According to the the Pew Reseach Center undocumented immigration is down since mid-decade. (see above)

The annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005, according to new estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

This sharp decline has contributed to an overall reduction of 8% in the number of unauthorized immigrants currently living in the U.S. — to 11.1 million in March 2009 from a peak of 12 million in March 2007, according to the estimates. The decrease represents the first significant reversal in the growth of this population over the past two decades.1

The Pew Hispanic Center’s analysis also finds that the most marked decline in the population of unauthorized immigrants has been among those who come from Latin American countries other than Mexico. From 2007 to 2009, the size of this group from the Caribbean, Central America and South America decreased 22%.

By contrast, the Mexican unauthorized population (which accounts for about 60% of all unauthorized immigrants) peaked in 2007 at 7 million and has since leveled off. The number of unauthorized immigrants from the rest of the world did not change.

Even though the size of the Mexican unauthorized population living in the United States has not changed significantly since 2007, the inflows from that country have fallen off sharply in recent years

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What is the cause? Better border enforcement? The economy? Random?

Entire Pew Report

Senate Judicary ranking Republican  Lamar Smith (R- Texas) wants the Department of Homeland Security to start tracking the illegal immigrants who are convicted of drunk driving.   He then wants to  deport every last one of them, according to the Washington Times. 

Current law doesn’t require DUI suspects to be detained, thanks to a 2004 Supreme Court interpretation, but Mr. Smith said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can detain illegal immigrants in such cases anyway, and he wants that to become the policy.

“Doing so will prevent these aliens from again getting behind the wheel of a car and killing or maiming innocent Americans,” he said in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times. “Sadly, such a new policy would come too late for Sister Mosier. However, many other lives can be saved.”

Matt Chandler, a spokesman for Ms. Napolitano, said Homeland Security would not respond to Mr. Smith through the press, though he said the department is conducting a review into why Mr. Montano was not detained in 2008.

 

Read more…

Last night, Greta Van Susteren interviewed the chief I.C.E. director, John Morton:

It’s all about money and limited resources. All of I.C.E. funding comes from Congress. If you want them to do more, write to your congressman and throw more money their way. Morton says they will do what they can with the resources available. He is trying to make the money work more sensibly. Nothing much has worked in the past, you have to admit.

According to the Washington Times:

New guidance telling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to focus on apprehending terrorists and criminals has many of ICE’s rank-and-file agents wondering who then is responsible for tracking down and detaining the millions of other illegal border-crossers and fugitive aliens now in the country.

The new guidelines are outlined in a June 29 memo from Assistant Secretary John Morton, who heads the agency, to all ICE employees regarding the apprehension, detention and removal of illegal immigrants, noting that the agency “only has resources to remove approximately 400,000 aliens per year, less than 4 percent of the estimated illegal-alien population in the United States.”

Mr. Morton said ICE needed to focus wisely on the limited resources Congress had provided the agency and would “prioritize the apprehension and removal of aliens who only pose a threat to national security and/or public safety, such as criminals and terrorists.”

Read more…

News on the street is Corey Stewart made Obama blink.  Well, is that so?  How funny.  Actually, I think what really happened is, I.C.E. made Stewart look befuddled and confused.  Or perhaps they just caught him lying, again, like he does about the crime statistics.

According to the Washington Post in the political blog:

According to Stewart, ICE officials also said they will increase detention center space in Virginia to hold illegal immigrants until deportation.

But ICE spokesman Richard Rocha denied that ICE will turn over any names or personal information to Stewart.

“ICE told Prince William County Supervisor Corey Stewart the agency would provide available statistics, for instance about the crimes and custody status of individuals referred to ICE by 287(g) trained officers,” Rocha said. “We anticipate that research to take a few weeks. To clarify, ICE will not be providing personally identifiable information — like names or addresses — to Stewart or others. Under DHS’s Privacy Policy, the Privacy Act, which protects against the release of certain personal information, extends to aliens as well as U.S. citizens.”

Stewart said he was disappointed to hear Rocha’s response. “They are backing down.”

Huh?  Who is backing down?  It sounds to me like Corey is backing down and I.C.E. is sticking to its guns. 

We will be watching to see who is the blinker and who is the blinkee.  Place your bets now.

Part 1. What did the BOCS know?
Part 2 will show that Corey accuses others of ‘having blood on their hands’ when he knew very good and well the situation with I.C.E. Judging from the dates, he also needs to admit that this issue did not start or end with the present administration.

This video was from a BOCS meeting Spring , 2008. It shows the problems inherent in the MOA between ICE and the county. Let’s revisit some of the issues. It seems that many people have forgotten what really happened.

Both Charlie Deane and Jail Superintendent Pete Meletis give their points of view.

Chief Deane updated the BOCS on the status of the Immigration Resolution. Superintendent Meletis warned the BOCS of the problems the ADC was encountering with ICE. ICE was not picking up the ICE detainees after they had served their time in PWC. PWC was attempting to have every illegal alien picked up. ICE rep Mark McGraw told the BOCS that their numbers were overwhelming. He felt that PWC was getting away from the original understanding which was to remove the worst of the worst from the county.

Reminder to his critics: Here you will see Chief Deane salute the job he was given to do. What has changed?

At some point, even the most die hard anti-immigration person has to admit that they cannot deport illegal immigrants themselves. They must rely on ICE and a federal deportation judge. A locality can enact all the draconian laws they want…it doesn’t make ICE get there any faster.

From the Manassas News & Messenger:

Prince William County, Va. – Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will release to Prince William authorites the identities and final disposition of every convicted criminal illegal immigrant apprehended in the county and turned over to ICE, said Chairman Corey A. Stewart on Saturday.

Stewart indicated that this reversed three years of “stiff-armed” responses by ICE to the same question. “They’ve also said they will increase detention center space in Virginia to hold illegal aliens until deportation. It won’t solve the problem, but it will help alleviate the problem.”

Read more…

I.C.E. Director John Morton and Assistant Director Phyllis Coven got a vote of No-Confidence from the 259 I.C.E union members.  There are approximately 7000 I.C.E agents in the United States. 

Who is John Morton exactly?  According to the Washington Post:

Morton, 43, is a boyish-looking former career federal prosecutor who took over ICE last year in May. Described by colleagues as earnest and apolitical, he said he is seeking a middle ground on the debate, enforcing immigration laws while calling for comprehensive reform in Congress and viewing legal immigration as “a good thing for our country.”

“You develop a thick skin in a job like this,” said Morton, who admits to reading many of the brickbats that come his way but says they don’t consume him. “I’d imagine that for some other senior leaders in government, the day when someone calls for their resignation would be the day they’d remember throughout their career. That’s just part of the territory here.”

Sure enough, Morton and his agency evoke strong opinions from all sides. Crystal Williams, executive director of the pro-immigrant American Immigration Lawyers Association, faults him for overaggressive deportations and moving too slowly on promises to reform the immigrant detention system.

Read more…

Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — The Senate agreed Thursday to add $600 million to the effort to stop the flow of illegal immigrants across the U.S. Mexican border.

The money would be used for such purposes as adding 1,500 new enforcement agents and deploying unmanned aerial drones to improve border surveillance.

The voice vote to pass the emergency spending came in the final hours before the Senate leaves for its monthlong summer break. Its sponsor, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, said it would boost border spending 10 percent above 2010 levels.

President Barack Obama has urged Congress to come up with $600 million to reinforce border security, and, with Arizona’s attempt to crack down on undocumented immigrants bringing national focus to the issue, both Republicans and Democrats have endorsed more robust border security spending.

The main stumbling block has been how to pay for the increased spending. Republicans sought to use unspent funds from the economic stimulus act, an idea rejected by Democrats.

The Democratic plan passed Thursday would boost fees assessed on foreign-based personnel companies that take advantage of U.S. visa programs, such as the H-1B visa program for temporary skilled workers, to bring foreign workers, mainly from India, into the United States.

The House last week passed similar legislation with $701 million in emergency money for border security. It could take up the Senate bill when it interrupts its August recess next Tuesday for a one-day session to approve a Senate-passed jobs bill.

That explains what is going to stop the illegal immigrants. Now…what is going to stop the illegal drugs that are coming across the border? How about the illegal drug cartels who have no intention of becoming immigrants? I hope those ‘illegals’ are somehow part of the plan also.

Just so everyone knows that it will be impossible to completely secure the border. Unless we build a wall where we look like East Germany, there will always be leaks. The human spirit will always find a way….

Jon Stewart takes a long look at America’s political issues with illegal immigrants.  He analyzes the dreaded ‘anchor babies’ and wonders how illegal immigrants could plan ahead 18 years as he takes a look at the 14th amendment to see what had been said about it in 1866, where citizens worried about the dreaded’ Hottentot.’  Lindsay Graham discusses the Drop and Leave policy of illegal immigrants.

 Jon brought in Lou Dobbs as a voice of reason. 

Lou Dobbs who has spent much of his life discussing illegal immigration, weighed in on the topic and warned that the GOP was overstepping by proposing that the 14th amendment be repealed.  

Even Lou Dobbs isn’t on board with proposed constitutional amendment ending birthright citizenship, Watch him defend the 14th Amendment:

According to the Huffington Post:

The growing chorus of Senate Republicans urging repeal of the 14th Amendment as a means of denying citizenship to the children of immigrants received a rebuke Tuesday from, of all people, notorious immigration foe Lou Dobbs.

Appearing on Fox News, the former CNN host defended the constitutional amendment which provides birthright citizenship.

“The idea that anchor babies somehow require changing the 14th Amendment, I part ways with the Senators on that because I believe the 14th Amendment, particularly in its due process and equal protection clauses, is so important,” Dobbs said. “It lays the foundation for the entire Bill of Rights being applied to the states.”

That even Dobbs opposes the GOP push to repeal the 14th Amendment is a measure of just how radical the effort is. Some Republicans who signaled their support for the move as recently as Monday, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have already backtracked from their earlier support for broad review of the law.

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee wasn’t one of them. “The Constitution is not as clear as it first appears,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) told reporters Tuesday. “I continue to hear good Americans explain to me they think it makes no sense

Those men who drew up the 14 Amendment in 1866 had the following concerns:

The authors of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizenship to all people “born or naturalized in the United States” for a reason. They wished to directly repudiate the Dred Scott decision, which said that citizenship could be granted or denied by political caprice. They purposely chose an objective standard of citizenship — birth — that was not subject to politics. Reconstruction leaders established a firm, sound principle: To be an American citizen, you don’t have to please a majority, you just have to be born here

Political caprice?  When Lou Dobbs thinks ideas are over the top, they probably are. I am still stuck on the idea that others now why a couple has children. I am willing to bet it isn’t so the child can sponsor them 29 years down the road. That reasoning is just far too complex.

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New York Times:

The increase in deaths has happened despite many signs that the number of immigrants crossing the border illegally has dropped in recent years. The number of people caught trying to sneak across the frontier without a visa has fallen in each of the last five years and stands at about half of the record 616,000 arrested in 2000.

Not only has the economic downturn in the United States eliminated many of the jobs that used to lure immigrants, human rights groups say, but also the federal government has stepped up efforts to stop the underground railroad of migrants, building mammoth fences in several border towns and flooding the region with hundreds of new Border Patrol agents equipped with high-tech surveillance tools.

These tougher enforcement measures have pushed smugglers and illegal immigrants to take their chances on isolated trails through the deserts and mountains of southern Arizona, where they must sometimes walk for three or four days before reaching a road.

“As we gain more control, the smugglers are taking people out to even more remote areas,” said Omar Candelaria, the special operations supervisor for the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector. “They have further to walk and they are less prepared for the journey, and they don’t make it.”

Many different factors contribute to this increase in deaths.  A soaring heat wave is believed to be a main contributor to the morgue in Pima County, near Tucson, simply running out of room. Two weeks ago, the medical examiner had to bring in a refrigerated truck because there was simply no more room.   Many of the remains will go unidentified. 

Read more…

Where does this case go?

Most people feel it will eventually go to the Supreme Court. Will the law be in effect until the case gets to the Supreme Court? Private lawyers are representing Arizona in this case.

 Corey Stewart is still hasn’t learned he isn’t a delegate to the General Assembly nor is he a state senator.  Perhaps he is going to run for either Senator Colgan’s seat or Del. Miller’s seat so he can introduce  his immigration reform.

The News & Messenger:

On Thursday, Stewart plans to announce multiple pieces of legislation for the General Assembly to con-sider, one of which is based on legislation passed recently in Oklahoma.

The first item would require all law enforcement officers in the state to check immigration status upon lawful detention if there is reasonable suspicion that the person detained is an illegal immigrant.

The second piece would be similar to legislation currently passed in Oklahoma that taxes international money transfers. The fee, which went into effect last July, is $5 on money transmissions up to $500, plus 1 percent of the amount in excess of $500. Consumers who file state tax returns can get a refund of the fees.

Businesses that fail to remit the fees to the Oklahoma Tax Commission face possible suspension of their licenses.

Stewart said this would adversely affect illegal immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers and do not pay state taxes.

“A normal guy who pays state taxes, you are going to get money your money back,” Stewart said.

Read more…

2 state employees in Utah compiled and stole a list of 1,300 people thought to be illegal immigrants. They were caught and have been fired. However, the debate continues.

The Latino community is concerned. What stuck me in particular is the charge that illegal immigrants need to learn to speak English. Jesus seems to speak pretty good English. He came here as a 15 year old–brought by his parents. He is now 25.

What happens in Arizona very much affects Utah since it is directly north of the Grand Canyon State. Utah is also the most homogeneous state in the Union, according to Pat Buchannan.

From the Washington Post July 18, 2010

The largest immigrant detention center in the mid-Atlantic will soon open in Prince Edward County, an effort to accommodate Virginia’s unprecedented surge in detentions of illegal immigrants picked up on criminal charges.

The $21 million, privately run center will house up to 584 immigrant detainees when it opens its doors. Over the next year, it might grow to hold 1,000 prisoners, most of them snagged by the federal government’s growing Secure Communities program, which aims to find and deport criminal illegal immigrants.

Last month, Virginia became the second state, after Delaware, to implement the program statewide, requiring jails and prisons to screen prisoners by immigration status and check their fingerprints against the country’s immigration database.

With three months left in the fiscal year, the number of illegal immigrants with criminal convictions detained in Virginia and the District has increased by 50 percent from last year’s total, to 2,414. Those numbers are expected to increase now that the program is being implemented statewide.

The new facility “is mostly here to address the impact of Secure Communities,” said Robert Helwig, assistant director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We do anticipate a surge in detainees.”

The immigration debate has grown increasingly polarized, and the Secure Communities program has become a symbol of that division. John T. Morton, head of ICE, calls it the agency’s attempt to “secure the nation and protect public safety.” But many immigrant advocates, including Enid Gonzalez, a lawyer at CASA of Maryland, say the program “claims to keep violent criminals off the streets, but instead it’s just incarcerating innocent busboys.”

There’s one point on which experts across the spectrum agree: Without additional detention space, the program cannot function. ICE has detained fewer than one-quarter of the immigrants identified by Secure Communities, a range of suspected criminals facing charges as varied as misdemeanors and murder.

“The Obama administration can’t expect to increase enforcement measures without increasing detention capacity,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies

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Prince Edward County is sure to appreciate the 300 jobs that will come to the county. It only makes sense that those states using the Secure Communities program will need a place to house criminal illegal immigrants rather than putting them in already overcrowded local detention centers. If we want to take violent criminals off the street, we must be able to detain them rather than have our criminal justice system merely serve as a revolving door.

If Virginia has implemented the Secure Communities program, how does it differ from our 287g program? Do we use both? Secure Communities seems to have tiptoed in without a great deal of notice. Contributors, what do you know about Virginia implementing this program?

From the June 21, 2010  Washington Post: (background)

In a recent interview with Corey as a guest on his radio show, Alan Colmes tried to convince Corey Stewart that begging the US governemnt to sue Virginia is fool-hearty and expensive. Corey disagreed that such a law suit could cost the state millions defending itself.

Furthermore, Stewart continued to say that our local law is almost identical to Arizona’s law. That statement simply is not true and Corey knows it. Why lie if he is so sure he is right.

Although not mentioned, Virginia was one of those states.

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Richmond, Va. —
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli joined eight other states today in support of Arizona’s new immigration law.

The amicus brief, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, defends Arizona’s and all states’ authority to enforce federal immigration laws along with the federal government. This is particularly true because of the selective and lack of enforcement by the federal government, the brief states.

“While much of border enforcement is left to the federal government, federal law expressly allows states to arrest people who are not legally present in the United States,” Cuccinelli said in a statement.

“Arizona’s law doesn’t change any of this. That’s why we are stunned that the government has sued Arizona.”

The Arizona, set to take effect July 29, requires officers, while enforcing other laws, to question a person’s immigration status if there’s a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally.

It also makes it a crime for legal immigrants not to carry documentation of their status in the U.S.

The Obama administration has filed suit against the Arizona law, contending that federal law pre-empts the Arizona statute. It seeks an injunction against its enforcement.

How many briefs and law suits has the AG files since his inauguration? More importantly, how much has all of this cost? Those $350 filing fees are going to add up.

The unnamed group is now the hunted.  It is thought to be an inside job.  Apparently someone has access to inside information. About 1,300 people’s names appear on the list. There are more than 30 pages.

This behavior belongs in the Hall of Shame. The State of Utah is doing the right thing in attempting to find and prosecute those who published these 30 pages.

The Obama administration has taken a different tact than previous administrations in dealing with illegal immigration. Rather than hundreds of agents pouring into one factory or farm, 1 agent pours over records of hundreds of different factories and farms looking for evidence of illegal immigrants. According to the New York Times:

While the sweeps of the past commonly led to the deportation of such workers, the “silent raids,” as employers call the audits, usually result in the workers being fired, but in many cases they are not deported.

Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted audits of employee files at more than 2,900 companies. The agency has levied a record $3 million in civil fines so far this year on businesses that hired unauthorized immigrants, according to official figures. Thousands of those workers have been fired, immigrant groups estimate.

Read more…

Politifact.com reports:

The debate about immigration often involves discussions about whether illegal immigrants cause more crime.

The topic came up on ABC’s This Week on July 4, 2010, when Al Hunt, the executive editor in Washington for Bloomberg News, criticized John McCain for the Republican senator’s comments about crime in Arizona.

McCain had explained his shift on immigration by saying, “The violence is incredibly high. The human smuggling and drug cartels are at a level of violence where 25,000 — 23,000 Mexican citizens have been murdered in the last few years, 5,000 already this year. There’s a level of violence which has increased to a significant degree, which makes the situation far different than it was in 2007″ when the Senate last considered immigration reform.

Read more…

Pay close attention to the very end.  How much more of an admission is needed before people will see that the Immigration Resolution in PWC was all about an election.  Hethmon admits it.  He brags about it.  FAIR is also involved in AZ.  Leopards do not change their spots! Note the arrow coming from FAIR to AZ. It had started then.

Prince William County was a field experiment.  The end of the video is critical. Around 2:30 Michael Hethmon says it is a political issue. They were scared that Republicans were going to lose in elections because of the Iraq War.