The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently stated that immigrations and customs operations of the department should be combined because they are inefficient, Reuters reports. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were created in 2003 when 22 agencies were combined into DHS. The inspector general’s report states that the two are incapable of coordinating their efforts and should be merged to encourage their cooperation. The report suggests that the merge would result in a consolidated border security agency that would be better placed to coordinate priorities and organize resources. Senator Susan Collins, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, criticized the current structure of the two entities as “dysfunctional.” CBP coordinates customs and immigrations activities while ICE investigates customs and immigrations enforcement cases and is responsible for the detention and removal of undocumented aliens. The inspector general’s report stated that the lack of intelligence sharing between the two agencies caused problems with the apprehension and detention of undocumented immigrants, as well as the capture of fraudulent travel documents and import and export violations.

The inspector general’s report is available online at: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0334.xml

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Sabrina Eaton of Cleveland, Ohio’s The Plain Dealer reports that the U.S. Department of Justice will open an immigration court in Ohio next year in order to reduce the state’s nearly 3,000-case backlog. Ohio has the largest backlog of the 27 states that do not currently have their own immigration court, and currently handles all of its immigration cases by teleconference with judges in Virginia. The state asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last month to open a court there and argued that a court in Ohio would allow judges to evaluate cases in person and would streamline court dockets in both Ohio and Virginia. The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review has promised the state that it will open a court by the end of next summer; however, it did not specify whether the court would exclusively handle Ohio’s cases. 

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A report from the Congressional Budget Office explains that increased immigration of low-skilled workers from Mexico and Central America may explain the slow wage growth in the U.S.  This influx of immigration, however, may also mean that the wage gap between U.S. workers with low and high levels of education may be smaller than it is actually thought to be. The earnings of Latin American men in the U.S. are one half of those of American-born men on average.  40 percent of recent immigrants are from Latin America, and have lower education levels than the average U.S. worker.  The increase of foreigners in the work force has increased from 13 million to 21 million in the past ten years, which accounts for 50% of the growth in the total U.S. work force. 

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The Washington Times reports that a study by Rand Corp. has shown that undocumented immigrants have comprised a third of the growth of uninsured adults from 1980 to 2000. 65 percent of undocumented immigrants in this study were uninsured, compared to 12 percent of native-born Americans, 18 percent of naturalized citizens, and 32 percent of those with green cards. The study considered Spanish and English-speaking families in Los Angeles and extended this data to the whole U.S. population.  The study found that undocumented immigrants are less likely to use services such as Medicaid and other social insurance programs than native-born Americans. Those undocumented immigrants who are covered by insurance are 50% more likely to lose it, and lack of insurance tends to be prevalent among this group.

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The US and Vietnam have entered into an agreement which allows certain Vietnamese citizens to immigrate to the U.S.  The agreement applies to those who were eligible under the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) and unable to immigrate before the program ended in 1994.  ODP allowed nearly 500,000 Vietnamese refugees to resettle in the US between 1980 and 1994.  Those who were eligible for ODP had to have spent at least three years in Vietnamese re-education camps, or to have worked for the U.S. government before the Vietnam War ended.  In 1995, Vietnam and the U.S. restored diplomatic relations, and trade between the two countries has soared since.