Greenville County in South Carolina will join Beaufort and York counties as well as several other municipalities across the country in an effort to increase illegal immigration enforcement. Greenville County Councilman Bob Taylor told the Greenville News that illegal aliens are a burden on schools and health care systems.
The Bush Administration has launched an initiative with the help of IBM for changing the way immigration applications for visas, citizenship and approval to work in the United States are handled. The five-year, $500 million effort would convert the case-management system for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from paper to electronic.
The new system would allow other federal agencies to access immigration records faster. It would save time from the paper files and reduce the labor-intensive filing system currently in place.
Please sign our petition asking President-elect Barack Obama to support American workers over illegal aliens by rejecting an illegal alien amnesty.
Illegal aliens take job opportunities away from the most vulnerable Americans in skilled and unskilled positions. To force through an amnesty for illegal aliens would hurt American workers.
It is very important that you both sign the petition and ask your friends to sign it too.
Following the results of Tuesday's election, Texas Representative Lamar Smith and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee released a statement regarding immigration.
Tuesday's elections didn't just impact the federal level of government, but it also had a major impact at the state level as well. At least nine different state lawmaking bodies have seen a shift in party control.
The Alaska Senate which was controlled by the Republicans is now a tie. The New York Senate, Delaware House, Ohio House, Wisconsin Assembly and Nevada Senate have all switched from Republican control to the Democrats. Both the Tennessee House and Senate, Montana Senate and Oklahoma Senate have moved from the Democrats from the Republicans.
NumbersUSA has been keeping a close eye on several races that could impact immigration reform in the United States. Here are some of the major race results.
NumbersUSA had said that defeating Proposition 202 was the most important vote of these elections. The ballot measure was pushed by Arizona businesses that wanted to make it easier to hire illegal aliens and to gut a new Arizona law that may be the toughest in the nation in keeping illegal aliens out of jobs. Prop. 202 was deceptively named the "Stop Illegal Hiring Act" even though it would have done the exact opposite. NumbersUSA thanks all of you who sent money to pay for ads to inform voters of the deception just before Tuesday.
Francesco Insolia, the former owner of a New Bedford Mass. manufacturing company, yesterday pled guilty to helping harbor and conceal illegal aliens by allowing the company to submit false Social Security numbers for employees under Federal government contracts. As part of the plea agreement, Insolia will serve a jail term of up to 18 months and pay a fine of $30,000. A worksite enforcement operation at the company last year resulted in the detention of over 361 illegal aliens.
From major elections in the Senate to a completely reshaped House of Representatives to a new White House and to important ballot initiatives, today's election will be one of the most important in recent history. And with the impact it's sure to have on immigration reform, NumbersUSA is your source for election news and analysis on how it impacts U.S. immigration policy.
The former manager of a Postville Agriprocessors plant Sholom Rubashkin was arrested by federal immigration agents on Thursday morning. Rubashkin is the son of the company's owner and faces charges of conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants for financial gain, aiding and abetting document fraud and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft.
A flow chart examining the categories of migrants recognized under U.S. law.
Earlier this week, police in Cape Girardeau, Mo. arrested 12 people believed to be illegal aliens. The arrests make 51 people since July detained by Cape Girardeau police in an effort to help Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Two Immigration and Customs Enforcement teams arrested 19 near Bloomington, Minn. after a three-day initiative. Those arrested were a combination of illegal aliens and illegals that absconded after being ordered to leave the country.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is sharing part of its $1 million award with the Naugatuck Police Department. In April 2007, Jose and Diana Calhelha were sentenced after being convicted for their roles in harboring illegal aliens at their 10 Dunkin Donuts' franchises. The Naugatuck Police Department assisted the ICE with the case.
The Supreme Court accepted a case on Monday that could have a large impact on the government's enforcement of illegal aliens. The case will review whether or not prosecutors have to prove that defendants knowingly victimized real persons in identity theft cases.
With an increase in deportations of more than 50 percent over the last two years, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement team is ramping up its airline service. The ICE deported more than 76,000 illegal aliens during the fiscal year that ended September 30 on 10 aircraft - twice the fleet from a year ago.
A coalition of employers has started a group to lobby for increases in the number of low-skilled immigrants admitted into the United States. They claim to need workers for meatpacking, poultry plants, plant nurseries, landscape laborers, construction, restaurant work, and to work in hotels, presumably as maids and janitors. We believe that the website represents yet another lobby asking for a handout from the United States government.
One week has passed since ICE raided a Columbia Farms poultry plant in Greenville, S.C. and arrested 331 illegal aliens, but the agency’s investigations into illicit activity continue unabated. The focus of the ten-month investigation is now on finding out who allowed illegal aliens to be hired at the plant.
Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is asking the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals for assistance in enforcing a recently passes immigration law that has come under some scrutiny from various business groups. The law requires that employers verify employees, contractors and subcontractors through the federal employment verification system.
Anti-enforcement entities are crowing about estimates that the raid on the Postville, Iowa meatpacking plant cost more than $6 million thus far to deal with only 389 suspected illegal aliens. And that does sound like a lot of money. But my rough calculations suggest that if all 389 are deported, taxpayers are likely to save nearly $8 million in the first year alone.
ICE arrested a former worker in the Pilgrim’s Pride human resources department last week on charges of identification document fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to an ICE news release. The indictment against Hope Anguiano alleges that she and a co-defendant, Lucio Ramirez, conspired to provide identification documents to illegal aliens who did not have proper identification when applying for a job at the Pilgrim’s Pride Mount Pleasant, Texas facility.
Washington State officials have announced that they will screen potential farm hands for immigration violations before matching them to jobs. During the screening process, they will not use the federal verification system, making the matter more of a gesture than actual action.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement launched a raid Tuesday morning at the Columbia Farms poultry processing plant in Greenville, S.C. More than 300 workers were arrested on immigration charges.
A six-day operation by ICE’s N.J. regional office netted the arrests of 60 fugitive aliens and 16 other immigration violators. 24 of the fugitives had criminal records while seven of the other illegal aliens had criminal histories.
The fugitive arrestees included:
A Cuban male who was convicted of a felony for possession of a controlled dangerous substance on school property;
A Honduran female who was arrested for aggravated and simple assault;
A South Korean female who was arrested for promoting prostitution; and
ICE officers arrested 43 fugitive aliens (13 with criminal records) and an additional 35 immigration violators (13 with criminal histories) during a week-long operation in Pennsylvania and Delaware, according to an ICE news release. The Georgetown Police Department in Delaware and the Ross Police Department in Pennsylvania assisted in the operation.
The arrestees included:
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the Miami-area have arrested 116 immigration fugitives and immigration violators in a five-day targeted enforcement operation.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement recently conducted a month-long California immigration sweep which resulted in more than 1,100 arrests. Most of those arrested were specifically targeted because of outstanding deportation orders or criminal convictions.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in cooperation with local police, arrested 63 fugitive aliens and other immigration violators in Oklahoma City and in six surrounding towns last week, an ICE news release announced. A number of those arrested had criminal convictions that included voluntary manslaughter, possessing and distributing controlled substances, grand larceny, extortion, assault, burglary, larceny and drunken driving.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made raids in the San Francisco area and in Chicago. Both raids resulted in the arrest of 21 suspected illegal aliens.
Hundreds of local residents are queuing up to work at the Howard Industries plant that was raided two weeks ago in Laurel, Mississippi. Additionally, the plant may be forced to close for one year if it is found to have knowingly hired illegal aliens.
Recent employment figures show that California's day labor population is dropping due to a decrease in the number of construction jobs caused by America's recent economic downturn and the increased vigilance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The president and three managers of the Shipley Do-Nut Flour and Supply Company were charged last week with various immigration violations, including knowingly hiring illegal aliens and felonious conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens. The charges against the Houston-based company arose from a criminal investigation ICE initiated early this year that resulted in the administrative arrests of 27 illegal aliens in April.
In dissecting the Postville raids, many news stories, and even the Governor of Iowa, Chet Culver, have likened the working conditions in the Agriprocessors plant to those depicted in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Having recently reread The Jungle, I find it unfortunate that none of the news stories I have read touched on an obvious and important message of the revolutionary tome: that an influx of too many immigrants is the biggest contributor to such unspeakable working conditions. There were too many people for too few jobs.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 600 suspected illegal workers in a raid on an electronics plant Monday in Laurel, Mississippi. As of Monday evening "dozens of workers had been 'identified, fingerprinted, interviewed, photographed and processed for removal from the U.S.'"
ICE ended its self-deportation pilot program for non-criminal fugitive aliens last week, noting that it learned a lot from the three-week initiative. The main lesson was that the only method that works is enforcement.
"Changing laws have made life tougher for illegal immigrants in Arizona, including young people giving up dreams of college and better lives because they are unable to pay out-of-state tuition as required by voters.
With privately funded grants and scholarships lagging far behind the demand, some would-be students have dropped out, and others are considering a return to homelands they hardly remember in search of opportunity.
"The construction boom at Fort Lee is causing a significant increase in the number of illegal immigrants being arrested on the base compared with arrests at other military installations. And the number of arrests is likely to increase as the number of workers grows over the next year.
Sixty-two illegal immigrants have been arrested this year while trying to enter Fort Lee, and all have been prosecuted for violating U.S. immigration laws, base officials said. In 2006, there were 15 arrests...."
"Congress is leaning toward a guest worker-type program as one means of addressing illegal immigration, 1st District Congressman John Sullivan said Friday at a Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce breakfast."
One of the proposals being looked at is a card for those who want to work here that would be good for, let's say, three to five years," Sullivan said. "There'd be some sort of biometric identification and a background check to make sure they're not a criminal. They'd be able to work here, and they'd also pay taxes...."
Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania state legislators attending the annual Quad State Legislative conference learned about why the 287(g) program, which trains local law enforcement officers to engage in immigration enforcement activities and enables them to initiate deportation proceedings for illegal aliens, is a fast-growing success.
In the wake of the Postville, Iowa enforcement action at Agriprocessors, Inc, where almost 400 illegal aliens were arrested, the company turned to labor recruiters to find legal workers in the U.S. to fill the void, the Associated Press reports. Agriprocessors' experience proves a point – when unscrupulous employers are forced to look for legal workers – both native-born and legal immigrants -- they can turn to recruiters to find them.
ICE has conducted its second raid of the week at a critical infrastructure facility, this time at Dulles International Airport in Virginia where agents arrested 42 illegal aliens yesterday. Earlier in the week, an ICE raid at a military parachute company in North Carolina resulted in the arrest of 59 illegal aliens. Dulles was the target of a similar operation in 2006 that netted 55 illegal aliens.ICE interviewed more than 200 individuals to verify their identities, immigration status, and eligibility for lawful employment in the U.S., according to a related ICE press release.
A 10-day ICE operation in Pennsylvania and Delaware netted 75 fugitive aliens and 44 other immigration violators, according to an ICE press release. Of these, 38 had criminal histories that included offensive touching and assault of a child, forgery, criminal conspiracy, receiving stolen property, and narcotics violations. The arrestees came from countries around the globe including El Salvador, Indonesia, Mauritania and Mexico.
