USA Today reports that seventeen months have passed since the Department of Homeland Security announced it would create an internal civil rights review of the Secure Communities program. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton announced in June that his agency would create a statistical monitoring tool to ensure that law enforcement agencies were not using the Secure Communities program to engage in racial profiling. The program screens all individuals detained in local jails for federal immigration violations. Several reports have found flaws in the program. Researchers at University of California-Berkeley found that 3, 6000 U.S. citizens had been erroneously arrested under Secure Communities by ICE. The report also showed that Hispanics were disproportionally targeted as 93% of people arrested were Hispanics even though they make up only 77% of the undocumented immigrant population. DHS officials cannot say when, of if, they will follow through with their review of Secure Communities.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/05/feds-delay-review-of-obama-immigration-program/1684885/

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EFE reports that Florida Senator Marco Rubio has called for prudence in the regularization of status among deferred action applicants. At the fourth annual Washington Ideas Forum, Republican Senator Rubio urged for a permanent solution for young people brought into the United States illegally. Rubio emphasized that "the issue of kids that are in this country undocumented is not an immigration issue, it's a humanitarian one."He called for an immediate "permanent solution" for the DREAMers and said that comprehensive immigration reform "will take more time" than other political priorities.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/11/16/marco-rubio-pushes-for-immediate-immigration-solution-for-dreamers/

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The New York Times reports that the Pentagon has reopened a program to recruit legal immigrants with special language and medical skills. The program, known as Military Accession Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI), was active for a year in 2009 but was suspended in January 2010. Thousands of immigrants, eager to enlist in the American military, signed a petition on Facebook asking the Pentagon to let them join. The program will only enlist a total of 1,500 recruits each year for two years but military officials said that the yearlong pilot program in 2009 brought unusually well-educated and skilled immigrants into the armed services. On average, immigrants who enlisted in the Army language program scored 17 points higher (on a scale of 99) than other applicants on an entrance test. A solider from Nepal who entered with the first class recently won the Army's Solider of the Year award.

The program is open to immigrants on temporary visas, who otherwise would not be eligible to enlist. The program allows them to naturalize as United States citizens quickly, in most cases at the end of basic training, which lasts about 10 weeks. The Army is looking for dentists and surgeons, and for psychology professionals to help with the severe emotional strains soldiers have undergone in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Officials are also looking for native speakers of 44 languages including Azerbaijani, Cambodian-Khmer, Huasa and Igbo (both spoken in West Africa), Persian Dari (spoken in Afghanistan), Portuguese and Tami (spoken in South Asia). To qualify, immigrants must have been living in the United States legally for at least two years. They must be high school graduates and pass the entrance test. The program is not open to undocumented immigrants. In general, immigrants who are not citizens must have a green card to enlist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/us/pentagon-reopens-program-allowing-immigrants-with-special-skills-to-enlist.html?_r=0.

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