ICE releases illegal alien suspects in Pennsylvania town…again (w/video)

Between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, police in Beaver Meadows, PA, picked up four illegal aliens on traffic violations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to issue detainers on any of the suspects, so all were released.

While this story has made many Beaver Meadows residents angry, it is not the first time ICE has refused to hold illegal aliens arrested in this town.

On May 9, state and local officials in Pennsylvania held a press conference to announce their displeasure with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after the agency failed to issue a detainer on an illegal alien arrested the previous week by Beaver Meadows Police Chief Mike Morresi...[Full Article]

ICE agents warn Americans "to brace themselves for what's coming"

In the wake of the recent memo from the Obama administration which announced “prosecutorial discretion” in dealing with illegal aliens, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the country have been speaking out what many of them are calling a “backdoor amnesty.”

On Wednesday, ICE Union president Chris Crane told PRNewswire: “Any American concerned about immigration needs to brace themselves for what's coming. This is just one of many new ICE policies in queue aimed at stopping the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws in the United States. Unable to pass its immigration agenda through legislation, the Administration is now implementing it through agency policy.”

Crane continued: “ICE and the Administration have excluded our union and our agents from the entire process of developing policies, it was all kept secret from us, we found out from the newspapers. ICE worked hand-in-hand with immigrants rights groups, but excluded its own officers.”...[Full Article]

ICE: 38 people arrested at construction site

An upscale apartment complex still under construction in northeast Odessa was the site of an immigration raid Tuesday morning that led to the arrest of 38 people.

The Tuscany at Faudree apartments, 4001 Faudree Road, was surrounded by Odessa police and Midland County sheriff's deputies, as well as at least one K-9 unit from the Andrews County sheriff's office.

The land lies just at the edge of Ector County, but still within Odessa city limits.

A helicopter circled the air above the apartment and nearby fields for more than half an hour, apparently looking for anyone who might have escaped the perimeter of what an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman from El Paso confirmed was a search warrant executed by their agents. Attempts to get a copy of the probable cause affidavit for the search warrant were unsuccessful Tuesday...[Full Article]

4 additional Ohio counties to benefit from ICE program to enhance identification and removal of aliens convicted of a crime

– Thu Apr 14, 2:00 am ET

On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using the Secure Communities program in Crawford, Miami, Shelby and Wayne counties to help federal immigration officials identify criminal aliens in state prisons and local jails by running their fingerprints against federal immigration databases when they are booked into the system.

Dayton, Ohio (Vocus/PRWEB) April 13, 2011

On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using the Secure Communities program in Crawford, Miami, Shelby and Wayne counties to help federal immigration officials identify criminal aliens in state prisons and local jails by running their fingerprints against federal immigration databases when they are booked into the system.

"Secure Communities enhances public safety by enabling ICE to identify and remove criminal aliens more efficiently and effectively from the United States," said Secure Communities Acting Assistant Director Marc Rapp. "As we expand ICE's use of biometric information sharing nationwide, we are helping to keep communities safe and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system."...[Full Article]

ICE Cracks False Document Ring Active in 11 States

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it has unraveled a violent enterprise that delivered false documents to unauthorized immigrants in 11 states.

An indictment released Thursday by the U.S. attorney's office in Richmond names 22 defendants in the alleged enterprise. The charges include racketeering, money laundering, kidnapping and firearms counts...

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ICE Allowed the Release of 890 Imprisoned Deportable Aliens, Convicted of Serious Crimes, Into U.S. in FY 2009

(CNSNews.com) - Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to identify more than 800 criminal alien convicts eligible for deportation before they were released from U.S. prisons, including “many” of “the most egregious criminal aliens, who pose a significant pubic safety risk,” according to a report by the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

According to the report, released on Feb. 4, ICE’s Criminal Alien Program, or CAP, “is responsible for identifying criminal aliens incarcerated in federal, state, and local prisons and jails who are eligible for removal from the United States.”

In fiscal year 2009, CAP failed to identify 890 criminal aliens eligible for removal from the United States, according to the report. These criminals had been incarcerated in facilities in Texas and California and were released back into U.S. society...

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UPDATE: ‘Illegal immigrant criminals back on street, thanks to ICE’

Prince William Board chairman Corey Stewart told The Examiner that a top aide at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement admitted to him that ICE has released more than a half million convicted criminal illegal immigrants back into American communities instead of deporting them.

Stewart also says that he is still waiting for information he requested about the whereabouts of some 2,739 criminals convicted in Prince William County since 2007 and sent to ICE for deportation. County police officers have already recaptured 249 of these felons.

Here is ICE’s response, received after deadline Tuesday:...

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ICE: 15 Illegal Immigrant Gang Members Arrested In Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE -- Immigration agents and Milwaukee police said they arrested 15 illegal immigrant gang members on Wednesday and Thursday.

The arrests were part of an initiative by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) National Gang Unit called "Operation Community Shield."

All but one of the people arrested are foreign-born members and associates of the following street gangs: Brown Pride, Latin Kings, Mexican Posse and C-14, ICE said. Of the 15 men arrested, all are Mexican nationals except for one individual from the former Yugoslavia, according to ICE...

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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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U.S. to stop deporting immigrants who may be eligible for green cards

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has decided to stop deporting foreign nationals who may be eligible for a green card and who have no criminal record, The Miami Herald reports. The policy shift might affect tens of thousands of those married or related to a U.S. citizen or a legal resident who has filed petitions for immigration.

The change was outlined in an Aug. 20 memo that ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton sent to the agency's principal legal adviser and to the head of enforcement and removal operations...

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ICE Union employees: ICE Director won't let us enforce U.S. immigration laws

In the midst of a leaked Department of Homeland Security immigration memo that made it to Senator Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, outlining ways for the Obama Administration to give amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, the Center for Immigration Studies yesterday posted a letter that was authored on June 11, 2010 by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Union President Chris Crane titled: "VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE IN ICE DIRECTOR JOHN MORTON AND ODPP ASSISTANT DIRECTOR PHYLLIS COVEN":

On June 11, 2010, the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council and its constituent local representatives from around the nation, acting on behalf of approximately 7,000 ICE officers and employees from the ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), cast a unanimous “Vote of No Confidence” in the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), John Morton, and the Assistant Director of the ICE Office of Detention Policy and Planning, (ODPP), Phyllis Coven.

According to CIS: “The letter, acquired through sources, provides a litany of examples of how ICE's mission is being skewed towards supporting an unflinching goal of amnesty by refusing to allow agents to do their job; allowing criminal aliens to roam free; depleting resources for key enforcement initiatives that preceded this administration; and misrepresenting facts and programs, demeaning the extent of the criminal alien problem and geared to support amnesty.”...

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