Texas Immigration Lawyer Blog

On the Texas-Mexico Border, a Puzzling New Trend

KUT News by Joy Diaz

Officials have noticed an unusual trend along the border recently: more undocumented immigrants turning themselves in. Though the exact cause is unclear, some say the sequester might have something to do with it.

Iris recognition being tested on immigrants in McAllen, Texas

Government Security News by Jacob Goodwin

The growing importance of “multimodal” biometrics in the security field -- in which more than one biometric method is used to capture identifying information about the same individual – is demonstrated by an important 60-day pilot program has just been launched by DHS at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, TX.

The biometrics team at US-VISIT, which is part of DHS’s National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), began on July 31 what it calls a “limited production pilot” to test the efficiency, speed and operational effectiveness of two different types of iris recognition equipment as well as two different types of facial recognition gear. Using these biometric systems, Border Patrol employees will capture images of approximately 200 alleged illegal aliens per day (or about 12,000 aliens during the course of the two-month pilot), explained Will Graves, the chief biometric engineer helping to oversee the US-VISIT project. While the results from the facial recognition portion are important, Graves told GSN at a biometrics conference in New York City on August 1, “We are focusing primarily on iris recognition.”

 

Texas House of Representatives District 56 candidates on immigration

 

On March 7, 2012, the Republican incumbent District 56 Representative Charles "Doc" Anderson and the challenger, Chistopher DeCluitt, participated in a debate in Waco at University High School. They discussed several questions that deal with immigration:

(1) In-state tuition for undocumented students (4:15-7:41). If the law were up for a vote again, Chris DeCluitt would vote against the in-state tuition law as it is now because he has concerns about the ability to verify 3 year residence for students to qualify. Mr. Anderson supports the law as it is (I think).

(2) Border Security (34:56-38:30). This was a broad question that included what should be done with the undocumented that are on this side of the border. Neither candidate addressed the undocumented question but both focused on Border Security. Mr. Anderson emphasized the increased funding and resources that Texas has spent on border security under Governor Perry. Mr. DeCluitt is of the opinion that Texas should let the federal government secure the border and that the resources should be redirected to fight the drug crime that occurs on the Texas-Mexico border. 

 

Drawbacks Seen With Having National Guardsmen on Border

Texas Tribune by Julian Aguilar

When the Obama administration announced in December that it would draw down the number of National Guard units that patrol the southern border, critics said the decision would leave Texas vulnerable to spillover violence from Mexico.

The administration, which last month reduced the number of guard troops on the border from 1,200 to about 300, defended the move as a step toward better efficiency. The mission of the guardsmen was shifted from ground surveillance and assisting the U.S. Border Patrol to primarily aerial surveillance efforts.

But as the debate on how to best secure the border with Mexico continues, a new government report says that the use of National Guard troops on the border can hinder recruitment efforts and pose a challenge to long-term border security planning.

The report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, also says that the presence of active duty guards on the border may lead to the perception that the border is militarized, which could hinder binational agreements between the U.S. and Mexico aimed at fighting organized crime on the border.

Officials also cited benefits associated with the effort, including filling in personnel gaps until potential Border Patrol agents were trained and deployed, and providing necessary training for military personnel in an environment similar to those they would see in combat and helping to build relationships with other law enforcement agencies.

 

Father denied entry to U.S. to help paralyzed son

Houston Chronicle by Tony Freemantle

Inhee Park's comfortable, middle-class life a world away in South Korea was shattered by gunfire at a Houston apartment complex early in the morning after the Independence Day celebrations of 2008.

His son Dominic, a student at the University of Houston, was returning home when two young men robbed him of his wallet and car keys, shot him in the throat and left him for dead in the parking lot.

Dominic survived, barely, but was left paralyzed from the chest down and unable to care for himself.

His parents rushed to his side. They sold their condominium in Seoul and their cars and dipped deeply into their savings to pay for Dominic's enormous medical bills. For nearly four years, they have crisscrossed the Pacific Ocean every six months to keep their tourist visas valid so they can provide the round-the-clock care their son requires.

But on Feb. 15, returning from a brief trip to Seoul to renew his visa, Inhee Park was stopped by a Customs and Border Protection agent at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, accused of working illegally in the U.S. and of trying to surreptitiously settle his family here.

He was deported back to Korea on the next flight and has not yet been able to obtain a new visa.

Inhee Park, a former executive in a Seoul printing company, was Dominic's heavy lifter. He wrestled his son's 6-foot, 200-pound body in and out of bed. He picked him up and settled him in his wheelchair, loaded him in the car to take him to his appointments with his doctors, helped him with the bodily functions a 28-year-old man should be able to perform on his own.

 

Texas outsources border security

Border Lines series: "Outsourced Border Security in Perry's Texas"

 

The Border Security Operations Center is the nexus of the Texas’ own border security initiatives, collectively known as Operation Border Star. ALIS, a homeland-security consulting firm with offices in Arlington, Virginia, was founded in 2004 by Ret. Army Gen. John Abrams to cash in on the billions of dollars in new government contracting funds that started to flow after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

Since 2006 ALIS functioned as the hidden force behind virtually all non-federal border-security operations in Texas. Whether it’s strategy formulation, border crime-mapping, operations management, or public relations, ALIS and its team of consultants have been closely involved in creating what Governor Rick Perry calls the “Texas model of border security.”

 

Second in series: "Texas Grossly Mismanages Federal Homeland and Border Security Funding" 

The Texas State Auditor recently raised new questions and concerns about the unprofessional DPS management of federal funds and about the agency’s dubious contracting practices under the stewardship of Steven McCraw.

Third in series: "Texas Outsourced its Own Border Security Model to Beltway Consultants"

This little-known, upstart consulting agency from the Washington Beltway had been hired by the state’s public safety and homeland security director to: write the campaign plan for the governor’s border security campaign, conceptualize and write the state’s strategy statement for homeland security, and produce the strategy plan for DPS itself. 

More Helicopters, Fewer Troops to Patrol Border

Texas Tribune by Julian Aguilar

Surveillance helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft will take the place of about 900 U.S. National Guard troops on the southern border as early as next year, according to information released today by the federal government.

The White House announced last week that it planned to reduce the number of troops to concentrate instead on an aerial strategy, something the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said today would enhance its relationship with the U.S. Department of Defense. Only 300 active troops will remain on the border.

 

Immigration Falls as Campaign Border Rhetoric Soars

photo by: Edmond Meinfelder for Texas Tribune

Texas Tribune by Julian Aguilar

Campaign rhetoric to the contrary, statistics show that the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border is less of a problem now than it has been for four decades.

While presidential candidates talk about how to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, data reveals that their focus should be on other problems caused by illegal immigration. Apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol are at their lowest level since the Nixon era, according to unofficial statistics from the Border Patrol that the Washington Post reported earlier this month.

A sour economy, increased enforcement by the Border Patrol and skyrocketing smuggling fees are keeping more would-be crossers at home.

In 2010, the Border Patrol apprehended about 448,000 illegal immigrants on the Southwest border, about 93,000 fewer than in 2009. This year, apprehensions dipped by more than 25 percent, to 327,500.

There are now 10.2 million illegal adults in the country and another 1 million illegal minors, according to data released this month by the Pew Hispanic Center. The center estimates that 35 percent of the adults have been in the country 15 years or longer, compared to 16 percent in 2000. Conversely, only 15 percent of illegal immigrants have been in the country five years or less, compared to 32 percent in 2000.

* * *

James W. Ziglar, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and a former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service under President George W. Bush, said there are so many people here illegally because the system has been dysfunctional for a very long time. “We are not going to deport these people,” Ziglar said. “We need to deal with the problem and provide them with a way to a legal status.”

Ziglar’s stance reflects the view of many of his fellow Republicans. In a poll this year, the Pew Research Center for People and the Press found that 58 percent of so-called Main Street Republicans supported a path to legalization while 39 percent opposed it. A poll by the Partnership for a New American Economy, a bipartisan coalition of mayors and business leaders, found that only 16 percent of likely attendees of the Iowa Republican caucuses were opposed to expanding legal immigration.

 

 

 

"Promised Land" The NewYorker cover illustration

From the New Yorker: “Promised Land” by Christoph Niemann, an illustrator, designer and author of Abstract Sunday, a column for the “New York Times Magazine.”

TexasTribune interview with Maurice Sherif photographer "The American Wall"

Texas Tribune by Julian Aguilar

When the United States began building a piecemeal border fence to divide itself from Mexico in 2006, fine-art photographer Maurice Sherif embarked on a journey to document what he considers the biggest project since the Panama Canal. Unlike that effort, however, Sherif says the steel barrier between the U.S. and its southern neighbor serves no purpose other than to divide families and cultures.

In his two-volume book, "The American Wall," Sherif documents the differences in the wall’s structure in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico. In some places the wall resembles a non-threatening collection of steel poles on a beach, in others a foreboding 18-foot-high, triple-layer fence between two countries that purport to be allies. Accompanying the photography is a collection of essays, written by people like South Texas College professor Scott Nicol, UT Law School professor Denise Gilman, and author and journalist Charles Bowden.

Sherif spoke with the Tribune this week in advance of his appearance at the 2011 Texas Book Festival in Austin, where he will explain what motivated him to document the historic event, which he believes will only serve to tarnish the image of the United States.