A look back at the annual report on US-VISIT, the automated entry (and hopefully someday exit) screening program, provides stark reminders of both the value of the program and of how much work still remains to be done. The program is doing a good job finding needles, but is working in only part of the haystack. The incoming Obama administration could establish some credibility on its commitment to homeland security by making the completion of the entry-exit system at land, air and sea ports a top priority.

Of note: Read more »

Check another one off Secretary Chertoff’s Bucket List. Soon in the new year, DHS is to begin screening several new categories of aliens, getting another border security enhancement in place before the regime change. Beginning January 17, 2009, all those arriving on immigrant visas, new refugees and asylees, some green card holders, and a few other categories will be enrolled in US-VISIT at the Port of Entry. Read more »

Since an August 2007 order from New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, which requires NJ local law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of everyone arrested and report illegal aliens to ICE, the number of criminal aliens in the state who have been identified for removal has dramatically increased. Read more »

Yesterday Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Mark Pfeiffer agreed with Gov. Don Carcieri’s rationale for immediate implementation of his executive order requiring all state contractors, vendors and grantees to use E-Verify to avoid hiring illegal workers. Read more »

The Salvadoran man charged in the double-murder of Michael and Virginia Spevak, a kindly and beloved retired Washington, DC couple is reported to be a member of Street Thug Criminals, a violent street gang already well-known to local police and ICE. Since 2005, ICE has arrested at least 10 other members and leaders of this gang, all but one citizens of El Salvador (see below). Read more »

This week the Houston Chronicle published an extensive three-part series reporting on the disturbing number (thousands) of illegal aliens who commit crimes and are processed through the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, but manage to avoid removal and often remain in the community to progress in their criminal career. The series does a service by pointing out the issues involved in dealing with the hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens living in this country. But it gives the misleading impression that local law enforcement agencies are helpless, with no recourse but to sit and wait for ICE to take all these bad people off their hands. Read more »

“Mission Accomplished” was the clever slug line on a double news item circulated today to consular officers around the globe through the list-serv known as the Town Crier (conoffs@yahoogroups.com).  Read more »

A new GAO report sharply criticizes the Dept. of Homeland Security for its reckless disregard of legitimate security and law enforcement concerns and standard operating procedures in pressing forward to offer visa waivers to visitors from at least nine new countries, mostly in Eastern Europe. Read more »

Yesterday, a Rhode Island judge rejected a request from the ACLU and three others to halt the state’s implementation of Governor Don Carcieri’s Executive Order requiring all state contractors, vendors, and grantees to use E-Verify, or lose their government contracts. Read more »

If Hartford mayor Eddie Perez signs an ordinance sent to him by the city council, the Connecticut state capital will be the latest to join the list of cities that are obstructing the identification of criminal aliens, and almost certainly endangering their residents in the process. (See .) The ordinance forbids city police from arresting illegal aliens they encounter who are the subject of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) administrative warrant. Read more »

The flap over which law enforcement agency is to blame for accused rapist Marco Riz’s continued illegal presence in Rhode Island has exposed the potential problems that result when local officials cling to the irresponsible position that immigration law enforcement is exclusively a federal issue, of which they can wash their hands without consequences for their community. Read more »