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1. Border arrests down 27%
2. Schumer: border secure enough
3. Report: 287(g) "undermines" policing
4. Houston police chief frets 287(g)
5. Los Angeles to lose $8m

1.
Arrests on Southern Border Drop
27% Decline Marks Fewest Seizures by Agents Since 1976
By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post, May 21, 2009

The number of arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped 27 percent this year, a decline that could put the figure at its lowest level since the early 1970s, federal officials said yesterday.

The decline accelerates a three-year-old trend that experts attribute to the economic downturn, with stronger U.S. immigration enforcement measures also playing a role.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar released the data to the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, refugees and border security, noting that the number of Border Patrol agents has more than doubled from 9,000 in 2001 to a projected 20,000 by September. The government also has completed 626 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers. It plans 661 miles of barriers on the 2,000-mile frontier.

"By several measures, the border is far more secure than it has ever been and, with our help, will soon be even more secure," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the panel, which held the first of four hearings scheduled to take place before the August recess. Aides said the hearings are meant to build a case for overhauling immigration laws.

President Obama has invited advocates to hammer out a legislative approach and has set a June 8 meeting at the White House for a small, bipartisan group of Senate and House leaders, a spokesman said yesterday, "with the hope of beginning the debate in earnest later this year."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/20/AR200905...

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2.
Schumer pushes immigration reform
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times, May 21, 2009

With the nation's top immigration enforcement officers saying they will finish the border fence and continue President George W. Bush's immigration enforcement efforts, the top Democratic senator on immigration said Wednesday that the nation's borders are secure enough to begin working on a legalization bill for current illegal immigrants.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee, said that given progress over the past four years - from barriers to more agents to better technology - lawmakers have proved to the nation that they are serious about security. Now, he said, voters should be ready to accept a law that legalizes illegal immigrants and rewrites immigration rules.

"We can pass strong, fair, practical and effective immigration reform this year," the New York Democrat said.

Efforts to pass a broad legalization bill faltered in 2006 and 2007 as voters flooded Congress with calls. Lawmakers concluded that voters didn't believe the bills would actually control the border.

At a hearing before his subcommittee Wednesday, Mr. Schumer pointed to falling apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border - down 27 percent compared with last year - as evidence the borders are more secure. He said that should convince voters who objected in 2006 and 2007 to Senate legalization bills that the government has done its job.

Mr. Schumer did not credit Mr. Bush for the progress, instead praising Congress for passing the Secure Fence Act and other laws to strengthen border security - even though Mr. Schumer initally opposed the Secure Fence Act in 2006. He voted first to block the bill through a filibuster, but that effort failed and he voted for the measure on final passage a day later.

But Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said with 700,000 people still being arrested annually, "that is not a lawful border." He also said his fights to get a vote on fencing and other security measures belies Mr. Schumer's claim that voters can now trust that Congress understands the security issue.

"I don't think the politicians have in any way distinguished themselves, ourselves, in this matter," he said.
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http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/21/schumer-pushes-legalization-...

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3.
Immigration duties undermine police role: study
Reuters, May 20, 2009

Phoenix (Reuters) -- A U.S. government program empowering local police officers to enforce immigration laws undermines their efforts to maintain public safety, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Around 11.9 million mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants live and work in the United States, and Americans are sharply divided over what to do with them.

The report by the nonpartisan Police Foundation criticized aspects of the 287 (g) program run by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which deputizes officers from local police agencies to enforce immigration laws.

The study, drawing on input from focus groups and police and community representatives, argued that the program created mistrust between local police and immigrant communities.

"The cornerstone of the police operation is public safety, and that is eroded significantly when people are afraid of the police," Hubert Williams, the president of the Police Foundation, said by telephone.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE54J7OX20090520

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4.
Parts of ICE plan worry Hurtt
By James Pinkerton
The Houston Chronicle, May 20, 2009

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt was in Washington on Wednesday, supporting a study criticizing the controversial immigration program known as 287(g), in which his department is planning to participate.

Hurtt said the department has applied for 287(g) training for Houston police to use federal immigration databases but only to check on those booked into the city’s two jails.

He said he favors that portion of the program but is opposed to the street-level phase of the federal immigration law, allowing local and state police to make immigration arrests and process offenders for deportation.

The yearlong study of 287(g) by the nonpartisan Police Foundation was critical of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program, concluding it erodes law enforcement’s public safety mission, diverts scarce resources, increases exposure to liability to charges of racial profiling, and heightens fear in communities.

“Immigration enforcement by local police is counterproductive to community policing efforts. It undermines the trust and cooperation of immigrant communities, could lead to charges of racial profiling, and increases our response time to urgent calls for service,” Hurtt said during a Capitol Hill press event in Washington.

In an interview after the news conference, Hurtt said Houston’s participation in 287(g) was a decision Mayor Bill White made after an illegal immigrant shot Houston police officer Rick Salter while he was serving a search warrant this year.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6434287.html

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5.
Jails, prisons in Bay Area loath to lose $$ for aliens
By Matt O'Brien
The Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA), May 21, 2009

Redwood City -- A federal program that reimbursed Bay Area jails more than $8 million last year for incarcerating illegal immigrants is on President Barack Obama's chopping block.

For the Obama administration, the $400 million State Criminal Alien Assistance Program represents money better spent elsewhere. But California jails and prisons receive more than a third of the money and the officials who run them want it back in the budget.

"That would be a big loss for us," said San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks. "We've come to rely on the (program) to help offset the cost of housing undocumented folks."

In their applications to be reimbursed by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Bay Area's nine county sheriffs reported that their jails last year held 9,200 suspected illegal immigrants who had committed at least one crime and spent at least four nights in local custody.

The actual number was less than that amount. Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement who evaluated the reports could confirm that only about 3,000 of those inmates were eligible for reimbursement, meaning they were definitely illegal immigrants. An additional 1,700 were definitely not.

Based on the numbers, Bay Area counties earned a total of $8.1 million last year and $71 million since 2000. The role of the 15-year-old program is to offset the costs of housing inmates who have committed local crimes but are considered the federal government's responsibility.

The amount of money received locally has fluctuated over the years — $11 million, for instance, was given to Bay Area governments in 2002 and just more than $5 million in 2003.

The money has also arrived with few strings attached. Some counties use it to pay jail employees and others for one-time purchases or construction.

The Alameda County Sheriff's Office, which runs jails in Dublin and Oakland, recently used its portion to buy bidirectional amplifiers to improve cell phone reception, said Undersheriff Rich Lucia. Next year, he said, administrators hoped to use it to overhaul their computerized jail management system.

"Because it is not a reliable, predictable source of income we never used it for personnel costs because you have to have a reliable source for that," Lucia said.

Calling it an ineffective tool in combating crime, the Bush administration tried several times to eliminate the program but Congress fought back each time, ensuring that it remained in the federal budget. Now, as part of $17 billion in proposed budget cuts, Obama also wants to get rid of it.

Melissa Schwartz, spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said the reimbursements do not directly stop crime or illegal immigration, so the government is putting its resources elsewhere. Other federal officials say the administration is looking to expand a program that would eventually have every local jail in the country automatically checking the immigration status of incoming inmates by 2012.
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http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_12418322