1. Prospects Are Dim for More Data on USCIS’ Immigration Appeals Cases (Blog)
2. It’s Not Illegal, But … (Blog)
3. Immigration Court Caseload Climbs – and Offers New Data Source (Blog)
4. GAO’s Shoddy Report on Border Patrol Operations on Federal Land (Blog)
5. Court Case Illustrates Both Chain Migration and Enforcement Problems (Blog)
6. Mayorkas to USCIS Staff: Just Say Yes – Or Else! (Blog)
7. BIA Splits Hairs on Ski Resort Bribery Case (Blog)
8. ICE’s Mission Melt 4: Houston, We Have a Problem (Blog)
9. President Obama’s Silent Immigration Amnesty, Part II: The Consequences of Ignoring Broken Windows (Blog)
10. Rare Occurrence: A Balanced Immigration Panel (Blog)
11. The Use of Self-Created Ignorance as a USCIS Defense Mechanism (Blog)
12. President Obama’s Silent Immigration Amnesty, Part I: Ignoring Broken Windows (Blog)
— Mark Krikorian]
1.
Prospects Are Dim for More Data on USCIS’ Immigration Appeals Cases
By David North
CIS Blog, October 23, 2010
http://www.cis.org/North/
Excerpt: USCIS has announced a tiny bit of additional visibility regarding decisions on immigration cases decided by its Administrative Appeals Office, but any wholesale reduction of the existing secrecy does not appear to be likely.
What the government did on October 20, in a press release, and at one of the USCIS stakeholders’ meetings, was to publish two AAO precedent decisions, the first in a dozen years, but AAO’s boss, Perry Rhew, more or less indicated at the meeting that any substantial changes in its disclosures policy were unlikely.
2.
It’s Not Illegal, But …
By Stanley Renshon
CIS Blog, October 22, 2010
http://www.cis.org/renshon/
Excerpt: The Washington Post headline is certainly startling: ‘In WA, illegal immigrants canvassing for votes.’
The story reports on one Maria Gianni, who overstayed her visa permit 13 years ago, and others like her, who is now campaigning in Washington State for Democratic senate candidate Patty Murray. Gianni, ‘one of dozens of volunteers – many of them illegal immigrants,’ works for an immigrant advocacy organization called OneAmerica Votes.
3.
Immigration Court Caseload Climbs – and Offers New Data Source
By David North
CIS Blog, October 22, 2010
http://www.cis.org/north/trac-
Excerpt: Newly released data show huge and growing numbers of cases caught up in the immigration courts, while providing an intriguing (to me, at least) way of tracking the geographic distribution of illegal aliens within the U.S. by their nation of birth.
The numbers are numbing. As of the end of September, 261,083 cases were pending in these courts, all waiting for individual hearings before the judges, virtually all facing deportation if they lose.
4.
GAO’s Shoddy Report on Border Patrol Operations on Federal Land
By Janice Kephart
CIS Blog, October 21, 2010
http://www.cis.org/kephart/
Excerpt: The Government Accountability Office, the mandated congressional audit watchdogs, issued a report this week concluding that the Border Patrol needs more timely access and training when operating on federal lands subject to ‘federal land management laws.’ Most interesting about this report, from my standpoint, is that the GAO, which generally does an excellent job of twisting bureaucratic arms to obtain information, barely did any useful homework on this piece. While I appreciate the report’s conclusion, I wonder at shoddy work at a level I have never seen before in over a dozen years of using and reviewing GAO products, many of which are excellent and highly credible.
5.
Court Case Illustrates Both Chain Migration and Enforcement Problems
By David North
CIS Blog, October 21, 2010
http://www.cis.org/north/
Excerpt: We all know the concept of chain migration. In some cases a bold migrant does something unusual. Unlike so many migrants, he or she settles, or is settled, in a place where there are no countrymen. He or she then starts a chain migration going through family and friends.
For instance, some refugee agency settled a Kurd in Nashville some years ago, and that unlikely city is now the informal Kurd capital of America.
6.
Mayorkas to USCIS Staff: Just Say Yes – Or Else!
By Jessica Vaughan
CIS Blog, October 20, 2010
http://www.cis.org/vaughan/
Excerpt: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas and other top Obama administration appointees have been trying to bully career staff into rubber-stamping approvals for green cards and other benefits, and discouraging them from investigating fraud, according to a letter sent last week from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.
7.
BIA Splits Hairs on Ski Resort Bribery Case
By David North
CIS Blog, October 20, 2010
http://www.cis.org/north/ski-
Excerpt: The inevitable first question has to be, how does an alien bribe a federal official regarding a gondola at a ski resort?
But the more significant question is, how could a blatant bribery attempt like this one be so badly handled by the Department of Homeland Security?
It all started long ago, as it often does in immigration cases, back in November 2004.
8.
ICE’s Mission Melt 4: Houston, We Have a Problem
By Janice Kephart
CIS Blog, October 20, 2010
http://www.cis.org/kephart/
Excerpt: This week the Houston Chronicle published an investigative piece showing a recent surge in immigration case dismissals in Houston for those without criminal convictions. The crux of the story was that the trend is being spurred ‘by government attorneys seeking to file joint motions for case dismissal.’ The story notes that similar trends are witnessed in large cities with high illegal immigrant populations, ‘including Dallas and Miami.’ There is a clear link reported between the surge in immigration cases being dismissed by immigration judges – up to 217 in August, when July had only 27 dismissals – and DHS lax enforcement policy.
9.
President Obama’s Silent Immigration Amnesty, Part II: The Consequences of Ignoring Broken Windows
By Stanley Renshon
CIS Blog, October 19, 2010
http://www.cis.org/renshon/
Excerpt: President Obama’s silent immigration amnesty undercuts his public promise to respond to Americans’ desire to curtail illegal immigration and enforce our country’s immigration laws. Dismissing the cases of those already being brought before the courts for violating immigration laws is an awful betrayal of his word to Americans.
But it is worse that that because his silent amnesty, in effect, further shatters immigration policy’s already broken windows.
10.
Rare Occurrence: A Balanced Immigration Panel
By James R. Edwards Jr.
CIS Blog, October 18, 2010
http://www.cis.org/edwards/
Excerpt: I recently discussed a Christian view of ‘Immigration & the Workforce’ at a panel sponsored by Nyack College’s Washington office. Nyack deserves credit, especially on one count: This panel was actually balanced: two speakers advocated amnesty and two opposed amnesty.
11.
The Use of Self-Created Ignorance as a USCIS Defense Mechanism
By David North
CIS Blog, October 18, 2010
http://www.cis.org/north/self-
Excerpt: The otherwise useful article in the Sunday New York Times about aliens voting illegally slipped over the USCIS’ slippery defense mechanism in the case, but to me it stood out like the proverbial sore thumb. I will get back to that in a minute.
The article, ‘Immigrants Find Voting Can Come at a Cost,’ told of the case of an immigrant from the Caribbean island of St. Kitts who voted in New York as a permanent resident alien, and, as a consequence, faces deportation.
12.
President Obama’s Silent Immigration Amnesty, Part I: Ignoring Broken Windows
By Stanley Renshon
CIS Blog, October 18, 2010
http://www.cis.org/renshon/
Excerpt: In the late 1960s Phil Zimbardo, then a young Assistant Professor of Psychology at CUNY’s Brooklyn College, parked a car without a license plate and with its hood up in a Bronx neighborhood, had a comparable car parked in Palo Alto, Calif., and photographed the results. As George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson, the well-known creators of one of the most important theories of crime prevention noted, ‘The car in the Bronx was attacked by ‘vandals’ within ten minutes of its ‘abandonment.’ The first to arrive were a family – father, mother, and young son – who removed the radiator and battery. Within twenty-four hours, virtually everything of value had been removed. Then random destruction began – windows were smashed, parts torn off, upholstery ripped. Children began to use the car as a playground. Most of the adult ‘vandals’ were well-dressed, apparently clean-cut whites.’
