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Suit Filed with Supreme Court

The state of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit directly with the U.S. Supreme Court that contends illegal immigrants should not be included in census totals used to apportion House seats.

Louisiana says 2010 census numbers include millions of people who are not permanent residents of any state, and Louisiana has lost a House seat as a result, SCOTUSblog reports. The Constitution’s requirement for a census refers only to people who have a permanent legal residence in the states, according to the suit.

The federal government will likely offer its views before the Supreme Court decides whether to allow the suit.

Topics = Illegal immigration, census counts, lawsuit, immigration court rulings, U.S. census

November 15, 2011
Jerry Seper
The Washington Times

The union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents is challenging an effort by Texas prosecutors to block the release of information used to build a successful case against a Border Patrol agent convicted of wielding excessive force, saying the American public has a right to see the evidence.

Shawn P. Moran, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), said the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas sought a protective order to prohibit the release of discovery material without stating a reason - other than to suggest it contains information of a “sensitive nature.”

“Could the reason behind this motion be that U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman does not want the public to see the real nature of his selective prosecution of Border Patrol agents,” said Mr. Moran, whose group has taken its case to U.S. District Court.

“Perhaps it is to hide the flimsy evidence that supported his prosecution in order to avoid the public outcry as occurred after the prosecution of Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean.”
 
Subjects = Illegal immigration, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S.-Mexico border, drug smugglers, DHS, ICE

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is promising to press several controversial immigration measures when the state legislature reconvenes in January.

Having made immigration his signature issue, Kobach told the Lawrence Journal-World, that he wants the legislature to take up several immigration-related measures in the next session. This includes a bill similar to the controversial Arizona immigration measure he helped write, which allows police officers to detain individuals they believe may be undocumented.

"I think one of the reasons is that there is just so much demand for it from constituents," he said.
Also, he said, an e-Verify bill that has failed in the past in the Kansas Legislature is more likely to gain acceptance because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in May that upheld an Arizona law that requires employers use the E-Verify database system to check the immigration status of their workers.

During the 2011 session, legislation similar to another Arizona anti-illegal immigration law, and a bill to repeal in-state tuition for some undocumented students, was under consideration. Kobach has been a driving force behind both measures.

Topics: Illegal immigration, Kris Kobach, undocumented students

PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer urged a federal judge to throw out one of the three remaining legal challenges to Arizona's immigration enforcement law, arguing the state's attempt to fix its border problems isn't trumped by federal law.

The governor's lawyers said in a court filing Friday that the group that filed the lawsuit in question was offering speculation about the law's effects and implications.

The lawsuit by the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, alleges that Arizona's law should be invalidated because it's superseded by federal immigration law and the state can't enact statutes to control the flow of immigrants.

A federal judge has already put the law's most controversial elements on hold, but the 2010 lawsuit by LULAC seeks to invalidate other sections that took effect, such as a ban on blocking traffic when people seek or offer day-labor services on streets.


Topics: Illegal immigration, Arizona, US/Mexico Border,Gov.Brewer

Friends of ALIPAC,

We have no other choice than to go into full blown emergency mode today.

We only have 16 days left until our fund raising deadline and we have only raised $10,000 of the $40,000 minimum operations budget we need to stay in the fight against illegal immigration.

At this time, we are unfortunately going into emergency financial survival mode. All ALIPAC efforts will be directed towards raising the funds we need to avoid shutting down in December.

We need our supporters to consider two actions...

The number of foreign-born residents in the United States — including legal and illegal immigrants — reached 40 million last year, the highest figure in American history, new Census Bureau figures disclose.

Nearly 14 million new immigrants came to America from 2000 to 2010, making it the highest-ever decade for immigration.
The increase came even though there was a net decline of jobs during the decade, showing that immigration remains high even during periods of economic weakness.

“This does not mean that immigration is entirely unconnected to the U.S. job market,” observes Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, who analyzed the new Census figures for the Center.

“But these figures are a reminder that immigration levels are not as tightly linked to the economy as some have imagined. Such factors as the desire to access public services or to enjoy greater political freedom or join relatives in the United States significantly impact migration.”

Topics: illegal immigration, US/Mexico border, immigration levels,

Brian Terry, a Border Patrol agent killed in the line of duty nearly a year ago, was honored at a memorial ceremony Saturday as a patriot, a hero, a man of honor.

"His memory is our eternal blessing," Gov. Jan Brewer said.

"This man committed his entire adult life to handling America's business," added Jay Dobyns, a federal agent who served as master of ceremonies.

Terry, a former U.S. Marine and ex-police officer, was killed Dec. 14 when his Border Patrol tactical unit got into a midnight gunbattle with banditos in a canyon near Rio Rico.

Two rifles recovered at the scene were traced to Operation Fast and Furious, a controversial federal gun-running investigation that allowed hundreds of weapons into Mexico.

Subjects: U.S. Border Patrol, border violence, U.S.-Mexico border, Agent Brian Terry, ATF, Operation Fast and Furious

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry died almost one year ago. Despite almost daily headlines about the ongoing scandal in the Obama administration, his devastated parents have said nothing publicly about the U.S. program that helped provide the weapons that killed their son.

Until now.

In separate interviews, Josephine and Kent Terry lashed out Thursday at those they blame for Brian's murder -- Attorney General Eric Holder, his top assistant Lanny Breuer, former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, and those ATF officials who approved, executed and supervised Operation Fast and Furious.

Topics = Border violence, U.S. Border Patrol, Agent Brian Terry, Operation Fast and Furious, U.S.-Mexico border, ATF

Order sought that would conceal truth about agent's prosecution

November 11, 2011
Jerome R. Corsi
WorldNetDaily.com Inc.

WND has learned that the Obama administration is moving to impose a gag order in the case of Border Patrol Agent Jesus "Chito" Diaz, Jr., in direct response to the publication by WND of an April 2009 DHS report documenting the government initially had declined prosecution.

Subsequently, apparently after the intervention of the Mexican government, the Obama administration reversed its decision and decided to prosecute Diaz for violating the civil rights of a 15-year-old Mexican drug smuggler, identified only by the initials "MBE," who was in the process of smuggling 75 pounds of marijuana concealed in a backpack into the United States.

Diaz currently is in federal prison serving a two-year criminal sentence in solitary confinement.

Subjects = Illegal immigration, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S.-Mexico Border, DHS, ICE, drug smuggler

Friends of ALIPAC,

From the two articles below it is clear that there is an attempt to raise America's legal immigration levels beyond the nation-submerging historic levels we already endure. Over 1.6 million legal immigrants are allowed into America each year, which is more than any other nation on earth.

While we have supported those that legally immigrate, over half of the 12-20 million illegal aliens currently in America are visa overstays because the Executive Branch makes little effort to send "visitors" home and everyone around the world knows this. Around 90% of our supporters, and Americans in general, want legal immigration levels REDUCED to more sustainable and traditional levels.

Yet, we have picked up this recent public relations effort to increase "tourism" specifically from the large illegal alien donor nations of China, India, and Brazil!

ALIPAC NOTE: Over half of America's illegal alien population are visa overstays because there are no efforts to assure 'visitors' leave when they are supposed to.  America has just experienced the largest was of immigration, legal and illegal, in our nation's history in the last ten years.  Americans are screaming for relief from the deluge and now some want to increase legal immigration levels?

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The travel industry today became the latest to slam federal rules and bureaucracy, charging that tough visa rules for potential tourists have robbed the nation of $600 billion and hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Two grim facts: More Chinese now visit France than the United States, in part because it's hard to get a U.S. visitors visa. And while the U.S. used to be the destination for 17 percent of the world's tourists in 2000, that's dropped to 12.4 percent and shows no sign of changing.

"Even as world travel grew by more than 60 million travelers between 2000 and 2010, the U.S. share of the market remained essentially flat. During this 'lost decade,' our economy squandered an opportunity to gain $606 billion in total spending from 78 million additional visitors—enough to support 467,000 more jobs annually," said a new report out this afternoon from the U.S. Travel Association.

"We know that we are not getting our share," said USTA spokesman Robert Bobo.

November 10, 2011
Jerry Seper
The Washington Times

The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee says the Justice Department has refused to make available 11 of 12 department witnesses called by the panel for transcribed interviews in the ongoing investigation of the botched Fast and Furious weapons operation.

Sen. Chuck Grassley said that despite the department's promises of good faith cooperation in the probe, only one witness has been provided so far - former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Arizona, who resigned in August after taking responsibility for his mistakes during testimony about Fast and Furious before a House committee.

"The department has refused to schedule interviews with any of the other 11 witnesses. That's not the good-faith cooperation I was promised, and it is unacceptable," said Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican. "If this controversy has taught us anything, it is that you have to talk directly to the people who know the facts.

Topics: Border violence, DOJ, Operation Fast and Furious, U.S.-Mexico border, ATF, congressional investigations

The Justice Department on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to stay out of a lawsuit involving Arizona’s immigration law, saying lower courts properly blocked tough provisions targeting illegal immigrants.

The state law is a challenge to federal policy and is designed to establish Arizona’s own immigration policy, the department’s solicitor general said in a filing with the justices. Arizona says the law is an effort to cooperate with the federal government

One provision requires that police, while enforcing other laws, question a person’s immigration status if officers suspect they are in the country illegally. In April, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge’s ruling halting enforcement of that and other key provisions in the Arizona law.

Subjects: Illegal immigration, state immigration laws, Obama administration, Supreme Court, immigration court rulings

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