The Associated Press reports that, despite a gradual decrease in reported border crossings over the past year, undocumented immigrant deaths along the US-Mexico have increased by nearly 7 percent in the past six months, according to Border Patrol statistics.   

Immigration advocate groups said the number of deaths directly correlated to increased enforcement along the US-Mexico border.  The increased death toll was “the direct result of more agents, more fencing and more equipment” said the Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of the Tucson-based Humane Borders, an organization that provides water stations for migrants crossing the Arizona desert.  “The migrants are walking in more treacherous terrain for longer periods of time, and you should expect more deaths.”   

Border Patrol spokesman Omar Candelabra, who represents the heaviest-travelled Tucson sector, which saw a 30 percent increase in deaths from the same period a year before, said the agency could not explain why the death count has increased.  Hoover said locations where many recent immigrant fatalities had been farther away from roads than in previous year, indicating the migrants were taking greater risks to avoid capture.  “So they’re going around the fences, the technology, and where the agents are,” he said.  “And the further you walk from a safe place, the more likely a broken ankle becomes a death sentence.” 

***** 

The Arizona Republic reports that Arizona officials and ICE agents stopped a human trafficking ring in Glendale, Ariz., this month, leading to the arrests of 10 suspected human smugglers, as well as the rescue of nearly 30 undocumented immigrants who were held against their will.  The smugglers are suspected of attempting to extort money out of the families of the undocumented immigrants, threatening to physically harm them.   

Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman James Warriner stated that many of the victims had already had paid $1,500 to $2,000 to be transported across the border.  “Once they get here, (the smugglers) star extorting them by threatening to use violence…to get more money out of the families before they’ll send them on to the next destination,” Warriner said. 

***** 

Latinos’ perception of the US legal system is one of mistrust among some, with a new report indicating that fewer than half of Hispanics in the US believing they will be treated fairly by the police or the court system.  The report, released earlier this month by the Pew Hispanic Center, highlights increasing skepticism America’s fastest-growing minority group has towards the sharp rise in immigration enforcement.   

Specifically, 46% of the 2,015 Hispanics that participated in the survey were confident police would treat them fairly compared to other racial or ethnic groups.   

Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the center, told The Associated Press that the results stem in part from Hispanics’ fears of immigration prosecutions as well as a perception that police will be ineffective in helping them if they are victims of a crime.  “Hispanic exposure to all parts of the criminal justice system has risen even faster than their rising share of the US adult population,” he said.  

The Pew report is available online at http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=106. 

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The results from a recent Seton Hall Law School study indicate that a number of New Jersey police officers are abusing a 2007 directive by the state’s attorney general, The New York Times reports.  Specifically, the actions include questioning the immigration status of Latino drivers, passengers, pedestrians and even crime victims, reporting them to federal immigration authorities and jailing some for days without criminal charges. 

The New Jersey directive ordered police to inquire about immigration status when arresting someone for an indictable crime or for driving while intoxicated.  In the first six months after the directive was issued, the police referred 10,000 people to ICE, but only 1,417 of them were charged with immigration violations.   

“The data suggests a disturbing trend towards racial profiling by the New Jersey police,” said Bassina Farbenblum, a lawyer with the law school’s Center for Social Justice, which gathered details of 68 cases over the past nine months in which people were questioned about their immigration status for no apparent reason, or after minor traffic infractions.  Of the 68 cases, 65 involved Latinos, including seven instances in which Latinos who sought police help were questioned abou their immigration status, a direct violation of the directive.  

In once case cited, police officers questioned a man at a Camden, NJ, train station after asking to see his ticket.  Unable to show one he was arrested and held for seven days before being turned over to ICE.  In another case, a man was transferred to immigration agents after being held for four months, cited only for driving without a license. 

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The Salt Lake City Police Department has decided not to participate in a new state law that would allow local officers to enforce federal immigration law, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.  The SB81 immigration enforcement provision, scheduled to take effect July 1, is completely optional, and has not been met with widespread acceptance by Utah police departments like the ordinance’s framers had hoped for.  “It’s clearly voluntary by a law enforcement agency,” said Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.  “Most law enforcement agencies are saying, ‘No, we have to work with these other people regardless of their immigration status.” 

Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank defended his department’s decision, saying there are good reasons why his agency will not participate in cross-deputization with ICE agents “If we start taking action based solely on [immigration] status, we would be making enforcement decisions based on race and ethnicity,” Burbank said. 

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker released a statement backing up Burbank’s decision.  “Salt Lake City police officers will not begin to enforce immigration law,” Becker said.  “Police cannot deter or solve crime if victims and witnesses are afraid to cooperate with the police because they might be deported.” 

***** 

The US State Department has taken steps to tighten controls after an undercover agent for the Government Accountability Office was able to obtain US passports using fraudulent information last month, according to The Washington Post.  In a GAO report released last week, State Department officials “agreed that our investigation exposed a major vulnerability in the department’s passport issuance process and acknowledged that they have issued other fraudulently obtained passports in the past.”   

In response to the GAO’s findings, the State Department suspended the adjudication authority of the four passport specialists who approved the phony applications.  An audit of their past work is underway, and they are being given additional training.  A State Department spokesman admitted that the GAO “certainly opened our eyes to problems,” and that it plans to create more secure encryption measures for sensitive personal data, like social security numbers. 

The full GAO report is available at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09583r.pdf.