02/28/10
Illegal Immigration By the Numbers
Another "must-read" site that I visit everyday is
Doug Ross @ Journal. Visit and
bookmark that link to his front entrance. The actual URL will be
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/.
He typically has several lively-witted articles per day plus two dozen or more
links to some of the hottest news and stuff that you need to know about.
An example is the headline article running down the numbers associated with illegal immigration. As a citizen of Texas, I get to live "up close and personal" with the financial, social and crime problems of illegal immigration everyday. From my perspective, it looks like our border is completely uncontrolled. And... Who knows what people and weapons are crossing the border in the midst of the flood of Hispanics?
About 40 years ago, I played a small part in an effort to keep
bad people from crossing the border of another country far away...
Who you gonna call?
Call Spectre on 243.0 or 121.5 Anytime, Anywhere 24/7
Update
03/01/10
From CNS News
Napolitano Says People From Countries Tied to Terrorism Could
‘Potentially’ Enter USA, But DHS Reports Says Thousands Already Have
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer
(CNSNews.com) – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told senators it is
a national security concern that people from countries with ties to terrorism
could 'potentially' gain entry into the United States by crossing the country’s
southern border.
But according to the Department of Homeland Security’s own reports, thousands of
people from 14 “special interest” countries already have come into the United
States illegally, including some across the U.S.-Mexico border. (The State
Department designates some nations as "special interest" counties because of
their links to terrorism.)
Napolitano testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee on Thursday. Her remarks on “special interest” persons came
after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked her about the ongoing violence in Mexico
and the possibility of that violence spilling over into the United States.
“So, if the drug cartels succeeded, then it would be a matter of time before the
violence would spill over onto our side of the border,” McCain said. “Not to
mention the free, basically free, access they would have to bring drugs, as well
as humans, into our country.”
“We haven’t seen spillover violence in that sense yet,” Napolitano said. “It is
a risk. The ability to traffic in drugs cause their own damage to lives in the
United States.
“Our ability to curtail that would be affected,” she said. “On the human
trafficking side, it’s not solely illegal immigrants coming to work, but the
ability of people from countries of special interest to immigrate into Central
America and be ferried up to the border and over into the United States is also
a concern.”
McCain responded: “Countries of special interest – people could come up through
our southern border?”
“Potentially, yes,” Napolitano said.
The State Department lists four special interest countries as sponsors of terror
– Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran. The other 10 countries of interest are:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia and Yemen.
According to the DHS’s 2008 Yearbook of Immigration Studies, from the Office of
Immigration Statistics, a total of 791,568 people where detained by federal law
enforcement agencies in fiscal year 2008 – 5,506 of those people were from those
14 “special interest” countries.
The report states that those individuals were detained “at the borders of the
United States, in the interior of the country and at designated sites outside of
the United States.” It does not disclose those details for each individual,
however.
The specific numbers of individuals by country are labeled in the yearbook at
the chapter, “Deportable Aliens Located by Region and Country of Nationality:
Fiscal Year 2008.”
Afghanistan – 29
Algeria – 41
Cuba – 3,896
Iran – 98
Iraq – 118
Lebanon – 188
Liberia – 98
Libya – 11
Nigeria – 299
Pakistan – 494
Saudi Arabia – 71
Somalia – 66
Sudan – 46
Syria – 71
Yemen -- 78
In accordance with federal law, any individual arrested by U.S. Customs & Border
Protection (CBP) are then turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), which is responsible for detention and deportation.
Aside from the number of individuals and their country of origin, the DHS does
not release any further information about the individuals, including whether
they were found to have links with terrorist groups. CNSNews.com is seeking
further information about illegal aliens in U.S. custody from 2007 to 2009 from
the 14 countries of special interest, through the Freedom of Information Act.
According to an August 2009 report on checkpoints and border security by the
Government Accountability Office (GAO), 530 illegal aliens from countries of
special interest were “encountered” at CBP checkpoints in fiscal year 2008.
The report states:
“Checkpoints also help screen for individuals who may have ties to terrorism.
CBP reported that in fiscal year 2008, there were three individuals encountered
by the Border Patrol at southwest border checkpoints who were identified as
persons linked to terrorism.
“In addition, the Border Patrol reported that in fiscal year 2008 checkpoints
encountered 530 aliens from special interest countries, which are countries the
Department of State has determined to represent a potential terrorist threat to
the United States.
“While people from these countries may not have any ties to illegal or terrorist
activities, Border Patrol agents detain aliens from special interest countries
if they are in the United States illegally and Border Patrol agents report these
encounters to the local
Sector Intelligence Agent, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Joint
Terrorism Task Force, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of
Investigations, and the CBP National Targeting Center.
“For example, according to a Border Patrol official in the El Paso sector, a
checkpoint stopped a vehicle and questioned its three Iranian occupants,
determining that one of those occupants was in the United States illegally. The
individual was detained and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement for further questioning.”
As reported earlier by CNSNews.com, the federal government, including DHS, have
extensive information about the drug and human trafficking over the U.S. border
with Mexico.
The entire U.S.-Mexico border is 1,954 miles long, according to the
International Boundary and Water Commission. While 697 of those miles are now
under “effective control,” according to the Border Patrol, 1,257 miles are not
under “effective control.”
Each year, the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC)
produces “drug market analyses” for each of 32 regions of the country that the
NDIC describes as “high intensity drug trafficking areas.” Five of these areas
sit along the U.S.-Mexico border. These include the California border region,
Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas and South Texas.
The latest reports, released in March and April of 2009, use candid language in
portraying the U.S.-Mexican frontier as wide open to drug smuggling and even
vulnerable to penetration by potential terrorists.
The California-Mexico border, the NDIC said, was “easily breached” on both foot
and in vehicles.
“The vast border area presents innumerable remote crossing points that
traffickers exploit to smuggle illicit drugs, primarily marijuana, into the
country from Mexico,” said the NDIC. “These areas are easily breached by
traffickers on foot, in private vehicles, or in all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) as
they smuggle drugs between POEs [ports of entry], particularly the mountainous
areas in eastern San Diego County and the desert and sand dune areas in Imperial
County.”
Arizona’s border was judged to be open not only to drug smugglers but also
aliens with “extensive criminal records” and from “special interest countries,”
which are defined as “countries that could export individuals who could bring
harm to the United States through terrorism.”
“Some criminal organizations smuggle aliens and gang members into the United
States,” said NDIC’s report on Arizona. “These particular individuals typically
have extensive criminal records and pose a threat, not only to the Arizona HIDTA
[High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area] region but also to communities throughout
the United States. Alien smuggling organizations reportedly also smuggle aliens
from countries other than Mexico, including special-interest countries.”
“Special-interest countries are those designated by the intelligence community
as countries that could export individuals who could bring harm to the United
States through terrorism,” said the NDIC report.
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