House Divided Over Immigration Program

By Andrea Salazar

Republicans and Democrats in a House subcommittee butted heads over the effectiveness of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Secure Communities (S-Comm) program Wednesday amidst claims that the program promotes racial profiling.

ICE Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Gary Mead testified in front of the House Immigration Subcommittee, part of the House Judiciary Committee, assuring lawmakers that S-Comm is taking dangerous criminals off the streets.

“Secure Communities is smart, effective immigration enforcement,” Mead said. “It provides real time leads to the ICE criminal alien program, greatly reducing the likelihood that criminal aliens will be released from state and local custody back into the community.”

S-Comm — a program designed to identify criminal illegal immigrants in state and local custody — links information from local law enforcement with the FBI and ICE.  Therefore, when a person is arrested, local police send that person’s fingerprints to the FBI, which in turn shares the information with ICE to determine immigration status.

Proponents of the measure applauded the program, but said ICE’s “prosecutorial discretion” is allowing some criminals to go free because of the Obama administration’s decision to focus on deporting only illegal immigrants who have committed a crime.

“There’s no excuse for an illegal alien, who’s not supposed to be here in the first place, driving drunk on our roads and putting the lives of the people of my county in danger,” said Sheriff Sam Page of Rockingham County, N.C., in his written statement.

Instead, Julie Myers Wood, a former assistant secretary for ICE, recommended using the rapid repatriation program - a program that allows for the release of some  illegal immigrants considered non-violent, on the condition that they agree to leave the country, waive their appeal rights and agree not to return to the U.S.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), however, expressed concern over Secure Communities for incidents of racial profiling and sending into deportation proceedings undocumented immigrants who have not otherwise committed serious crimes.

“Everybody who I’ve talked to who has concerns about this program, doesn’t have a concern about having violent dangerous criminals removed,” Lofgren said. “There’s more commonality here than we might expect. Where we get into trouble is when it’s somebody who hasn’t committed an offense or they’re pulled over for a faulty tail light.”

Testifying in opposition to S-Comm, Arturo Venegas, a former police chief and an immigrant himself, said the program is damaging the relationship between law enforcement and the immigrant community because people are less likely to report crimes to police if there’s a chance that they could be deported.

“If you are an immigrant, and you are charged with a serious offense, or even a minor offense, you are ‘guilty until proven innocent’ and you will be referred for deportation,” Venegas said. “As an immigrant myself, and as an American citizen, I cannot support that differing standard.”

ICE plans to implement Secure Communities nationwide by 2013.

Officials Under Fire In Hunt For 'Fast And Furious' Blame

By Adrianna McGinley

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism questioned federal officials today about Operation “Fast and Furious,” and what measures should be enacted to prevent guns from “walking” into the hands of criminals in the future.

The program was carried out last year by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and involved allowing guns to be obtained in the U.S. by straw-purchasers who then sold them across the southern border to members of dangerous drug cartels. ATF agents were supposed to track the weapons to find out where they ended up, but several hundred went missing.

The mishaps of “Fast and Furious” were eventually exposed by a whistleblower at ATF after it was discovered that one of the guns that was allowed to “walk” into Mexico was used to kill a Border Patrol agent in Arizona last December.

At today’s hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) hounded Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ Criminal Division, about Breuer’s self proclaimed “mistake” of not informing top officials of the connection between Fast and Furious and the 2006-07 gun-walking operation Wide Receiver, which was commissioned under the Bush administration.

“I regret the fact that in April of 2010 I did not [inform Attorney General Holder or Deputy Attorney General Cole],” Breuer said. “At the time I thought that dealing with the leadership of ATF was sufficient and reasonable.”

He criticized the fact that ATF “failed” to stop weapons that they had “both the ability to interdict and the legal authority to interdict.”

Grassley, who serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has co-led Congress’ investigation into the program along with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) criticized the “hunt for blame” surrounding Fast and Furious and called for a focus on the root problem: domestic gun laws that allow “anybody [to] walk in and buy anything”.

“I’ve been here 18 years, I’ve watched the BATF get beaten up at every turn of the road and candidly, it’s just not right,” Feinstein said. “We have more guns in this country than we have people and somebody’s got to come to the realization that when these guns go to the wrong places scores of deaths result.”

Breuer said that of the approximately 94,000 weapons recovered in the last five years in Mexico, 64,000 of them have been traced to the U.S. He added that the number one tool to stop gun trafficking would be the authority to forfeit the weapons of dealers who knowingly sell to criminals.

“It is clear that we need more tools to get those people who are buying the guns and illegally transporting them to Mexico,” Breuer said. “We cannot permit the guns to go knowingly and we cannot permit the guns to go unknowingly. We need to stop the flow.”

Breuer emphasized that few law-abiding citizens are looking to buy semi-automatic weapons, and the lack of a requirement to notify ATF when such weapons are bought is a large part of the problem.

“Information is the tool we need to challenge and defeat organized crime. We are not even permitted to have ATF receive reports about multiple sales of long-guns, of any kind of semi-automatic weapon or the like.”

Other officials from the Departments of Justice (DOJ), Homeland Security (DHS) and Treasury also appeared before the subcommittee.

Sen. Grassley: Obama Going Behind Congress' Back On Immigration

By Adrianna McGinley

Ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), argued Tuesday that the White House is improperly operating behind lawmakers’ backs on immigration policy.

The senator specifically questioned the motive and intention of a memo released by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in August calling to establish a working group to review the cases of hundreds of thousands of undocumented individuals.

“The Obama policies may be an impermissible intrusion on Congress’s plenary authority over immigration law,” Grassley said during an appearance before Judicial Watch, a “conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, [that] promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law”.

In September, Grassley and 18 other senators sent a letter to Obama requesting the new policies be rescinded and that Napolitano be made available to questioning by Congress. She is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“It will be our chance to conduct oversight over her department and their policies,” Grassley said. “You can be sure that prosecutorial discretion will come up. I also plan again, to express my concern with how this administration is enforcing the laws, and whether they are trying to find creative ways to keep as many illegal people in this country.”

Grassley also expressed concern over a memo released last summer giving “prosecutorial discretion” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and “gun walking” that took place under Operation Fast and Furious.

Under the controversial Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) operation, weapons were allowed to “walk” in to the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Two of these weapons were found at the scene of the December murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

“My motivation is to make sure nothing like this ever happens again, and get the truth for the Terry family as well as an untold number of Mexican citizens who may be victims as well,” Grassley said.

ICE provides work permits for confirmed illegal immigrants

Twenty-eight immigrants who were arrested in Bellingham, WA two months ago for working illegally and using false documentation have been released from custody and 24 of the immigrants have been given work permits in exchange for cooperation in the investigation of their former employer.

Representative Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) described the situation as “a slap in the face for those who are struggling every day to find a job in this economic downturn.”

On Thursday, Marcy M. Forman, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Investigations, testified before the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Homeland Security, explaining that due to the ongoing criminal investigation, she was unable to give the committee specifics.

“There is a criminal search warrant being executed by ICE agents in Washington State to further the criminal investigation of this company for the employment of illegal aliens,” Forman said.

The company under question is Yamato Engine Specialists, which allegedly hired the 28 immigrants.

Rogers believes this case indicates a “diversion of attention from prosecuting employers,” he said, and provides a magnet for illegal aliens who need work. “I’m nervous that the department is making a big change of policy here,” he said.

Although released from jail, the immigrants "were released with conditions,” Forman told the committee, adding that they have been told to cooperate in the criminal investigation of their employer. While their release is temporary, all released immigrants must report weekly to an ICE agent and meet with an agent at least twice a month. Each of the immigrants have been screened to ensure they are not a risk to national security.