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Posts Tagged ‘Janet Napolitano’

Ending Secure Communities and 287(g) in an Already Anti-Migrant State

1:53 pm By Maegan La Mala · Alabama|Immigration|Politics|Secure Communities · Comments Off

9 Nov 2011

Yesterday, almost civil and human rights organizations from across the United States, and a few international organizations, sent a letter to the Secretary of Honeland Security, urging her to stop deportation programs like 287(g) and Secure Communities in Alabama. Many of the signatories, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), had already been calling for a stop to the policies that currently are deporting about 400,000 people a year in the United States, but the recent implementation of what is being called the harshest anti-migrant law in the country is compelling many to focus on Alabama.

Secretary Napolitano is targeted because the successful implementation of HB 56 is contingent upon cooperation and participation of DHS as the state law relies on the department to take custody of non-citizens identified through HB 56 for detention and deportation. The groups also urged DHS to promote and enforce its own guidance which limits state action in immigration matters, as well as exercise favorable discretion in any case that arises from enforcement of Alabama’s HB 56.

HB 56 combined with ICE pattern and practices specifically threaten Latinos in the state. Since immigration is racialized as a latino issue, people who are perceived as Latino will be targeted. Racial profiling threatens the 185,602 Latinos in Alabama, a population that while making up only 3.9% of the total population according to the 2010 Census, increased 145% in the last decade.

The Department of Justice is currently challenging the constitutionality of HB 56, which went into effect in September. I signed onto to the letter to Secretary Napolitano, but with a healthy dose of cynicism in terms of expectations. The Department of Homeland Security through Napolitano continues to defend it’s deportation record and Secure Communities. The White House continues to defend Secure Communities. It will be interesting to see how the Federal Government, who has helped to create the anti-immigrant atmosphere surrounding states like Alabama, further reacts to the crisis in the state. Will the answer be a policy change or a public relations campaign.

Sources : New America Media

Immigration Enforcement Following Parents Taking Children to School in Detroit

12:38 pm By Maegan La Mala · Detriot|Immigration · 11 Comments

6 Apr 2011

The first time I saw an Immigration & Customs Enforcement van was in Detroit. For some children of immigrants in Detroit, they may say the same thing and add that the last time they saw their parents was in an ICE van.

The Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) is reporting that in Detroit ICE followed parents taking their children to the Hope of Detroit Academy, detained at least two parents, and essentially forced other parents to remain inside the school, afraid of leaving and afraid of being detained by ICE. Eventually the ICE officers left.
Read more…

Homeland Security’s New Bragging Rights : Denying Deferred Action & Deadly Force

8:32 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|mexico|Politics|Uncategorized · 21 Comments

14 Mar 2011

While states across the country continue to push anti-immigrant legislation which seeks to criminalize the most basic rights of people, the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Janet Napolitano is being very clear about it’s policy of deportation and death on the Southern Border.

In hearings last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Napolitano bragged about the fact that the Obama administration granted deferred action in less than 900 cases last year. That was fewer than the Bush administration.

According to Immigration Equality‘s useful definition Deferred Action is:

a minimal humanitarian status which The Department of Homeland Security can grant in cases of extremely compelling humanitarian facts (such as a life-threatening illness). The status permits an individual to remain in the United States for a limited period of time (generally two years) after which point he or she must re-apply.

So essentially Napolitano is bragging about immigration policy becoming less humane under the Obama administration than under the last Bush administration.
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Attacks on Immigrant Workers Cross Party Lines

7:50 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor|Politics · 10 Comments

9 Feb 2011

Just last month, I wrote about how I.C.E., a division of the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was stepping up so called “silent raids” or audits of companies suspected of hiring undocumented workers. This announcement, which really was just an official announcement of what I.C.E. has already been doing (besides “loud” raids in communities), certainly can be related to the mass firings and investigations into the employees of faux Mexican chain Chipotle.

Fact : Department of Homeland Security is run by Janet Napolitano, Democrat, appointed by Democrat President Obama. In fact here is what Napolitano had to say about E-Verify on C-Span.

Virtual Border Fence With Mexico Cancelled

9:19 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|U.S.-Mexico Border · 1 Comment

15 Jan 2011

Yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the so-called “Virtual Fence” along the U.S. Mexico border was being squashed. Since the idea was born, the 28 mile stretch of the border armed with heat sensors, radar, cameras and 9 towers to detect immigrants crossing into the U.S. just southwest of Tuscon, Arizona has been plagued with problems, the largest being it’s huge cost with no proof of effectiveness.

When the first portion of the fence was ready to go live in 2005, the cost was estimated at $20 million.

Then in February, 2008 the fence was put on hold and another $65 million was paid to Boeing to fix software problems. The final estimated cost so far, with 53 miles of the Arizona border having been “protected” with SBInet technology, is nearly $1 billion.

DHS will continue to use other methods to insure border security, including the use of drones and of course good old fashioned man power, like that used to kill Ramses Barron Torres.

DHS’s Napolitano Admits There is No Opt Out for Secure Communities and Shows Off New Deportation Numbers

10:36 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Politics · 6 Comments

7 Oct 2010

Yesterday, I wrote about how I understood why some Latinos may sit this election out, especially in the face of increasing immigrant enforcement policies while candidates pay lip service to change and reform on the campaign trail.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton held a press conference yesterday that revealed more information about the deportation numbers under the Obama administration and the truth about Secure Communities.

During that announcement, which was livestreamed, according to America’s Voice, ICE announced 392,000 deportations last yr. 195k “criminal.” Which would make 197k non-criminal deported. Napolitano, on the record, stated that it is not possible for localities to opt out of “secure communities” program , contradicting earlier statements indicating that localities could opt-out.

Increase of Border Patrol Agents = Increase in Border Violence

1:55 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 1 Comment

9 Sep 2010

Even before the recent increase of border patrol agents along the U.S. Mexico border, la frontera was not a safe place for those living, working and playing nearby.

An article in the L.A. Times published this week, the paper reports that in the last 18 months five Border Patrol agents have been accused or convicted of sex crimes or assaults including one agent who pleaded guilty in January to raping a woman while off duty, and another who is accused of sexually assaulting a migrant while her young children were nearby in a car. These are only the cases that we know of. Think about how many assaults go unreported or unprosecuted and like many of the recent alleged police brutality cases, some of the officials involved are Latinos.

So when DHS Secretary Napolitano crows about how the numbers that are supposed to be going up are going up, one has to wonder if she feels that the increase in sexual assaults and physical assaults are numbers that also are supposed to go up, as inevitable trade offs for the idea of safety for some.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano : “All the Statistics that are Going Up Are Supposed to be Going Up”

8:45 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor|mexico|Politics|U.S.-Mexico Border · 2 Comments

31 Aug 2010

If nothing else, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is a woman of her word. During a telephonic press briefing yesterday, Napolitano proudly crowed the start of unmanned predator drone flights out of Corpus Christi, Texas, beginning on Wednesday, Sept.1.

The rest of the telephonic conference was more of the same with an emphasis on more. I think the Secretary of Homeland Security said the word “more” so many times creating a dramatic crescendo effect that drove home just how militarized the U.S. border with Mexico was becoming and just how far we are from comprehensive immigration reform.

The drones, which beginning tomorrow will be able to monitor the entire U.S. Mexico border, are meant to track the “illegal movement of drugs, money and people”. While I know many will say the “illegal movement” of people refers to the disgusting crime of human trafficking, I picture families and individuals crossing the frontera and wonder how is movement declared illegal and only the movement of certain people.
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Is the Immigration Reform Change We Were Told to Believe in Hidden in the Numbers?

7:52 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration · 8 Comments

4 Feb 2010

If it really is all about the economy (stupid) when it comes to legislative priorities, to get a sense of where Comprehensive Immigration Reform falls on that list we should look at the The Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security.

The two immigration-enforcement components of DHS—Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—consume 30% of the department’s total budget, while the immigration-services component, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is allotted a mere 5%.

Hmm doesn’t seem like DHS is prepping itself for a pathway to citizenship.

It is notable that there are significant increases in the budget for Asylum and Refugee Services/Military Naturalizations and Immigrant Integration and Citizenship. However, given how DHS has treated many Asylum seekers (by putting them in detention), it would be nice to know a little more specifically where this money is going. And Immigrant integration? Can I assume that means English classes?

Via / Immigration Impact : A Project of the Immigrant Policy Center

TPS for Haitians

10:04 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Haiti|Immigration|Politics · 2 Comments

19 Jan 2010

Deportations to Haiti have been halted and now the Department of Homeland Security has granted Haitians currently in the U.S. without documentation Temporary Protected Status or TPS. TPS not only allows the undocumented to stay in the U.S. but also allows them to get work permits, which for many Haitians on this side of the horrific earthquake is priority so that they can aid those back in Haiti.

However, TPS isn’t free and it sure as hell isn’t the “amnesty” that so many anti-migrant folks are claiming it to be. Federal filing fees total almost $500, including a $340 TPS-related work permit and $80 fingerprint fee. The TPS offered to Haitians is only applicable to Haitians who were in the U.S. before January 12, the day of the earthquake. Haitians in the U.S. after that date are not covered and could be deported as soon as the U.S. drops the temporary stay. TPS holders cannot become permanent U.S. residents or U.S. citizens and is good for 18 months.

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