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Gov. Jan Brewer provides behind-the-scenes details in her new book about her handling of Arizona's controversial immigration enforcement law last year, including a tense meeting with President Barack Obama and her administration's attempts to avoid being branded racist over the crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Brewer devotes much of the book to defending the immigration law, describing it as a fair, effective and necessary response to what she said amounts to Washington turning a blind eye on border security. She said her administration was aware early on that the state would face an outcry and allegations of racism, and responded by making what they thought were important changes to the law to minimize those concerns.

Topics: Illegal immigration, state immigration laws, Governor Jan Brewer, SB 1070, border security

Chris Crane, president of a union that represents Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, testified in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration last week that ICE agents have been told by ICE headquarters not to arrest illegal aliens who do not have a prior criminal conviction even if they are fugitives who have been ordered deported by an immigration judge or are individuals who have illegally re-entered the United States after being deported and thus have perpetrated a felony.

“Aliens who could not be arrested included but were not limited to ICE fugitives that had been ordered deported by a federal immigration judge as well as aliens who had illegally re-entered the United States after deportation, a federal felony,” Crane, who is also an active-duty ICE agent, told the committee on Oct. 12.

Subjects = Illegal immigration, I.C.E., criminal aliens, DHS, illegal re-entry, Obama administration

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that under the administration’s policy of exercising “prosecutorial discretion” in the enforcement of the immigration laws, her department is currently authorizing some illegal aliens to work in the United States.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking-member of the Senate Judiciary panel, asked Napolitano: “According to the information from your department, some individuals who are given relief will obtain work authorizations. So people with no right to be in the country will be allowed to work here. Is that correct?”

Napolitano said: “Well, senator, since around 1986 there has been a process where those who are technically unlawfully in the country may apply for work authorization. This goes to CIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services]. It's not an ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] or CBP [Customs and Border Protection] function. And those cases are reviewed by CIS in a case-by-case basis. So there’s no change in that process. Like I said, that goes back to the mid-80s that is contemplated now.”

Sen. Grassley then asked, “But yes, some of them could have an opportunity to work here even though they are here illegally?”

“Well, that happens now, senator,” said Napolitano.

The three agencies she mentioned are all components of DHS.

Subjects - Illegal immigration, Dept of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, memo amnesty, Chuck Grassley, Jeff Sessions, Simpson-Mazzoli Act, employment, guest worker amnesty.

President Felipe Calderon on Monday accused U.S. authorities of deporting Mexican criminals to save on judicial costs, a policy that ostensibly "exacerbates" violence.

Within the framework of the inauguration of National Immigration Week 2011 in this capital, Calderon said that, for example, U.S. authorities "are deporting up to 80,000 people in a year" into the border cities of Reynosa and Ciudad Juarez.

Some of these deported people "are migrants, certainly, probably all of them," although some were "already involved in criminal acts" in the United States.

"In the face of the dilemma of pursuing the legal process in the American courts, which implies costs for the administration of justice in that country, they simply prefer to deport them to border cities, by which the cycle of violence is exacerbated even more," he said.

Topics:  Illegal immigration, Felipe Calderon, criminals, deportation, Mexico

SAN DIEGO — The first Mexican carrier is set to roll over the border into Texas and head along Interstate 35 toward the U.S. interior within days, but the Teamsters union and two California congressmen haven't given up on stopping the cross-border trucking program that had been stalled for years by safety concerns and political wrangling.

U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter and Bob Filner joined Teamsters President James Hoffa at the border Wednesday to take a bipartisan stand against the pilot project that will let approved Mexican trucks come deep into the U.S. The first Mexican truck will enter Texas on Friday on a route likely to take it through Austin.

The lawmakers and Hoffa were surrounded by more than 75 union members at a news conference near a major border crossing in San Diego. Hunter is a San Diego-area Republican, and Filner is a Democrat whose district includes California's border with Mexico.

Allowing Mexican trucking companies to deliver the goods rather than transfer them to U.S. haulers at the border will put American jobs and highway safety at risk, they said.

"We're literally taking good jobs here in America and passing them over the line to Mexico," Hunter said.

Subjects - Mexican trucking, NAFTA, Texas, Duncan Hunter, safety.

The Obama administration might be touting the nearly 400,000 deportations of illegal immigrants last year as evidence that the White House is tough on enforcement and dedicated to reform, but don't try to convince Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

The Illinois Democrat – perhaps the most vocal immigrant-rights advocate on Capitol Hill – said Tuesday that the record-breaking figure is "nothing to be proud of," but instead represents "a symptom of our decades-long neglect in fixing the immigration system."

"We are deporting hundreds of thousands of people who came to the country to work, raise families, contribute to the economy, and want nothing more than to be allowed to live and work here legally," Gutierrez said in a statement. "Setting a record for deportations and incurring the huge expense of sending so many people away is nothing to be proud of as a country."

The comments were a response to new figures from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bureau indicating that the government deported 396,906 individuals in fiscal year 2011 — the most in the agency's history. More than half of those individuals (almost 55 percent) had been convicted of felonies or misdemeanors during their stay — nearly doubling the number of criminal deportations under President George W. Bush in 2008, ICE reported.
 
Subjects: Illegal immigration, deportations, immigration statistics, Democrats, illegal immigrant arrests

The federal government conducts studies on nearly everything, including one in which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spent $2.5 million to track cow flatulence and how it may contribute to global warming as well as a 1981 U.S. Department of the Army study on the proper way to buy Worcestershire sauce (Federal Specification EE-W-600F).

However, the feds have never seen fit to track the number and types of crimes committed by illegal aliens. Of course, given their miserable record on defending this nation’s borders along with the current crime wave which can be attributed to those who enter this nation illegally…it is not surprising that those charged with protecting the citizenry from foreign invaders would not want these numbers made public.

But, they may soon change.

Topics: Illegal immigration, Republicans, immigration bills, illegal alien crimes, Illegal Alien Crime Reporting Act of 2011

Hispanic Activists Cry Foul Over Arizona Being Awarded 2015 Super Bowl

The NFL’s decision to pick Arizona this week to host the Super Bowl in 2015 has outraged some Hispanic activists who had organized a boycott of the state after a controversial immigration law passed last year.

“In light of Arizona’s hate-based legislation, the action taken by the NFL serves as an endorsement of the state’s abhorrent actions against the Latino and migrant communities,” said Margaret Moran, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the largest Hispanic civil rights group in the country.

“Instead of supporting efforts that would encourage stakeholders and community leaders to build alliances and re-direct state politics away from hate-based legislation, the NFL has chosen to prove an economic shot in the arm to state that will only continue to oppress an already disadvantaged community."

Subjects = Illegal immigration, state immigration laws, SB 1070, LULAC, NCLR

This article is about HR 3012, a bill to make it much easier for Indian and Chinese temporary guest workers to get green cards and stay here in jobs they were given in preference to American workers.  If this doesn't sound good to you, better contact your representatives fast, as this bill is the outcome of 6 years of stealth lobbying and is being fast-tracked right now.

Is it time for the U.S. to make it easier for highly skilled foreign nationals -- high-level engineers, medical specialists, research scientists, specialized academics -- to enter the United States for employment? Rep. Jason Chaffetz thinks so. He is a co-sponsor of the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act (HR 3012), which would eliminate the current numerical limitation by country (different countries have different limits) and adjust the limits on family visas without increasing the total number of available visas.

The numerical caps by country mean that an American business that needs a particular worker may not be able to make the hire.

"The current percentage cap has created a backlog of qualified workers," Chaffetz said. "American companies view all highly skilled immigrants as the same regardless of where they are from, and our immigration policy should do the same."

This is a good idea, and long overdue. The per-nation caps on immigration are relics of a bygone era when most people worked on farms or in assembly-line factories. High-level skills were of less importance because it was mainly the Americans who had them.

That is no longer the case. The assumption of the technical superiority of the American worker is long gone. To continue to thrive, American businesses need to tap an outside pool. Government needs to get out of their way.

Subjects:  Immigration, HR 3012, Jason Chaffetz, work visas, skilled workers.

As many as 10,000 children could be the victims of gang-related sexual abuse, it was claimed last night.

And the Children’s Commissioner’s Office said many more could be subjected to exploitation.

It is launching a two-year inquiry aimed at lifting the lid on the scale of the shocking crimes that reach into all parts of society.

The investigation will examine how often vulnerable children are being sexually exploited by organised criminal gangs and other groups.

It will study the appalling phenomenon of Asian men grooming white girls for sex and how teenage girl gang members can be forced into prostitution.

Subjects - Human trafficking, England, sexual abuse, sex gangs, crime, children, Asian, Pakistani, study.

Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and Mexican pledge of allegiance as part of a Spanish class assignment, but the school district maintains there was nothing wrong with the lesson.

It happened last month in an intermediate Spanish class at Achieve Early College High School in McAllen, Texas — a city located about 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Wearing red, white and green, students had to memorize the Mexican anthem and pledge and stand up and recite them in individually in front of the class.


That didn’t go over well with sophomore Brenda Brinsdon. The 15-year-old sat down and refused to participate. She also caught it all on video:

“I just thought it was out of hand, I didn’t think it was right,” she told The Blaze. “Reciting pledges to Mexico and being loyal to it has nothing to do with learning Spanish.”

She said she was particularly offended because the presentations in teacher Reyna Santos’s class took place during “Freedom Week,” the week after the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and on U.S. Constitution Day — the same day as Mexico’s Independence Day.

“Why are we doing their independence when it‘s Freedom Week and it’s also Constitution Day?” Brinsdon said.
Topics: Mexico, US Constitution, Mexican National Anthem, Texas

Rep. Darrell Issa acknowledged Sunday that operations "similar" to the controversial "Fast and Furious" gunrunning probe were conducted under the Bush administration.

But the House Republican spearheading an investigation into the operation under Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department claimed the past operations were different in that they were "coordinated with Mexico."

Issa's comments follow fresh reports about gunrunning probes spanning the Bush and Obama administrations.
Newly disclosed documents reveal there was a second Arizona-based investigation during the Bush administration in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allegedly let guns "walk" as a way to target weapons-trafficking suspects.

Holder, in defending himself against charges over "Fast and Furious," has also noted there was another investigation known as "Operation Wide Receiver." From 2006 to about the end of 2007, those investigators "permitted guns to be transferred to suspected gun traffickers and had not interdicted them," according to a current Justice Department official.

"Fast and Furious" was unique for the sheer number of guns that were allowed to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, and the fact that weapons tied to the investigation ended up at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry late last year.
Topics: Fast & Furious, Eric Holder, illegal immigration,

ATLANTA (AP) — A U.S. appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked parts of what has been called the toughest immigration law in the country, saying the state of Alabama can't require schools to check the immigration status of students but letting stand a provision that allows police to detain immigrants who are suspected of being in the country illegally.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order after the Obama administration challenged the Alabama law, saying it could strain relations with Latin American countries, and advocacy groups said it had thrown the state into "chaos."

Friday's opinion also blocked a part of the Alabama law that makes it a crime for immigrants to not have proper documentation.

A final decision on the law won't be made for months, to allow time for more arguments.

Many frightened Hispanics have left the state since a U.S. judge upheld much of the law in late September, fearing they could be arrested or targeted by police. Construction workers, landscapers and field hands stopped coming to work, and large numbers of Hispanic students have been absent from public schools.

To cope with the labor shortage, Alabama agriculture commissioner John McMillan at one point suggested farmers should consider hiring inmates in the state's work-release program.
Topics: illegal immigration, Alabama. 11th U Circuit Court of Appeals, 

A detailed report discussing border violence has been released. It documents the spillover violence affecting our border. These stats come from the Department of Public Safety. This is the first time we've seen this kind of detailed evidence.

The stats come from both sides of our border. The DPS reportedly tracked more than 200 decapitations in Mexico since the beginning of 2009. There were 64 decapitations in the first six months of this year alone.

Less gruesome but just as serious crimes are documented on U.S. soil. CHANNEL 5 NEWS has reported many instances right here in the valley. DPS says bullets have crossed from Mexico into the United States at least eight times since 2009. CHANNEL 5 NEWS found a neighborhood in 2010 peppered with fire from across the river. Neighborhoods on the border are high risk.

Topics = Illegal immigration, border violence, smugglers, U.S.-Mexico border, kidnappings, U.S. Border Patrol

PERRY, Iowa - Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann on Saturday signed a pledge to push for construction of a fence along the entire length of the border with Mexico, raising the issue of illegal immigration in an Iowa town where about one third of the residents are Hispanic.

Bachmann also renewed her attacks on the immigration policies of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, one of the rivals for the Republican nomination, and she criticized President Barack Obama for what she called his failure to control the border.

"President Obama has failed the American people by failing to secure the southern border," said Bachmann. "I will secure that border and that will be job one."

Subjects: Illegal immigration, Republicans, campaigns, national security, border fence, illegal immigration costs

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Texas lawmakers say an assassination plot by a Texas man shows how vulnerable the border is to terrorism.

Super secretive terrorist trainers is what Iran's Revolutionary Army is. They're called the Quds. They answer to the president of Iran.

Federal prosecutors say Mansoor Arbabsiar got his marching orders to assassinate the Saudi ambassador from the Quds. Arbabsiar thought he was talking to a cartel member in Mexico to arrange the murder for hire plot. He traveled to Reynosa several times from Austin. The cartel member was actually a DEA informant.

Topics = Border security, U.S.-Mexico border, terrorism threat, drug cartels, Iran

There's a new twist in the government's "gunwalking" scandal involving an even more dangerous weapon: grenades.

CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, who has reported on this story from the beginning, said on "The Early Show" that the investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)'s so-called "Fast and Furious" operation branches out to a case involving grenades. Sources tell her a suspect was left to traffic and manufacture them for Mexican drug cartels.

Police say Jean Baptiste Kingery, a U.S. citizen, was a veritable grenade machine. He's accused of smuggling parts for as many as 2,000 grenades into Mexico for killer drug cartels -- sometimes under the direct watch of U.S. law enforcement.

Law enforcement sources say Kingery could have been prosecuted in the U.S. twice for violating export control laws, but that, each time, prosecutors in Arizona refused to make a case.

Topics: Fast and Furious: Gunwalking: ATF: DHS

Opponents of Alabama’s new immigration law can now call the Justice Department directly to make complaints about the state’s effort to crack down on illegal immigrants.

The Justice Department has set up a hotline and email for the public “to report potential civil rights concerns related to the impact of Alabama’s immigration law.”

The Justice Department is seeking to block the enforcement of the law, which is widely considered the toughest in the nation. Justice officials filed a challenge to the law last week, claiming it is “highly likely to expose persons lawfully in the United States, including school children, to new difficulties in routine dealings.”
 
Topics = Illegal immigration, state immigration laws, Obama administration, Alabama immigration law

Donnelly Targets Dream Act

Angered by Gov. Jerry Brown's signing a bill to offer taxpayer assistance to illegal aliens applying to public colleges when the state is strapped for cash, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly said Tuesday he has filed a referendum to repeal the law.

"We need 504,000 valid signatures," said Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks), to qualify for the statewide ballot in either June or November 2012.

Donnelly said he filed papers with the office of Attorney General Kamala Harris on Monday. He estimated he already has lined up some 3,000 volunteer signature gatherers through a new website, his Facebook page and his office e-mail.

Brown's signing of the bill is also expected to add impetus to several already-begun efforts to recall Brown, Donnelly said. "There's chatter all over the Internet" about recall efforts, he said.

Subjects: Illegal immigration, California Dream Act, Gov. Jerry Brown, costs of illegal immigration, illegal alien students

Maryland - Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins Wednesday joined other law enforcement officials on Capitol Hill to laud a strict immigration enforcement program that some groups have criticized as ineffective.

"This is about the rule of law," Jenkins said. "This is about saving America. This is about public safety and national security."
 
In 2008, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office became authorized to act as field agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the 287(g) program. Since then, 965 individuals have been detained in Frederick County with 940 of those transferred to federal officials, according to Jenkins.

Topics: Illegal immigration, 287(g) program, illegal immigrant arrests, I.C.E., U.S.-Mexico border