VoteKansas.org

A controversial federal initiative aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants prompted significant internal confusion among FBI officials and concern about information-sharing relationships between federal, state, and local governments, emails released Thursday show.

A senior-level FBI official expressed concerns that the Secure Communities initiative, in which localities share with the FBI the fingerprints of individuals booked into jails to determine their immigration status, could jeopardize partnerships with local law-enforcement agencies, according to emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by a coalition of civil rights groups.

FBI officials also were concerned about directions regarding the program from the Department of Homeland Security and suggested a review by the U.S. attorney general.

Subjects: Illegal immigration, FBI, ICE, DHS, illegal immigrant arrests, Secure Communities initiative

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday acknowledged serious mistakes in an arms-trafficking probe that allowed AK-47s and other weapons to leak into the black market, but he insisted the Justice Department was taking steps to ensure that never happens again.

Under pointed questioning by Republicans, Holder also expressed regret that the Justice Department had denied allegations of "gun-walking" in a letter to Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley sent earlier this year.

"Unfortunately, we will feel its effects for years to come as guns that were lost during this operation continue to show up at crime scenes both here and in Mexico," Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee of the investigation, known as Operation Fast and Furious.

Grassley, the panel's top Republican, said the operation represented an "utter failure" by federal law enforcement officials to enforce existing gun laws.

The purchases of more than 2,000 weapons aroused the suspicion of Fast and Furious investigators, but the suspected straw buyers of those guns were allowed to walk out of Phoenix-area gun shops with AK-47s and other weapons, rather than being arrested.

The goal was to track those weapons to gun-trafficking ring leaders, suspected to include Mexican drug lords, who had long eluded prosecution. But agents lost track of about 1,400 of the guns. As of Oct. 20, 276 guns in Fast and Furious have been recovered in Mexico and 389 recovered in the United States.

Topics: Fast & Furious, Obama Administration, ICE, DHS, ATP

Chris Crane, president of the union that represents the nation’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, has provided the House Judiciary Committee and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) with what Crane says are internal ICE emails that back up testimony he gave in July and October that ICE headquarters had verbally ordered officers in the field not to arrest illegal aliens who did not have prior criminal convictions--even if they were fugitives evading deportation orders or were individuals who had illegally re-entered the United States after being deported and were thus committing a felony.

“Increasingly, ICE headquarters leadership refuses to put directives to supervisors, agents and officers in the field regarding law enforcement operations in writing,” Crane told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration in written testimony submitted on July 26.

“Orders and directives are given orally to prevent the activities of ICE's leadership from becoming public,” Crane, president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council 118, testified. “Agents and officers in the field are frequently under orders not to arrest persons suspected of being in the United States illegally.

Topics = Illegal immigration, I.C.E., Obama administration, ICE union, immigration laws, ICE emails

Friends of ALIPAC,

Those of you reading our homepage at www.alipac.us on a regular basis are already aware that the Obama administration is suing to stop the states of South Carolina, Alabama, and Arizona from enforcing illegal immigration laws. It is these states where ALIPAC activists have fought hard to pass strong legislation designed to curtail illegal immigration.

In several cases, other nations are asking to join the Obama administration's case against our states.

The Associated Press reported yesterday that "Sixteen Latin American and Caribbean nations have asked to join in the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit against South Carolina's new illegal immigration law, citing concerns for their citizens." The nations trying to prevent us from stopping illegal immigration along with Obama are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sixteen Latin American and Caribbean nations have asked to join in the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit against South Carolina's new illegal immigration law, citing concerns for their citizens.

Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, Ecuador and Chile and other countries filed papers Tuesday, asking to join the Justice Department's litigation in Charleston.

The law would require law officers who make a traffic stop to call federal immigration officials if they suspect someone is in the country illegally. Opponents say the measure would encourage racial profiling.

Topics: illegal immigration, South Carolina, ICE, 

The White House’s immigration lawyers have issued yet another bureaucratic order that will curb the election-year deportation of illegal immigrants, and perhaps spur the supply of Hispanic voters.

The new memo will shelter many illegals who have not committed violent crimes, or who are not suspected of being a national security threat, from routine deportation efforts by professionals in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency. There are roughly 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, including roughly seven million in the workforce.

The order is a “positive step … [because] it lets officers focus solely on the job at hand, [which is] referring most enforcement actions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency formed for that purpose,” said a Nov. 8 statement from Eleanor Pelta, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Topics: illegal immigration, deportation,ICE,Obama Administration

November 8, 2011
Mike Levine
FOX News Network

Holder 'Regrets' Death Of Border Patrol Agent, Stands By Response In Aftermath

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that he has not spoken with the family of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was killed in December by a group of assailants using at least two weapons tied to "Operation Fast and Furious," but he "certainly regrets" what happened.

Not offering an outright apology when prompted by a Republican senator to offer one, Holder, who was appearing Tuesday before Congress for the first time since his controversial testimony in May over the gun-running program, said he "can only imagine" the Terry family's pain. But, he said, it's "not fair to assume" that mistakes made during the botched operation "directly led" to Terry's death.

Holder was on the hot seat at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which he insisted that testimony he gave at his last appearance was accurate, but acknowledged that initial statements by the Justice Department after the issue became public were not.

Subjects = Border violence, Operation Fast and Furious, U.S.-Mexico border, Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Border Patrol

The federal government has sent a collection notice to the family of a Border Patrol agent who was jailed and fined for pulling on the arms of a handcuffed suspect to get him to comply with orders, according to a charitable organization working on a defense for Jesus E. Diaz Jr.

WND reported earlier on a call for Congress to hold hearings to uncover why U.S. law enforcement officers are being charged, prosecuted and sent to prison for apparently doing what their jobs require.

That call came from President Andy Ramirez of the Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council, which is working on Diaz' case. The officer was sentenced to 24 months in jail and fined nearly $7,000 for his conviction based on the testimony of a drug smuggler who was given immunity to testify.

WND reported earlier that U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder seeking an explanation for the federal government's actions.

Topics: Illegal immigration, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S.-Mexico border, drug smugglers, amnesty, jailed agents

In the latest of a series of sparring letters between the U.S. Justice Department and Alabama over educational issues surrounding the state's new immigration law, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange won't yield -- after the federal office noted its "express authority" to investigate.

Last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez pressured Alabama schools to abide by federal requirements that states cannot deny children equal access to public education based on immigration status. In a letter Monday to Alabama school superintendents, Perez requested information on enrollment practices by mid-month, saying that the state's new immigration law "may chill or discourage" young people from taking part in public education.

Perez seeks to determine whether the law has affected public school enrollment and determine if Alabama is in federal compliance and "whether further action is warranted."

In response, Strange questioned the Justice Department's legal authority to acquire enrollment information about students across the state's schools. He requested that the department respond by Friday, "otherwise, I will assume you have none, and will proceed accordingly," Strange wrote.

Subjects - Illegal immigration, Alabama, Luther Strange, Dept of Justice, Thomas Perez, education, HB 56.

MESA, Ariz. — The architect of the groundbreaking Arizona immigration law that thrust the issue into the national political debate faces a recall election Tuesday likely to be viewed as a referendum on the state's hardline immigration policies.

The effort to oust Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce has transformed a normally quiet legislative district in a Phoenix suburb into a closely watched battleground on immigration that also features issues such as school funding cuts and state mandates on local governments. 

People on both sides of the debate believe that removing Pearce would send a powerful message to the Legislature that uncompromising stands on immigration and other issues will not be tolerated by voters. On the flip side, a Pearce victory will say a tough stance on illegal immigration is just what voters demand.

"The folks running the recall are trying to send a message to the rest of the Legislature that if they can take out Russell Pearce, then they can take out any one of us, and to get us to stop running bills against illegal immigration," said Republican Sen. Ron Gould.

Topics: illegal immigration, Arizona, Senator Russell Pearce

The State Department is limiting participation in a troubled exchange program and putting a moratorium on new businesses becoming sponsors for thousands of foreign college students who use the program to visit the United States.

The agency published the new rules Monday. The changes to the J-1 summer work and travel program come 11 months after The Associated Press reported widespread abuses, from students working in strip clubs to others paid $1 an hour or less for menial jobs.

The students given temporary visas are required to have jobs and often work in resorts and restaurants. Participation has boomed from about 20,000 students in 1996 to a peak of more than 150,000 in 2008 and roughly one million foreign post-secondary students have participated in the past decade.

The State Department enacted stronger rules this past summer, but says complaints remain high.

The department says future participation will be limited to the "2011 actual participant levels."

Topics: ICE, US State Dept.,visas

The illegal immigration debate could not be any hotter. While JW was protecting the rights of Maryland citizens to stop tuition breaks for illegal aliens in Maryland, on October 14, a federal court blocked provisions of Alabama’s new tough illegal immigration enforcement law from taking effect — at the urging of the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) — while allowing other provisions to be enforced. At the same time, Arizona’s illegal immigration enforcement law, SB 1070, is expected to go before the U.S. Supreme Court soon (Judicial Watch currently represents the Arizona State Legislature in court and recently filed an amicus curiae brief with the High Court, which began its current term on October 3).

In the midst of this firestorm, Judicial Watch took aggressive action, launching a national television advertising campaign to combat illegal immigration. The purpose of the campaign is to collect petitions from the American people to send to the governors of all 50 states, urging them to obey and enforce all laws against illegal immigration. This campaign to encourage our nation’s governors to stand strong on illegal immigration law enforcement has become more urgent now that the Obama DOJ has decided to sue states for merely trying to protect their citizens from the scourge of illegal immigration.

But it’s not just the federal government that is to blame. Some states have decided to side with the illegal aliens, rolling out the welcome mat for illegal aliens through costly and unlawful sanctuary policies. That’s why we’re going national with this petition campaign. The petition campaign is being driven by a series of television advertisements that began broadcasting this week in California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, as well as nationwide on Fox Business News (FBN) and the Military Channel.

Topics: illegal immigration, Maryland, US/Mexico Border, Amnesty, states enforcement

As the federal government postpones dealing with the issue of illegal immigration, states like Arizona and Alabama are seeking to honor the federal laws regarding illegal immigration. As states like these seek to enforce the law, two Michigan city councils have voted to do the opposite and become sanctuary cities—cities where illegals are welcome to live in violation of federal law and at taxpayers’ expense. Surprisingly, both Detroit and Ann Arbor have now become sanctuary cities as documented in “The Original List of Sanctuary Cities, USA” available on the Internet.

Via local resolutions, executive orders or city ordinances, sanctuary cities protect illegal aliens. Once that is done, city police departments may develop their own policies, and procedures. Although the federal government is not taking action to uphold the law, Michigan must stand up and correct this.

There really are two issues. First is the violation of the law. The federal government is not upholding its own laws. Michigan does not want to follow suit.
Topics: illegal immigration, sanctuary cities, US/ Mexcio Border, Arizona, Michigan

Friends of ALIPAC,

Our funds are very low and our email response rate is low. We must have more donations immediately if we are going to continue normal operations during this funds drive.

Right now we only have $8,000 of the minimum of $40,000 we need to stay in the fight through February 1, 2012. We only have 24 days left till our deadline, but at this point our funds are to low to stay in operation till then!

Please take a few minutes to chip in on this funds drive. There are 40,000+ of you receiving this request. If we all pull together we can reach our minimal operations goals to keep ALIPAC in the national fight against illegal immigration and Amnesty...

November 5, 2011
Jordy Yager
Capitol Hill Publishing Corp.

As the chief law enforcement officer Attorney General Eric Holder came out swinging in the first months of the Obama administration as he pushed to reinstate the assault weapons ban, pointing to the rising levels of violence in Mexico and increased presence of U.S. guns south of the border.

But nearly two years later assault weapons can still be bought and Holder has found himself at the center of a quagmire involving a botched gun-tracking operation that sent thousands of high-powered firearms to Mexico in the hands of known or suspected straw buyers for drug cartels.

Amid a plethora of Republican calls for Holder’s resignation, Democrats have silently indicated their support for the attorney general. Instead of taking him to task for Operation Fast and Furious, Democratic lawmakers have tried to draw attention to what they describe as the country’s weak network of gun laws.

Subjects: Border violence, drug cartels, U.S.-Mexico border, Operation Fast and Furious, DOJ, NRA

Mexican citizens living in Virginia are being helped by an outreach program designed to inform them of their workplace rights.
The U.S. Department of Labor signed an agreement with an official from Mexico's Consulate General in Norfolk on Friday in an effort to curb labor law violations. About 160,000 Mexicans live in Virginia, although it is unclear how many of those are of working age or are employed. Federal labor laws also apply to workers regardless of immigration status.

"There is no distinction made whether the worker is in the country legally or illegally. We don't even ask that question. That's not part of our mission," said Bruce Clark, district director for the Labor Department's Richmond office.

Topics = Illegal immigration, Department of Labor, U.S.-Mexico border, Mexican Consulate

An undocumented Salvadoran man's arrest on murder charges has spurred county officials to attempt to crack down on illegal immigration.

The Frederick County Commissioners and sheriff have generated a number of ideas, such as requiring businesses to vet employees through federal databases and prohibiting day labor sites.

While some proposals were already in the works, the recent arrest of Jose Reyes Mejia-Varela brought the effort to the forefront, Commissioners President Blaine Young said Thursday.

U.S. officials deported Mejia-Varela in 2009, but he re-entered the country and last week was charged with the fatal shooting in March of a Burger King manager in Frederick.

Subjects: Illegal immigration, illegal immigrant crimes, county illegal immigration laws, E-Verify, taxpayers

The Justice Department on Friday told Alabama's attorney general that it has the "express authority" to investigate potential federal civil rights violations in Alabama's public schools authorized by the state's controversial new immigration law.

Assistant US Attorney General Thomas Perez informed Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange of the federal government's powers two days after Strange requested that the Justice Department cite what legal authority it had to collect enrollment data on Hispanic students in his state's public schools.

"The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is tasked with investigating potential violations of civil rights laws that protect educational opportunities for schoolchildren," Perez wrote in a letter. "We know that the longstanding legal tradition in this country of ensuring the right to attend school without being subject to discrimination on any impermissible ground is as critically important to you, as the Attorney General of the State of Alabama, as it is to the Civil Rights Division."

The Justice Department initially requested the enrollment information at Alabama public schools Monday after receiving complaints that the state's immigration law may violate federal anti-discrimination statutes related to education.

But Luther advised the state's school superintendent to decline to handover the data because of the ongoing litigation over the immigration law.

Subjects:  Illegal immigration, Alabama, Dept of Justice, HB 56

While the Justice Department focuses on taking action against state laws to combat illegal immigration, a group of U.S. Senators is asking the Obama Administration to stop ignoring local ordinances that undermine federal laws by offering undocumented aliens sanctuary.

In battling local immigration control measures nationwide, the DOJ has claimed that they conflict with federal immigration law and undermine the government’s careful balance of immigration enforcement priorities and objectives. The Obama Administration has made this argument recently in cases against Arizona and Alabama.

But what is the administration doing about local governments that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and blatantly ignore the legal status of arrested individuals? A group of Senate Judiciary Committee members posed the question to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano this week.

They specifically mentioned Cook County Illinois where local authorities openly flip the finger at the feds by refusing to report illegal immigrants who come in contact with police, even dangerous criminals. In fact, in 2007 Judicial Watch took legal action against the Chicago Police Department—which has a don’t-ask-don’t-tell immigration policy—after learning of an illegal immigrant sanctuary resolution that was being considered by Cook County’s Board of Commissioners at the time.

Topics - Illegal immigration, Obama administration, Cook County, ICE, Janet Napolitano, sanctuary city, public safety, DHS.

Today, U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), David Vitter (R-Louisiana) and Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) announced they will soon offer legislation to prohibit President Obama’s administration, including the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other agencies, from participating in lawsuits against South Carolina, Alabama and Arizona over recently passed immigration laws.

Senator DeMint said, “It’s absurd that the Obama Administration, which has failed to enforce the nation’s immigration laws, is now stopping South Carolina, Alabama and Arizona from taking commonsense steps to protect citizens and uphold the law. President Obama has failed to build the southern border fence mandated by Congress. He’s also failed to control the northern border, allowing the Border Patrol to stop conducting routine checks at bus stops and train stations for illegal immigrants who could be smugglers or terrorists. South Carolina has a duty uphold the law and to protect our citizens from criminals who are in the country illegally.”
 
Subjects: Illegal immigration, state immigration laws, Republicans, legislation, lawsuits, DOJ, GAO, DHS