1. ICE boss pledges crackdown
2. USBP targeting buses, trains
3. Feds to use surveillance systems
4. Panel calls for verification
5. Obama promises amnesty

1.
Tougher immigrant measures expected
By Antonio Olivo
The Chicago Tribune, July 9, 2008

Businesses that employ illegal immigrants as workers can expect tougher enforcement through the end of 2008, Julie Myers, head of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said Tuesday.

In an interview with the Tribune editorial board that also covered the quality of federal detention sites and efforts to deport suspected gang members who are in the U.S. illegally, Myers said stepping up prosecutions of criminally negligent companies is a top priority before the next president takes office in January.

The agency has been criticized in recent months by Immigration rights advocates for treating employers too lightly while aggressively pursuing illegal immigrant workers during work site raids and other actions.

Business groups, meanwhile, have balked at state and local enforcement measures around the country that, among other things, would revoke the licenses of companies that employ illegal immigrants. Since October, there have been about 4,100 arrests stemming from Immigration enforcement, with 900 of those apprehended charged criminally.
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Myers said her agency has also been focusing more on companies engaged in "domestic off-shoring," or deliberately hiring illegal workers with fake documents.

"Try to compete with a company like that who has margins you couldn't dream of," she said, referring to complaints from other law-abiding employers about that practice.

"We want to make sure that all American businesses can operate on a level playing field," Myers said.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-080708-immigration-en...

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2.
Bus, train passengers: Border Patrol racial profiling at times
By Marlene Naanes
AM New York (NYC), July 9, 2008

Border patrol agents upstate are increasingly arresting New York City undocumented immigrants aboard Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses, raising questions that the government sometimes resorts to racial profiling, immigration advocates and attorneys said.

The arrests have been an authorized practice for decades but seem to have hit a fevered pitch recently, according to advocates.

The patrols have sparked protests in the city as well as upstate, most recently last weekend in Syracuse, where a group said that agents have even targeted U.S. citizens who look "foreign". Immigration attorneys say witnesses have said that agents sometimes question only people of color.

"We are a nation of law, but is their enforcement money better spent going after criminals and youth gangs?" asked the Rev. Brian Jordan, of the Franciscan Immigration Center in Manhattan, who has counseled one Irish and 12 Mexican and Central American undocumented immigrants who were taken off Greyhound buses and Amtrak trains in the past year.

Word of the patrols has broken out in some immigrant communities, and people who have overstayed visas or who never had one are staying off trains.
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http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-immigration0709,0,2251273.story

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3.
ICx ships Cerberus units to U.S. borders
United Press International, July 8, 2008

ICx Technologies has begun shipping its unmanned mobile surveillance systems for deployment along the U.S. border with Mexico.

ICx officials say the shipments of their Cerberus unmanned mobile surveillance technology, part of a $4 million order, will go to support the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol's operations along the U.S.-Mexican border.

The Cerberus units offer Border Patrol officers mobile surveillance towers with advanced radars and camera technology that company officials say enhance the ability to identify and track potential suspects attempting to cross the border as part of a "virtual fence," the release said.
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http://www.upi.com/Security_Industry/2008/07/08/ICx_ships_Cerberus_units...

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4.
Illegal immigration enforcement needs reform, panelists say
By Hallie D. Martin
The Medill Reports (Washington, DC), July 8, 2008

Washington, DC -- A high-tech employment verification system is the centerpiece of a proposal aimed at improving enforcement of immigration laws and stopping illegal border crossings.

That’s what a four-member panel, moderated by Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said during a discussion of illegal immigration and enforcement on Tuesday.

Marking a year since comprehensive immigration reform legislation fell apart, the panel convened to highlight congress’s failure to address the immigration issue.

The discussion was hosted by the House Republican Policy Committee, and though counter arguments were missing, Burgess said he invited Democrats and others with opposing views.

Present were TJ Bonner from the National Border Patrol Council, Corey S. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Va. Board of Supervisors, Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, and George Fishman, chief counsel to Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.
. . .
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=94691

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5.
Barack Obama woos Hispanic vote with promise of citizenship for 12m illegal migrants
By Alex Spillius
The Telegraph (U.K.), July 9, 2008

Barack Obama has pledged to push through immigration reforms that would give America's 12 million illegal migrants a form of citizenship.

"I will make it a top priority in my first year as President - not only because we have an obligation to secure our borders and get control of who comes in and out of our country...but because we have to finally bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows," he said in a speech in Washington.

Both the Democratic nominee and his Republican rival Senator John McCain addressed the League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest Latino organization in the country.

Mr McCain, who co-sponsored failed immigration legislation last year is now in the awkward position of distancing himself from his own initiative. He now says any reform must be preceded by securing US borders.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/22...