Texas Immigration Lawyer Blog

Party Crashers: Immigration laws and the Texas legislature

Texas Monthly Jasmin Sun interviews Nate Blakeslee about grassroot efforts, tea party champions, and why immigration has become one of the most important issues facing Texas.

What are the chances of the Texas Legislature passing something similar to Arizona’s controversial illegal immigration law when lawmakers convene this spring? Such a bill will definitely be introduced in both the House and the Senate, along with a host of other punitive measures dealing with undocumented immigrants. The Democratic caucus will fight most of these measures, of course, but the more interesting question will be how the Republican leadership deals with these bills. An Arizona bill is poison to some of the party’s biggest campaign funders—the homebuilders, the restaurant and hotel industry, and the big growers—who use a lot of immigrant labor, which is why tough immigration measures have always had an uphill climb in the Legislature. But this time around grassroots Republicans want something done, and the ascendancy of the tea party wing of the GOP means it will be very difficult to quietly kill these bills. The tea partiers have a champion in the Senate—Houston’s Dan Patrick—whose star is also rising and who will make life very hard for Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst and Governor Rick Perry.

Other topics:

What will this do to the upcoming legislative session? To the Republican Party?

In the story you observe that the fight over immigration in a place like Tyler is about race, whereas in the Legislature the subtext of the debate is wages.

What do you want readers to take away from your story? I hope readers will see the complexity of the issue and the nuances that often get lost in some of the less thoughtful commentary, especially on cable news. The fight within the Republican Party mirrors the dilemma that the nation as a whole faces with respect to immigration. We are welcoming undocumented immigrants with one hand and doing our best to keep them out with the other.

Business as Usual by Nate Blakeslee

New EOIR Website Online

On October 20, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) rolled out its new website.

via shusterman.typepad.com

How a Drop in New Immigrant Households Affects an Ailing Housing Market

 

Immigration Impact

"While some fault the foreclosure crisis for the swell in vacant homes and continuing drop in home prices, recent Census data reveals that immigrants—or lack thereof—may be a bigger factor contributing to the housing glut than people may realize. According to Fortune, steady unemployment, the drop in immigration and the growing number of young people moving back in with their parents have all contributed to the “slowest growth in the number of new households since the second World War”—households which would otherwise be filling up vacant homes. Research indicates that new immigrant households have long sustained the “housing and retail markets at the heart of many of our large cities,” but as the number of new immigrants to the U.S. continues to decline due to economic downturn, the already ailing housing market gets a little worse.

As Fortune explains:

Foreclosures may leave homes empty, but the owners need to go somewhere. If they end up renting elsewhere, that leaves the housing glut unchanged. The proportion of vacant units stood at 14.5% at the end of the second quarter of 2010, just below the 14.6% record high set in the first quarter of 2009. The vacancy rate hasn’t changed much, even though new home construction has plunged—housing starts have been running at an annual rate of under 1 million since June 2008. Historically, the market needed to build 1.5 million to 1.7 million per year just to meet demand.

In other words, the vacancy rate remains basically the same despite the plunge in new home construction—which implies that there are not enough new households to fill existing vacant homes.

White: Perry immigration ad 'shameless'

Immigration Chronicles 

"Just when you thought we'd get through the governor's race without a "sanctuary city" debate, along comes this ad from the Rick Perry campaign. From the Associated Press:

AUSTIN, Texas -- Democrat Bill White says a new ad by Republican Gov. Rick Perry is "shamelessly" exploiting the widow of a Houston police officer who was killed by an illegal immigrant.

White said in Austin on Monday the ad is the kind of move to be expected from a career politician like Perry. And White criticized Perry's administration for removing deported illegal immigrants from sex offender lists.

Perry's ad features Joslyn Johnson, who tells about the killing of her husband Rodney four years ago by an illegal immigrant who had been deported. She said White's policies on immigrants made it difficult for officers to do their jobs.

But White says he supported the "Secure Communities" program allowing suspects' IDs or fingerprints to be checked and supported the deportation of criminal immigrants.

Houston, State Cops Have Similar Immigrant Policy

Texas Tribune May 4, 2010 article by Reeve Hamilton and Matt Stiles examines claims that Houston was a "sanctuary city" under Mayor Bill White and the similar policy of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Outsourcing Texas Border Security II

Borderlines 

Shortly after retiring, four-star general John Abrams "founded Abrams Learning & Information Systems (ALIS). As one of the many new homeland security consulting firms formed by former U.S. military officers in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, ALIS aims to secure a piece of the country’s booming homeland security business.

"ALIS hasn’t managed to break into the multi-billion contract market at the federal Department of Homeland Security (DPS) – having no DHS contracts in last three years – but it hit a bonanza of homeland security contracting in Texas with its contracts for border security operations.  According to the company’s website:

“ALIS has been commissioned to improve border security along the U.S. – Mexico border through the development of an epicenter for security operations. The objective of the operational center is to plan, coordinate, implement, and evaluate interagency border security operations to counter the threat of organized crime, terrorism, and the flow of contraband and human trafficking to foster a secure border region.”

"ALIS boasts that its founder, president, and CEO John Abrams is “an internationally recognized subject-matter expert in border security, public policy, international treaties, operations, training and education, and technology integration.” What is more, Abrams, says ALIS,  “is also a recognized corporate leader in developing sustainable strategies and programs.”

"Abrams . . . did have several U.S. Army commands – including 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Joint Task Force Kuwait, 2nd Infantry Division, V Corps, and Army Training and Doctrine Command – but his credentials as a U.S.-Mexico border security strategist, technology integration expert, and corporate leader, among other described merits, are questionable.

* * *

"Border security is a major topic of political debate, public concern, and government spending in Texas. 

"Yet neither Governor Perry nor DPS Director Steve McCraw have pointed to the central role of a private consulting firm in Arlington, Virginia in the design and implementation of the state’s border security strategy and operations. No questions are asked by the members of the Public Safety Commission, which oversees DPS budget and activities.  Instead the contracts with ALIS have been renewed three times with little or no discussion, and most recently extended beyond the three-renewal contract limit by an “emergency procurement” measure that the state’s regulatory commission recently approved.

"At least publicly, ALIS has not been asked to demonstrate the value of its two interrelated DPS contracts for Border Security Management and Operations and for border crime-mapping through TxMap. Nearly $20 million has been spent thus far on these ALIS projects. Similarly, there is little transparency or accountability with respect to another major DPS contract – with APPRISS, which has a $10 million contract for the similarly enigmatic TDEX crime intelligence project.

"Aside from the border security impact of ALIS, there is also the unasked question:  Is it advisable to hand over the responsibility to a private consulting firm – with a minimal track record – for formulating the strategies of border security, homeland security, and public safety in Texas, or anywhere?  ALIS was charged by its contracts to do just that – formulate the Texas Border Security Campaign Plan, 2010-2015 Homeland Security Strategy Plan,  and the TEXDPS Agency Strategy Plan 2010."

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Outsourcing Texas Border Security

Border Lines 

“Until Washington gets serious, Texas will fight to make our border safe.”  That’s how Governor Rick Perry concludes his “Securing Our Future” campaign ad promoting his border security plan.

"But what Perry isn’t saying is that the fundamentals – strategy, planning, coordination, intelligence – of the Texas border security strategy have been outsourced to a Washington Beltway consulting firm. The Arlington, Virginia company, Abrams Learning & Information Systems (ALIS),  is responsible not only for formulating the Texas Border Security Campaign Plan but also the state’s Homeland Security Strategy Statement as well as the strategic plan of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).

Together with his Homeland Security chief and DPS director Steve McCraw, Perry boasts that Texas is constructing a border security “model” and “paradigm” for border security called Border Star that other border states and the federal government itself should adopt.  In his campaign aid, Perry said he “confronted Barack Obama with detailed steps to reduce drug cartel violence along our border.”  Earlier in 2010 Perry wrote to Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), inviting her to visit Texas “to observe Operation Border Star so that you might consider this approach as a national model to increase border security.”

* * *

"What is the Texas border security model, where does it come from, and who pays for it?

The key player in the Texas border security model is a name that never appears in the governor’s stream of press releases and campaign ads about border security or in the get-tough pronouncements of Col Steve McCraw.  Just about the only place that the name of the model-builder for Texas border security appears on the public record is in outsourcing contracts that DPS has entered into with ALIS – the Beltway firm established in mid-2004 by General John W. Abrams and which now boasts as being a “recognized leader in homeland security.”

"Over the past three years, under the directorship of Steve McCraw, DPS has spent nearly $20 million in state and federal funds in continuing contracts with ALIS to “refine plans and strategies for seamless integration of border security operations in the State of Texas.” Not only does ALIS formulate the state’s border security model, it has also been charged with coordinating and overseeing many of the Border Star operations, including the “Unified Commands.

"The centerpiece of the state’s border security operations is intelligence-driven operations that are managed by the Border Security Operations Center (BSOC) in Austin and six Joint Operations Information Centers (JOICS) along the border. ALIS provides the program manager, analysts, technicians, and information specialists for BSOC and JOICs."

Davidson County Tenn 287(g) deportation program snags few felons

Tennessean.com by Nate Rau

"Earlier this year, federal officials decided the Davidson County Sheriff's 287(g) program that screens the immigration status of incarcerated foreign nationals was targeting too many minor criminal offenders and not enough felons.

"Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall's controversial program is supposed to place a priority on screening foreign nationals who are accused of committing serious felonies, according to last year's revised 287(g) agreement between Metro and the federal government.

"But internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement memos obtained by The Tennessean show that Hall's program was screening more than twice as many people with minor offenses as those with crimes such as murder, robbery and rape. An ICE memo from April shows that 73 percent of those screened by 287(g) in Nashville during the latter part of 2009 were arrested for minor offenses, while just 13 percent had been arrested for serious crimes.

"The question then becomes: Is 287(g) serving the intended purpose of targeting dangerous criminals given the large number of minor offenders screened by county jailers? Immigrant advocates and court filings in aggressive litigation targeting Hall's program say the program is not working as intended.

"The 2009 figures are consistent with the track record of 287(g) in Nashville since the program was put in place in 2007, with 66 percent of those screened over the life of the program having only misdemeanor citations or arrests — not violent crimes or felonies. The program is an offshoot of federal immigration law that empowers local jails to act as extensions of ICE.

"By focusing on all these minor traffic offenders, it does take police officers off the street, and all these administrators to process it," said Gregg Ramos, a Nashville attorney and former member of the sheriff's 287(g) advisory council. "In the end I submit we're less safe."

* * *

"Since 287(g) was put into place in 2007, the Sheriff's office has screened the immigration status of 12,486 foreign nationals cited and arrested for everything from murder to fishing without a license, according to data obtained in an open records request by the newspaper.

"Of those, more than 7,250 immigrants have been processed for removal because of Nashville's 287(g) program. The sheriff's office could not say how many of those processed for deportation came from misdemeanors or felony arrests.

"According to the sheriff's office data, 66 percent of those screened through 287(g) since 2007 were arrested for misdemeanors, while 34 percent were arrested for a felony crime.

"The crime that most frequently leads to being screened by 287(g) is driving without a license. Through September, 4,397 foreign-born prisoners initially arrested for driving without a license had their immigration status checked through 287(g), according to data provided by the sheriff's office."

DHS responds to GOP Senators' accusation of releasing criminal aliens

Texas Tribune by Juan Aguilar

"Federal immigration officials selectively enforce the law and are dismissing the cases of hundreds of aliens who ought to be deported, according to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. He's leading a group of senators unhappy with the Department of Homeland Security for releasing immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement who haven't committed serious crimes.

"In a letter sent to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, Cornyn and six other Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee say the dismissals are a result of a directive from ICE Director John T. Morton to staff attorneys ordering them to review and dismiss cases that do not involve Level 1 offenses—aggravated felonies or two or more felonies. The Houston Chronicle first reported the dismissals in August.

* * *

"In a statement, DHS spokesman Matt Chandler said the accusations are inaccurate: “The [Obama] administration has fundamentally changed the way the federal government approaches immigration enforcement, doing more to keep criminal aliens who are threats to public safety — including murderers, rapists and child molesters — off our streets than ever before, issuing more financial sanctions to employers who knowingly and repeatedly violate immigration laws than during the entire previous administration, and conducting more overall removals than at any point in this nation’s history.”

* * *

Cornyn and 7 other Senators "have asked DHS for a report with a detailed list of cases that have been dismissed since Jan. 1 to be finished by Nov. 15."