Immigration Detention Centers in Kentucky, Illinois Violate Rights, Report Says

Fox News Latino reports that an investigation by the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center and the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights found that detainees in three immigrant detention centers in Illinois and Kentucky have been denied legal counsel, received poor medical care and rarely eat a hot meal, among other human rights violations.  The report calls on the Obama administration to cut down on the number of immigrant detainees and seeks the closure of the three centers cited.  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released an email statement, saying the agency “takes any allegation of misconduct or negligence at our detention facilities very seriously.”  The statement asserted that there are strict standards and annual inspections at all facilities and that the three cited in the report had “received passing grades.” 

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/12/12/3-immigrant-detention-centers-in-kentucky-illinois-violate-rights-report-says/

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CBP’s Work Force Near 60,000 in 2011

Government Security News reports that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employed 59,820 people in fiscal year 2011 and hired more than 20,000 Border Patrol agents.  The increase in Border Patrol agents prompted the Obama administration to formally announce it would reduce the number of National Guard troops stationed along the southwestern U.S. border.  CBP said military veterans accounted for almost 20 percent of newly-hired agents and more than one in three of its employees is Hispanic.   

http://www.gsnmagazine.com/node/25295

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CBP Chief Resigns after Less Than Two Years on Job

The Examiner (AZ) reports that Customs and Border Patrol chief Alan Bersin resigned after less than two years on the job.  In a statement, Bersin declared that he was proud of the work done by CBP during his tenure, but made no mention of specifically why he would not continue as head of the agency.  For the time being, Bersin will be replaced by CBP Deputy Commissioner and former head of the Border Patrol’s Tuscon sector, David Aguilar.

http://www.examiner.com/immigration-in-tucson/cbp-chief-resigns-after-less-than-two-years-on-job

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With New Strategy, Record Number of Deportations

NPR reports that 2011 was a record year for deportations; the last federal fiscal year saw 396,000 immigrants removed from the United States. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director John Morton said more than half the people deported this year were convicted of crimes.  Morton highlighted ICE’s shift in enforcement focus toward criminals moving forward and said that he expects the previously announced systematic review of all immigration court cases to be completed by the middle of 2012.  He also expects another 400,000 people will be deported next year and says an even larger percentage of them will have criminal records.

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/25/143953398/with-new-strategy-record-numbers-deported

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U.S. Sets Up Hotline for Detained Immigrants

Reuters reports that U.S. immigration authorities are setting up a telephone hotline to ensure that detainees held by local police forces partnering in the Secure Communities program are adequately informed of their rights.  The initiative announced by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency provides a toll-free number to field queries from detainees held by state or local law enforcement agencies “if they believe they may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime.”  The hotline will be staffed 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week by ICE personnel at the Law Enforcement Support Center.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/29/us-usa-immigration-hotline-idUSTRE7BS0ZG20111229

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ICE Reports Record Number of I-9 Audits, Employer Arrests

Business Management reports that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a record 2,393 audit notices to inspect employers’ I-9s this year, a more than 375% increase from employers audited in 2008.  ICE last year arrested and criminally prosecuted 196 owners, execs and HR managers for alleged work site immigration violations, surpassing the previous high of 135 in 2008.

http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/28924/ice-reports-record-number-of-i-9-audits-employer-arrests

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In Test of Deportation Policy, 1 in 6 Offered Reprieve

The New York Times reports that prosecutors in Denver completed a test run of the first comprehensive docket review ever undertaken in the nation’s immigration courts, in which 16 prosecutors worked since December 5, 2011 to read through 7,900 deportation cases.  Of the 7,900 cases, prosecutors identified more than 1,000 foreign nationals who pose no security risk and allowed them to remain in the United States.  After analyzing the pilot projects in Denver and in Baltimore, Department of Homeland Security officials plan to extend the review in coming months to all of about 300,000 cases before the country’s immigration courts.  The immigration court review is part of a broad effort by the administration to ease the impact of enforcement on immigrant and Latino communities by stopping some deportations while also reducing huge backlogs swamping the courts.  Based on a loose projection of results from the court reviews to date, about 39,000 immigrants nationwide could see their deportations suspended.   Despite the immense workload, prosecutors have responded positively to the case reviews.  “It makes us feel good to know that some of these low-priority cases will be placed at the back burner,” said Corina Almeida, who, as chief counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Denver, is the senior prosecutor there. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/us/in-test-of-deportation-policy-1-in-6-offered-reprieve.html?pagewanted=all

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