A recently released report from the Migration Policy Institute states that “false positives” associated with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database have likely caused the wrongful detention of immigrants.  The study finds that from 2002 to 2004, officers received erroneous immigration hits in almost 9,000 cases when they queried names in the database.  The rate of false positive was 41 percent overall, while some agencies had error rates at 90 percent.

The report uses data released by DHS and provides information regarding how the NCIC is being used, by whom and against which immigrants.  The full report is available online at http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/MPI_report_Blurring_the_Lines_120805.pdf.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently announced the scheduled expansion of the US-VISIT program’s biometric entry procedures to additional land border ports of entry along the U.S.-Canada border.  The ports along the border starting US-VISIT entry procedures are in Vermont, Idaho, Washington, North Dakota, Maine and New York.  The ports in these areas that began processing visitors are part of a multi-phased deployment of US-VISIT entry procedures to additional land border ports.

No changes will be made to the US-VISIT process or to the classifications of visitors subject to US-VISIT as the result of this expansion to added locations.  US-VISIT applies to all visitors who apply for entry with a nonimmigrant visa or raveling under the Visa Waiver program.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last week executed federal search warrants at two facilities, Golden State Fencing Company in Oceanside and Riverside, owned by a Southern California military subcontractor that has come under scrutiny twice in the last six years for hiring unauthorized workers.  ICE agents arrested 17 unauthorized workers. 

The searches and arrests are pat of an ongoing criminal investigation into Golden state’s hiring practices. In 1999 and 2004, ICE conducted audits of the firm’s hiring records, resulting in warnings to company officials about serious criminal and civil consequences for failing to comply with the orders.  Subsequent to the second audit, ICE launched an investigation into the company. 

ICE agents also recently audited about 300 employee records for the company’s Riverside facility.  That review identified more than 100 employees who were unauthorized to work, including three individuals the company had been ordered not to re-hire based on the 1999 audit.