Guest Column
DHS: Border, Interior, Services
Migration News
The number of immigrants "admitted" to the United States fell from almost
1.3 million in FY06 to just over a million in FY07. Most of these
immigrants are already in the US, and immigration would have been higher if
DHS had more quickly cleared the backlog of applications for green cards
awaiting approval.
Between 2001 and 2008, federal spending on border enforcement rose 150
percent. In requesting $12 billion for border enforcement in FY09, DHS
Secretary Chertoff said that illegal migration was decreasing, citing fewer
apprehensions over the past 15 months.
By the end of 2008, Chertoff expects to have 670 miles of fencing on the
Mexico-US border, up from 309 miles in spring 2008. There are expected to be
20,000 Border Patrol agents, most on the Mexico-US border. DHS in April
2008 announced that it would use its authority to avoid environmental
reviews in order to expedite the fencing of the Mexico-US border
President Bush proposed a $3 trillion budget for FY09, including $1 billion
in discretionary spending not mandated by federal laws. The federal budget
deficit is expected to increase from $163 billion in FY07 to over $400
billion in FY08 and FY09.
Border. The Department of Homeland Security on January 31, 2008 began
requiring Americans and Canadians 19 and older entering the US to provide a
secure document showing proof of citizenship, ending an era of showing a
driver's license or simply declaring citizenship. There were 72 million
crossings of the Canada-US border in 2007, and the new rule is expected to
increase delays.
A study released in March 2008 estimated that the 24 US counties along the
Mexican borders spent $1.2 billion between 1999 and 2006 to deal with
unauthorized foreigners in the local justice system. They were reimbursed
by the federal government for only a small fraction of these costs, for
example, $2.5 million for the $75 million incurred by San Diego county (www.bordercoalition.org).
The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program has since 1994 provided federal
funds to state and local governments to reimburse these costs, but the
federal government has reduced SCAAP funding over time in favor of spending
more on border enforcement.
California estimates that 12 to 14 percent of the inmates in the state's 33
prisons are unauthorized. SCAAP reimburses about 15 percent of the $1
billion a year cost to detain them.
ICE Criminal Aliens. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency plans to
identify and deport over 200,000 immigrants convicted of US crimes who are
serving time in prisons and jails across the US in 2008. ICE removed a
total of 276,912 foreigners in FY07; about half were convicted of US crimes.
After identifying 64,000 deportable foreigners in the 3,100 US jails and
prisons in 2006 and 164,000 in 2007, ICE announced in March 2008 that there
were at least 304,000 deportable foreigners in federal, state and local
prisons and jails; removing them could cost up to $3 billion. There are
about three million prisoners in the US, making 10 percent deportable
foreigners. ICE plans to work with states to allow nonviolent criminals to
serve shorter sentences if they agree to be deported immediately upon their
release.
Some countries refuse to accept the return of nationals convicted of US
crimes, including Cuba. Under a 2001 US Supreme Court ruling, foreigners
who cannot be deported can be held indefinitely, but only if their cases are
reviewed every six months. They are released if the review determines they
do not pose a threat while free in the US (most are eventually released).
In January 2008, Vietnam agreed to accept the return of 1,500 Vietnamese
convicted to US crimes, but only 200 are in ICE custody. The US will pay
for their return and provide the Vietnamese government with 15 days notice
of each person being returned. Almost 70 percent of the one million
Vietnamese in the US are naturalized US citizens and thus not deportable;
only Vietnamese who arrived after the resumption of diplomatic relations on
July 12, 1995 can be deported under the new repatriation agreement.
Deportations of foreigners unlawfully in the US almost doubled between FY01
and FY02, when about 125,000 were removed, to almost 250,000 in FY07. One
reason for the sharp increase in deportation is the ICE Law Enforcement
Support Center, which received over 725,000 inquires from state and local
law enforcement in FY07, up from fewer than 5,000 a decade earlier.
There are about 12 million unauthorized foreigners in the US, including 5.4
million or 45 percent who entered legally and then overstayed or violated
the terms of their visas. Many of the 400,000 Europeans believed to be
illegally in the US, as well as the 250,000 to 300,0000 Koreans, Indians and
Filipinos, entered the US legally and did not leave as required.
More of these "invisibles" are being detected and arrested because of calls
to the ICE Support Center, leading to reports of, for instance, an
unauthorized Polish contractor who established a successful business in
Chicago. The Wall Street Journal on April 10, 2008 recounted his arrest for
driving while talking on his cell telephone, which led to ICE taking him
into custody and his removal to Poland.
ICE detains about 230,000 foreigners at any one time, up almost tenfold
since the mid-1990s. The UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur in
March 2008 criticized the US for detaining too many foreigners, citing 1996
laws that mandated detention of some foreigners, such as those who commit US
crimes, and limited judicial review of migrant appeals to remain in the US.
The US spends about $1.2 billion a year to detain foreigners.
ICE has teams that seek fugitive foreigners who have been ordered deported
but are believed to be in the US. Teams visit homes and other places in
search of the fugitives and arrest other unauthorized foreigners they
encounter, a total of 30,408 in FY07. A federal suit filed in New Jersey in
April 2008 alleges that fugitive teams have entered homes without warrants
and held US citizens and legal immigrants until they could prove their
identity.
ICE Worksite Raids. ICE, five years old in 2008, plans to expand targeted
worksite enforcement. However, without access to Social Security
Administration records of the top 20 or 50 US employers receiving no-match
letters, it does not know exactly how to target employers who may be hiring
unauthorized workers.
ICE is developing a "risk-based approach" to worksite enforcement, targeting
employers whose "business model" depends on "making an illegal workforce
part of the structure of their business."
In FY07, ICE arrested 4,077 foreigners in worksite raids, and filed criminal
charges against 863. ICE said that, with more unauthorized workers using
SSNs that were issued in Puerto Rico, employers should be suspicious of
workers who say they were born and educated in Mexico, but present Puerto
Rico-based SSNs.
In February 2008, ICE arrested 130 workers at Micro Solutions Enterprises
near Los Angeles. A month later, ICE agreed that the arrested workers could
have volunteer attorneys accompany them to meetings after their initial
processing was completed. After the Micro raid, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa asked ICE to halt to halt workplace raids and instead target
illegal migrants who have committed crimes or who are in gangs. He noted
that Micro pays more than the state's $8 an hour minimum wage and offers its
employees benefits.
In April 2008, ICE raided five Pilgrim's Pride poultry processing plants,
arresting 280 unauthorized workers; the company employs 9,400 employees at
these plants. The US attorney said that most of those arrested had used
legitimate SSNs belonging to other people to get hired, part of a new
strategy of cracking down on those who buy or borrow legitimate SSNs to get
hired.
In March 2007, ICE agents arrested 361 workers at Michael Bianco Inc in
Massachusetts, which manufactured leather goods. A year later, ICE said
that 161 of those arrested were still in the US; immigration attorneys said
200 are still in the US ICE acknowledges losing track of 35 arrested
workers). About 165 of those arrested were returned, usually to Guatemala
and El Salvador. In August 2007, the factory's former president and two
managers were indicted for recruiting unauthorized workers.
US attorneys have begun to prosecute foreigners who were deported and
illegally re-entered the US. A third of federal prosecutions in the Los
Angeles area are for illegal re-entry, with most of those convicted
sentenced to three to five years in federal prison before being deported
again.
Services. USCIS is falling further behind in processing petitions for
naturalization and immigrant visas. In January 2008, USCIS announced that
applicants for naturalization could expect to wait an average of 18 months
for decisions on their applications, and that immigrants sponsored by their
US relatives would have to wait an average of a year for visas.
In response to protests that foreigners wanting to naturalize would be
unable to vote in November 2008 elections, USCIS said it would complete
930,000 naturalization applications by September 2008, so that those
approved could register to vote. Most of the 1.1 million applicants for
naturalization are in the early stages of processing; fewer than 275,000 are
in the later stages when applicants submit fingerprints and pass required
English and civics tests.
On July 30, 2007, USCIS raised its fees substantially in order to hire more
staff and speed up the processing of naturalization applications. Six
months later, USCIS said that the rush of applicants trying to beat the
higher fees produced longer rather than shorter waits.
USCIS in March 2008 said that some of the delays in issuing immigrant visas
are due to contradictory immigration laws. For example, some of the
foreigners admitted to the US as refugees worked with forces opposing
foreign governments that the US opposed, including that of Saddam Hussein
and the Taliban government in Afghanistan. US law blocks immigration visas
for persons who were members of "undesignated terrorist organizations" that
took armed action against a foreign government, prompting USCIS to deny
immigrant visas to some refugees unless they obtain a waiver.
E-Verify. USCIS operates the E-Verify system, the voluntary system that
allows employers to submit the information provided by newly hired workers
on I-9 forms to USCIS, which checks the data against government databases
but cannot check the identity of the person presenting the data. E-Verify
provides instant confirmation that the data are correct in 92 percent of
cases, five percent require secondary checks, and two percent are
mismatches, meaning that the data submitted does not match government
records.
About $60 million was spent on E-Verify in FY08, and DHS requested $100
million for FY09.
According to USCIS, about 57,000 of the seven million US employers used
E-Verify in March 2008, when 1,000 employers a week were joining the system
(20,000 of these employers are from Arizona, which mandated use of E-Verify
beginning in March 2008). E-Verify is scheduled to end December 31, 2008;
pending bills in Congress would extend it for another 10 years.
DHS revived the no-match enforcement strategy first announced in August 2007
and put on hold by a federal judge because of errors in government data
bases that could lead to US citizens and legally authorized workers being
fired. Under no-match enforcement, the Social Security Administration
includes a DHS notice with the letters it sends to employers who report 10
or more names and SSNs that do not match SSA databases; SSA has been sending
no-match letters to employers since 1994.
The March 24, 2008 DHS notice in the Federal Register advises employers
receiving no-match letters to first determine whether the employer made a
mistake, and then inform the employee and ask him or her to clear up the
discrepancy within 90 days. If the discrepancy is not cleared up, and if
DHS investigates the employer and finds mis-match employees, it will presume
that the employer knowingly employed unauthorized workers. If the judge
does not block the revised plan to include DHS notices with SSA letters,
they could be sent in June 2008.
Asylum. Foreigners seeking asylum in the United States ask immigration
judges to recognize them as refugees. If they are denied asylum, they can
appeal to the Bureau of Immigration Appeals, and a denial there can be
appealed to the federal circuit courts of appeal.
These appeals are increasing, drawing the attention of the courts. The fact
that most applicants are poor and non-English speaking, combined with the
fact that many of the lawyers they use to appeal substitute quantity for
quality, is prompting disciplinary notices to be issued to some of the
lawyers filing hundreds of appeals.
___________________________________________________
James Pinkerton, "ICE gears up for massive deportations," Houston Chronicle,
April 10, 2008. Julia Preston, "304,000 Inmates Eligible for Deportation,
Official Says," New York Times, March 28, 2008. Dana Wilkie, "Bush's plan
to cut payments protested," Copley News Service, March 6, 2008.
Migration News. April 2008. Vol. 15. No 2.
http://migration.ucdavis.edu or Migration News. 2008. Congress: Debate,
Bush, Polls. April. Vol 15. No 2.
http://migration.ucdavis.edu
Editor: Philip Martin
Managing Editor: Cecily Sprouse
Department of Ag and Resource Economics
One Shields Ave
University of California, Davis
Davis CA 95616
Email:
migrant@primal.ucdavis.edu
Home Page:
http://migration.ucdavis.edu
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