In one of the most absurd examples of immigration enforcement malpractice yet, this week ICE is planning to take a pass on removing a criminal alien convicted of vehicular manslaughter. On Friday, November 16, exactly two years after Roberto Galo struck and killed motorcyclist Drew Rosenberg while making an illegal left turn in a car he was unlicensed and uninsured to drive, Galo is scheduled to be released from a California jail. Read more...

The unsurprising revelation that foiled terrorist Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, arrested last week for trying to blow up the Federal Reserve building in New York, entered on a student visa has once again provoked demands for reform from lawmakers. But the types of reforms being pushed, while worthy, will not address the most fundamental problem with our student visa program, and would not have interfered with the admission of Nafis. Read more...

Criminal aliens, illegal drunk drivers, identity thieves, and gang members are breathing a sigh of relief in Prince William County, Va., as they now have much less chance of being disturbed or uprooted by ICE or local police, thanks to the latest move by the White House to dismantle the successful 287(g) enforcement program.

Last week, county officials were informed by ICE that their program was next on the chopping block, following cancellations in Arizona and North Carolina. Despite having identified about 5,000 removable aliens who had been arrested for other offenses and processing a large share of them for removal at little cost to ICE; enabling ICE agents in Virginia to give better service to other parts of the state; and despite the absence of any findings of abuse or mismanagement, the White House has decided that the program must go. Read more...

The bill that was the top priority for illegal alien advocates in California, the TRUST Act, was vetoed yesterday by Gov. Jerry Brown. This is clearly a setback for anti-enforcement activists nationwide, who had made this bill the centerpiece in their campaign against ICE's Secure Communities program, and who had hoped to inspire similar measures in other states. Read more...

A group of activists in Michigan, including the ACLU, SEIU, and the Detroit-based Latin Americans for Social and Economic Justice, has filed a lawsuit against Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson to stop her from asking voters the question, "Are you a United States citizen?" Read more...

The good news in a new GAO report on visa fraud is that the State Department has developed a variety of new tools over the years to help detect those trying to lie and cheat their way into the United States. The bad news is that top management at State has not been particularly interested in making sure that consular officers are using these tools, even as temporary admissions are at an all-time high, and as the Obama administration seeks to open the gates wider. Read more...

Jamiel Shaw, Sr., the father of a young man murdered by an illegal alien gang member in Los Angeles in 2008, speaks directly to California Governor Jerry Brown in a poignant new video (see below). Shaw asks Brown to veto a bill passed by the state legislature that would force California law enforcement agencies to release tens of thousands of criminal aliens each year instead of transferring them over to ICE for possible removal. Read more...

A new investigative report from the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reveals extensive and troubling data integrity problems that interfere with a key border security program's effectiveness in preventing the entry of individuals using aliases. Read more...

When President Obama announced on June 15 that he would bypass Congress and offer legal status to the so-called DREAMers, he said: "Now, let's be clear — this is not amnesty, this is not immunity, this is not a path to citizenship." False on all three counts, as it turns out. Read more...

The National ICE Council, which is the primary union for ICE enforcement agents and officers, is taking the extraordinary step of circulating a petition to draw attention to the threats of punishment some of its members have faced for trying to enforce immigration laws, even when those enforcement actions fall within the Obama administration's stated priorities. Read more...

Massachusetts has joined the ranks of states that see the need to compensate for weak federal immigration enforcement by acting at the state level to make life more difficult for illegal aliens. The Bay State legislature has voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill to crack down on unlicensed illegal alien driving by allowing only licensed or legally present individuals to register vehicles. Read more...

It appears that the Obama administration is planning to offer the DREAM amnesty to many young illegal aliens either deeply discounted or free, charging fees only to those who apply for a work permit, according to an internal DHS memo obtained by the Associated Press. Read more...

Data provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under subpoena from the House immigration subcommittee show that criminal aliens who were identified through the Secure Communities program, but then released by ICE, went on to be arrested for nearly 58,000 new crimes between October 2008 and July 2011. This report conservatively quantifies the public safety damage inflicted by the Obama administration's catch and release immigration enforcement policies. Read more...

A group of 73 organizations has sent DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano a list of their demands -- I mean recommendations -- on how the Obama administration's new DREAM Amnesty should be implemented. Here's what they want: Read more...

The ICE enforcement agents' union is reporting an incident from earlier this week that illustrates the perverse results of the Obama administration's DREAM decree and "prosecutorial discretion" policies. An illegal alien, who is described as meeting the criteria for the president's DREAM amnesty, was arrested and jailed in El Paso, Texas, on a domestic assault charge. When ICE agents arrived at the jail for routine inmate screening, the 5'9", 245 lb. Read more...

An article this week on Time.com does a decent job of capturing current developments in one of the most rankling issues in immigration law enforcement — what to do about sanctuary cities — and, atypically, highlights the Obama administration's disinclination to confront them, even as they undermine a key enforcement initiative. Read more...

I recently participated in a panel discussion at the National Sheriffs' Association annual conference in Nashville on the topic of ICE's Secure Communities (SC) program and immigrant community safety and trust. Read more...

4.6 million individuals world-wide who have been approved to be sponsored for green cards by U.S. citizens, current green card holders, and U.S. employers through the established legal immigration process will now have to step aside for a while in order for USCIS to process the deferred action applications of people hoping to qualify under the Obama administration's Dream Scheme. Read more...

The following explanation of Deferred Action, the tool that will be used by President Obama for the DREAMer amnesty, is from testimony I provided last summer to the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement: Read more...

On Monday, a California judge sentenced unapologetic illegal alien and MS-13 gang member Edwin Ramos to spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of American citizens Tony Bologna and his two sons, whom Ramos had mistaken for rival gang members. For years before the murder, despite several arrests, Ramos had been shielded from deportation by San Francisco's sanctuary policies. Read more...

An article in the May 24 Boston Globe highlights the problems created when the executive branch tries to make an end run around Congress by using its rule-writing authority to allow illegal aliens to remain here in virtual amnesty, but then cannot deliver the green cards. Read more...

Desperately seeking to acquire some credibility with the vast majority of American voters who want to see immigration laws enforced, the Obama administration is on a steady pace to complete implementation of the Secure Communities (SC) program in every state, perhaps even ahead of the 2013 target date. With Louisiana and Nevada most recently completed, the map is nearly all colored in. Rumor has it New England, possibly including the sanctuary states of Vermont and Massachusetts, could be finished next.

Will the full activation of Secure Communities nationwide mean the end of sanctuaries for criminal aliens as we know them? Not quite. Read more...

A new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) internal audit of ICE's implementation of Secure Communities finds that, contrary to critics' allegations, the program is effective in identifying criminal aliens and that ICE officers are not being overzealous in selecting aliens for removal. If anything, officers are erring on the side of not pursuing removal of criminal aliens when warranted.

Among the highlights of the report: Read more...

On Monday, ICE announced the results of the latest installment of Operation Cross Check, an initiative that locates and apprehends aliens with serious criminal records who are at large. Agents arrested more than 3,100 of these criminal aliens in March. That's helpful. But it also would be helpful if ICE would do what it takes to keep these criminals from being "at-large" so that they don 't need to be staked out and rounded up, but merely held until they can be removed. Read more...

The Obama administration's half-hearted and spotty record of immigration enforcement at the workplace creates a big vacuum for state and local lawmakers to jump into. E-Verify mandates are a great start. State employer auditing programs are another effective tool, either in lieu of an E-Verify mandate or to enhance compliance with E-Verify and other requirements. Statistics from such initiatives in South Carolina demonstrate the value of employer auditing at the state and local level. Read more...

On Wednesday, I testified before the House Judiciary Committee's Immigration and Policy subcommittee hearing on new policies implemented by the Obama administration for softer immigration detention standards. Read more...

An excellent NBC Rock Center expose discussed yet another sad side to the appallingly under-regulated foreign exchange visitor program. The story revealed how the State Department's lax rules have resulted in dozens of high school exchange students being placed with hosts who sexually molested them, even as their non-profit sponsors rake in millions of dollars a year. One young victim described this centerpiece of American public diplomacy as a "scam". Read more...

The nation's sheriffs are united in support of full enforcement of immigration laws and want to be involved. The sheriffs want Congress to provide more resources for enforcement, pay more attention to worksites (including mandatory E-Verify), and expand the 287(g) program according to a position paper developed by the group's Immigration and Border Security Committee and approved by the organization’s national board of directors. Read more...

The Obama administration intends to cut funding for the popular and effective 287(g) program, according to the DHS budget summary document just released today. If approved by Congress, this move would leave more than a dozen local agencies at the altar waiting for training programs promised by ICE. Read more...

A federal judge in Maryland this week dismissed a $1 million discrimination lawsuit brought by illegal alien Roxana Orellana Santos against Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, the two deputies who arrested her, and the County Board. This is a big win for local law enforcement agencies that follow proper policing practices, even when they expose illegal aliens – in this case, one who was the subject of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) warrant. Read more...