ICE fails to flag 4% of California inmates

The Associated Press reports that a government audit for fiscal year 2009 shows that immigration agents failed to identify four percent of California inmates who were eligible for deportation. ICE agents blamed staffing shortages for this failure.

http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-02-04/news/27103423_1_immigration-agents-state-inmates-face-deportation

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Border officer hiring binge got ahead of screening

The San Diego Union Tribune reports that a growth in the number of Customs and Border Protection officers has led to lax screening methods, resulting in 123 arrests of Border Patrol agents since 2004.  In testimony before Congress, a top Internal Affairs official acknowledged that only fifteen percent of applicants are tested, meaning many agents who joined during the hiring spree were not subject to a polygraph.

In response to corruption within the organization, Congress passed ‘The Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010,’ requiring all new hires over the next two years to participate in a polygraph test.  Spokeswoman Kelly Ivahnenko said the agency will be able to meet the legislative requirements by the end of 2012.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/05/border-officer-hiring-binge-got-ahead-of-screening/

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Top official notes progress on border

The Arizona Daily Star reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Comissioner Alan Bersin said that the border is safer and more secure due to efforts by The Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats.  The alliance was launched in September 2009 and consists of sixty federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies in Arizona working together to drive down human and drug trafficking across the border.  He pointed to a six-year decrease in apprehensions of illegally present immigrants and an increase in drug, cash, and weapon seizures as evidence of a more secure border.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/article_ee3c2082-3269-5b17-8d47-3c0f2e85c949.html

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Arizona proposal would use donations to build border fence

Capitol Media Services reports that the Arizona Senate voted to start taking private donations to build a border fence.  A spokesman from the Border Action Network claimed that while it is costing the federal government $4 million a mile to build fencing, it would be of minimal cost to the state if it accepted private donations and utilized inmate labor.  The bill’s sponsors argue that the federal government’s efforts have been insufficient to secure the border and propose to build a third of the 370 mile long border fence on private land with the balance being constructed on the Tohono O’odham reservation and federal land.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/article_539a55c0-357b-11e0-900b-001cc4c03286.html

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Northern border may be more secure than depicted

The Associated Press reports that U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher said in a House panel that the northern border is more secure than a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had depicted.  On February 1^st, the GAO released a report stating that the Border Patrol has ‘operational control,’ meaning they can effectively detect illegal activity and make arrests, over just 32 of the border’s 4,000 miles.  Speaking to the House Homeland Security subcommittee, however, Fisher said whether his agency has operational control over an area ‘is not in and of itself an assessment of border security.’  Border Patrol is developing a new strategy to asses security that will be risk-based and depend on information and intelligence. 

http://azstarnet.com/news/us/article_37190b59-e566-5f3c-a465-dc54c0658148.html

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ICE agent killed in Mexico

The Los Angeles Times reports that the ICE agent killed in an area of Mexico under control off drug cartels has been identified as Jaime J. Zapata, a native of Brownsville, TX and four-year veteran of the agency. Zapata, along with another unidentified agent, were dispatched from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and were shot in the state of San Luis Potosi as they were traveling north to Monterrey.  The second agent was reportedly in stable condition after suffering several gunshot wounds.

Gunmen from the notorious Zetas gang blocked the road before opening fire on the agents as part of a ‘narco-blockade,’ a practice meant to impede law enforcement from patrolling drug trafficking routes.  In statement responding to the attack, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano vowed that such an act of violence would not diminish the U.S. role in Mexico’s drug war.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/16/world/la-fg-mexico-agent-killed-20110217

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Surge of immigrants from India baffles border officials in Texas

The Los Angeles Times reports that more than 1,600 illegally present Indian immigrants have been caught in Texas, while thousands more have entered the U.S. undetected.  In the last three months of 2010, around 650 Indians were arrested in southern Texas. Motels such as America’s Best Value Inn in Raymondville house about twenty Indians per week as they try to make their way north.  Mexico requires visas for Indians so many of these immigrants are traveling to South America and then sneaking across the Guatemala-Mexico border before entering the U.S. 

Some of the immigrants claim they are fleeing religious and political persecution, but human rights experts say the political conditions in India do no explain the migration.  Although many of the immigrants are Sikhs, a religious minority within India, political experts say this group has not been targeted since the 1980s and that these claims are false.  Despite this analysis, some Indian immigrants have successfully embarked upon the path towards full asylum, convincing asylum officers they have a ‘credible fear’ of persecution if they return to India.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/06/nation/la-na-border-indians-20110206

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