Napolitano urges federal immigration overhaul

ATLANTA (AP) — The nation's domestic security chief stressed Saturday that a comprehensive immigration overhaul should be left up to Congress, rebuking Georgia politicians who recently adopted a crackdown on illegal immigration that's considered among the nation's toughest.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Atlanta Press Club that federal immigration laws are badly in need of a sweeping update, but that Congress should take the lead. She said Georgia residents should be focused on encouraging Congress "that it is time to get to the table."...[Full Article]

Obama Administration Refuses to Release Investigation into Illegal Immigrant Killing of Nun

Sister Denise Mosier (photo: Benedictine Sisters of Virginia)

Officials in Virginia are upset with the Department of Homeland Security over its refusal to release the results of an investigation into a drunk-driving homicide involving an illegal immigrant and a Catholic nun.

In August, Carlos Martinelly Montano, an undocumented immigrant from Bolivia, drove his car head-on into another vehicle carrying Sisters Denise Mosier, 66, Charlotte Lange, 75, and Connie Ruth Lupton, 70. The crash, which took place near Bristow, Virginia, killed Mosier and seriously injured the other two nuns.

Montano, who was drunk at the time of the crash, had two prior convictions for driving under the influence. But the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service, which was aware of Montano’s illegal status and criminal record, failed to deport the 23-year-old before the August accident.

Homeland security officials conducted an investigation into the matter to determine why Montano was not sent back to his home country. But the agency has refused to share the results of the probe with Virginia leaders...

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Homeland Security Department Blamed for Border Fence Project Delays, Budget Problems

The troubled four-year-old federal program to install a virtual fence along the 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico is behind schedule and overbudget -- and the Department of Homeland Security is at least partly to blame, for not adequately policing contractor Boeing, a new watchdog report concludes...

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Tension over Obama policies within Immigration and Customs Enforcement

As it poises for further immigration initiatives, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is struggling with festering internal divisions between political appointees and career officials over how to enforce laws and handle detainees facing deportation.

Under the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security has shifted its focus away from the worksite raids and sweeps employed during George W. Bush's presidency to deporting more criminals and creating less prisonlike detention settings. But ICE, a branch of DHS, is facing intensified resistance from agency middle managers and attorneys, and the union that represents immigration officers.

The internal conflict has grown increasingly public over ICE's plans, among them to expand a risk assessment tool to guide agents on detention decisions, cut down on transfers of detained immigrants, and open more "civil" detention facilities -- what field directors call "soft" detention...

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Immigrant Who Voted Illegally on Road to Becoming a U.S. Citizen

Can an immigrant who resides legally in the U.S. on a work visa but who voted illegally in a presidential election year still become a naturalized U.S. citizen?

Yes, actually. Especially if the Department of Homeland Security sends a letter instructing him to request removal from the voter rolls.

That happened this summer in Putnam County, Tenn., where County Administrator of Elections Debbie Steidl says an immigrant who illegally registered to vote – and then voted – in 2004 is now seeking to become a U.S. citizen.

Steidl says the man gave her a form letter from the DHS instructing him to:

"Submit … evidence that you have been removed from the roll of registered voters. This can be accomplished by contacting your local election commission where you registered and voted. Submit a letter of explanation of why you registered to vote, and where you registered to vote, when you discovered that you were not a United States Citizen."

Steidl provided FoxNews.com with a copy of the letter, with the man's name and address redacted. Click here to see the letter.

She told FoxNews.com that, were the immigrant to be removed from the voter roll, as the DHS suggested, all traces of his illegal voting record would normally be shredded within two years.

"I went to my election commission and I said: ‘this frightens me for my country,'" she said. "They agreed with me. Why would you let someone who committed voter fraud become a citizen? That's what they're doing."...

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EXCLUSIVE: DHS Caught and Released 481 ‘Fugitive’ Illegals from State Sponsors of Terror and ‘Countries of Interest’

(CNSNews.com EXCLUSIVE) - In the three fiscal years from 2007-2009, the Department of Homeland Security caught and released 481 illegal aliens from nations designated as state sponsors of terrorism and “countries of interest,” and those 481 aliens are now fugitives, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement database obtained by CNSNews.com as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request.

The four state sponsors of terrorism, as determined by the State Department, are Iran, Syria, Sudan and Cuba. The “countries of interest” are those additional countries whose citizens have been subjected to enhanced screening on U.S.-bound flights by the Transportation Security Administration as a result of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253...

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Amnesty? Bureaucrats Already Drawing Up Plan To Implement

$1 billion, 30-week processing program revealed in leaked 14-page Homeland Security memo

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, already has drafted a plan for processing 13 million illegal alien applicants for amnesty in a 30-week period at an estimated cost of $1 billion, WND has learned.

The plan, a copy of which was obtained by WND, anticipates the approval of so-called "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" legislation pending in Congress and assumes a nine-month ramp-up period for processing of applications.

The undated draft report anticipates the possibility of the legislation requiring public benefits to amnesty applicants.

"If the statute requires interim benefits while application pending, issue discrete variant of status document (shorter term duration that [sic] if issued after prospective immigrant status granted)," the 14-page memo states...

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GAO: Multiple Failures Sunk Border Security System

Poor management and performance led the Department Of Homeland Security to halt funding of SBInet, Government Accounting Office says.

A botched testing process, performance issues, and poor management derailed a Department of Homeland Security project to install a sophisticated security system on the fence at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday.

The DHS earlier this week cut off funding for the project, called SBInet, pending further review. The report outlines events that led to the DHS' decision...