4. Border and Enforcement News:

ICE Deports Man Who Killed Two During JFK Airport Hostage Standoff

U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (USCIS) announced that a former lawful permanent resident, who was once an enlisted member of the U.S. Navy, was deported to Panama.  Luis Robinson, 61, a Panamanian national formerly of Somerset, N.J., was arrested and placed into Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) custody after being paroled from the New York State Department of Corrections. Robinson served 34 years in prison for two counts of 2^nd degree murder that he committed during a 1977 hostage standoff at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.  “Removing criminal aliens is a top priority for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations,” said Michael Phillips, field office director for ICE ERO in Buffalo. 

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Crackdown Resumes on Firms’ Illegal Hires

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration has extended its crackdown on employers of illegally present immigrants, notifying 500 companies across the nation in recent weeks that the government will inspect their hiring records.  Companies can be fined, barred from competing for government contracts and be hit with criminal charges of knowingly employing illegally present workers and evading taxes.  Since January 2009, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has audited more than 5,909 employers suspected of hiring illegally present labor and imposed more than $72 million in sanctions.  The audits also have their fare share of detractors.  “The I-9 audits disrupt farmers and workers, but do nothing to move us towards the goal of a legal and stable work force,” said Dan Fazio, director of the Washington Farm Labor Association.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203503204577038650374608774.html

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U.S. to Review Cases Seeking Deportations

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security began a review of all deportation cases before the immigration courts and started a nationwide training program for enforcement agents and prosecuting lawyers, with the goal of speeding deportations of convicted criminals and halting those of many illegally present immigrants with no criminal record.  Central to the plan is giving more power to immigration agency lawyers to decide which deportation cases to press. 

In the first stage of the court docket review, immigration agency lawyers will examine all new cases just arriving in immigration courts nationwide, with an eye on closing cases that are low-priority according to the memorandum Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, John Morton, released in June.  At the same time, immigrants identified as high priority will see their cases put onto an expedited calendar for judges to order their deportations, Homeland Security officials said.

In a second stage, the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department will start six-week pilot projects in the immigration courts in Baltimore and Denver, in which teams of immigration agency lawyers will comb through the current dockets of those courts.  Immigrants who are deemed to qualify for prosecutorial discretion will have their cases closed, but not dismissed, officials said.  The pilot projects will end Jan. 13, and then officials will decide how to expand the program to all immigration courts nationwide early next year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/us/deportation-cases-of-illegal-immigrants-to-be-reviewed.html

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Honda Worker Cited Under Alabama Immigration Law

The Associated Press reports that a Japanese man temporarily working at Honda’s car factory in east Alabama became the second foreign auto worker charged under the state’s law on illegal immigration.  The employee at Honda Manufacturing of Alabama in Talladega County received a ticket but wasn’t taken into custody.  Republican lawmakers in Alabama cast doubt on whether the citation was actually made under the immigration law saying there is no instance or violation under the new law that calls for writing someone a ticket.  A person who commented on the condition of anonymity said the man was ticketed at a routine roadblock set up by police even though he had a valid Japanese passport and an international driver’s license.  State Homeland Security officials, who are monitoring enforcement of the law, said they were seeking details on the case.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-57334087/apnewsbreak-honda-worker-cited-under-ala-law/

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