Interior Enforcement
DHS Progress Report: The Challenge of Reform
The month of March marks the seventh anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its immigration agencies. It also marks the end of a sweeping internal review ordered by Secretary Janet Napolitano, a review which as not been made public. In order to assess the first year of immigration policy under the Obama Administration, the Immigration Policy Center releases the following Special Report which compare DHS's actions with the recommendations (Transition Blueprint) made to the Obama Transition Team’s immigration-policy group. How does DHS stack up? The following IPC report finds a department caught between the competing priorities of old broken policy and new reforms. While DHS has failed to meet key expectations in some areas, it has engaged thoughtfully and strategically in others, and has made some fundamental changes in how it conducts its immigration business. Read More
Budgeting Immigration: Secretary Napolitano Talks Dollars and Programming
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano spent the past two days testifying in front of congressional committees addressing concerns over President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2011 DHS budget. Mixed in among the complaints over proposed cuts in cyber security and the Coast Guard were a number of budget decisions with immigration implications. Chief among those decisions were a cut in border patrol agents, the status of the troubled SBInet program, and worksite enforcement efforts—including the oft-maligned E-Verify program. Read More
E-Verify Gets It Wrong, Again
Another independent evaluation of the E-Verify program once again confirms what advocates have been saying for years—E-Verify doesn’t work. A new evaluation of the federal employment authorization program—conducted by Westat, a research company, in December 2009—is now available on the E-Verify website. The system only detected unauthorized workers about half of the time. The evaluation found the program couldn't confirm whether the documents workers were presenting were their own. As a result, "many unauthorized workers obtain employment by committing identity fraud that cannot be detected by E-Verify," according to Westat. The "inaccuracy rate for unauthorized workers" is about 54%. Read More
Protecting Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Raids
Study Finds Significant Behavioral Changes in Children After Raids Children of unauthorized immigrant parents are often forgotten in debates over immigration reform. There are roughly 5.5 million children living in the United States with unauthorized immigrant parents—three-quarters of whom are U.S. born citizens. These families live in constant fear of separation. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that over the last 10 years, more than 100,000 immigrant parents of U.S. citizen children have been deported from the United States. Read More
The Criminal Alien Program: Big, Old, and Misunderstood
In a report, The Criminal Alien Program: Immigration Enforcement in Travis County, Texas, the American Immigration Council and author Andrea Guttin examine the Criminal Alien Program (CAP)—which may be one of the oldest, biggest, and least understood federal immigration enforcement program. While it is ubiquitous in U.S. prisons and jails, very few are aware that it exists or of how it works. Read More
The Criminal Alien Program: Immigration Enforcement in Travis County, Texas
The Criminal Alien Program (CAP) is a program administered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that screens inmates in prisons and jails, identifies deportable non-citizens, and places them into deportation proceedings. In this Special Report, The Criminal Alien Program: Immigration Enforcement in Travis County, Texas, author Andrea Guttin, Esq., provides a brief history and background on the CAP program. Guttin also includes a case study of CAP implementation in Travis County, Texas, which finds that the program has a negative impact on communities because it increases the community’s fear of reporting crime to police, is costly, and may encourage racial profiling. Read More
Thousands Gather Across the U.S. to Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform
The Reform Immigration FOR America campaign launched its Massive 2010 Nationwide Kickoff last week, holding more than 100 events in 28 states. Events include town halls, marches, vigils, and other rallies. In Denver, Colorado, hundreds of faith leaders and immigrant advocates joined U.S. Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) to rally for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). Sen. Bennett, packed in an auditorium with more than 500 supporters of immigration reformer, pledged his support for immigration reform and further commented that "the [immigration] system is unmanageable” and will “require a broad coalition of groups to bring about reform." Read More
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Intersection of Immigration and Civil Rights
Today, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose dream of equality and human rights changed the course of history. His legacy will be remembered this week by people of all colors and creeds who still believe in the American dream and who continue to fight for equality, civil rights and the basic human dignity they deserve. Over the weekend, thousands of human rights activists took to the street in Phoenix, Arizona, to march for civil rights and for “long-overdue federal action on immigration.” Read More
Fatal Flaws: Social Security Administration Shows Us How E-Verify Doesn’t Work
The E-Verify website claims that the process for verifying whether workers are authorized for employment in the United States is simple. The practices of the Social Security Administration (SSA), the agency that jointly administers E-Verify with the Department of Homeland Security, tell a different story. According to a report released this month by the SSA Inspector General, though required by law, the agency failed to use E-Verify on nearly 20 percent of their new hires. The report documenting SSA’s myriad mishaps is proof of what workers’ rights advocates have long believed: E-Verify is still not ready for widespread use. Read More
Greyhound Lines, Inc. Accused of Racially Profiling Latino Passengers
Traveling home for the holidays might not be as cheerful as you may think if you plan on taking a Greyhound bus. According to a recent article in the Contra Costa Times, an immigrant rights group in San Bernardino, CA, is accusing Greyhound Lines, Inc. of racially profiling their Latino customers. The rights group, Immigration Raids Response Network, alleges that Greyhound Lines Inc. targets Latino riders by allowing Border Patrol agents—along with Greyhound employees—to “conduct immigration checks of passengers upon their arrival at the San Bernardino Greyhound bus station.” The rights group is now urging Latinos not to ride Greyhound buses nationwide. Read More
America's story is an immigrant story.
