1. CIS report exposes marriage fraud
2. Bush admin. achieves BP goals
3. Napolitano pick spurs speculation
4. IL Rep. vows amnesty push
5. TX Rep. calls for improved processing
6. Detroit-area deportations improve

1.
Green-card marriage - a ticket to U.S. citizenship
By Chad Groening
The One News Now, December 5, 2008
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Security/Default.aspx?id=341296

A former consular officer with the U.S. State Department says there's far too little attention being paid to a problem that has been a significant contributor to the problem of illegal immigration -- green cards obtained through fraudulent marriages.

Green card marriageThe Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has released a new document called "Hello, I Love You, Won't You Tell Me Your Name: Inside the Green Card Marriage Phenomenon." It was written by David Seminara, who adjudicated thousands of marriage-based green-card applications in several countries while serving in the State Department.

Seminara says marriage is the quickest way to get a green card, judging by the fact that over the past ten years more than two-million foreign nationals have obtained permanent residence cards through marrying an American citizen.

"Of that 2.3 million over the last ten years, the overwhelming majority are legitimate relationships -- but there's tens of thousands of fake ones out there as well," he explains. "And unfortunately...one of the oldest tricks in the book for people who are looking to get to the U.S. or who are here illegally [and] who want to legalize their status is to marry a U.S. citizen."

Two characteristics are prevalent in these marriages, according to Seminara. "It's most common in developing countries, [with] the obvious suspects [being] Mexico, the Philippines, Brazil. Countries that send us the most illegal immigrants are the places where this is most prevalent," he adds. "And American men tend to marry foreign females more frequently than American women marry foreign men. "

Seminara says marriage fraud for the purpose of immigration receives very little notice or debate in the public arena, and the Departments of State and Homeland Security have nowhere near the resources needed to combat the problem.

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2.
Border Patrol swells to more than 18,000
By Christopher Sherman
The Associated Press, December 4, 2008
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6147624.html

McAllen, TX (AP) -- The Border Patrol is poised to meet President George W. Bush's goal of doubling its workforce during his presidency to more than 18,000 agents, but the hiring will only be the first step as the booming agency tries to train and place the new recruits.

In 2006, Bush called for the hiring of another 6,000 Border Patrol agents by the end of this year. In that May Oval Office speech, Bush also called for the temporary deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to bolster the U.S. presence along the Mexican border until new agents were on the way.

That push set off a frenzied recruitment drive that included NASCAR sponsorship and billboards hundreds of miles north of the border.

The drive appears to have paid off as U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff mentioned the accomplishment in a speech earlier this week. A formal announcement was not expected until Friday.

"I was called yesterday by the head of (Customs and Border Protection) and his deputy and they told me we are 18,049," Chertoff said Wednesday. "So we've achieved that goal." Technically the number to reach is 18,319 agents, according to the Government Accountability Office, but with more than three weeks remaining in 2008, it is within reach.

But observers say the real challenge is training and incorporating all those rookie agents.

"While Border Patrol officials are confident that the academy can accommodate the large influx of new trainees anticipated, they have expressed concerns over the sectors' ability to provide sufficient field training," the GAO said.

The problem is finding enough experienced Border Patrol agents to mentor and train the new recruits in the field. The imbalance leads to a higher agent-to-supervisor ratio along the southwest border.

"By the end of this year, half of the Border Patrol's workforce will have less than two years on the job," said T.J. Bonner, president of National Border Patrol Council, a union with about 15,000 members.

Bonner said an unusually high attrition rate — about 30 percent of agents leave within the first 18 months — also means that the recruitment push will have to continue to maintain the new ranks.

Bryan Griffith, spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for more restrictive immigration laws, said more Border Patrol agents can't hurt the quest for border security, but shared concerns of dilluted quality.

"Any time you try to increase the ranks...obsviously when you do that quickly you lose some quality," Griffith said.

But ultimately more agents guarding the border is not going to solve illegal immigration without stricter enforcement internally on employers creating the attractive opportunities for immigrants, he said.

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3.
Experts expect Napolitano to focus on immigration at DHS
By Gregg Carlstrom
The Federal Times, December 4, 2008

The president-elect’s leading choice to head the Homeland Security Department is expected to make big changes to immigration policies, experts say.

Barack Obama nominated Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a popular Democrat who first took office in 2002, for the Cabinet post. Napolitano has been a popular governor, with approval ratings hovering around 60 percent. But she has clashed frequently with Republicans in her state, waging a contentious battle over the state budget and vetoing more than 180 bills since 2002.

Officials in Arizona, and on the Obama transition team, declined to comment because Napolitano has not been formally nominated. But experts say she brought an innovative approach to running the state’s government, and they hope she would duplicate that at DHS.

“She pioneered a lot of things. She was the first one to call in the National Guard [along the Mexican border] at the federal government’s expense,” said David Heyman, director of the homeland security project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And she put homeland security on the National Governors Association’s agenda.”

Immigration would be one of Napolitano’s top priorities at DHS, and sources who know her say it’s also one of her areas of expertise. Napolitano signed a tough immigration law that revokes the business licenses of companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. And she opposes the Homeland Security Department’s plans to build hundreds of miles of new fencing along the Mexican border.

“You show me a 50-foot wall, and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder,” she has repeatedly said.

Napolitano has criticized roundups of illegal immigrants by federal and state law enforcement, calling them “troublesome.”

But whether she could bring about big changes at the federal level is up for debate. Obama will face vocal opposition from Republicans, who want a more punitive approach to immigration.
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http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3841232

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4.
Illinois congressman vows to push for major immigration reform
By John Riley
The Dallas Morning News, December 5, 2008

Washington, DC -- Flanked by hundreds of immigrants and their family members, an Illinois congressman called for a halt Thursday to immigration raids and vowed to push for a comprehensive overhaul that President-elect Barack Obama can sign into law.

Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Chicago, the House sponsor of a 2007 bill that failed, told a crowd of more than 200 on Capitol Hill that he would work to ensure that Mr. Obama follows through on his campaign promise to sign an immigration overhaul in the first year of his presidency.

"We have a new president of the United States who has made a very clear commitment to immigration reform," Mr. Gutierrez said. "We're not going to rest on the laurels of the election."

Mr. Gutierrez said workplace raids that separate families must stop and that he is trying to build momentum for immigration change in the House, where he believes a bill can be passed more easily than in the Senate.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-immig...

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5.
Congressman and Illegals Discuss Problems with Immigration Process
The KFDA News (Amarillo, TX), December 4, 2008

Illegal immigrants simply looking for the American dream claim the process to come to the United States legally is so cumbersome their only recourse is to sneak across the border.

Following 9-11 America's melting pot has had a pretty tight lid for some..

And illegals NewsChannel 10 spoke with say it is the difficult process that caused them to take a chance.

One illegal told us, "I traveled so I could help my family, it wasn't very easy for me to go through the embassy in Guatemala. So it cost me a little bit less to travel this way."

There are limitations on how many people can come from a country... And in some cases it causes those looking for the American dream to wait years..

Something a U.S. Congressman from our area says needs to be revisited by legislators.
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http://www.newschannel10.com/Global/story.asp?S=9461470&nav=menu429_2

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6.
Metro Detroit area deportations climb 45 percent in one year
Customs officials expel record number of illegal immigrants, creating fear in some areas.
By Gregg Krupa
The Detroit News, December 4, 2008

Detroit -- A sharp escalation in enforcement of immigration laws is yielding a spike in deportations of illegal immigrants and rampant fear in some Metro Detroit neighborhoods that are home to longtime, undocumented residents.

The Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Detroit increased deportations about 45 percent -- from 5,057 to more than 7,500 -- in the year ending Sept. 30, establishing a new 12-month record.

Federal officials say they are well ahead of that pace for next year, deporting about one-fourth of that record number in October and November alone.

"It might have been a safe bet for them to be here in the years past, but no longer," said Brian Moskowitz, the agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Detroit. "Not as long as Congress gives us more resources.

"Now, were some of them good people otherwise? Probably yes. But we have the absolute right to control who comes into the country, and just because it wasn't done before doesn't mean it isn't being done now."

Much has changed since the failure of immigration reform in Congress in 2005 and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The fault line in the debate on immigration runs directly through Latino and Arab neighborhoods in Metro Detroit. Immigrants who entered the country illegally or who overstayed their work and student visas are now routinely deported.

Two decades ago, the old Immigration and Naturalization Service may have had two or three investigators in Metro Detroit for such cases, officials say. Now, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has more than 400.
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http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081204/POLITICS/8120...