• Federal apprehensions for immigration violations declined, while arrests tripled, in 2000-10

    Apprehensions for immigration violations peaked at 1.8 million in 2000 but dropped to 516,992 in 2010 — the lowest level since 1972, according to a report released last week by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS); between 2000 and 2010, arrests booked by the U.S. Marshals Service for federal immigration offenses tripled, from 25,205 to 82,438 arrests; immigration apprehensions resulted in about 16 arrests per 100 apprehensions in 2010, up from 2 arrests per 100 in 2002

  • ICE agents say Obama’s 15 June executive order makes their job more difficult

    Association of ICE agents complains that the 15 June executive order which deferred deportation action against certain classes of illegal immigrants makes it difficult for ICE to enforce immigration laws

  • Obama and Romney stopped talking about immigration until the Democrats dropped the Dream Bomb

    By Lee Maril

    The 15 June announcement by DHS secretary Janet Napolitano of an executive order which, in effect, implements the Dream Act, gives the 2008 presidential election the appearance of offering a discussion of immigration issues; the fact remains, though, that since  the Immigration and Reform Act (IRCA) of 1986, both parties studiously avoided a serious debate of the issue during presidential campaigns; democracy is a messy form of government, and few other topics are as messy and convoluted as U.S. immigration policy, but both political parties are wrong to avoid a broad public discussion of this vital national issue

  • House bill allows Border Patrol to ignore environmental, safety protections along borders

    The House of Representatives passed a sweeping bill which would allow the Border Patrol to ignore dozens of environmental protection laws — among them the Wilderness Act and Endangered Species Act — on all federally managed land within 100 miles of the Mexico and Canada borders; supporters argue that the measure is necessary to give the border patrol more freedom to chase illegal immigrants and drug smugglers; critics charge that the measure has little, if anything, to do with border security, and more to do with opening federally managed land to exploitation by private businesses, or pandering to local political constituencies

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  • Arizona police preparing to begin implementing SB 1070

    Anticipating at least a partially favorable decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration bill, Governor Jan Brewer has issued an executive order instructing police officers across the state to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the law and prepare to begin to implement it; the Court decision is expected before the end of June

  • Reliable measurement, program evaluation, and institutional memory: The Border Patrol’s new national strategy

    By Lee Maril

    What the Border Patrol vitally needs, along with all our members of Congress, is an adequate measurement of Border Patrol performance which, placed within an historical context, allows anyone to fairly and consistently judge the progress of this vital law enforcement agency regardless of which party holds power; instead, what we may likely see from the Border Patrol new National Strategy, announced on Tuesday, 8 May, is a multi-million dollar quagmire metric generated by a one-of-a-kind software package premised upon the Border Patrol’s same old unreliable data — apprehension rates; or, worse still, an opaque metric which is classified so the public has no idea what it really measures or leaves out

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  • Aware provides biometrics products for border management systems

    Aware’s software products will be used for biometric enrolment, watch-list checks, verification, and workflow in Europe, the Middle East, and North America

  • New approach to U.S. border security

    CBP has unveiled a new approach to securing the U.S.-Mexico border; the new strategy puts less emphasis on technology, and more on risk analysis; the Border Patrol believes it now knows enough about those who try to cross the border to begin imposing more serious consequences on almost everyone the agency catches; in January the Border Patrol expanded its Consequence Delivery System to the entire border, dividing border crossers into seven categories, ranging from first-time offenders to people with criminal records

  • Border security bill would harm U.S. National Parks: environmentalists

    A bill pending in the U.S. House of Representatives would suspend the enforcement of almost all the U.S. environmental laws on all lands under the jurisdiction of the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture within 100 miles of the northern border with Canada and the southern border with Mexico; the 100-mile zone includes fifteen National Parks which cover 21,657,399 acres, or nearly 25 percent of the overall footprint U.S. National Park System; supporters of the bill claim it would bolster border security, while environmentalists say it would gut a century’s worth of proven federal lands protection

  • Increasing effectiveness of border patrols by making them random

    A new study finds that combining historical data on illegal border crossings with unpredictability and randomness of patrols would be the most effective approach to increase interdiction of illegal border crossers

  • DHS brings military technology to border surveillance

    The long list of products and equipment developed for the military but which were adapted to and adopted by civilian and law enforcement agencies has a new entry. Add to the list the Kestrel: a L-3 Wescam MX 360-degree camera mounted to a Raven Aerostar aerostat

  • Small UAV wins Border Security Product Challenge award

    A small surveillance UAV catches the eye of law enforcement and the military; it is an electric-powered, lightweight, portable system that fits in a small rucksack. Its modular design enables assembly and launch in less than two minutes

  • Surveillance technology along the border

    A South Dakota blimp maker has one of its airships take part in a border security technology demonstration; the demonstration was put together to allow the CBP to evaluate a new surveillance system for use on the border

  • SFO launches program to battle human traffickers

    San Francisco International Airport is now home to the first program in the nation that trains airport personnel in identifying and stopping human traffickers

  • DHS to propose visa exit tracking system

    DHS is in the midst of completing its plan to establish a biometric exit system for immigrants when they leave the United States; the plan has been devised amid growing concerns about terrorists who entered the country legally, but continue to stay long after their visas had expired