Deportation cases halted, but illegal immigrants lives remain on hold

Deportation cases halted, but illegal immigrants lives remain on hold
By Jeremy Redmon  
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
5:39 a.m. Monday, May 7, 2012

Dalton -- Pedro “Peter” Morales remembers the party his family and friends threw last summer after he was freed from a detention center and told he would not be deported to Mexico.

They presented the 19-year-old with a chocolate cake that said “Welcome Back, Pedro.” His dad grilled chicken and steaks. Morales -- who was illegally brought to the U.S. by his parents when he was 7 -- was relieved to be back home in North Georgia. But those happy feelings have given way to anxiety. He still does not have legal status in the U.S. And the government won’t permit him to work legally here.

His situation stems from the federal government’s efforts to shrink a massive backlog in the nation’s immigration courts, totaling 306,010 cases as of last month. The government is shifting more of its focus toward deporting violent criminals, fugitives from immigration authorities, recent border crossers and people who have re-entered the country illegally.

Morales’ deportation case is among 2,722 the government has closed as part of this effort so far, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures show. Of those, 41 were from Atlanta’s immigration court, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse -- a research organization that monitors the federal government.

Charles Kuck, Morales’ immigration attorney, said his firm has about 20 other clients in the same predicament as Morales. He predicted there are many more caught in similar circumstances nationwide.
“It’s quite clear that there was not a lot of thought given to what happens to these people when we exercise our discretion of ‘Throw them back in the ocean,’ ” said Kuck, who teaches immigration law at the University of Georgia and is past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It’s disappointing there wasn’t a better plan, frankly.”

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, has a different view. He said halting illegal immigrants’ deportation cases and then permitting them to work here could send the message that it is OK to enter the country illegally and stay here without legal status.

“It is like: ‘Hey, you know, now I’m legal. It’s great. I’m glad ICE arrested me,” said Krikorian, whose Washington-based organization advocates for tighter immigration controls. “Giving work authorization really is much more problematic.”

Federal officials said they are constrained by law concerning when they may grant work permits. They said some people who have had their deportation cases closed since last year have received work permits, but they could not immediately say how many.

They also pointed out that the Obama administration has been pushing Congress to pass the Dream Act. That measure -- which failed in Congress in 2010 -- would give illegal immigrants a path to legal status if they came here as children, graduated from high school and attended college or served in the military.

Meanwhile, ICE officials said they are moving as quickly as they can to review the cases pending in the nation’s immigration courts. They said they are trying to “alleviate the burden posed on already overwhelmed immigration courts” and have identified about 16,500 cases that meet their criteria for being closed. Closing cases through this process, according to ICE, allows the agency “to more quickly remove those individuals who pose the biggest threat to community security and who have most flagrantly abused our immigration system.”

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ignited controversy in August -- the same month Morales was freed -- when she announced the case-by-case review. The government’s actions come as Georgia and several other states are seeking to crack down on illegal immigration through their own new laws. Among other things, those statutes seek to block illegal immigrants from taking jobs from U.S. citizens and getting public benefits they are not entitled to. Parts of those laws are tied up in federal court amid legal challenges.

State Rep. Matt Ramsey, who authored Georgia’s illegal immigration law, said it makes sense for the government to prioritize deporting criminal illegal immigrants. But the government wouldn’t have such a massive court backlog, he said, if it spent more resources keeping illegal immigrants out of the country.

“They are in a position of having to do this because they have fundamentally failed over a period of decades to stem the tide effectively,” the Peachtree City Republican said, “and they are still not adequately putting the resources behind it to address the problem.”

President Barack Obama's supporters point out that his administration has deported a record number of illegal immigrants and other noncitizens. Last fiscal year, that number was 396,906, the largest number removed in the history of ICE.

Morales feels strongly about the government’s decision to halt deportation cases like his. A graduate of Whitfield Career Academy, he considers himself mostly American. His high school friends nicknamed him Peter. He sometimes speaks to his parents in English because he doesn’t know which Spanish words to use.
“I was raised here,” said Morales, a quiet, polite man who speaks in a somber tone. “I wouldn’t know what to do in Mexico if I go back.”

After his case was closed last year, Morales applied to the government through a process that could lead to a work permit, but his application was denied in March, his attorney said. Morales wants to get a full-time job -- with health insurance benefits -- to pay for tuition at Georgia Northwestern Technical College. He wants to study auto mechanics there and open his own car repair shop. He said he can’t support himself without full-time work, so he lives with his parents and two U.S.-born siblings.

Morales talked about his case this month at his parent’s home in a trailer park just outside Dalton. He said his parents brought him to the United States in 1999, fleeing poverty and crime in Mexico City. Morales was able to keep his legal status secret until he was arrested on Father’s Day for driving without a license. Local authorities determined that he was in the country illegally and turned him over to ICE, which sent him to a detention center 145 miles south of Atlanta in Stewart County. He said he spent many weeks there, depressed and worried about his future.

Morales was freed after his attorney cited the government’s new guidelines for “prosecutorial discretion” in court. Morales said he is glad to be free but is nervous about drawing the attention of immigration authorities again since they have the authority to reopen his deportation case. He said he rarely leaves home. When he does, friends drive. He mostly stays busy playing video games and working out at a local gym, though he can’t shake his restlessness.

“I want to be a good citizen and make a living,” he said. “It’s kind of frustrating right now.”

By the numbers

Seeking to shrink a massive backlog in the nation’s immigration courts, federal officials have begun an extensive case-by-case review of the 306,010 matters pending in the courts to see whether they should be closed because they don’t meet the government’s top priorities for enforcement. The federal government is shifting more of its focus toward deporting violent criminals, recent border crossers, people who have re-entered the country illegally and fugitives from immigration authorities.

As of April 16, the government has reviewed 219,554 cases and determined that about 16,500 of them meet its criteria for being closed. Of those, 2,722 have been closed. They include:

2,055 who have had a “very long-term presence” in the U.S., have an immediate relative who is a U.S. citizen, have established “compelling ties and made compelling contributions” to the U.S.

182 who came to the U.S. under the age of 16, have been in the U.S. for more than five years, have completed high school or its equivalent and are now pursuing or have completed higher education in the U.S.

175 children who have been in the U.S. for more than five years and are either enrolled in school or have completed high school or its equivalent

103 who are a “very low enforcement priority”

100 who suffer from serious mental or physical conditions that would require “significant medical or detention resources”

60 victims of domestic violence, human trafficking or other serious crimes in the U.S.

23 who are older than 65 and have been in the U.S. for more than 10 years

16 who have been lawful permanent residents of the U.S. for 10 years or more and have a single, minor conviction for a nonviolent offense;

8 who are members of the U.S. military, honorably discharged U.S. military veterans or spouses or children of U.S. military veterans

Sources: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review

Find this article at: http://www.ajc.com/news/deportation-cases-halted-but-1432683.html

Is US deportation of criminals driving up Mexico border violence?

Mexican President Felipe Calderon last week accused the US policy of deporting criminals into northern Mexico of fueling the criminal violence that is ravaging the country.
By Geoffrey Ramsey
Guest blogger for Christian Science Monitor
October 24, 2011

With US deportations at a record high, the Mexican government is increasingly concerned that deportees with criminal records are contributing to border violence.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon caused somewhat of a media stir with some of his recent comments on US immigration policy. Speaking at the Third International Forum on Migration and Peace last week, the president lambasted the US for its treatment of undocumented immigrants, saying that the US “would not be the power that it is today without migration.” He also claimed that the recent wave of anti-immigrant legislation will likely take a hit on the US economy, predicting that US goods will become “worse in quality and more deficient than in other regions.”

Mr. Calderon reserved his strongest criticism, however, for the US government's approach to deportation. According to him, the practice of busing deportees over the border and releasing them fuels the violence in the north of the country, as some individuals with criminal records turn to a life of crime in the border towns where they are released.

Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz.

Calderon claimed that between 60,000 and 70,000 migrants are sent to northern border cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez every year. Among these, he said, "there are many who really are criminals, who have committed some crime and it is simply cheaper to leave them on the Mexican side of the border than to prosecute them, as [the US] should, to see whether they are guilty or not." The result, he added, is that they “quickly link up with criminal networks on the border."

Although this is the first time that Calderon has come out so publicly on the matter, the accusation is not new. In fact, local and state officials on northern Mexico have complained for years about the practice of US criminal deportations. Just last year the mayors of four different border cities in Mexico called on US officials to stop deporting individuals with criminal records along the border. At the time, then-Mayor of Ciudad Juarez Jose Reyes alleged that 28,000 of the 80,000 people deported to his city since 2007 had violated US law. Of that number, according to him, 7,000 were convicted rapists and 2,000 were convicted murderers.

The issue is bound to become more prominent if current deportation trends continue. According to figures recently released by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), a record 396,906 individuals were deported from October 2010 through September of this year. Although the administration has claimed that 55 percent of those had felony or misdemeanor convictions, it is unclear how many of those were simply related to immigration violations. Still, as the administration maintains its emphasis on deporting criminals, the fears of local officials are not likely to be assuaged in the near future.

And these official concerns are not unfounded, as the phenomenon of deported criminals becoming involved in borderland criminal networks has been documented in the past. One example is Martin Estrada Luna, the individual who authorities say is responsible for killing at least 250 people in the northern state of Tamaulipas and burying them in a series of mass graves. According to the AP, Estrada became the leader of the local Zetas outfit just 18 months after he was deported.

--- Geoffrey Ramsey is a writer for Insight – Organized Crime in the Americas, which provides research, analysis, and investigation of the criminal world throughout the region. Find all of his research here.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2011/1024/Is-US-deportation-of-criminals-driving-up-Mexico-border-violence

Calderon: U.S. dumping Mexican criminals at border

America shares blame in violence, Mexican president says
The Tucson Sentinel
21 October 2011

Mexican President Felipe Calderón says the United States is responsible for fueling violence in Mexico's border areas, because it chooses to deport criminals, rather than prosecute them.

He said it was cheaper to send them back rather than put them on trial, and that the deportees then became involved with criminal gangs in Mexico.

The Associated Press reported that U.S. officials this week revealed a record number of deportations in the past fiscal year, adding that those with criminal convictions had nearly doubled since 2008.

Calderón told an immigration conference in Mexico City:

"There are many factors in the violence that is being experienced in some Mexican border cities, but one of those is that the American authorities have gotten into the habit of simply deporting 60,000 or 70,000 migrants per year to cities like Ciudad Juarez or Tijuana."

Calderón said that among the deportees were “many who really are criminals."

The BBC reported that when illegal Mexican immigrants finish a prison term in the United States they are taken to the border and freed.

But Mexican nationals with criminal records in the United States cannot be held in their home country if they have not broken the law there.

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/102111_mexico_us_criminals/calderon-us-dumping-mexican-criminals-border/

Obama set to outpace Bush on deportations

Rhetoric vs. reality: President says he backs immigration reform
Reuters
9/20/2011

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he backs immigration reform, announcing last month an initiative to ease deportation policies, but he has sent home more than 1 million illegal immigrants in 2 1/2 years — on pace to deport more in one term than George W. Bush did in two.

The Obama administration had deported about 1.06 million as of Sept. 12, against 1.57 million in Bush's two full presidential terms.

This seeming contradiction between rhetoric and reality is a key element of debate over U.S. immigration policy, and stakes are high for 2012's presidential election as Obama faces criticism from both conservatives and liberals.

In 2008, 67 percent of Hispanics voted for Obama over Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin.

But Obama fell short on his promise to have a comprehensive reform bill in Congress in his first year. And despite his push of the DREAM Act in 2010, that bill failed in the Senate at the end of the Democrat-run 111th Congress.

Clarissa Martinez de Castro, Director of Immigration and National Campaigns for the National Council of La Raza, said because Congress is unlikely to consider immigration reform any time soon, "It has to stay there front and center and in the face of folks that are allowing this issue to fester."

The Administration announced its initiative August 18, a step some analysts say gave up on an uncooperative Congress and aimed to appease advocates of more liberal immigration laws.

Some 11.2 million illegal immigrants live and work in the United States today, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. The initiative is expected to help an estimated two million young people who under the stalled DREAM could have achieved citizenship by pursuing higher education or military service.

Clearing the backlog

Under the move, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice will review and clear out low-priority cases from 300,000 backlogged deportation proceedings.

Continued focus of immigration enforcement on those with criminal records would effectively leave alone those who came at a young age and have spent years in the United States.

Republican critics say directing immigration authorities to use prosecutorial discretion to administratively implement such changes ignores Congress and existing federal law.

A June 17 memo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton defined prosecutorial discretion as an agency's authority "to decide to what degree to enforce the law against a particular individual."

The memo "reiterated and clarified" the priorities on which the new initiative is based, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano wrote August 18 on behalf of Obama in a letter to 21 senators.

An ICE official who declined to be named said, "We have limited resources and if their best use in protecting the American public means exercising discretion, then that's what we're going to do."

House Judiciary Committee Chair Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, calls it a "plot."

"The writers of the U.S. Constitution put Congress in charge of setting our immigration policy ... (President Obama) does not get to pick and choose," Smith said in an email.

Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, however, said: "The Administration has used its discretion very sparingly ... No one should forget that immigration is critically important to Latinos, a community whose power at the polls continues to grow."

Fastest-growing minority

Hispanics, the largest and fastest-growing U.S. minority group, now number over 50.5 million — 16.3 percent of the population, according to the 2010 Census.

They also face higher unemployment and foreclosure rates, according to the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda and NCLR, the largest Hispanic advocacy organization in the country.

It remains to be seen if Hispanic groups pushing for immigration reform will be satisfied by the August initiative, even as Republican critics say it has gone too far.

On September 12, Smith and House Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt sent a letter to Napolitano.

"In addition to our concerns about the administration's apparent abandonment of immigration enforcement, we also have significant concerns about how this new policy was developed."

Martinez said, "(Obama) support was dropping among Latinos ... If at the end of the day what you have is an announcement that is sound from a policy perspective and it is actually good politically -- we should be so lucky to have more of those."

But Martinez said they will watch implementation closely.

"Obviously, you've heard the caveats," she said. "It's a very important announcement -- and just as important (is) that it's implemented robustly and appropriately."

The administration's past deportation policies are a reason some reformers are not yet convinced of Obama's commitment.

Immigration authorities are funded to remove 400,000 people a year, according to the unnamed ICE official.

In fiscal year 2010, the last full year of data, ICE removed nearly 393,000 undocumented immigrants — a record, and almost 24,000 more than in FY2008, Bush's last full fiscal year in office.

Over two-thirds of the non-criminals removed in FY2010 were caught as they crossed the border, were recent arrivals, or were repeat violators previously deported, the White House says.

Criminals are larger chunk of deportees

In FY2010, convicted criminals numbered about 196,000 of those removed, an increase of 71 percent from Bush in FY2008.

Of the the 1.06 million removed so far under Obama, 46 percent have been convicted criminals and 54 percent non-criminals. Bush's removals were 41 percent criminal and 59 non-criminal, according to data provided by ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen.

ICE credits the increased removal of those with criminal records to expansion of the Secure Communities Program, where local authorities automatically send fingerprints of those arrested to ICE. Secure Communities has grown under Obama from 14 jurisdictions to more than 1,300, and to all border areas.

Critics say that despite the administration's rhetorical stress on targeting those with criminal records and a level-off in illegal immigration, programs such as Secure Communities are in practice leading to unjust deportations.

Democratic Illinois Representative Luis Gutierrez was arrested at a pro-reform rally at the White House on July 27.

"(Obama's) been arguing that he can't simply go around Congress, that he's not a president who governs by fiat, right?" Gutierrez said later. "It's a little contradiction between 1 million deportations and claiming they use it less than Bush."

With under a month left in FY2011, ICE has reported 368,920 removals -- about half criminals and half non-criminals.

Last week, Gutierrez traveled to Chicago to explain the initiative to constituents after a policy briefing by DHS.

After the DREAM failed, Gutierrez and others have pushed Obama on an immigration initiative like that of August 18 — a "critical foundation," but, he said, "There's more to be done."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44599016/ns/politics-more_politics/

Destruye deportaciones a EU: sacerdote Baggio

El Mañana
Lunes, 05 de Septiembre de 2011

El sacerdote reconoció que así como EU ha asumido algunas actitudes injustas
Con las deportaciones masivas que Estados Unidos efectúa, está construyendo su autodestrucción consideró el padre Gianntonio Baggio, coordinador de la Casa del Migrante en Nuevo Laredo.

NUEVO LAREDO.-Al resaltar el trabajo que los migrantes para el desarrollo de Estados Unidos y que ha repercutido en su economía, el sacerdote calificó como un acto criminal el que ahora a los migrantes se les amenace con encarcelarlos por el simple hecho de buscar una vida mejor.

“No se puede determinar que una persona sea criminal solamente por buscar una vida digna y ya sean criminales y sean encarcelados, solamente porque busca un mejor futuro o desarrollo sin hacerle daño a nadie”, comentó.

“Al contrario, la historia prueba especialmente en los Estados Unidos que los migrantes han hecho el bienestar, la potencia, la belleza de Estados Unidos, fueron los migrantes los que lo hicieron.

Ahora decir que los migrantes son criminales es propiamente una contradicción, es criminal decir que los migrantes son criminales”, agregó.

Indicó que aun y cuando los que provienen de países de Centroamérica u otros estados del interior de México han disminuido considerablemente, todo lo contrario sucede con los deportados.

“Lentamente, poco a poco a poco, durante el años se va registrando la cantidad de migrantes que llegan a esta ciudad para cruzar a los Estados Unidos, y vemos que ha disminuido su llegada, esto desde el 2008 y más durante el 2010; en este 2011 van 3 mil 700 los hermanos que hemos atendido en el albergue”, declaró.

“Todo lo contrario sucede con el número de deportaciones, es triste y lamentable que estas se hayan incrementando, simplemente el año pasado fueorn70 mil los deportados por esta frontera de nuevo Laredo; aquí si se está registrando un aumento”, comentó.

BUENAS NOTICIAS

El sacerdote reconoció que así como EU ha asumido algunas actitudes injustas, racistas y discriminatorias como las deportaciones que han ocasionado la desintegración de familias, también algunos estados como California está aplicando un poco el criterio en caso de deportación.

“También por lo migrantes sabemos unas de las últimas noticias que son buenas para los propios migrantes, como son los casos de migrantes que estudian y no tiene papeles, que tiene sentido común por encima de sus leyes”, dijo.

“Las asociaciones que velan por los migrantes en California está dando fondos para aquellos estudiantes que no tienen papeles para estar en California y que están preparándose, son pequeños indicios y es una muestra de que el sentido común está más fuerte que sus leyes”, afirmó.

Otro de los casos dijo, son casos de deportaciones que no se han realizado por lo propios agentes de migración. “Los agentes (migración) han decidido dar menos énfasis en buscar a menos migrantes, sólo en aquellos que cometen una falta, los que consideran peligrosos y no sólo porque no tienen papeles”, agregó.

“Han habido casos de migrantes que tiene su familia allá, que trabajan y que no tiene papeles, los han detectado, pero no los deportan, lo consideran urgente e importante, incluso le dan la oportunidad de arreglar sus papeles, aplican el sentido común; aun y cuando son casos muy aislados, son buenas noticias para los migrantes”, concluyó.

http://www.elmanana.com.mx/notas.asp?id=253421

Immigration Audits Drive Illegal Workers Underground

By MIRIAM JORDAN
The Wall Street Journal
August 16, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS—In 2009, Alba and Eugenio were making almost twice the federal minimum wage, plus benefits, cleaning a skyscraper for a national janitorial company. With two toddlers, the Mexican couple enjoyed relative prosperity in a tidy one-bedroom duplex in a working-class neighborhood here.

Late that year, federal agents audited employee records of ABM Industries Inc., forcing it to shed all the illegal workers on its payrolls in the Twin Cities. Among them was the couple, undocumented immigrants who had worked at ABM for more than a decade.

Shortly after, Alba and Eugenio, who declined to have their surname published, landed at a small janitorial concern, scrubbing car dealerships for about half the pay, without benefits. Earlier this year that employer, too, was hit by an immigration audit. In late February, Alba and Eugenio were let go.

Today, the couple is struggling to make ends meet, working part-time and often relying on handouts from food banks to feed their family.

The journey from prosperity to the economic margins followed by Alba and Eugenio is an increasingly common path for thousands of undocumented workers pushed out of their jobs by the federal government's audits of U.S. businesses, according to immigration experts, business owners and unions.

The audits, started by the Obama administration in 2009, put the onus on business to police workers, requiring companies to turn over employee records to federal agents. If the papers aren't in order, the workers are quietly let go without penalty while the companies are punished.

The audits, conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, were initially hailed by some immigrant advocates as more humane because they eliminate deportation raids, the norm during the Bush administration.

But it has become increasingly clear that the policy is pushing undocumented workers deeper underground, delivering them to the hands of unscrupulous employers, depressing wages and depriving federal, state and local coffers of taxes, according to unions, companies and immigrant advocates.

Indeed, the audits draw flak from both proponents and opponents of an immigration overhaul. Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Texas), a leading voice among foes of giving illegal immigrants amnesty, deems audits ineffectual because they don't result in deportation.

"This means the illegal immigrant can walk down the street to the next employer and take a job that could go to an unemployed, legal worker," said Rep. Smith, who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Many employers say the administration is depriving them of foreign workers who do jobs Americans refuse, even during an economic downturn, without proposing immigration reform that would supply a stable, legal labor force.

"All the audits do is keep employers in certain industries awake at night, while driving immigrants into work environments and arrangements that are indefensible," said Bill Blazar, a senior vice president of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.

Audits hit national burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill last year and garment maker American Apparel in 2009, among thousands of other employers. This year, ICE said it has audited more than 2,300 companies who employ tens of thousands of workers—in construction, agriculture, food processing, restaurant and critical-infrastructure sectors—from upstate New York and Alabama to Texas and Washington.

The audits are an answer to calls by many members of Congress to strictly enforce current immigration laws before considering wholesale reform of the country's immigration system. Like his predecessor, President Barack Obama favors an immigration overhaul that would put illegal immigrants on the path to legalization.

The administration began targeting employers because they are the "magnet" for illegal immigration since they provide jobs that lure the undocumented workers, according to ICE chief John Morton.

ICE doesn't disclose the names of the audited companies, and it said it also doesn't keep tabs on how many workers lose their jobs. As of Aug. 6, ICE said 2,393 companies were being audited, the largest number in a single fiscal year.

It's impossible to track where workers hit by audits end up. But immigration experts say Minnesota offers a microcosm for how many immigrants respond.

Before the recession, millions of Latin Americans snuck across the Mexican border to take jobs in construction, cleaning and other blue-collar work. Alba and Eugenio were part of that wave, making the journey to Minneapolis in the late 1990s after hearing jobs were plentiful and the cost of living relatively low.

They settled in the burgeoning Latino enclave around East Lake Street, a commercial corridor dotted with orange, yellow and pastel buildings that are home to "taquerias," and other businesses that cater to the Spanish-speaking community. They would eventually have two children in the U.S. and send them to the local public school.

Both Alba and Eugenio got jobs at ABM, a publicly traded building-services contractor. For nine years, Alba was on a bathroom crew, swabbing toilets and wiping sinks in a 56-story tower designed by the famed architect I.M. Pei.

Alba made $7.75 an hour, above the federal minimum wage at the time. She worked eight-hour shifts five days a week and was entitled to paid vacation and sick days. She received paid maternity leave when she had each child. "Each January, my salary inched up a few cents," she says.

Wages for Eugenio, who is currently 37 and also worked in the Capella Tower, also climbed each year.

In October 2008, Eugenio was promoted to shift supervisor, at an hourly rate of $14.42, according to his last pay stub, which also shows Medicare, Social Security and tax deductions. The following month, the couple secured a bank loan and bought a 2005 blue Ford Explorer for $17,000.

By January 2009, the month President Obama took office, Alba had been promoted to vacuuming and emptying waste baskets for $12.97 an hour.

The family's monthly expenses at the time included $565 for rent, $200 for gas and $50 for cellphone usage. The family dined at buffets on the weekends and Alba signed up for English lessons. Their children, Alexander, 6, and Narely, 8, wore crisp new clothes. The couple was sending $100 to $200 a month to relatives in Mexico.

"We had job security and never imagined what was coming," said Alba, 28 years old.

In February 2009, ICE took the new White House administration by surprise when it raided an engine factory of Yamato Engine Specialists Ltd., in Bellingham, Wash., arresting more than two dozen undocumented workers. Yamato paid a $100,000 fine. The operation outraged some immigrant advocates who had expected a softer approach to work site enforcement from the new president.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ordered an internal review of the raid and on April 30 announced that ICE would follow a new approach "to target the root cause of illegal immigration." ICE later initiated audits of 654 companies.

The new strategy was showcased in Los Angeles that summer when ICE audited American Apparel. No agents stormed the premises. ICE delivered a written notice advising the company to turn over employee records—including federal I-9 worker eligibility forms—and warning it of potential fines. The clothing maker lost about 1,500 workers, more than a quarter of its work force, and paid about $35,000 in fines, said Peter Schey, the attorney who represented the company during the audit for what he said were "paperwork violations."

Under federal law, employers are obligated to ensure their workers are eligible to work in the U.S. However, many complain that workers present fake documents and companies don't have the ability to patrol them. They also fear discrimination suits for demanding additional documents from workers they suspect are in the country illegally.

Later that summer, ICE sent an audit notice to ABM in the Twin Cities. Anxious workers huddled in the halls of the skyscrapers as word spread that "la migra," the Spanish term used to refer to immigration agents, was targeting their employer.

The workers feared being arrested and separated from their children. "This was unchartered territory—the first big I-9 audit" in Minnesota, recalls John Keller, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.

A few weeks later, ICE notified ABM that a number of workers' I-9 documents were suspect and asked that the workers provide different documentation, such as a valid social security number and driver's license, an ABM spokesman said.

"Our policy is full compliance with the law and we cooperated with the administration in this matter," the spokesman said.

By late October, 1,250 undocumented workers at ABM, including Alba and Eugenio, had been let go or left, union officials say.

ABM, which employs nearly 100,000 nationwide, paid $108,000 in civil penalties, according to ICE, which declined to elaborate. It was able to replace all the undocumented workers, the spokesman said.

The effects of the audit reverberated through the East Lake Street immigrant enclave. Alba and Eugenio's neighbor, Marta, and her husband, lost their jobs at ABM and then lost their three-bedroom house, where they had lived for 12 years, to foreclosure. Marta's husband eventually got a job as a dishwasher making $8 per hour.

Nearby, Brenda, the daughter of another ABM employee who lost her job, dropped out of high school so she could get a full-time cleaning job to help pay bills, including the mortgage on the powder-blue house that her parents had bought in 2006.

"When my mom got fired, that's when all the problems started," said Brenda, 20, who had planned to attend college and become a police officer.

In November, Alba and Eugenio landed jobs at ROC Inc. for a net sum of $155 each per week to wash a Chevrolet dealership six nights a week in the St. Paul suburb of Roseville. Pay stubs don't show an hourly rate. The couple say they didn't receive benefits or paid time off.

ROC didn't give them an auto scrubber, a machine customarily used to wash large areas. Mike Chmielewski, the dealership's finance manager, confirms the couple swept and mopped the 10,000-square-foot area themselves. "They were very hardworking," he said. "They had personal pride in doing the job well."

People familiar with the company say that ROC, which has contracts with dealers selling major car brands, paid wages that dipped below the federal minimum wage.

To supplement their income, Eugenio found part-time work parking cars for an auto-rental company at the airport, earning minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. He had no fixed hours. Alba said she began visiting the food pantries of community organizations for staples like rice, beans, canned corn and sugar.

Late last year, Chipotle in the Twin Cities, hit by an audit, dismissed hundreds of workers. In January, ICE audited ROC, which immediately placed ads for workers in the local newspaper.

An ICE spokesperson said the agency doesn't comment on investigations.

In a statement, ROC said it complied with ICE's request for information and hasn't received further contact from the agency. "ROC Inc. follows all laws and regulations regarding state and federal employment practices," said Peter Mogren, CFO of ROC. He declined to answer specific questions.

Alba said she and her husband learned about the audit in February. "We were distraught," she said. The company told them to take time off until immigration reported back the results of the audit, Alba said.

Mr. Chmielewski, the Chevy dealership manager, said the worker who replaced Alba and Eugenio was an American man who "had no pride in his work."

With complaints mounting, ROC fired many of the new workers and hired subcontractors to supply cleaning crews, according to people close to the company. Such a practice, which is common in the industry, enables companies to use workers who don't appear on the payroll.

In April a subcontractor called Alba and Eugenio and soon they were back cleaning the Chevy dealership, where managers said they were delighted when the couple returned. A month later, however, the subcontractor told the couple he couldn't employ them because of the ICE investigation of ROC, the couple said.

Alba found part-time work cleaning hotel rooms for $10.33 an hour. Eugenio recently found a landscaping job that pays $11 an hour.

With their children's future in mind, the couple says they plan to remain living in the East Lake Street enclave. Still, this summer they've sent the kids to Mexico to stay with relatives. "That way we can work," Alba said.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A1

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

¿Por qué tantas deportaciones?

Por Ana María Aragonés
La Jornada
13 Agosto 2011

El gobierno de Barack Obama ha endurecido la política migratoria en contra de los indocumentados al promover la deportación de gran cantidad de trabajadores, muchos de los cuales son mexicanos, sin importar que lleven años en Estados Unidos, que hayan pagado impuestos y tengan hijos nacidos en aquel país y, por tanto, sean ciudadanos estadunidenses.

Se trata de expulsiones que por supuesto están violando los más elementales derechos humanos pues, además, muchos fueron detenidos en compañía de sus familiares, pero devueltos a México sin ellos. Esta estrategia se encuentra en medio de un gravísimo problema económico en el que los partidos Demócrata y Republicano se enfrascaron en un terrible debate, que al final llevó a la calificadora Standard & Poor’s (S&P) a rebajar la calificación crediticia de Estados Unidos de AAA a AA+, poniendo en duda su capacidad para el pago de su deuda. De acuerdo con Paul Krugman, lo que demostró es que Barack Obama se rindió y el resultado será que dañará aún más una economía deprimida, así como que "la extorsión cruda de los republicanos funciona y no lleva ningún costo político".

Uno debería preguntarse a qué se debe que en el contexto de tan graves problemas se añada uno más, que es la expulsión de migrantes que no han cometido ningún delito y que, tal como señala el alcalde de Nueva York, Michael Bloomberg, "esto es un suicidio nacional, estamos deliberadamente enviando a nuestro futuro fuera del país" (La Jornada, 9 de agosto). Tal como señala el alcalde, "lo que el país necesita en momentos de dificultades económicas son más migrantes... que crean más empleos de los que toman". Sobre todo si los flujos de migración indocumentada hacia Estados Unidos han disminuido en forma importante como resultado de la crisis en ese país y de las propias dificultades que presenta México para que estos trabajadores puedan transitar de forma segura hacia la frontera. De acuerdo con el Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (Inegi) y con base en los resultados preliminares al primer trimestre de 2011, por cada 10 mil habitantes en México hay 36 que emigran al extranjero y 31 migrantes provenientes de otros países. Este comportamiento, señala el Inegi, en combinación con la tendencia del monto de inmigrantes internacionales tiene como resultado en términos relativos un saldo migratorio casi nulo.

Mantener a un conjunto laboral con salarios más bajos que los de los nativos y que se encuentran en sectores necesarios para relanzar la economía, como es el sector agrícola, entre otros, tiene la ventaja de ofrecer precios más bajos y con ello incrementar el consumo, lo que es una absoluta necesidad. Por otro lado, es una falacia sostener que se trata de combatir a la migración indocumentada por estar compuesta por "criminales", lo cual se ha demostrado que no es así. Las supuestas "felonías" que pueden presentar algunos de estos trabajadores tienen que ver con pasarse un alto o conducir en estado de ebriedad.

Por tanto, una posible explicación del incremento de las deportaciones es que Barack Obama, en su afán por buscar la relección, responde así a criterios antinmigrantes extendidos por los ultraconservadores de la sociedad estadunidense, sector formado en gran parte por los miembros del llamado Tea Party, quienes tal parece están teniendo cada vez mayor fuerza, lo cual representa un enorme peligro.

Dar rienda suelta a este tipo de grupos lleva a tragedias como la vivida hace sólo unos días en Noruega, y habría que recordar el ataque a la senadora demócrata Gabrielle Giffords, acontecimientos que deberían ser un foco de alerta, sobre todo en momentos de crisis, pues es el contexto en el que van escalando posiciones electorales al encontrar apoyo en personas afectadas por las dificultades económicas. Y los gobiernos tendrían que evitar todas aquellas actitudes que promueven discursos xenófobos y racistas que favorecen la intolerancia.

Sin embargo, que Barack Obama esté incrementando las deportaciones responde a una estrategia que se aleja totalmente de las propuestas enarboladas en su campaña y se pone en juego la convivencia en una sociedad democrática. Pero parece que le interesa tener contenta a esa parte ultraconservadora de la sociedad política con un propósito: su relección.

Parafraseando a Krugman, la extorsión de los ultraconservadores funciona en este caso, aunque de ninguna manera será suficiente para asegurarle buenos resultados políticos.

amaragones@gmail.com

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/08/13/opinion/018a2pol

Aumentaron 160% las deportaciones de migrantes desde Estados Unidos

Autoridades los hacen pasar por criminales para sacarlos de su territorio lo más rápido posible
Por Fabiola Martínez
Periódico La Jornada
Martes 9 de agosto de 2011, p. 14.

Estados Unidos ha endurecido su política migratoria en contra de los indocumentados, la mayoría de nacionalidad mexicana. La administración de Barack Obama busca no sólo a los que recientemente cruzaron la frontera sino a quienes residen en ese país desde hace muchos años y han construido ahí lazos familiares, educativos y laborales.

Información pública de ambas naciones pone en evidencia esta situación que ha encendido las alertas del gobierno mexicano, ante lo que percibe como una estrategia aceptada por demócratas y republicanos para tratar de convencer a la opinión pública que están combatiendo la migración irregular y, en consecuencia, sacando a los "criminales". Esa situación ocurre en momentos en que se complican las perspectivas económicas en aquel país y las agencias calificadoras ponen en duda la capacidad del gobierno estadunidense para pagar su deuda; de igual forma, en la víspera de un año electoral.

En esa ruta, señalan funcionarios mexicanos, los operativos se realizan sin miramientos y sin la posibilidad de que los indocumentados que han trabajado en Estados Unidos –y pagado impuestos– incluso por más de dos décadas, tengan una oportunidad de regularización, a fin de no ser separados de sus hijos, muchos de ellos nacidos en ese país.

En 2006, poco más de 16 mil mexicanos expulsados indicaron que fueron detenidos en sus trabajos u hogares y, en 2010, este indicador llegó a 35 mil 779, según información del gobierno mexicano, sistematizada con base en una encuesta sobre migración en la frontera norte. Relacionado con este mismo indicador, se revela que en 2008 se reportaron 14 mil 354 mexicanos deportados en esas condiciones, pero en 2009, primer año del gobierno de Obama, esa cifra llegó a 20 mil 229.

De igual forma, relacionado con las consecuencias de estas abruptas expulsiones, en 2004, 18 mil 714 mexicanos afirmaron que fueron detenidos en Estados Unidos en compañía de sus familiares, pero fueron devueltos a México sin ellos; en esta misma circunstancia se reporta el siguiente desarrollo anual: 40 mil 23 (en 2005), 38 mil 597 (2006), 46 mil 397 (2007), 54 mil 93 (2008), 55 mil 787 (2009) y 52 mil 835 (2010).

A nivel general, las estadísticas de México y Estados Unidos muestran que si bien las detenciones reportadas por la Patrulla Fronteriza han caído significativamente, al pasar de 1.6 millones en 2000 a 404 mil en 2010, los operativos a cargo de la Oficina de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE por sus siglas en inglés) reportan cada vez un mayor número de deportaciones, con avances de 160 por ciento en la década pasada y de 39 por ciento en el bienio 2009-2010.

Por ejemplo, en 2000 estos operativos arrojaron 151 mil 267 deportaciones de mexicanos y, con una tendencia estable, en 2004 la cifra llegó a 175 mil 865.

Un año después, en 2005, el nivel bajó ligeramente, al ubicarse en 169 mil 31, pero desde entonces la tendencia es alcista e imparable.

En 2006, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de Estados Unidos informó acerca de la deportación de 186 mil 726; un año después, ya eran 208 mil 996, y para 2008 el registro ascendió a 246 mil 851.

El año siguiente, cuando Obama llegó a la Presidencia, el indicador en referencia se ubicó en 282 mil 666 y al cierre de 2010 alcanzó una cifra récord: 393 mil casos, de los cuales 72 por ciento son mexicanos, esto es, 283 mil.

Un reporte reciente de la ICE detalla la tendencia al alza de estos episodios que refieren un nivel sin precedente en el gobierno actual.

En 2011, de acuerdo con las más recientes cifras disponibles y un análisis de la Subsecretaría de Población, Migración y Asuntos Religiosos de la Secretaría de Gobernación, se informa que "el reforzamiento interior ha pasado de actividades informales a amplios programas de cooperación intergubernamental para identificar y deportar extranjeros".

En la comisión binacional de alto nivel para analizar los aspectos migratorios, los funcionarios mexicanos –de las secretarías de Gobernación y de Relaciones Exteriores– han manifestado su preocupación por la forma en que se ejecutan estos operativos, bajo el argumento de "remover a un mayor número de criminales extranjeros".

El gobierno mexicano advierte que va en aumento el número de mexicanos deportados que no son criminales. El Departamento de Seguridad Interna clasifica como "criminales" a aquellas personas que tienen antecedentes registrados ante la autoridad, aunque se trate de faltas administrativas, como pasarse un alto o manejar en estado de ebriedad.

En el apartado "Deportación de mexicanos por antecedentes penales 2000-2009" se precisa que en 2006, de 186 mil 726 deportados, 61 por ciento fueron "no criminales" y para 2009 el porcentaje de esa referencia subió a 66 por ciento.

Los funcionarios mexicanos consultados por La Jornada explicaron que la alerta no está sólo en el programa ordinario de repatriación ordenada y segura, sino en este "endurecimiento de la política inmigratoria en Estados Unidos".

Estos operativos, añaden, responden no sólo a la proliferación de legislaciones antinmigrantes, como la SB1070 de Arizona, sino a acciones y programas de colaboración orquestados por la administración federal mediante el ICE, con estados, condados y gobiernos locales.

Son cuatro los programas en Estados Unidos que integran el reforzamiento interior.

Estos son: "Acuerdos 287", que autoriza a policías locales y estatales a actuar como agentes migratorios a partir de un memorando de colaboración con el gobierno federal. El Programa de Extranjeros Criminales identifica a sujetos susceptibles a deportaciones en cárceles del país. "Escudo Comunitario", dirigido a miembros de pandillas y "afiliados", y el "Programa de Operaciones para Fugitivos", cuyo objetivo son individuos con órdenes de deportación sobresalientes o inminentes y que la ICE identifica como sujetos de deportación por medio de huellas digitales.

Con la participación de México se ha articulado la operación mediante el Programa de Repatriación Humana, formulado en diciembre de 2007, para brindar asistencia a los mexicanos para el traslado a sus lugares de origen. Este programa benefició a 267 mil 317 mexicanos en 2010 y, de enero a junio de 2011, fueron 150 mil 217.

El punto con mayor número de connacionales devueltos es Tijuana, seguido de Nogales, Mexicali, Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros y Reynosa.

También está el Programa de Repatriación Voluntaria al Interior, de naturaleza humanitaria y voluntaria; aplica en verano para salvar a migrantes en el corredor Sonora-Arizona que aceptan regresar vía aérea a la ciudad de México o con apoyo terrestre a otras regiones. De junio a septiembre de 2010 hubo 219 vuelos de Tucson a la ciudad de México, con lo que se brindó asistencia a 23 mil 383 mexicanos. La operación de este año empezó el 11 de julio y concluye el 23 de septiembre.

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/08/09/politica/014n1pol

The New Operation Wetback: Immigration and Mass Incarceration in the Obama Era

By JAMES KILGORE
Counterpunch
4 August 2011

Last week Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) joined a demonstration in Washington D.C. to protest the refusal of President Obama to use his executive powers to halt the deportations of the undocumented. Gutierrez’ arrest came only two days after Obama had addressed a conference of the National Council of La Raza. Conveniently forgetting the history of the civil right struggles that made his Presidency a possibility, Obama reminded those attending that he was bound to “uphold the laws on the books.”

With over 392,000 deportations in 2010, more than in any of the Bush years, many activists fear we are in the midst of a repeat of notorious episodes of the past such as the “Repatriation” campaign of the 1930s and the infamous Operation Wetback of 1954, both of which resulted in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Latinos.

But several things are different this time around. A crucial distinction is that we are in the era of mass incarceration. Not only are the undocumented being deported, many are going to prison for years before being delivered across the border. While the writings of Michelle Alexander and others have highlighted the widespread targeting of young African-American males by the criminal justice system, few have noted that in the last decade the complexion of new faces behind bars has been dramatically changing. Since the turn of the century, the number of blacks in prisons has declined slightly, while the ranks of Latinos incarcerated has increased by nearly 50%, reaching just over 300,000 in 2009.

A second distinguishing feature of the current state of affairs is the presence of the private prison corporations. For the likes of the industry’s leading powers, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group, detaining immigrants has been the life blood for reviving their financial fortunes.

Just over a decade ago their bottom lines were flagging. Freshly built prisons sat with empty beds while share values plummeted. For financial year 1999 CCA reported losses of $53.4 million and laid off 40% of its workforce. Then came the windfall - 9/11.

In 2001 Steven Logan, then CEO of Cornell Industries, a private prison firm which has since merged with GEO, spelled out exactly what this meant for his sector :

"I think it's clear that with the events of Sept. 11, there's a heightened focus on detention, both on the borders and within the U.S. [and] more people are gonna get caught…So that's a positive for our business. The federal business is the best business for us. It's the most consistent business for us, and the events of Sept. 11 are increasing that level of business."

Logan was right. The Patriot Act and other legislation led to a new wave of immigration detentions. By linking immigrants to terrorism, aggressive roundups supplied Latinos and other undocumented people to fill those empty private prison cells. Tougher immigration laws mandated felony convictions and prison time for cases which previously merited only deportation. Suddenly, the business of detaining immigrants was booming. PBS Commentator Maria Hinojosa went so far as to call this the new “Gold Rush” for private prisons.

The figures support Hinojosa’s assertion. While private prisons own or operate only 8% of general prison beds, they control 49% of the immigration detention market. CCA alone operates 14 facilities via contracts with ICE, providing 14, 556 beds. They have laid the groundwork for more business through the creation of a vast lobbying and advocacy network. From 1999-2009 the corporation spent more than $18 million on lobbying, mostly focusing on harsher sentencing, prison privatization and immigration.

One significant result of their lobbying efforts was the passage of SB 1070 in Arizona, a law which nearly provides police with a license to profile Latinos for stops and searches. The roots of SB 1070 lie in the halls of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a far right grouping that specializes in supplying template legislation to elected state officials. CCA and other private prison firms are key participants in ALEC and played a major role in the development of the template that ended up as SB 1070.

For its part, GEO Group has also been carving out its immigration market niche. Earlier this year they broke ground on a new 600 bed detention center in Karnes County, Texas. At about the same time the company bought a controlling interest in BI Corporation, the largest provider of electronic monitoring systems in the U.S. The primary motivation for this takeover was the five year, $372 million contract BI signed with ICE in 2009 to step up the Bush initiated Intense Supervision Appearance Program. (ISAP 11). Under this arrangement the Feds hired BI to provide ankle bracelets and a host of other surveillance for some 27,000 people awaiting deportation or asylum hearings.

Sadly, the Obama presidency has consistently provided encouragement for the likes of CCA and GEO to grow the market for detainees. While failing to pass immigration reform or the Dream Act, the current administration has kept the core of the previous administration’s immigration policy measures intact. These include the Operation Endgame, a 2003 measure that promised to purge the nation of all “illegals” by 2012 and the more vibrant Secure Communities (S-Comm). Under S-Comm the Federal government authorizes local authorities to share fingerprints with ICE of all those they arrest. Though supposedly intended to capture only people with serious criminal backgrounds, in reality S-Comm has led to the detention and deportation of thousands of people with no previous convictions.

At the National Council of La Raza’s Conference Obama tried to console the audience by saying that he knows “very well the pain and heartbreak deportation has caused.” His words failed to resonate. Instead Rep. Gutierrez and others took to the streets, demonstrating that “I feel your pain” statements and appeals to the audacity of hope carry little credibility these days. It is time for a serious change of direction on immigration issues or pretty soon, just as Michelle Alexander has referred to the mass incarceration of African-Americans as the New Jim Crow, we may hear people start to call the ongoing repression of Latinos a “New Operation Wetback.”

James Kilgore is a Research Scholar at the Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois. He is the author of three novels, We Are All Zimbabweans Now, Freedom Never Rests and Prudence Couldn’t Swim, all written during his six and a half years of incarceration. He can be reached at waazn1@gmail.com

http://www.counterpunch.org/kilgore08042011.html

Por infracciones mínimas deportan a inmigrantes

Por Lorena Figueroa
El Diario de El Paso
23-Julio-2011

Infracciones de las leyes de tránsito tan pequeñas, como el no traer encendida una luz trasera o no realizar un alto completo en una intersección, han llevado a inmigrantes en esta región fronteriza a ser deportados a sus países de origen.

Así lo advirtió ayer el abogado migratorio Eduardo Beckett, del Centro de Abogacía Migratorio Las Américas, quien consideró que las autoridades siguen enfocándose en dar con los inmigrantes que cometen violaciones administrativas, en lugar de quienes cometen crímenes.

Lo anterior, pese al anuncio de junio pasado de reformas por parte de la oficina de Aplicación de Leyes de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés), de enfocarse a delincuentes peligrosos.

“La intención quizá sea ésa, pero en la práctica es distinto”, dijo Beckett. “Seguimos viendo casos de muchas personas que, sin tener antecedentes penales, fueron detenidas y deportadas por cosas tan mínimas como infracciones de tránsito”.

Según estadísticas oficiales, aumentos en las deportaciones de personas tras violar leyes de tránsito o de inmigración han ayudado al gobierno a establecer un récord en la cifra de inmigrantes con antecedentes penales expulsados del país.

Estados Unidos deportó a casi 393 mil personas en el año fiscal 2010, la mitad de ellas consideradas delincuentes.

De esa cifra, 27 mil 635 fueron detenidas por conducir ebrias, más del doble que las 10 mil 851 deportadas tras arrestos similares en 2008, indican estadísticas de ICE.

Un total de 13 mil 028 personas adicionales fueron deportadas el año pasado tras su arresto por infracciones menores a las leyes de tránsito, casi tres veces más que las 4 mil 527 de dos años antes.

ICE no respondió ayer a peticiones de estadísticas de El Paso.

Beckett aseguró que el centro Las Américas sigue viendo casos de inmigrantes que fueron deportados luego de ser multados por infracciones de tráfico tan mínimas como no traer encendida una luz trasera o no realizar un alto completo en una intersección.

Aclaró que los inmigrantes no contaban con antecedentes penales ni tampoco con ‘papeles’ para vivir o trabajar legalmente en el país.

El abogado migratorio dijo incluso que en uno de los casos las autoridades migratorias estaban a punto de deportar a un individuo que se encontraba en el país con una visa tipo U, que se le otorga a víctimas de algún crimen, luego de ser multado por no llevar el cinturón de seguridad puesto cuando conducía.

“En el momento de ser infraccionado, el hombre no traía su visa, por lo que la policía le habló a Inmigración para que lo detuvieran”, dijo.

Beckett aseguró que muchos casos de este tipo están ocurriendo en Las Cruces, Hobbs y sus alrededores, en Nuevo México.

Mencionó que en esos lugares la Policía local actúa bajo su propia discreción cuando lidian con un inmigrante indocumentado.

El litigante denunció también que las policías, además de infraccionar, realizan retenes en donde supuestamente revisan ‘papeles’, mientras que las autoridades migratorias realizan operativos ‘sorpresa’ en lugares de trabajo y, en ocasiones, se ostentan como civiles en mercados donde suelen comprar las personas de origen hispano .

Manifestó que las detenciones y deportaciones de inmigrantes, sólo por estar en el país ilegalmente, renuevan el escepticismo en torno a la afirmación del gobierno de que se enfoca en delincuentes peligrosos.

El presidente Barack Obama afirma que su gobierno aplica las leyes de inmigración de una manera más prudente que el de su predecesor porque se enfoca en arrestar a “los peores entre los peores”.

Durante su campaña presidencial de 2008, Obama se comprometió a centrar sus acciones sobre inmigración en los delincuentes peligrosos.

El pasado 10 de mayo, en un discurso en El Paso, Obama dijo que su gobierno se centra en los transgresores violentos y no en las familias ni “en las personas que se esfuerzan por reunir un ingreso”.

La mayoría de los inmigrantes deportados el año pasado habían cometido algún delito relacionado a las drogas. Estos sumaron 45 mil 003, en comparación con los 36 mil 053 de 2008.

Los delitos relacionados a las drogas, que incluyen elaboración, distribución, posesión o venta de narcóticos, se habían mantenido durante años como la principal transgresión de los inmigrantes.

Conducir en ebriedad fue el año pasado el tercer delito más numeroso.

http://www.diario.com.mx/notas.php?f=2011/07/23&id=c483e1afb778c2b6b1720f5dd28d51a4

Activists head to White House to stop deportations

By Theresa Gutierrez
ABC7 News
July 19, 2011



July 19, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Students, children and families are preparing to join Congressman Luis Gutierrez and delegations from throughout the nation in Washington, D.C.

On July 26 they will make a final appeal to the White House to stop the deportations and separations of families. They want to urge President Barack Obama to use his discretionary power to stop the deportation of the parents of U.S. citizen children who have no criminal convictions.

The group is preparing for a face-off at the White House on deportations and separation of families. "We want the president to use the power that the Latino community gave him in the vote to use his executive authority to stop the deportation and separation of families," said activist Walter Coleman.

The group says they recognize the current political deadlock in Congress means no meaningful immigration reform can be passed. They say the president has broken his promise to them and they do not understand the president's discretionary choice to deport 400,000 people a year.

"We're preparing to go to Washington to send a clear message to President Obama that he does not have the Latino vote until he keeps his promise, " said Emma Lozano of Lincoln United Methodist Church. "He should do what's right. Otherwise we won't vote for him."

"The government is deporting on average 1,100 people a day. These are unprecedented numbers: 400,000 the last year," said immigration attorney Royal Berg. "The law provides that these people may be deported, but the president has a discretion to stop it."

The group believes that Hispanics have been targeted by immigration authorities.

"I think the easiest targets to go after are people that appear to be Hispanic," Berg said, "and that's what we're seeing in these secure community efforts."

Mirian Perez was in the U.S. illegally and was deported to Mexico and separated from her family. She is now back in the country legally.

"I couldn't see my kid for a year," said Perez. U.S. citizen Katie Sosa says her husband, who was in the U.S. illegally, went back to Mexico on his own to re-enter legally and is now being held there and told he cannot come back to the states for 10 years.

"We wanted to do things the right way and we got punished," Sosa said.

The activists say they will not help to re-elect President Obama if he does not fulfill his campaign promises to them.

The group will be traveling with Armando Gutierrez and his children to Washington. Gutierrez faces deportation and has no criminal record.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8259408

Luis Gutierrez: Latinos Won't Vote For Obama In 2012 Without Deportation Relief

By Elise Foley
The Huffington Post
20 June 2011

WASHINGTON -- In a meeting with bloggers last week, longtime immigrant rights advocate Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said President Barack Obama should not count on Latinos to vote for him in 2012 unless he takes executive action to stop some deportations.

The Obama administration has said repeatedly that it has no options for halting the deportation of either undocumented students or the family members of citizens, even though it has frequently cited its use of discretion in immigration enforcement. Although the government says it prioritizes deportation of undocumented people who are considered threats to society, young men and women who grew up in the United States, as well as the parents and spouses of citizens, are still deported.

In a frank discussion with bloggers at the progressive conference Netroots Nation, Gutierrez said he will encourage Latinos to withhold votes from Obama unless the president uses his discretion.

The main demand is to block deportation of families and young men and women who would benefit from the DREAM Act, a failed bill that would have allowed some undocumented people who entered the U.S. as children to gain legal status and attend college or join the military.

Gutierrez, who carries considerable clout among Latinos, is touring the country under the banner "Change Takes Courage" to rally support for administrative relief from deportations.

He said in order to win support, Obama should create deferred action or parole for DREAM Act-eligible young people, allowing them to live and work in the U.S. until Congress acts on immigration reform. Instead, the administration often carries deportation proceedings to nearly the last minute, then allows an immigrant to stay after public outrage.

"They stop the deportation when you do a little petition. When Change.org does a petition and gets a few hundred signatures, they stop the deportation," Gutierrez said. "Don't tell me you ain't got the power."
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Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), called in April for Obama to stop deporting DREAM Act students.

Gutierrez is also pushing for the president to create a new definition of "extreme hardship," a classification for men and women applying for legal status for their family members.

Separating families should be considered "extreme hardship," he said.

Gutierrez acknowledged that exercising executive power ran the risk of a legislative backlash from Republicans, but said that should not be an excuse.

"Anything that you put in to safeguard people, then they're going to take it away from you -- then why did we put you there?" he said.

Gutierrez said the first sign of Obama's triangulation strategies on immigration came in 2007, when the then-senator voted for a border fence between the U.S. and Mexico.

Latino leaders in Illinois were furious, and Gutierrez said Obama called him for an explanation.

"I should have known something then," he said. "He didn't get it, but he said to me, 'I've got to show the Republicans that I'm someone that they can work with.' It's still the same person."

The problem, Gutierrez said, is that Obama continues to court Latino votes despite failing to follow through with immigration reform, which polls consistently list as among the top five issues for Latino voters.

Obama recently spoke about immigration in El Paso, Texas, and Puerto Rico, but has said repeatedly he cannot act administratively to end deportations.

Gutierrez said he thinks Latinos should vote for Obama in 2012 -- but only if the president first takes actions to relieve deportation threats for families of citizens and would-be DREAM Act beneficiaries. He said Latino voters should put their votes in a metaphorical lock box and only let them out if and when Obama makes progress on immigration reform.

Gutierrez said Latinos are unlikely to vote for the Republican Party, which has decried what it considers "amnesty" for illegal immigrants, or for alternatives such as the Tequila Party organized to rally Hispanic voters.

"It's not about voting for the Tequila Party and it's not about voting for Republicans," he said. "I don't see Latinos doing that. What I see them doing is staying home."

A boycott by Latino voters could hurt Obama in the end, he acknowledged, but he said the issue is too important to ignore.

"It's always the same conversation: If we do too much it will hurt Obama?" he said. "Civil rights and human rights movements cannot be so closely aligned with parties because they're going to eventually have contradictions. I think of Rosa Parks and I think of her getting on that bus and saying, 'Will this upset the Speaker?' ... They didn't think about what was going to happen to a particular party. They moved."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/20/luis-gutierrez-lays-out-plans-for-deportation-relief_n_880643.html

Government Starts Inquiry Into Program Leading to More Deportations

By Ruxandra Guidi
KPBS
May 23, 2011

SAN DIEGO — Secure Communities was launched in 2008, with plans for mandatory nationwide participation by 2013. It requires local jails around the country to share detainees' fingerprints with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Twelve-hundred counties nationwide were assigned the program without the ability to opt out, as part of a federal effort to increase deportations.

"A major concern around this program is whether or not it's doing what it says it's doing," said Britney Nystrom, Director of Policy at the National Immigration Forum in Washington, a think tank that has criticized the program from the start. "Its priority should have been identifying and removing individuals who pose a threat to national security or a risk to public safety."

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-California) requested an investigation into Secure Communities late last month. According to ICE, about 28,000, or 35 percent, of those who have been deported so far under the program have been convicted of serious felonies like murder and rape.

"What is concerning is that the numbers that have been released about this program, contain many individuals who are identified and ultimately removed as a result of Secure Communities and who have no conviction whatsoever," said Nystrom.

Throughout the country, a majority of deportees had minor convictions such as driving offenses, low level property crimes or immigration related offenses.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/may/23/government-starts-inquiry-program-leading-more-dep/

4 Obama Immigration Claims That Just Aren't True

By Bob Dane
Foxnews
Published May 21, 2011

“Are the borders really secure?” is probably not the best set-up for the next Geico commercial. No, they’re really not secure.

This president would have us believe otherwise. His immigration speech in El Paso, Texas, bordered as much on deception as it did physically with Mexico, just over the Rio Grande. President Obama - now candidate Obama -- did his best to convince Americans that our borders are secure and that interior enforcement is up in order to justify amnesty for illegal aliens to appease his special interests supporters and stoke his voting base.

The problem is that when given close scrutiny, the president’s claims range from minor omissions to major whoppers. Here are

1. “We are deporting those who are here illegally”

The president is suggesting that deportations are up. Not so fast.

The number of deportations in 2009 and 2010 is higher under the Obama administration than at any other time, but it’s not because of increased enforcement. The higher numbers reflect many removal cases that were already in the pipeline, leftovers from Bush-era enforcement. Once those removals are complete, one wonders how the deportation numbers can possibly be sustained since few new removal cases are being initiated because large numbers of non-criminal illegal alien cases are being dismissed by executive fiat. Deportations have, in fact, already declined slightly from 2009 to 2010.

Ultimately, the Commander-in-Chief should be deporting illegal aliens and not expect a gold star for simply enforcing the law, nor using basic immigration enforcement as a bargaining chip for amnesty. Even at a rate of 400,000 removals per year it would still take the federal government 30 years to remove the 12 million illegal aliens currently living in the U.S.

2. “We’ve increased the removal of criminals by 70 percent”

True, but with a major catch. More criminal aliens – illegal aliens who commit violent felonies – are indeed being deported but it is to the exclusion of almost all other illegal aliens!

Think of two similarly sized pie charts, each representing overall deportations. One is 2009, the other is 2010. The 2010 pie is about the same size but is sliced much differently because DHS deported more criminal aliens in 2010. This is the basis of the deception. The president is taking credit for increasing the percentage of criminal aliens removed, hoping we don’t notice that most other illegal aliens are just being ignored. Thus, the Obama Administration is gradually accomplishing an “administrative amnesty” while simultaneously convincing Americans that enforcement has increased.

Criminal-aliens-only immigration enforcement was never the intent of Congress. Laws regarding removal apply to all illegal aliens, irrespective of whether they have committed additional crimes. By selectively choosing classes of people to which the laws apply, the administration is ignoring federal law and conferring upon itself the power to act as it sees fit and as it suits the political whims of the president.

3. “The fence is now basically complete”

The fence has basically hit a wall and has for a long time. There are only 32 miles of the recommended double layer fence built and only 649 miles of single layer fence on a border that’s 2,000 miles long. DHS’s own estimates show that less than half of the southern border is under operational control. And entirely lost in the discussion is the Canadian border and U.S. coastlines, unsecured areas that mounting terrorist threats can, and will exploit.

4. “We’re going after employers who knowingly exploit people and break the law.”

Worksite raids have been abolished and replaced with paper audits that impose modest fines that employers simply roll into the cost of doing business. Employers are given a slap on the wrist and illegal alien employees are simply released.
During a January 2011 hearing of the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration, Rep. Lamar Smith (R- Tex.) reported that, “in the area of worksite enforcement, arrests have fallen 77%; criminal arrests are down 60%, indictments are how 64% and convictions have fallen by 68% since 2008.”

The media made much of President George W. Bush’s ill-fated 2003 “Mission Accomplished” speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln in which he prematurely proclaimed “an end to major combat operations in Iraq.”

President Obama’s similar proclamation that our borders are now secure and immigration enforcement has increased deserves no less attention, particularly since the next stage of planned operations is amnesty.

Bob Dane is Press Secretary/Communications Director for Federation for American Immigration Reform.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/05/21/4-obama-immigration-claims-just-arent-true/#ixzz1NPmTkPdL

ICE Halts Deportation At ACLU’s Request

By Judicial Watch
May 19, 2011

In the latest collusion between the Obama Administration and the leftwing American Civil Liberties Union, Homeland Security officials have suspended the scheduled deportation of an illegal immigrant at the ACLU’s request.

The move is part of a bigger plan to perhaps eliminate the federal program (Secure Communities) that identified the illegal alien in the first place. The influential open borders movement—which includes the ACLU—has aggressively pressured the administration to nix Secure Communities, which requires local authorities to check the fingerprints of arrestees against a federal database. The idea is to deport dangerous criminals, many of whom have fallen through the cracks over the years.

But immigrant rights advocates insist the program is racist, has led to the removal of hard-working immigrants who contribute to society and has tragically separated families. They want the Obama Administration to get rid of it and that could very well happen as the president panders for votes in 2012. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General announced this week that it’s planning an investigation of Secure Communities.

The probe will determine the extent to which the program is used to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens from the United States, according to a news report of the inspector general’s plans. The IG will also examine cost and the accuracy of the data collection and determine if Secure Communities is being applied “equitably across communities.”

Those who dare to read between the lines can probably see where this is going. The illegal immigrant whose deportation was abruptly halted by the government headlined an ACLU-sponsored press conference decrying Secure Communities. She was arrested earlier this year in Los Angeles after a domestic violence dispute and was identified as an illegal alien when the county jail forwarded her fingerprints to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

At the ACLU’s behest ICE conducted a “comprehensive review” of the illegal immigrant’s case and determined to “terminate the removal proceedings against her,” according to an agency statement published in a local newspaper. Immigration advocates used the case as an opportunity to chastise Secure Communities as a “destructive program” that endangers public safety because immigrants won’t cooperate with police out of fear of being deported.

Interestingly, the elected sheriff who operates jails in Los Angeles and patrols a huge chunk of the sprawling county insists that Secure Communities works. In a piece published this week by the state’s largest newspaper, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca writes that many serious criminals have been deported. Prior to implementing Secure Communities a “growing number of criminal illegal immigrants who were taken into custody” were eventually released back into the community, according to Baca who has been sheriff since 1998.

In the piece Baca offers several examples of violent illegal aliens who were removed from the U.S. thanks to Secure Communities. Among them is a felon who lived in the area despite three drug-trafficking convictions and six deportations and another who had been previously removed after getting convicted for killing a child in the late 1990s.

Back to the unscrupulous collaboration between the Obama Administration and the ACLU; earlier this year Judicial Watch uncovered documents from the Department of Justice that show the agency worked hand-in-hand with the ACLU in mounting their respective legal challenges to Arizona’s immigration control law.

http://www.themoralliberal.com/2011/05/19/ice-halts-deportation-at-aclu%E2%80%99s-request/

Gutierrez wants Obama to stop deporting immigrants with U.S.-born children

By Abdon M. Pallasch
Chicago Sun Times
May 9, 2011

A day ahead of President Obama’s trip to El Paso, Texas, to talk about immigration, Rep. Luis Gutierrez told a Chicago audience he hopes the president will announce his administration will stop deporting non-criminal parents of American-born children.

“We ask and implore the president to use the wide discretion that he has as the president of the United States to seek out these communities of people who are deserving and to grant them relief and sanctuary in the United States of America,” Gutierrez told civil leaders at the City Club of Chicago.

Gutierrez and other Hispanic members of Congress met with Obama Tuesday and showed him a legal opinion arguing he has the authority — without having to persuade congressional Republicans — to tell his own administrative agencies to stop deporting immigrants whose only crime is coming to the U.S. without documentation or being brought here by their parents years ago.

A crackdown on deportation that started with a focus on those convicted of crimes expanded to anyone even arrested, acquitted or just picked up on suspicion of a crime, leaving 20-year-residents, some brought here as children, “a traffic stop away” from deportation, Gutierrez said.

“Under President Obama, our nation is deporting 400,000 people a year. That’s 1,100 a day, an increase over the presidency of George Bush,” Gutierrez said. “Barack Obama is not focusing just on dangerous criminals in his crackdown. The numbers reflect increased deportations across the board. It’s not just drug dealers. It’s not just gang-bangers.”

Gutierrez has failed in attempts to reform the immigration system or grant citizenship to young immigrants who serve in the military or go to college. He and the other Latino officials asked Obama to try again on those issues.

Gutierrez has travelled the country speaking to immigrant groups, and he has not shied from criticizing his friends and allies such as Obama or his former neighboring congressman Rahm Emanuel when he felt they were not fully on-board with his chosen positions.

Gutierrez said he will attend Emanuel’s mayoral inauguration next Monday and has no hard feelings about Emanuel’s earlier battles with Gutierrez over immigration.

“While Mayor Daley might simply ignore my criticism, Rahm was more likely to respond. There are no children in the room, are there? Let’s just say he might suggest some private places where I could store my criticism,” Gutierrez said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/5274391-418/gutierrez-wants-obama-to-stop-deporting-immigrants-with-u.s.-born-children

Hispanic Caucus calls on Obama to freeze controversial immigration enforcement program

By Lee Romney
The Los Angeles Times
May 5, 2011

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Thursday asked President Obama to freeze the controversial immigration enforcement program known as Secure Communities -- one day after the state of Illinois attempted to terminate its participation agreement and pull out altogether.

The actions are the latest in mounting attempts to pressure Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, its parent, to examine the program. Launched in 2008, Secure Communities purports to target “convicted serious criminals” here illegally for deportation but has ensnared many undocumented immigrants who were arrested but never charged with a crime or charged with minor offenses.

Meanwhile, a California bill is moving through the Legislature that would demand that the state modify its agreement and, if ICE refuses, withdraw altogether as Illinois did. But questions remain over whether federal officials will allow either Illinois or California to end their participation.

After telling local and state governments repeatedly that the program was voluntary, Homeland Security officials now contend that participation is mandatory and that local and state buy-in is not required.

Under the Secure Communities program, fingerprint data collected at local jails and sent to the FBI for criminal background checks is forwarded to ICE for immigration scans. Federal officials said Thursday that they will continue to run immigration checks on Illinois’ data despite that state's efforts to withdraw.

But in a statement released Thursday, ICE Press Secretary Barbara Gonzalez said the agency “is conducting a top to bottom statistical analysis of Secure Communities data to identify any irregularities that could indicate misconduct in particular jurisdictions so that we can immediately initiate corrective actions.” Gonzalez said ICE is “also exploring ways to address concerns with the program so that it continues to focus on individuals who have broken criminal laws.”

ICE Director John Morton planned to travel to Springfield, Ill., Friday to meet with officials there, she said.

In seeking the freeze on the program -- and backing Illinois’ attempt to pull out -- members of the Hispanic Caucus on Thursday expressed support for Obama’s efforts to “strengthen national security and public safety,” but said, “neither of these goals are served or advanced by the [Secure Communities] policy in its current form.”

“Evidence reveals not only a striking dissonance between the program’s stated purpose of removing dangerous criminals and its actual effect; it also suggests that [Secure Communities] may endanger the public, particularly among communities of color,” the letter continued.

Illinois and California are among 41 states that have signed “memorandums of agreements” – complete with termination clauses – to launch the program in local jurisdictions. All California counties have been "activated."

Most local governments and states have endorsed the notion of prioritizing serious convicted criminals for deportation, but a number have expressed concerns with the program in recent months since ICE data revealed that more than half of those targeted for deportation were arrested but never charged with a crime, or charged with minor infractions.

As a result, some local law enforcement leaders say that the program is discouraging crime victims or witnesses in immigrant communities from cooperating with police investigations.

San Francisco and Santa Clara counties are among those that have sought unsuccessfully to opt out of Secure Communities. Washington state has also refused to sign up and Washington, D.C., terminated its contract -- a move that ICE later said it allowed only as a courtesy.

Backers of the identification program say it replaces ad hoc enforcement efforts and point out that it has led to the largest ever number of deportations of convicted serious criminals.

On Wednesday, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn notified ICE officials that his state "will play no role in Secure Communities, either actively or as a pass-through for information." In activating the agreement’s termination clause, the letters from Quinn and Illinois State Police Director Hiram Grau said, "No new counties in Illinois can be activated, and those counties that were previously activated for their information to pass through ISP to ICE, must be deactivated and removed from the Secure Communities program."

But the move is unlikely to settle the matter, casting more confusion over a program that has been plagued by miscommunication. U.S. Rep Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) last week demanded an investigation into what she called intentional efforts by ICE and Homeland Security officials to mislead local and state governments as well as members of Congress about whether Secure Communities was voluntary and who it would target.

The Department of Homeland Security now asserts that the states’ “memorandums of agreement” are merely educational and that the program will be implemented nationwide by 2013 regardless of opposition. No local or state buy-in is needed, they say, because Secure Communities is an "information sharing program between two federal agencies."

The outcome could impact California, where a pending bill would require modifications to its agreement with ICE to apply the program only to those individuals convicted of serious crimes. The bill also contains protections for juveniles and domestic violence victims and would make local participation optional. If ICE declines the modifications, the bill calls for termination of the agreement.

Like the backers of the California bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), Illinois officials believe their agreement – which contains similar termination and modification clauses - is a binding contract and that their withdrawal is legally valid.

“They cannot make law by fiat, and they can't rule by decree,” Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said of ICE. “Courts and Congress determine scope of their enforcement authority.”

Newman added that “contracts are contracts, not courtesies.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/05/hispanic-caucus-calls-on-obama-to-freeze-controversial-immigration-enforcement-program-.html

States Resisting Program Central to Obama’s Immigration Strategy

By JULIA PRESTON
The New York Times
May 5, 2011

A program that is central to President Obama’s strategy to toughen enforcement of immigration laws is facing growing resistance from state governments and police officials across the country.

Late Wednesday, Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois said he was pulling his state out of the program, known as Secure Communities, the first time a state has sought to withdraw entirely. In California, where the program is already under way throughout the state, the Legislature is considering a bill that would allow counties or police agencies to choose whether to participate.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick has held a series of heavily attended and sometimes raucous meetings on the program in an effort to vent criticism and build support for the administration’s approach. In Maryland, Montgomery County considered withdrawing, then concluded reluctantly that it had to take part.

Under the program, the fingerprints of every person booked by the police are checked against Department of Homeland Security databases for immigration violations. That is in addition to routine checks against the F.B.I.’s criminal databases.

State officials and federal lawmakers have questioned the program, saying that Homeland Security officials conveyed misleading information about whether participation was mandatory or whether states could opt out. Some state officials, led by Governor Quinn, said the program was not accomplishing its stated goal of deporting convicted criminals, but had swept up many immigrants who were here illegally but had not been convicted of any crime.

Mr. Obama has begun an effort, seen on both sides of the aisle in Congress as an uphill fight, to win support for some kind of immigration legislation this year.

But the resistance to Secure Communities has exposed tensions in the president’s immigration strategy, which has led to record numbers of deportations — almost 800,000 — in the past two years. The deportations have antagonized Latino immigrant communities that want Mr. Obama to press for legislation offering legal status to illegal immigrants, and that strongly supported Democrats in recent elections. Yet the deportations have not convinced many Republicans that the administration is strong enough on enforcement.

The states’ objections are setting up a confrontation with the Department of Homeland Security, whose secretary, Janet Napolitano, has said that Secure Communities is mandatory and will be extended to all jurisdictions in the country by 2013. The program, started in Texas in 2008, is currently operating in more than 1,200 local jurisdictions.

At a Congressional hearing this week, Ms. Napolitano said that the program was crucial to the department’s goal of finding criminal immigrants in state and local jails and deporting them.

Governor Quinn, in a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that runs the Secure Communities program, said the Illinois State Police were withdrawing because the program had not met the terms of a 2009 agreement with the state. Under that memorandum, the program’s purpose was to identify and deport immigrants “who have been convicted of serious criminal offenses.”

Statistics from the immigration agency showed that nearly one-third of immigrants deported from Illinois under the program had no criminal convictions. It is a civil violation for an immigrant to be in the United States illegally; it is not a crime.

“Illinois signed up to help I.C.E. remove criminals convicted of serious crimes, but based on the statistics from I.C.E., that’s not what was happening,” said Brie Callahan, the governor’s spokeswoman.

Governor Quinn, a Democrat, suspended the program in November and entered negotiations with homeland security officials. Illinois officials decided to withdraw after concluding that the immigration agency’s operation of the program was “flawed,” the governor’s office said.

So far, 26 out of 102 local jurisdictions in Illinois had begun participating. Governor Quinn asked the agency to “deactivate” those places.

Immigration agency officials said that John Morton, the head of the agency, would go to Springfield, Ill., on Friday to meet with officials there. In a statement, the agency said it was conducting a full review of the program “to identify any irregularities that could indicate misconduct in particular jurisdictions” and to tighten its focus on criminals.

Most criticism of the program has come from Democratic allies of Mr. Obama. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has asked him to suspend the program and re-organize it to focus more closely on deporting violent criminals, drug traffickers and other serious offenders. The American Immigration Lawyers Association also called on Mr. Obama this week to suspend the program.

Republicans in Congress, seeking even tougher enforcement of immigration laws, would like to see more of the program.

“All too often, illegal immigrants who have committed crimes go on to commit more,” said Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “To make our streets safer, state and local governments should embrace Secure Communities,” he said. “Opposition to this program endangers Americans.”

California’s concerns were first raised by several local law enforcement officials, including Michael Hennessey, the longtime sheriff of San Francisco. They argued that engaging local police in immigration enforcement would erode hard-earned trust with Latino and other immigrant communities. Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, began questioning immigration agency officials on whether local police and governments could opt out.

This year, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, an immigrant advocate organization, obtained a trove of e-mails and other internal documents concerning Secure Communities from the immigration agency through a Freedom of Information request.

After examining those documents, Ms. Lofgren and Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, also a Democrat, demanded that the homeland security inspector general open an investigation. Ms. Lofgren said officials had deliberately misled local governments into thinking they could choose to opt out of the program.

“I believe that some false and misleading statements may have been made intentionally, while others were made recklessly,” Mr. Lofgren wrote the inspector general.

In an apologetic response, Mr. Morton, the head of the immigration agency, said the agency “takes full responsibility for the confusion and inconsistent statements” about participation. But he said expanding Secure Communities remained a top priority.

In Massachusetts, Governor Patrick said late last year that he would accept the program statewide, then paused after an outcry from immigrant organizations, who said it was bound to catch many illegal immigrant workers with no criminal history. The town meetings he organized have drawn both opponents and very vocal supporters of the program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/us/06immigration.html?_r=1