Residents of another community have expressed anger over the federal government’s placement of recent illegal border crossers in their area. According to an Albuquerque ABC affiliate, about 400 people attended a town hall in Artesia, New Mexico last night to speak out against holding illegal aliens at a local Federal Law Enforcement Training center. Only a few spoke out in favor of helping the illegal aliens.
Buses carrying recent illegal border crossers to Murietta, California were rerouted after being blocked by protesters opposed to their being processed at a local Border Patrol facility and released into the community. The 140 nationals from Central American countries were flown from Texas on Tuesday and then bused to Murrieta. The actions of the roughly 100 protesters forced federal authorities to take them instead to a Border Patrol facility in San Ysidro, California.
Speaking at a Washington, D.C. event, Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said that immigration law enforcement and border controls must be “up and operating effectively” before the House will vote on any immigration legislation. “Enforcement has to take place first,” he said. Then the House will address legal immigration and figure out “what to do about the people who are not lawfully here.”
A new CNN Poll found that 61% of Americans disapprove of the administration's handling of illegal immigration. The poll was taken between May 29 and June 1 and asked for a simple approve or disapprove rating of a variety of issues. Only 35% said they approved of the President's handling of illegal immigration.
The Major County Sheriffs' Association, representing counties with populations of 500,000 or more and 100 million Americans, sent a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson calling for better immigration enforcement. The letter, signed by the association's president Donny Youngblood, urges Johnson to enforce immigration laws, secure the border, and work with local law enforcement in enforcement efforts. The group met with Johnson via telephone earlier this month.
Remember all of those promises about how legalization would be exchanged for a tough, zero-tolerance policy against future illegal immigration? The Gang of Eight and President Obama forgot to run that by the pressure groups protesting the United States' immigration enforcement policies.
By Seung Min Kim -- Politico
The attendees also said they told Johnson that the administration also has to include a randomness factor when deciding who among the undocumented immigrant population to deport — as an enforcement mechanism. Krikorian likened it to random tax audits by the Internal Revenue Service or speed traps by local police.
“We pushed very hard that there has to be a percentage of the resources [that] have to be for random deportations,” said Roy Beck, the executive director of Numbers USA.
Making illegal immigration a non-deportable offense has long been a goal of many anti-enforcement activists but their radical proposal is only now becoming apparent to much of the public. For most of President Obama's term, the claim of record deportations had the public and the media focused on what was happening in the interior of the country.
Obama Discarding Rule of Law on Immigration Enforcement?
By Alana Marie Burke -- Liberty Voice
http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/obama-discarding-rule-of-law-on-immigration-enforcement/
The GOP position on immigration: Get out
By Greg Sargent -- The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/04/24/the-gop-position-on-immigration-get-out/
Count the Washington Post among the many newspapers who aren't ready to acknowledge the revelations about President Obama's deportation record.
Two and a half years after President Obama told reporters that his deportation statistics were "a little deceptive" and three weeks after DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson confirmed that the current administration's deportation numbers are mostly made up of border apprehensions and are counted differently than in previous administrations, the Los Angeles Times has published an in-depth clarification of Obama's record.
Immigration activists have sharply criticized President Obama for a rising volume of deportations, labeling him the "deporter in chief" and staging large protests that have harmed his standing with some Latinos, a key group of voters for Democrats.
But the portrait of a steadily increasing number of deportations rests on statistics that conceal almost as much as they disclose. A closer examination shows that immigrants living illegally in most of the continental U.S. are less likely to be deported today than before Obama came to office, according to immigration data.
As the Obama Administration searches for options to broaden its executive amnesty, a new analysis by Sen. Jeff Sessions reveals that only two percent of removals in 2013 did not meet DHS’ criminal-oriented enforcement “priorities.” He says DHS policies leave illegal aliens virtually immune from immigration enforcement unless they commit a serious crime and invite foreign nationals to overstay a visa or enter the U.S. illegally,
In order to placate illegal-alien advocates who falsely claim the Administration has deported record numbers of illegal aliens, President Obama announced that DHS would review options for making immigration enforcement “more humane.” Translation: they’ll find more ways to ignore the law and make illegal aliens comfortable while the comprehensive amnesty alliance pursues House Republican hold-outs.
In my last blog I criticized Politico and reporter Reid Epstein for repeating a false deportation claim without clarification. To be fair, they did not repeat the false claim in their March 13 story, "Obama calls for review of deportations."
The Government Accounting Office released a report on a work program for foreign students that Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says “not only calls into question the department's oversight of the program, but also whether such lack of oversight is a serious national security risk." Sen. Grassley called for a moratorium on the program until its problems are fixed.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined appeals by Farmers Branch, Texas, and Hazleton, Pennsylvania for a hearing on their immigration-enforcement laws. Also, South Carolina agreed to a settlement that would bar enforcement of some immigration law provisions in exchange for related court challenges being dropped.
Voters in Fremont, Nebraska resoundingly defeated an attempt to repeal an ordinance that requires all renters to attest they have legal permission to live in the U.S. Unofficial election results show that the repeal attempt failed by a 60-40 margin.
In a Telemundo interview that will air Jan. 12th, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte says he sees “no reason” why illegal aliens shouldn’t be legalized if border and interior enforcement measures are “up and operating.” Goodlatte also broadly discusses the GOP immigration principles Speaker Boehner said will be released soon.
The owner of a Dayton, Ohio roofing company pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to bring illegal aliens to work for his company, and to conspiring to commit wire fraud by sending fraudulent invoices to insurance companies for his company’s work. The plea agreement includes imprisonment for up to 57 months, restitution in an amount to be determined by a court, and forfeiture of nearly $2 million in assets.
Senate Democrats blocked a vote on an amendment offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) that would have closed a loophole that gives illegal aliens access to the Additional Child Tax Credit. The amendment sought to restore cuts in military pensions under the budget deal by shifting funds from the welfare loophole.
Jeh Johnson, who President Obama nominated to head up the Department of Homeland Security, defended the Senate’s comprehensive amnesty bill in a letter to Republican senators. The letter also defended the Administration’s use of prosecutorial discretion to forego deportation for certain groups of illegal aliens.
Six GOP Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary nominee Jeh Johnson about the administration's lack of enforcing immigration laws. The Senators posed more than 50 questions asking Johnson for his opinion on how former Secretary, Janet Napolitano, dealt with enforcement and whether or not he would pursue a more aggressive approach to enforcement.
President of the union that represents the nation's 7,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Chris Crane, sent a letter to CEOs of the companies that are actively pushing a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would grant amnesty to 11-18 million illegal aliens. In the letter, Crane challenged the business executives as to why they would support a bill that would jeopardize public safety and requested a meeting. About a dozen CEOs met with Pres. Obama at the White House on Tuesday.
A change in the way ICE counts Border Patrol apprehensions has allowed the Obama Adminstration to claim they are deporting a record number of illegal aliens
On Monday, September 30, Reuters reported that "IBM has agreed to pay $44,400 in civil penalties to settle allegations that certain of its online job postings preferred foreign workers with temporary visas over U.S. citizens."
A federal judge ruled that Maricopa County, Arizona cannot use a 2005 anti-smuggling law to criminally charge illegal aliens who paid to be smuggled into the U.S. The law was believed to be an important factor in shifting human smuggling traffic from Arizona to other border states.
According to a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center, the illegal-alien population may be back on the rise. The Center had reported that the illegal-alien population in the United States had dropped slightly since the recession that started back in 2009. But new data show that the population is back on the rise with nearly 12 million illegal aliens living in the U.S.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, pledged to move immigration legislation forward despite the busy House fall schedule. Speaking at a House Republican event for Hispanic Heritage Month, Goodlatte said the House’s piecemeal approach to legislating immigration changes would address enforcement and security; legal immigration; and the status of illegal aliens.
Summer Recess is over and Congress is now gearing up for a busy fall schedule. During the Congressional break, NumbersUSA activists attended over 400 town halls with nearly 150 lawmakers! Even though we dampened the momentum for amnesty during August, we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
The California Assembly cleared for Gov. Jerry Brown’s consideration a bill (AB 4) that would bar state and local police from holding illegal aliens for deportation under the federal Secure Communities program unless they have been convicted of certain crimes. The governor, who vetoed a similar measure last year, has until October 13th to sign or veto the measure.
Today marks the 19th day of August Congressional Recess in which the open-borders forces were supposed to have been able to change enough Republican Representatives' minds to get a full-scale amnesty and doubling of legal immigration to the floor of the House. I'm pleased to say that thus far there has been almost no sign of changed minds thanks in good measure to NumbersUSA activists who have attended more than 200 town hall meetings. These are constituents seeing their own Congressman and not a case of busing people in from the outside or staging political theatre as the other side has done so often.
New data that show the number of detainers issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents indicate that immigration enforcement efforts are down in recent months. The data issued by a government watchdog project at Syracuse University shows a considerable deterioration in enforcement levels since 2011. In the first four months of FY 2013, ICE agents issued an average of 18,427 detainers per month - down nearly 20% from the same period in FY 2012.
The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) issued a press release yesterday urging Republican House leadership to forgo plans to provide amnesty for the 11 million illegal aliens in the United States. The organization instead, calls for the House to focus on enforcing the nation's laws.
"The NAFBPO urges the American public to directly request Congressmen John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan to abandon their dreams of amnesty, by whatever name, and get on a realistic track to ensure national security and public safety. That track leads to effective interior enforcement in every jurisdiction in all fifty states. Only then can actual border security and control become possible," the group wrote in the release.
The head of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, has announced that she will be stepping down from her post. As Secretary of DHS, Napolitano is tasked with overseeing immigration enforcement in the interior of the nation and at the borders. During her four-year tenure, she drafted memos that grants deferred action to certain illegal aliens through the use of prosecutorial discretion. The memos are subject of a lawsuit filed by a group of ICE agents against her.
Now, we must turn our full efforts to the U.S. House and another huge grassroots effort in July.There is no question that the five-month opposition that the grassroots has waged is having good results in the House, where the Senate bill is facing an increasingly hostile reception. At some point, politicians will no longer be able to look the public in the eye and be allowed by the media to claim that we must have tens of millions more foreign workers to deal with supposed labor shortages.
On Wednesday, the president of the union that represents 7,000 immigration and customs enforcement officers, Chris Crane, sent a letter to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) telling him his blill was "De Facto Amnesty." Sen. Rubio has said that the current situation is "De Facto Amnesty" for the 11 million illegal aliens living in the United States, but Crane writes that since the bill contains almost no interior enforcement provisions, it won't change the current situation.
Chris Crane, the National ICE Council President, today called on Senators to defeat the Corker-Hoeven amendment to S. 744 – the comprehensive amnesty bill. He said that Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) admitted needed interior enforcement provisions are absent, and that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) abandoned his commitment to ICE officers and Sheriffs to repair the bill’s provisions that gut interior enforcement.
Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) are preparing a so-called "border surge" amendment for the comprehensive amnesty bill (S. 744) that would add 20,000 Border Patrol Agents in ten years as a precondition for distributing green cards to illegal aliens. But the National Association of Former Border Patrol Agents (NAFBPO) says it would take at least 20 years to identify, train and hire that many Agents unless the process shortchanges proper training and background checks.
In a letter to Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), ICE Union President Chris Crane says the Gang of Eight's bill, S.744, is flawed because it places "new restrictions on interior enforcement." Crane writes that the bill would make the current situation worse and more hazardous and urges them to reject S.744 and instead focus on Rep. Trey Gowdy's (R-S.C.) interior enforcement bill and Rep. John Barrow's (D-Ga.) border security and interior enforcement legislation introduced in the House.
During debate on the Department of Homeland Security’s appropriations bill, the House voted cut off funds for implementing Administration policies that shield most illegal aliens from the threat of deportation. The 224-201 vote on an amendment sponsored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) could be a harbinger of the difficulties amnesty proponents face in the coming debate over immigration reform.
After several more North Carolina sheriffs signed on to a letter to Congress from the law enforcement agencies across the nation, Rep. Walter Jones issued a statement on Wednesday saying he stood by the sheriffs in their opposition to the Schumer-Rubio-Obama amnesty bill. Rep. Jones said he, too, is concerned about the bill's lack of interior enforcement.
Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.) has introduced the Keeping the Promise of IRCA Act. The bill would fulfill the border security promises, workplace verification promises, and interior enforcement promises that were never fulfilled by the 1986 amnesty bill. The bill serves as an alternative to the Gang of Eight's amnesty bill, S.744, and is a response to public opinion that's been evident in poll after poll that the border needs to be secured before dealing with other aspects of immigration reform.
The Keeping the Promise of IRCA Act would:
A new Fox Poll surveying 1,000 registered voters over the last several days has found that 73% of Americans favor securing the border before making changes to immigration policy. This percentage is up from polls in April and February showing 68% and 69%, respectively, support for enforcement before amnesty. The Gang of Eight's bill, S.744, puts the amnesty before the enforcement provisions kick in.
This past Tuesday, grassroots groups around the country took part in a national day to remember 1986. At least 50 separate organizations banded together under the banner "Remember 1986 Coalition." With a unified voice they asked Senators, the press, and fellow Americans to remember the broken promises of the 1986 amnesty bill and warned to not let it happen again.
