soldiers would be an insult to Mexico and that innocents could get shot by troops trained for combat, not law enforcement...."

Immigration raids often spare employers

Published:  

"Over the past eight months, federal immigration agents have arrested more than 2,900 suspected undocumented workers on administrative immigration charges and 775 more workers on criminal charges such as identity theft or Social Security fraud.

Only 75 ''bosses" — business owners, supervisors or human resources workers — have been arrested on charges such as harboring or knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants...."

Pages