Officials: border delays costly
The Gannett Washington Bureau reports that officials from the U.S. Border Counties Coalition say long delays moving people across the U.S.-Mexican border are costing these counties billions of dollars. A study by the San Diego Association of Governments, for example, estimated that wait times cost an estimated total of $7.2 billion in 2007.
Officials from border counties in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas blamed outdated facilities and small staffs at entry points for their inability to process the large number of vehicles trying to cross the border. The resulting traffic jams discourage Mexicans from crossing the border to shop and do business. They urged President Obama to fund an $84 million project to double the number of traffic lanes at Mexicali in Baja California and to increase funding for projects such as the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative and the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2011/03/11/20110311officials-border-delays-costly.html
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New border technology slow to be deployed
The Associated Press reports that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) expects the technology replacing the defunct SBInet virtual fence project to take at least another decade to be implemented. GAO officials said a mix of cameras, radar, and other technology will first be deployed to the border in Arizona over the next two years and is expected to be completed by 2015 or 2016. Next, the project would expand to Texas, New Mexico, and California but would not be completed until 2021. Mark Borkowski, Customs and Border Protection assistant commissioner for technology innovation and acquisition said the new equipment could be deployed more quickly if Congress allocated the money. The first phase of the project in Arizona is estimated to cost $755 million.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iJXJodaWDfV-puafGpuT7Oh10QZw?docID=0e3536ca9efd452cab4e1da296d71b41
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ICE launches Self-Verify
Fox News reports that ICE launched E-Verify Self Check, an online program that will enable workers to check their own immigration status. Initially, the service will be launched in Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Virginia, Mississippi, and the District of Columbia and extended to 16 more states in 2012. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano described E-Verify Self Check as a ‘voluntary, free, fast and secure service’ that gives users an opportunity to submit corrections of any inaccuracies to their records before seeking employment. So far in fiscal year 2011, E-Verify has received over seven million data searches.
In addition, The Washington Post reports that the federal government is exploring the possibility of using a credit rating service like Equifax to verify the identity of American workers and make it more difficult for undocumented immigrants to use stolen Social Security numbers to obtain work.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/03/22/ice-launches-self-verify/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/us-may-strengthen-identity-verification-system-for-workers/2011/03/21/ABH8Si8_story.html
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Report criticizes immigrant detention system
Reuters reports that a study by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) shows that immigrants detained in the United States lack adequate access to legal representation and medical care. The report, entitled ‘Immigration in the United States: Detention and Due Process,’ based its finding on research that included visits to six immigration detention facilities in Arizona and Texas. IACHR found that the system is over reliant on detention, which in turn has a negative impact on due process. The report is available at: http://cidh.org/pdf%20files/ReportOnImmigrationInTheUnited%20States-DetentionAndDueProcess.pdf
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/17/us-immigration-study-idUSTRE72G8M120110317
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Napolitano: U.S. border towns with Mexico are safe
The Associated Press reports that U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that security on the U.S.-Mexico border ‘is better now than it ever has been’ while visiting the Bridge of The Americas border crossing. After meeting with the mayors of the border towns of El Paso, Yuma, and Nogales, Napolitano tried to dispel the misconception that violence in Mexico has spilled over to bordering U.S. towns. She cited a reduction of 36 percent in the number of illegally present immigrant detentions and a 22 percent increase in the total value of imports crossing the border as evidence that the border situation has improved. However, she said there ‘is much work to do’ and announced that the Department of Homeland Security will deploy 250 more border agents and expects to have 300 more when the next budget is approved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jCf0_Z-8v0SfdA1gGvvc-eynuuZA?docId=880757ed582b49fabad6015928347aac
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