April 30, 2012

Fewer Illegal Immigrants Stopped for Traffic Violations Will Face Deportation – candidate Obama continues to dismantle immigration enforcement

Posted by D.A. King at 8:42 am - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

New York Times
April 27, 2012

Fewer Illegal Immigrants Stopped for Traffic Violations Will Face Deportation

Fewer illegal immigrants stopped by police for minor traffic violations would be held for deportation under changes announced Friday to a federal fingerprinting program, Department of Homeland Security officials said.

The policy change on how federal agents will handle illegal immigrants arrested by state and local police for offenses like driving without a license came in the department’s response to a report by a task force on the federal program.

One of the task force’s central recommendations was that the program, called Secure Communities, should avoid deportations of traffic violators.

The sharply critical task force report, issued last September, argued that such deportations were inconsistent with the department’s stated priorities of removing foreigners with serious criminal records. The increase in deportations of minor offenders under Secure Communities, the task force concluded, was undermining vital ties of trust between local police and immigrant neighborhoods.

In a 19-page response released Friday, Homeland Security officials forcefully reasserted their support for the program, which has been the center of fierce controversy since it began in October 2008. The program has put President Obama at odds with governors in Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, who are his political allies, and eroded support for him in Latino communities. Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that Latinos will be crucial voters in the presidential election.

Homeland Security officials also accepted almost all of the task force’s recommendations, acknowledging that poor communications by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the administering agency, had caused major confusion about the program’s goals and how it works.

The Obama administration’s changes came after a hearing at the Supreme Court on Wednesday where government lawyers argued against an Arizona law that would expand the powers of the police to enforce immigration laws. Administration officials say Secure Communities is an example of the aggressive federal enforcement that makes action by state police unnecessary and counterproductive.

In its response on Friday, the department said the program remains “the single best tool” for focusing deportation resources on immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes, pose a threat to public safety or repeatedly violate immigration law.

Under the program, fingerprints of anyone booked by the police are checked against F.B.I. criminal databases — long a routine procedure — and also against databases of the Department of Homeland Security, which include immigration violations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, has been rapidly extending the program with the goal of reaching all 3,181 jurisdictions in the country by next year.

Homeland Security officials contended that the new policy on traffic violators could bring a major change in the program’s impact.

As the program spread, more local arrests resulted in immigration holds, and illegal immigrants who did not have criminal convictions found themselves facing deportation because of tickets for speeding, burned-out tail lights or driving without a license.

In all but a handful of states, immigrants here illegally cannot obtain driver’s licenses.

Under the refinement, when illegal immigrants are arrested solely for traffic offenses and do not have a prior criminal record, federal agents will only consider placing a hold — known as a detainer — after they are convicted.

“ICE agrees that enforcement action based solely on a charge for a minor traffic offense is generally not an efficient use of government resources,” the department response says.

Immigrants arrested for drunken driving would not benefit from the new policy, officials said.

In practice, most traffic violators are released well before they are convicted, and now immigrants stopped by traffic police will not remain in custody to be picked up by federal agents.

Detainers are only in effect as long as the immigrant is in local police custody, homeland security officials said.

ICE also reported that it held more than 700 meetings last year with law enforcement agencies and immigrant advocates to explain the program.

In February, ICE created a public advocate to hear concerns of immigrants facing deportation, and has stepped up training for its staff.

The task force chairman, Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, praised the department’s response.

“It is encouraging in that they are not defensive and they recognize the issues we raised and appear to be committed to dealing with them,” Mr. Wexler said. His group conducts research on crime for police chiefs.

But dissension arose among task force members. Benjamin E. Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration group in Washington, said that ICE had not actually accepted the task force’s key recommendation, which was that no traffic offenders should be detained under Secure Communities.

Mr. Johnson said ICE would only further confuse local police by issuing immigration holds after traffic convictions.

“In a traffic setting, we were very clear that ICE should just get out of the business of issuing detainers,” Mr. Johnson said.

HERE

Fewer Illegal Immigrants Stopped for Traffic Violations Will Face Deportation – candidate Obama continues to dismantle immigration enforcement

Posted by D.A. King at 8:40 am - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

New York Times
April 27, 2012

Fewer Illegal Immigrants Stopped for Traffic Violations Will Face Deportation

Fewer illegal immigrants stopped by police for minor traffic violations would be held for deportation under changes announced Friday to a federal fingerprinting program, Department of Homeland Security officials said.

The policy change on how federal agents will handle illegal immigrants arrested by state and local police for offenses like driving without a license came in the department’s response to a report by a task force on the federal program.

One of the task force’s central recommendations was that the program, called Secure Communities, should avoid deportations of traffic violators.

The sharply critical task force report, issued last September, argued that such deportations were inconsistent with the department’s stated priorities of removing foreigners with serious criminal records. The increase in deportations of minor offenders under Secure Communities, the task force concluded, was undermining vital ties of trust between local police and immigrant neighborhoods.

In a 19-page response released Friday, Homeland Security officials forcefully reasserted their support for the program, which has been the center of fierce controversy since it began in October 2008. The program has put President Obama at odds with governors in Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, who are his political allies, and eroded support for him in Latino communities. Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that Latinos will be crucial voters in the presidential election.

Homeland Security officials also accepted almost all of the task force’s recommendations, acknowledging that poor communications by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the administering agency, had caused major confusion about the program’s goals and how it works.

The Obama administration’s changes came after a hearing at the Supreme Court on Wednesday where government lawyers argued against an Arizona law that would expand the powers of the police to enforce immigration laws. Administration officials say Secure Communities is an example of the aggressive federal enforcement that makes action by state police unnecessary and counterproductive.

In its response on Friday, the department said the program remains “the single best tool” for focusing deportation resources on immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes, pose a threat to public safety or repeatedly violate immigration law.

Under the program, fingerprints of anyone booked by the police are checked against F.B.I. criminal databases — long a routine procedure — and also against databases of the Department of Homeland Security, which include immigration violations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, has been rapidly extending the program with the goal of reaching all 3,181 jurisdictions in the country by next year.

Homeland Security officials contended that the new policy on traffic violators could bring a major change in the program’s impact.

As the program spread, more local arrests resulted in immigration holds, and illegal immigrants who did not have criminal convictions found themselves facing deportation because of tickets for speeding, burned-out tail lights or driving without a license.

In all but a handful of states, immigrants here illegally cannot obtain driver’s licenses.

Under the refinement, when illegal immigrants are arrested solely for traffic offenses and do not have a prior criminal record, federal agents will only consider placing a hold — known as a detainer — after they are convicted.

“ICE agrees that enforcement action based solely on a charge for a minor traffic offense is generally not an efficient use of government resources,” the department response says.

Immigrants arrested for drunken driving would not benefit from the new policy, officials said.

In practice, most traffic violators are released well before they are convicted, and now immigrants stopped by traffic police will not remain in custody to be picked up by federal agents.

Detainers are only in effect as long as the immigrant is in local police custody, homeland security officials said.

ICE also reported that it held more than 700 meetings last year with law enforcement agencies and immigrant advocates to explain the program.

In February, ICE created a public advocate to hear concerns of immigrants facing deportation, and has stepped up training for its staff.

The task force chairman, Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, praised the department’s response.

“It is encouraging in that they are not defensive and they recognize the issues we raised and appear to be committed to dealing with them,” Mr. Wexler said. His group conducts research on crime for police chiefs.

But dissension arose among task force members. Benjamin E. Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration group in Washington, said that ICE had not actually accepted the task force’s key recommendation, which was that no traffic offenders should be detained under Secure Communities.

Mr. Johnson said ICE would only further confuse local police by issuing immigration holds after traffic convictions.

“In a traffic setting, we were very clear that ICE should just get out of the business of issuing detainers,” Mr. Johnson said.

HERE

April 26, 2012

BIASED AND UNPROFESSIONAL LOCAL TV NEWS COVERAGE OF SCOTUS HEARING ALERT -VIDEO – Fox Five Atlanta TV coverage and commentary on yesterday’s SCOTUS hearing – wins the DIS bias and slanted news coverage of the day award

Posted by D.A. King at 6:51 am - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

VIDEO – Fox Five Atlanta TV on SCOTUS hearing yesterday and what they lable the Arizona “show me your papers law” – without any credit to La Raza and the illegal alien lobby. And without any mention that federal law since 1940 has required adult aliens in the U.S. to carry imigration documents on their person. Features one-sided local reaction…and it isn’t from mainstream America. But fun to watch.

The Executive Producer on htis little gem of a news report is Mark Shavin.

Mark Shavin, has been a journalist for 30 years, 21 of which have been at WAGA-TV (FOX 5 News), working as a producer for six years and an executive producer for 15 years. He was there for the historic switch from longtime CBS affiliate to FOX affiliate. He helped conceive and develop the station’s groundbreaking 10pm newscast. Prior to WAGA, Shavin held positions with the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, the Los Angeles Times, the Jacksonville (FL) Journal, United Press International, as a writer at CNN Headline News and WXIA-TV.

HERE

I spoke to Mark Shavin last night. You can contact him HERE .

Supreme Court Hints OK on Ariz. Immigration Law: MyFoxATLANTA.com

April 23, 2012

New York Times, Sunday, April 22, 2012 – Enforcement works: Justices to Rule on Role of the States in Immigration

Posted by D.A. King at 5:30 pm - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

“…Events here in Georgia showed how effective policing measures can be at driving illegal immigrants from a state. Georgia has been passing laws aimed at making it hard for illegal immigrants to live and work here since 2006. D. A. King, a staunch foe of illegal immigration who was a driving force behind most of those laws, said the measures deterred illegal immigrants from settling in Georgia, saving taxpayers money. He said the policing law adopted last year built on those earlier initiatives.

“If you use local authorities as a force multiplier for federal enforcement agencies,” Mr. King said, “that is the terror that illegal aliens really fear.”

Indeed, just the rumor that Georgia had adopted an Arizona-style law sent a chill through Hispanic immigrant communities throughout the southern farming region.”

New York Times

Justices to rule on role of the states in immigration

When Georgia passed a law last year authorizing the local police to question and detain illegal immigrants, Darvin Eason felt the impact immediately on his farms here in south Georgia. — At the peak of the harvest, many of the Mexican workers he had relied on to pick his blackberries were scared away from the state. Ripe berries fell to the ground uncollected, and Mr. Eason lost $20,000…

READ IT ALL HERE

April 18, 2012

VIDEO – (Some fun in the) Wit and wisdom from Rich Pellegrino – 10 minutes of one of Georgia’s deepest open-borders thinkers: Oh Rich!

Posted by D.A. King at 2:53 pm - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

VIDEO – Wit and wisdom from Rich Pellegrino – 10 minutes of one of Georgia’s deepest open-borders thinkers. This is a typical example of the level of feeling disguised as fact from a typical useful idiot enlisted in the amnesty-again movement here in Georgia and the nation.

YOUTUBE Comments are open. VIDEO HERE

Another quote from Rich in the local newspaper? ” What isn’t love is hate.”

I have no time to correct or note all of the fairy tales from Rich today…so have a blast yourselves.

Texas did indeed do a “study.” HERE

Actually, Georgia ranks differently on 287(g) than claimed by Rich

Cobb County’s 287(g) program is one of the busiest in the nation, prompting 6,779 removals since fiscal year 2007 — eighth among more than 60 programs nationwide. Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren credited his staff for doing “an outstanding job” with the program.

HERE …and from the AJC!

That is H1B visa Rich…not “HB1”

Oh, Rich!

April 16, 2012

Make your voice heard! Sign the petition to Georgia Governor Deal’s office; KEEP YOUR CAMPAIGN PROMISE – GET ILLEGAL ALIENS OUT OF GEORGIA’S UNIVERSITY SYSTEM!

Posted by D.A. King at 2:20 pm - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

HERE

April 13, 2012

Georgia professors bribe students to lobby legislators

Posted by D.A. King at 3:35 pm - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

Mary Grabar — Townhall.com

Georgia professors bribe students to lobby legislators

Why would GALEO (Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials), which lobbies against enforcement of immigration laws, thank “students” and “educators” (among others) for defeating Georgia bills restricting illegal aliens? Their April 9 newsletter joyfully announces in a headline “ZERO anti-immigrant [sic] legislation from GA passed.” — Well, it’s because educators, public school teachers, and professors…

HERE