Return to Article: Agencies struggle to get a handle on illegal immigrants
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Leslie Gashimov's case was a common occurrence in Malta. Now the law has changed and when a foreigner marries a local, s/he has to live with the spouse for at least 5 years before citizenship will be granted.
If anyone leaves his or her spouse before the five years, they'll be out of the country.
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How about the ones that come over, then marry someone and as soon as they get "the card", their marriage starts having problems and they just leave you. Do you, as American citizens, ever think about that or do you think that is OK? My husband is from Azerbaijan and they were going to deport him for being arrested for DV, but I helped stop that when he said he still loved me. What a chump I was. Most that come here illegally really want a better life. I say change some of the marriage laws for them. Angry? You bet!
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A handle on illegal immigrants? Sorry, but any knucklehead knows that the situation is already too far gone. The only way to see any measurable success whatsoever is to give the authority to detain/deport suspected illegals to every state/local officer in the U.S. The INS has already more than proven it cannot handle the job. Yes, most of the blame does rest with Congress for granting these illegals so many rights, but the INS was downright incompetent from the beginning. I've never seen so many malcontents and delinquents. Now, former INS employees wonder why those from other agencies (now called ICE) balk at their new "responsibilities?" We are just completely unwilling to be held responsible for the mess the INS made since it is a losing proposition. And the average American could care less and are brainwashed that these people are in the U.S. to "do jobs Americans won't do."
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I am an American citizen and my views have drastically changed since I met and married a non-U.S. citizen. This man has been in detention for more than 2 months now. I never in my life thought this would affect my life but it did. My husband is Dutch, and is a law abiding person who came over on a Visa Waiver Program and was stopped at the Canada border to be sent back into the United States. He is not a threat to anyone. I want to point fingers and scream but at who? Our lives and dreams of being together are over forever. He was not granted bond and will now receive a five or 10-year bar from ever being allowed back in to my country, and for what? He was not illegal when in entered, he has no criminal record of any kind, never been in jail. I have a son in the U.S. Marine Corps, I have a new business that I spent my life working for. He has no children and much less to give up than me, which is why we were going to petition for him to stay here. I can't help the fact I fell in love with this man and because of this huge mess he sits in a horrible prison waiting to be deported only to know unless I give up my life and family to move to Holland we can never be together. This is what is happening to so many people no matter what country they might be from. Are any of you so quick to judge who gets deported and who is allowed to stay? Judges decide based on what mood they are in at the time of your hearing. American lives are being destroyed because of this. I am only one of those millions whose lives that are being destroyed.
Don't be so quick to point and blame as that does no good. I do not have a solution to this mess except I never dreamed it would happen to me. I have spent all my money on an attorney that got us nowhere fast, and everything I worked so hard for is going away even faster. Take a moment to walk in my shoes. Not every immigrant should be quickly deported as each non-U.S. person has an individual situation. I blame myself in a way for him being there as if we would not have met he could be free right now. No wonder Americans are not well-liked in other countries. Try explaining why this happened to my husband's mother who lives in Holland. She cries every day wishing he would never have come here. We are setting some example out there.
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I'd like to know what color the sky is in the Deportation Officer's world. Apparently the Deportation Officer generates the facts concerning CBP and ICE in his own mind. It certainly couldn't be from first hand knowledge as to the former Customs' Inspectors/Special Agents as, when has any former Customs Inspector or Special Agent ever come in contact with a Deportation Officer during their career? And his facts concerning the agency certainly didn't come from any legitimate sources such as the DHS/OIG reports, GAO reports or first, second, third or fourth hand knowledge of who are actually running our agencies. It's not the District Directors, Special Agents in Charge, Assistant Secretaries, etc. It was Ridge and now Secretary Chertoff. The heads of our agencies have had absolutely no say on what goes on in our agencies.
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The head of the NTC has been, for upward of the last 18 months, from the INS side of the house. And before that, he was second-in-charge.
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Sounds like "Deportation Officer" has some real anger management issues, or is it jealousy? Before you slander thousands of hard-working legacy Customs employees, you should get your facts straight. In over 25 years as a Customs inspector and special agent, I never engaged in racial profiling, nor did anyone I worked with. What we profiled was itinerary (it's a big word, so I'll explain what it means to you. It means where someone is coming from). Did a few knuckleheads act stupidly? No doubt, in an agency with over 20,000 employees, you will find a few bad apples. But Ray Kelly caved in to political pressure (remember this was the Clinton Administration) and to political correctness, and threw out years of border search authority and Supreme Court precedents, in a knee-jerk reaction to the alleged misdeeds of a few. Say, that kind of sounds like the reason for the creation of DHS as well, doesn't it? As far as working "2 hours out of 8," I don't know where you get your facts from. That never occurred at any place I ever worked at. You had better get that chip off your shoulder, pal, especially now that we are all together in one big, unhappy, and dysfunctional family called DHS!
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To Customs and Border Protection Officer CBP/DHS,
It never ceases to amaze me the arrogance of those whose ignorance doesn't justify their air of superiority. Tell me, how many port directors are from legacy INS. One ... two...? As far as I know it is only one. How many DFOs are from legacy INS? Again, just one. CBP, aka Customs, effectively runs the agency. What legacy agency were the former commissioner and the acting commissioner from? Again, Customs. Who heads the National Targeting Center and who heads the CBP Academy at FLETC, effectively applying a Customs driven curriculum? Again, Customs.
It is pathetic how an agency better known for racial profiling actually thought that it could absorb the INS and walk out intact. INS as a whole may have been inept, but that doesn't mean its front line employees were not dedicated and qualified. Yes, they did abolish the INS, which was also used as an excuse to effectively do away with another problem agency "The U.S. Customs."
A legacy Customs inspector recently confided in me that the reason his legacy counterparts hate doing primary inspections and immigration work is because they now have to work. Long gone are the days when Customs Inspectors disappeared right after the flight was done, only to come back hours later for the next flight. Long gone are the days when Customs Inspectors went home three hours before the end of their shift because no more flights were coming, while their Legacy INS brethren had to stay back and work. Yes, work.
Also, long gone are the days when Customs Inspectors took an official hour break (unofficially longer than that) while INS Inspectors could only take 20 minutes. No wonder your attrition rate was so low. Why would you leave for another agency when you only worked two out of an eight hour shift? Customs had a better PR than INS and escaped re-structuring in 1994 due to a massive class action suit by African American women for racial profiling. Instead, Congress punished Customs by having the authority of its inspectors scaled back as well as requiring them to write reports (IOIL) for every passenger they profiled. Get your facts straight next time.
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Our Constitution of the United States protects our American people, not illegal immigrants, no matter what nationality. All you hear about is Mexicans -- there are other illegal immigrants of other nationalities. All illegal immigrants should be deported, not grandfathered into being a citizen just because they have been here illegal absorbing our jobs, and other benefits that belong to the American people. They have no American rights. If they are over here illegally than their child born here in America should be considered an illegal immigrant. Why should the American pay for any illegal immigrant. Even some of the immigrants that have no respect for our country, our ways, our laws, (that are nothing but gathering information -- most likely gathered for their country) should be deported!!!! Our higher government needs to protect the American people!!
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The "employers" are the primary target; heavy fines and repeaters are put out of business, but just as important is cutting off any government provided benefits, medical care, and welfare of any kind. Illegals are forcing many hospitals to close their ER's because of "out of control" expenses to the hospitals. Tucson's hospitals are a good example. California tax payers spent something like $12 billion dollars last year on illegals and the State paid out over $520,000,000 for illegals in the prison system. When do we wake up and realize we can't afford it? Try going to a foreign country and see what benefits we get. We also need to end giving citizenship to the children born here of illegal immigrants. This is not a racial issue, it's legal versus illegal.
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The problem with illegals is not the illegals themselves, or the Border Patrol or the lack of a fence or the employers. The problem is our senators and representatives. They refuse to act as representatives of the American people. As soon as they get off of their fat behinds and simply support the enforcement of the simple enforcement of laws that are on the books already, i.e., arresting and fine employers who hire illegals! Just like the drug problems we have here in the United States. As long as we demand the illegals and the drugs, Mexico is ready willing and able to provide. There is no mystery to this problem!
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Victor Cerda, you have zero credibility. We, who are engaged in the effort to rid America of the third world scourge, do not want to hear your rhetoric. Under the regime of Michael Garcia, former Assistant Secretary in charge of ICE, political hacks like Cerda ran ICE DRO into the ground. John Torres, current unqualified Acting Director of Detention and Removal, continues the destruction. Having the likes of Cerda and Torres in charge of deporting the hordes of "Latinos" in this country is like giving the key to the chicken coup to the wolves. Neither one of them know anything about America or what it took to make this country great. All they know is that more Latinos means more power for them in the future. Average American, you have no idea what is happening to this country
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Everyone complains about the number of illegal aliens and that we do not have the manpower to round up 11 million people and remove them. But no one looks toward the cause -- the employers. Fine the employers and illegal employment will stop -- just look at the New York Times story today. As they fanned into the Vidalia onion fields of Georgia, the 45 federal agents were doing exactly what they thought they were supposed to do. It was 1998, and they had just arrested 21 illegal immigrant farm workers and were about to round up hundreds more. But the raid met with a stinging rebuke from what might have seemed a surprising source: two powerful Republicans from Georgia's congressional delegation. Congress does not want to address the problem!!!
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When the amnesty goes through, who is going to process the tens of millions of aliens? Who is going to verify the proof of their presences in the United States prior to the deadline? What will be acceptable proof? Will any scrap of paper do? Will there be a run on the office supply stores to get receipt books?
If the low figure of 11,000,000 illegals is correct (I believe it is more like 30 million illegals) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has 5,000 agents, that means that each agent has to do approximately 2,200 verifications. At one per hour, that is over a year's work and that does not take into consideration vacation and sick days.
What will keep millions more illegals from sneaking in and getting at the back of the line with a falsified rent receipt to gain amnesty?
What about the aliens already in proceedings? Will the hundreds of thousands of absconders get amnesty too? Will the previously deported illegals be allowed back in?
Congress should wait on the amnesty provisions and work on securing the border. If your boat is sinking, you plug the hole first and then start bailing the water.
I know that the illegal Irish and Mexicans have a lot of influence over some of our elected officials, but hopefully there are enough patriotic congressmen who will do what is right.
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Another classic example of "Who's in charge of the bloody obvious"! Why did more than 100,000 illegals abscond? Simple: put them out on O/R bonds and make them promise to show up for their hearings. Nice try. They shouldn't be allowed to be out on bond in the first place. Many of the absconders should have had an immediate hearing, if requisite, and be moved out immediately. Stop bogging down the courts and the BIA with all these 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chance shots at scamming the system. If you don't meet the criteria, you're out! Immigration advocates cry the blues about the poor immigrants being detained too long and being denied the right to counsel. I have the solution for that...quit detaining them. Give them a speedy hearing and a speedy boot out of here. As far as denying them the right to counsel, that's BS. Every one of them has the right to counsel and afforded that right when processed. They're just put out because they have to pay for it. Illegal aliens have the same rights as you and I as soon as they cross into the United States.
Concerning the legal side, the El Salvadoran debacle should have been over years ago. There's no more civil war left for them; quit giving them the old Notice to Appear and Release. Process them like the rest and send 'em packing. The Barbados woman with the prior drug possession conviction: She shouldn't have been held in detention -- she should have had her hearing, had her resident alien status revoked and moved out.
There's too much in this article to comment on, being limited on the number of words allowed, but the bottom line remains that the system has failed due, in a huge part, to the absence of intestinal fortitude to enforce the laws as written. It's not rocket science folks. No more appeals, no more due process (they have more due process than native born Americans!).
Stop and ask yourself: Do you think you'd have it this good in their respective countries?
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Why bother? Unless and until we as Americans decide whether or not our country is worth protecting, just open all borders. Let greedy capitalism rule, exploit all peoples without benefits and let the strong survive.
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If the federal government would give local authorities the authority to round up illegals, we wouldn't have the problem we face today and in the future. When the illegals march for their rights, do you see anybody sending them to jail? In my school system alone, we are now seeing 50 percent illegal alien children in just our kindergarten. You talk about overloading the school system with non-English speaking children. But the teachers have to follow President Bush's directive of "No Child Left Behind."
The federal government is inept unless it involves going to war in other countries and protecting foreign borders. They can't find the will, way, or money to protect our borders. We want our borders secure, we want English spoken, and we believe in immigration as long as it is legal. We do not believe in amnesty for law breakers. Today, the illegal, disease infested, criminal has more rights than the legal hardworking, taxpaying citizen of this country. Folks are we not going to do anything about it?
We need to stop eating chicken, don't go to Mexican Restaurants, and stop employing people that have illegal workers. Once the jobs dry up, the illegals will go back to their old jobs in their own country!!
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There are no "immigration inspectors" at the border. In March 2003, most of the INS inspectors (Justice Department) assigned to the borders (land, air and sea, et al.) were combined with the Customs inspectors from the Treasury Department and a few agricultural inspectors to become the new (and not improved) GS-1895 - Customs and Border Protection Officer. All the criminal investigators (agents) were transferred to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Congress was in the process of dismantling the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) when we were attacked on 9/11. Before Congress could finish off INS, the agency filled every promotion vacancy by promoting everyone it possibly could, without regard to talent or expertise. When the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was created, DHS made all the former INS personnel supervisors, managers, and port directors. Therefore, INS was in effect put in charge of all the former Customs inspectors and has been making all the management decisions since. That's' why everything is so screwed up!
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Of course immigration advocates don't like expedited removal; it's one of the rare times the system functions as it should. If the officer in the field believes a person is lying about his/her reasons for coming to the United States, is concealing something in his/her background, or otherwise leading officer(s) to believe admitting that person would be unwise, then that person should be removed. Period. Part of the reason this system is broken is that people can appeal forever and ever. It must stop.
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Victor Cerda: Another former DHS/ICE (legacy INS crony) sell-out who ought to have the decency to keep his mouth shut.
Question: If Mr. Cerda was so concerned about needing a "Pentagon-sized budget" to handle the illegal immigration problem, why wasn't he fighting for it while he was within DHS/ICE? Reason: Because it behooved him to keep his mouth shut then and work on his future contacts while toeing the DHS/ICE company line. Then what happened? Mr. Cerda, like so many other pathetic former DHS and ICE cronies, jumped ship and found that his new company line is that immigration enforcement, in light of the current numbers being faced, is "unrealistic." Tell us, Mr. Cerda, who's your daddy today? Some high-powered Washington business or political interest that sees the benefit in unfettered illegal immigration for economic purposes or a future voting block? Do tell!!! And everyone wonders why Homeland Security and ICE have absolutely no credibility with the rank-and-file, much less the public at large.
Go U.S. Marshals!!! Drain ICE dry. Maybe then, Washington will wake up and wonder where all the best and brightest has gone. Then again, don't hold your breath.
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