Janice Kephart / January 20, 2012

In a speech in the magic Kingdom of Disney World, President Obama this week officially extended his Amnesty by Any Means program to those beyond the traditional boundaries of amnesty discussion – people outside the United States. One key point for immigration control is that visa interviews are being dropped for much of the world. The White House press release focuses on the economics of tourism while the State Department's announcement is scant on details of exactly who will be interviewed, from what countries, and under what process. Read more...

As part of the Secure Communities strategy, ICE is leveraging a federal biometric information sharing capability to quickly and accurately identify aliens in law enforcement custody. Since this capability was first activated in 2008, biometric information sharing has helped ICE identify and remove more than 114,000 convicted criminals from the United States. As of December 28, 2011, the biometric information sharing capability of Secure Communities is activated in 2,027 jurisdictions in 44 states and territories. By 2013, ICE plans to use this capability nationwide.

Federal Judge George Daniels announced in open court in New York City yesterday, in a case filed by families of 9/11 victims, that he was going to be signing an order within 24 hours stating Iran, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda are responsible for the 9/11 attacks. More specifically, the judge found that Iran has provided material support to al Qaeda for the 9/11 attacks. Much of the material witness testimony in the case comes from three Iranian defectors whose affidavits remained under seal during the course of the case. Read more...

According to a story in today's LA Times, amnesty is now officially being rolled out in U.S. immigration courts. Department of Justice (DOJ) immigration attorneys are being directed to work side-by-side with Department of Homeland Security immigration agents to significantly reduce pending deportation cases. Read more...

In yet another move aimed to handcuff the effectiveness of Border Patrol agents, orders have been sent out from Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, D.C. to Border Patrol sectors nationwide that checks of transportation hubs and systems located away from the southwest border of the United States will only be conducted if there is intelligence indicating a threat.

I won't stop fighting to open up government … I can tell you we've put together the toughest ethical rules and the toughest transparency rules in the history of government."
-- President Obama, January 22, 2010

In July 2010, President Obama stated he was working to open up government and add transparency so Americans could see just what was going on in federal government, including a record of every single person coming in and out of the White House. Read more...

A new documentary, now available on Netflix and through a couple dozen movie distribution houses, features CIS's National Security Director and former 9/11 Commission counsel Janice Kephart on a film regarding the porousness of our physical borderlands.

Without incorporation of federal or state law enforcement needs and based on five-year-old data, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a Department of Interior agency, has issued a Lower Sonoran and Sonoran Desert National Monument Resource Management Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement that will make it easier for smugglers to pass through Arizona’s Read more...

Secretary of State Clinton is now lining up with Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano in quietly continuing the border security backslide to September 10, 2001, standards. None of what you read below will be in press releases. The secretaries are well aware that their policies continue to add to a profusion of amnesty outlets, and now Secretary Clinton is working in tandem with the White House too, where President Obama is pushing for a pullback on any policy pertaining to border security unless a known terrorist is involved. Read more...

Among the unspoken tension of the pending ten-year anniversary of 9/11, there is really only one set of voices that rises above all others: that of 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean and Vice-Chairman Lee Hamilton, who together led the bipartisan commission forward politically and substantively in a manner that has changed the way we look at national security, and changed government for the better. Read more...

GWEN IFILL: Cecilia Munoz, of National Council of La Raza, you heard President Fox speak today in Milwaukee. Why is the idea of legalizing illegal immigrants who are already living here making their status legal, why is that a good idea?

Local TV in Arizona has reported that on Thursday, July 7, 2011, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, with Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin and Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, will be announcing the 2011 Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy in Nogales, Ariz. Read more...

President Obama has half-heartedly stated that "E-Verify can be an important enforcement tool". This simple commentary, although riddled with predictable qualifications, is a huge step forward for a president silent on the subject until after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to uphold Arizona's E-Verify compliance law. Read more...

On June 23, 2011, a press release was issued by the union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees stating that ICE “Union leaders around the nation issued a unanimous no confidence vote in ICE Director John Morton on behalf of ICE officers, agents and employees nationwide citing gross mismanagement within the Agency as well as efforts within ICE to create backdoor amnesty through agency policy. Read more...

The other day I was contacted by a Russian-American journalist working for an independent satellite TV station based in both Georgia and the Russian Federation stating that they are they are competing against the state-run news outlets in Russia. Why me? The journalist was concerned about the illegal immigration and national security implications of the U.S. intention to sign an agreement in July with the Russian government permitting three-year, multiple-entry visas. Read more...

The light is getting brighter and the resolution starker on the "no apprehension policy" being imposed on Border Patrol agents by their superiors: it may be part of an emerging "un-border" policy based on a view that we are currently experiencing "acceptable levels of illegal immigration", which logically means we can reduce the numbers of Border Patrol on the ground. Read more...

Wow. E-Verify. Our hard-working worker authorization program catches a break from the Supreme Court. Let me first be grateful to Supreme Court Justice Kagan; her recusal helped support redemption for Arizona, our national punching bag for the Department of Justice as of late. As Solicitor General, Kagan had authored the (poorly argued) brief stating that the Supreme Court should review the Ninth Circuit decision and questioned whether Arizona's E-Verify law was pre-empted by federal immigration law. Read more...

On May 11, the White House issued "Statements of Support for President Obama's Commitment to Fix our Broken Immigration System", listing business leaders, elected officials, labor unions, and "immigration reform" advocates. The focus of the comments was on the economics of immigration, and the need to rebuild our businesses and universities with foreign workers and foreign students. Read more...

The 9/11 Commission requested the federal government continue an investigation into the extent of involvement of Iran and its de facto terrorist wing, Hezbollah, in the support of Al Qaeda's attacks on 9/11. On p. 241 of the Final Report, the Commission stated:

After 9/11, Iran and Hezbollah wished to conceal any past evidence of cooperation with Sunni terrorists associated with al Qaeda. A senior Hezbollah official disclaimed any Hezbollah involvement in 9/11.

Montana has just passed a law requiring both legal presence for driver's license applicants and expiration of a driver's license on the same day that the holder's federally mandated legal presence expires (in the case of nonimmigrants). Oddly, this is the same REAL ID secure driver license law that Montana's Gov. Read more...

In a strange confluence of news surrounding the activities of the Border Patrol, the agents are speaking out quite loudly – through the conduit of local law enforcement that has repeatedly challenged Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's claims that the "border is as secure as it has ever been." Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu made news that agents in the field are back-channeling complaints to the two sh Read more...

In the same area where I filmed "Hidden Cameras on the Arizona Border 3: Guns, Drugs, and 750 Illegal Aliens", one likely drug runner was shot and another killed yesterday evening in a shoot out between drug smugglers. The exact area of the shooting, Antelope Peak, was about a mile from the first segment of that film which highlights the travel methods of drug cartels. Read more...

On April 5, 2011, I testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement on a bill that would eliminate the Diversity Visa lottery (DV) program. The hearing was specifically on H.R.704, the SAFE for America Act, is sponsored by Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA), who has been seeking to do away with the visa lottery for years. Read more...

Border technologies such as the now-canceled Secure Border Initiative (SBInet) work. From the Tucson Border Patrol comes this:

On March 29, 2011, the Tucson Station apprehended a large group of illegal aliens south of Arivaca, AZ. The group of aliens, 78 in total, was detected and tracked by tower 298. Utilizing the SBInet system, agents were able to respond to the area and safely apprehend 57 illegal aliens from Mexico, without incident.

New game camera footage obtained by SecureBorderIntel.org time-stamped March 2, 2011, shows seven drug mules likely carrying about $50,000 worth of marijuana each, for a total of about $350,000 in street value. Read more...

Somewhere in the early hours of 2011, when hospitable temperatures conducive to drug and alien smuggling in Arizona had my hidden camera friends calling me and updating me on curious illegal activity going on in the desert, the mayors of three Arizona border towns – one on the western end of the state's border with Mexico, one in the middle, one in the east – decided that they were tired of their county to the north complaining about surging violence attributed to drug and alien smuggling. Read more...

In the past two weeks, the Ajo Border Patrol sector has publicized its apprehension of three large groups of illegals totaling 295 individuals using video operators and surveillance systems. These catches represent abnormally high numbers of illegals in single groupings crossing the desert before the heat of spring rolls in. Read more...

Two weeks ago the Border Patrol caught an unusually large group of more than 100 illegals trying to cross the desert under the eyes of the now-canceled Secure Border Initiative (SBInet) located on federal lands in the national park known as Organ Pipe National Monument. I discussed that apprehension, and provided a previously unpublished map showing this sector of SBInet known as "Ajo-1", in my blog "Large Group Nabbed Where SBInet Operational". Read more...

Two years ago hidden camera sources in Arizona started sending me e-mails containing footage of illegal aliens unabashedly violating our federal lands with illegally-cut trails and trash by the hundreds of tons. Since then, I have produced three mini-documentaries on the subject. So far, these films have received a combined total of nearly 700,000 views. Since then, I have sought answers as to why Arizona is such a massive gateway for illegal activity. Read more...

On February 18, 2010, the Border Patrol arrested an abnormally large group of illegal immigrants – 128 of them, to be exact – crossing right through the middle of one of the "virtual fence" surveillance areas. Most of them have already been returned to Mexico. Read more...