1. ICE ends Secure Communities agreements
2. CPS: 500,000 troops could secure borders
3. Va. County Sues Feds over Imm. Data
4. Smuggling boat intercepted off Calif. coast
5. Chinese population up in uptown NYC

1.
Immigration authority terminates Secure Communities agreements
By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post, August 7, 2011

A key immigration enforcement program that has drawn criticism from some state and local governments will terminate all existing agreements with jurisdictions over the program, federal authorities announced Friday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said its director, John Morton, had sent a letter to state governors terminating the agreements “to avoid further confusion.”

Through the program, the FBI shares fingerprint data of people arrested by local and state law enforcement agencies with federal authorities, who can use the information to check for immigration law violations. The agreements were meant to educate states about the availability of the service, ICE officials say.

The initiative, which began in 2008, has been implemented in about half the jurisdictions in the country, with a goal of having it in place nationwide by 2013.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/immigration-authority-terminates-sec...

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2.
Half a Million Troops Could Seal the Southwest Border, Says Border Protection Chief
By Penny Starr
CNS News, August 5, 2011

Sealing the border between the United States and Mexico completely is “theoretically” possible, but Americans would not want to pay “the costs that would be involved,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner Alan Bersin said Thursday.

He was speaking at an event to release a report by the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP), claiming the southwest border is safer than it ever has been.

“We would need on the order of about four or five hundred thousand border patrol agents to seal the border,” Bersin said, adding that such a plan would involve having agents stationed “25 yards” apart along the entire length of the border.
. . .
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/half-million-troops-could-seal-southwest

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3.
Prince William Co. sues feds for access to immigration data, second such lawsuit in a year
Associated Press, Aug. 4, 2011

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Prince William County is filing a second lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security seeking access to criminal immigration data.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Alexandria faults federal officials for ignoring a Freedom of Information Act request from the county. The request sought information on the status of more than 4,000 illegal immigrants arrested by local police and transferred into custody of federal immigration authorities.

Corey Stewart, chairman of the county’s Board of Supervisors, says large numbers of illegal immigrants are being released rather than deported. More than 10 percent of those turned over to immigration authorities by the county have been re-arrested.

An earlier lawsuit seeking details on the case of an illegal immigrant charged with killing a nun in a drunken driving crash remains unresolved.

. . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/prince-william-co-sues-feds-for-acce...

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4.
Three held after suspected smuggling boat seized off Orange County
Los Angeles Times, August 7, 2011

Authorities on Sunday intercepted a suspected smuggling boat that tried to land on a busy stretch of Huntington Beach about two miles down the coast from the U.S. Open of Surfing.

Lifeguards spotted the panga, a simple fishing vessel with an outboard motor, trying to come ashore at Huntington State Beach near Magnolia Street at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday, said Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. John Hollenbeck of the Newport Harbor patrol.

When the three men aboard noticed they were being watched, they steered the vessel back to sea, and lifeguards saw them throw a package overboard.

Orange County sheriff's boats chased the vessel to about one mile off the Newport Pier, where they stopped it at gunpoint and arrested 3 Mexican nationals on suspicion of smuggling and attempting to enter the United States illegally, Hollenbeck said.

The suspects and the boat were taken to Newport Harbor, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents took the men into custody.

Smugglers increasingly have been ferrying illegal immigrants, and sometimes drugs, by sea to Southern California in an effort to evade dragnets near the San Diego-Mexico border. In recent months immigration officials have discovered two or three smuggling operations a week from Orange County north, including boats of immigrants captured coming ashore at Crystal Cove State Park, Malibu and Santa Cruz Island.

"They usually come ashore at night, for obvious reasons," Hollenbeck said.
. . .
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/suspected-smuggling-boat-l...

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5.
Chinese population climbs 200% in Harlem and East Harlem over 10 yrs
By Laignee Barron
New York Daily News, August 8, 2011

The New Frontier for the city's Chinese immigrants is in an unexpected part of town - Harlem and East Harlem.

Asian residents were rare uptown 10 years ago, but they have become a substantial presence in the two neighborhoods, 2010 Census data analyzed by the CUNY Center for Urban Research show.

The Chinese population has skyrocketed by more than 200% in the two neighborhoods in the last 10 years.

Asians are moving uptown for the same reason New Yorkers always move - more space and cheaper rent.

The change is tied to "a larger overall trend going on right now with numbers of African-Americans moving out of the city for the first time," said Joseph Pereira, Director of CUNY Data Service.

"It's more convenient to live in Chinatown since there is more Chinese food and services there, but the rent is cheaper here," said Yue Wu, 30, who moved to East Harlem from Chinatown a year ago for a $700-a-month, two-bedroom apartment with her husband and three kids.

Since Chinese grocery stores and doctors have yet to follow them uptown, many Asian residents make the trek downtown to Chinatown for those services.
. . .
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/08/08/2011-08-08_chinese_reside...

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