Pentagon Agrees to Fund Border Troops through Year’s End

The Los Angeles Times reports that over one thousand National Guard troops will remain on the Southwest border at least through the end of December.  Responding to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s insistence that the National Guard needed to remain in place, the Department of Defense has agreed to cover the approximately $10 million in monthly costs through the end of this calendar year.  Napolitano said that the National Guard troops will be needed on the border until new agents are hired, trained, and can take over the support roles now filled by the Guard.  Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Robert L. Ditchey said the three-month extension will give the two departments time to develop “long-term, more operationally effective, less costly alternatives” to keeping the National Guard on the border.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/30/napolitano-wants-national-guard-to-stay-on-mexican/

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U.S. Inquiry Traces Foreigners with Visas

The Arizona Daily Star reports that a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that Homeland Security still doesn’t have a mechanism in place to track when, and if, legal foreign visitors leave the country.  The department has implemented a program to take and electronically store biometric and biographic information for all foreign visitors entering through ports of entry with a visa, but it has not created a similar program to track when those people leave the country.  Homeland Security has a plan in place to create a formalized exit program, but it has not yet been implemented due to constraints such as extensive cost, the GAO reported.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/article_6712358e-da7e-11e0-86e7-001cc4c002e0.html

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security conducted an investigation of the 1.6 million cases of foreigners suspected of remaining in the United States after their visas expired.  According to department officials, more than half of these visitors have already left the country or obtained legal immigration status.  Of the remaining cases, the department opened “several hundred” new investigations of the foreigners where there was evidence of substantial risk.  Homeland Security officials said the investigation showcased technology to track foreigners in the United States and determine if they have left when their visas expire.  Speaking before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the department was moving on a “fast track” to create a nationwide electronic exit system that could provide an alternative to a cumbersome and prohibitively expensive system based on biometrics. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/us-inquiry-traces-foreigners-with-visas.html

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Report Criticizes Deportation Program, Urges Changes

The Los Angeles Times reports that a federal task force charged with reviewing the Secure Communities deportation program said the controversial initiative has had an “adverse impact” on community policing.  Furthermore, the task force charged Immigration and Customs Enforcement with providing inaccurate or incomplete information about the program to states and localities.  According to a task force draft, “If residents do not trust their local police, they are less willing to step forward as witnesses to or victims of crime.”  The report outlines a series of recommendations to fix the program including reaffirming its highest priority as the identification and removal of those “who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety,” and an end to deportation based on minor offenses. 

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/16/local/la-me-secure-communities-20110916

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Immigration Officials Say Victim Visa Applications Are Up Amid Outreach to Law Enforcement

The Associated Press reports that the number of crime and trafficking victims applying for special stay visas to stay in the country has increased, thanks to federal officials’ outreach to local law enforcement, immigration authorities said.  More than 13,000 crime victims have applied for the visas so far this fiscal year, up at least 28 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.  About 860 trafficking victims have applied, a 51 percent increase.  Immigration officials have held training sessions in 30 cities this year to make officers aware of the trafficking visa and explain their role in immigrants’ applications for a crime victim visa. 

http://www.startribune.com/nation/129916533.html

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