Immigration advocacy groups are requesting the Obama administration reconsider the screening process at border posts by limiting questions about Americans’ political beliefs and religious practices and establishing a process for US citizens and residents who are mistakenly included on terrorist watch lists to clear their names.  The Washington Post reports that the Asian Law Caucus of San Francisco released a report citing over 40 complaints from US citizens and immigrants that it has received since 2007 as evidence of what it calls “a much wider pattern of profiling and discrimination at US borders.” 

Specifically, the report says “many people in America’s Muslim, South Asian, and Middle Eastern communities have come to expect harassment and discriminatory treatment at our nation’s doorstep” when reentering the US.  In response, Muslim Advocates, the advocacy arm of the National Association of Muslim Lawyers, issued a report saying that citizens should not be threatened with detention for not answering questions that go beyond establishing their legal status to enter the US.   

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson declined to comment, saying that the department had not seen the reports, but acknowledged that Secretary Janet Napolitano had ordered a “wide-ranging review of all of our border security immigration policies and procedures,” which is ongoing.   

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In an effort to crack down on undocumented immigrant labor, the Department of Homeland Security announced it intends to step up enforcement efforts against employers who knowingly hire such workers, according to The New York Times.  Under new guidelines issued last week to Immigration and Customs Enforcement field offices, agents will be instructed to focus their prosecution towards employers and supervisors.  Senior officials of DHS pledged to continue the process of detaining undocumented workers in workplace raids.  But the officials said they hoped to depart from past practices by using these detainees as an effort to build criminal cases against employers.   

“Enforcement efforts focused on employers better target the root causes of illegal immigration,” say the new DHS guidelines.  “ICE must prioritize the criminal prosecution of actual employers who knowingly hire illegal workers because such employers are not sufficiently punished or deterred by the arrest of their illegal work force.” 

Among the most significant of the new guidelines is one in which agents are instructed to “obtain indictments, criminal arrest or search warrants, or a commitment form a US attorneys office to prosecute the targeted employer, before arresting employees for civil immigration violations at a work site.” 

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The Obama Administration announced that has made a selection for director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, with The Los Angeles Times reporting that former federal prosecutor Alejandro Mayorkas has been tapped to fill Department of Homeland Security’s immigration agency.  The Cuban-born Mayorkas was selected because his “expertise covers a wide array of issues critical to the department, including law enforcement, civil rights, computer crime, and international money laundering” said DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. 

Optimistic about the pick is Robert Bonner, the first commissioner of Customs Border Protection.  Bonner said Mayorkas had the skills to run the overburdened and underfunded immigration court system, a key component to any overhaul of US immigration policy.  “Improving the capabilities of USCIS is critical to dealing with immigration reform,” said Bonner.  “I have the highest regard for Ali, who is the right person and at the right time to make CIS functional.  He has the personal and management skills that will be needed for what is one of the most difficult jobs in Washington.” 

Mayorkas was the US attorney for the Central District of California from 1998 to 2001.  Afterwards, he served as a litigation partner at LA-based O’Melveny and Myers.   

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Customs and Border Protection officials announced that they plan to begin construction later this month on the long-planned “virtual fence” among the US-Mexico border, The Associated Press reports.  Estimates from the organization suggest that the fence could completely cover the nearly 2,000 mile border within five years.  

The project will begin with the construction of the first permanent towers, equipped with sensors, cameras and communications gear to detect drug smuggling and undocumented border crossing, and will be built along 53 miles of Arizona’s Tucson sector, according to Mark Borkowski, the CBP official in charge of the program.  After these initial towers are built, more towers will be constructed along the remaining 320 miles of the Arizona border, before setting up virtual fencing in New Mexico and California.  The electronic monitoring is meant to serve as a replacement to physical fencing and vehicle barriers that have already been built along 624 miles of the border. 

The virtual fence is designed to use radar and cameras with about a six-mile range, including infrared devices and other technologies and detect smuggling attempts.  A prototype virtual fence, monitoring 28 miles of Arizona border, has been in use since late 2007.  This practice run was criticized by the GAO, who last year told Congress that the fence did not fully meet expectations and that its design wouldn’t be used as the basis for future developments.   

Borkowski declined to estimate how much the virtual fence project will cost but comments made by House Homeland Security Committee officials suggest that the estimate cost will be about $6.7 billion by 2014.   

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The Department of Homeland Security recently requested a $55.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2010, with some the budget intended to fund border security initiatives and bolster immigration laws enforcement, according to United Press International.   

Specifically DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said the proposed budget would allocate $112 million to strengthen employment eligibility verification systems, $139 million to expedite the application process for new legal immigrants, and $144.9 million to support implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. 

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A bipartisan group of senators have expressed concern with President Obama’s budget cut to a program that reimburses states for jailing undocumented immigrants, according to The San Antonio Express.  The proposed cut aims to eliminate the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which provides financial support to government facilities that handle immigration violations; last year, the program provided $118 million for California and over $50 million for Texas to jail undocumented immigrants. 

Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison & John Cornyn [R-TX] joined Sens. Dianne Feinstein & Barbara Boxer [D-CA], Sen. Jeff Bingaman [D-NM] and Sen. Jon Kyl [R-AZ] joined together to send a letter to Senate leaders requesting the funding for the program remain in financial appropriation bills.  “Not only does this disproportionately affect border states, but for every dollar less that SCAAP reimburses states, a dollar less is available for critical public safety services in the affected communities,” Hutchison said.