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Amid rising violent crime rates in Texas cities, at least one alleged gang member illegally in the country has been removed from Houston streets and returned to his home country.

In November, officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston arrested and deported 24-year-old Erick Giovanni Portillo-Ayala, an El Salvadoran national and documented MS-13 gang member who had been in the country for more than six years.

The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) had issued a Red Notice for Portillo-Ayala as a member of a terrorist organization at the request of El Salvador.

According to ICE, Portillo-Ayala had entered the U.S. illegally on April 6, 2014, and although he was immediately taken into custody near Sarita, Texas, he was released a few months later after posting bond set by an immigration judge with the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

After he failed to attend his immigration hearing, in October of 2018 an immigration judge ordered Portillo-Ayala deported, but it took more than two years to locate and arrest him.

Portillo-Ayalas deportation came during the same month that five other MS-13 gang members, also illegal immigrants from El Salvador, were indicted for a brutal murder in which the men are alleged to have used a machete to hack a police informant to death in Houston.

According to Ryan K. Patrick, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, MS-13 often uses violence to terrorize the community.

MS-13 uses brutal killings, often by machete, to prove their worth to the clique and send a message to others, Patrick noted on announcing the indictments.

Another El Salvadoran national illegally residing in Houston, Elmer Rolando Manzano-Martinez, is being held on capital murder charges after allegedly shooting to death Houston Police Sergeant Harold Preston and wounding another officer. Although Manzano-Martinez had a criminal history including a conviction and jail time, he had not been identified for possible deportation until the October murder.

This week, Houston Police reportedly rescued 29 individuals from a possible human smuggling operation who were being held hostage in a home on the southwest side of the city. According to police, the victims had been stripped of all clothing except for briefs, and were from various Latin American countries, including El Salvador. ICE will be taking over the investigation of the incident, in which suspects may have tried to blend in with victims by removing their own clothing when police arrived.

Texas law specifically prohibits so-called Sanctuary City or Sanctuary County policies, but an estimated 412,000 illegal immigrants reside in the Houston and Harris County area according to county Judge Lina Hidalgo.

On Thursday, Houston Police reportedly rescued 29 individuals from a possible human smuggling operation who were being held hostage in a home on the southwest side of the city. The victims were from various Latin American countries, including El Salvador, according to police.

Last month on a party-line vote, the Harris County Commissioners Court approved spending more than $2 million over the next two years to provide legal services for illegal immigrants residing in the county. The county is also seeking to join the Vera Institute for Justices Safety and Fairness for Everyone Network, consisting of cities and counties nationwide allocating taxpayer funds to provide a public defender system for all immigrants regardless ofhistory with the criminal legal system.

At one time the county sheriffs department participated in the 287(G) program under which deputies were trained to identify suspects with deportation orders, but after taking office in 2017Sheriff Ed Gonzalez (D) announced that his department would opt out of the federal grant.

ERO Houston arrested Portillo-Ayala on November 5, 2020, and ICE Air Operations flew him from Alexandria, Louisiana, to the El Salvador International Airport on November 20 where he was turned over to Salvadoran authorities.

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A free bi-weekly commentary on current events by Konni Burton.

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Houston MS-13 Gang Member Deported to El Salvador - The Texan

Editors note: A federal judge has struck down two Trump administration rules designed to drastically curtail the number of visas issued each year to skilled foreign workers in the latest battle over the issue. Steve Rao is a Council Member and Former Mayor Pro Tem for the Town of Morrisville and a Board Member of the New American Economy, a bi-partisan coalition of Mayors and Business Leaders, Committed to Comprehensive Immigration reform. This organization compiles research from economists to reveal the economic impact of immigration in the United States and in NC among a number of industries. He also serves as Of Counsel to State Federal Strategies, where he advises them on the Technology Practice.

MORRISVILLE Now that the election is over, President Elect Joe Biden has a chance to deliver on what President Trump had promised four years ago: more American Jobs, through an immigration policy that values global talent to meet the workforce needs of our state and nation.

The Trump administrations restrictions for H1-B highly skilled immigrants has hindered our global competitiveness, and does have an impact on a number of industries in NC, including the tech, manufacturing, seafood and hospitality industries. Let us also remember the 35,000 Dreamers in North Carolina, who bring in over $500 million to our economy, whose DACA status remains after a recent Federal Court ruling struck down recent Trump Administration restrictions on the program.

John Chambers, left, with Steve Rao

As the U.S. works towards economic recovery, these immigrants are vital to supporting industries and communities when they need it the most. In fact, H-1B visa holders, one of the newly banned groups, are job creators NAEs research shows that every H-1B holder creates about 1.83 American jobs.

Our recent Space X missions to the International Space Station would never have happened if Elon Musk had not received an H-1B, Zoom would not exist, and many companies, like Google, Yahoo, would have been founded in other nations if we closed off immigration of highly skilled immigration to the United States.

I do believe that we are encouraging the best and brightest in the world to start companies in other nations with such a closed immigration policy coming from the White House.

While many Americans continue to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, immigrant IT workers play an essential role in helping the U.S. economy move activities online and maintain the digital infrastructure so that businesses can keep running and people stay connected.

In North Carolina and much of the Triangle, I am still seeing firsthand, many Indian Americans and South Asian families affected by restrictions in the H-1B Program. These hard working, tax paying citizens are among the 300,000 H-1B holders in the US are in line for a green card.

Some families are being separated, spouses of the H-1B visa holders are not able to work, and I am hearing from many constituents, who have been waiting over ten years, for a green card. These are hard working tax payers, who are contributing immensely to supporting and creating the growing tech economy of North Carolina and the new jobs of the new economy.

Recently, I received a call from Anu Penenganti, a technologist at SAS Software, who pays twice the tuition for her daughter at NC State since her H4 visa in in backlog. Sometimes, she wonders if she should eventually move to Canada, a nation where it is easier to experience the benefits of citizenship.

Thousands in NC are in this situation, most in the Triangle and Charlotte region. Not only are they driving innovation and jobs at Technology companies, but also among the ranks of the 56,000 immigrant owned companies, employing over 151,000 citizens in our state.

Finally, Consider our universities. Theyre a critical part of our economy, producing wealth, innovation, and skilled workers our state urgently needs. But in recent months the Trump administration had considered blocking international students whose colleges switch to online teaching; to make it impossible for foreign students to complete PhDs; and to undermine the visas that allow U.S. businesses to hire foreign graduates with critically needed skills.

This type of action would have been a disaster for North Carolina. Our states 21,954 international students inject $722.3 million a year into the local economy, supporting over 9,000 jobs. International students also make college affordable for Americans: though they account for just 4.6% of the student population, foreign students pay 28% of all college tuition. By hurting international students, President Trump is depriving our colleges of vital revenues, and ultimately hurting all North Carolinians.

Some statistics worth noting from New American Economy:

As we face huge public health and economic challenges, immigrants are on the front lines helping us respond to both. Yet even as they fight alongside Americans, they are excluded from federal relief efforts (as are their U.S. citizen spouses), they are at risk of deportation if they are undocumented, and now legal workers that drive essential industries wont be able to enter the U.S. to spur additional job creation and help drive the economic recovery.

Let North Carolina be an example to both President Elect Biden and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, that comprehensive immigration reform can ensure that the United States is a destination for the best and brightest in the world to create more jobs now and in the future.

I strongly encourage President Elect Joe Biden to present an immigration proposal to the 117th Congress that accelerates the path to citizenship for highly skilled immigrants, extends protection for our Dreamers, and continues to address illegal immigration and border security in a reasonable fashion.

Continued here:
Guest opinion: Immigration means more jobs for NC and the US - WRAL Tech Wire

With President-elect Joe Biden's new administration taking office on 20 January 2021, there will be an opportunity for the US administration to renew its commitment to human rights, not only by ending its own egregious human rights violations but also by re-engaging with the international community through the United Nations and multilateral institutions.

For four years the Trump administration has implemented policies that have time and again demonstrated its disregard for human rights and its desire to suppress the rights of specific groups for political gain. We have seen executive orders and federal policies passed, along with divisive and hateful rhetoric directed at women and girls, the LGBTQI+ community, Black and Latino people, migrants and refugees, among others.

One of the Trump administrations flagship issues, since his 2016 presidential campaign, has been migration and asylum. His promises to build a wall along the border with Mexico and to destroy the asylum system soon became public policy. His administration has devoted significant time and effort to punishing those who arrive in the United States seeking safety and protection, including families and children. This has affected people fleeing levels of violence comparable to war zones, coming from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, those fleeing political repression in Cuba and massive human rights violations in Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as a growing number of people forcibly displaced from countries outside the continent due to persecution and conflict.

Instead of offering shelter to people in need, the Trump administration devised a series of policies to criminalize them and deny them protection. It did this by claiming that there were insufficient resources to respond to these cases, all the while spending billions of dollars on militarizing the countrys borders.

In 2018, thousands of parents seeking asylum were charged with crimes under a zero tolerance policy that resulted in thousands of children being forcibly separated and detained, literally held in cages or flown to other facilities thousands of miles away, without consent and with no information as to their whereabouts. The US authorities have clearly and deliberately inflicted deep and lasting mental suffering on these families in an attempt to deter other desperate people from seeking asylum.

Instead of offering shelter to people in need, the Trump administration devised a series of policies to criminalize them and deny them protection

As if these incredibly cruel and illegal practices were not enough, the Trump administration then instituted the programme known as Remain in Mexico, which has forced tens of thousands of people seeking asylum at the Mexican border to wait in Mexican border communities in dangerous and insecure conditions. Under this programme, and with the agreement of the Mexican government, the Trump administration has forcibly returned nearly 60,000 people to Mexico while their US asylum applications are being processed, where they are at the mercy of organized criminal groups that extort, kidnap and assault them on a regular basis.

In 2019 the Trump administration also pressured the governments of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to sign a series of safe third country agreements, enabling it to disregard its obligations to process asylum applications for people from third countries whose conditions may be far from safe and who are in need of protection.

The use of immigration detention has also soared in recent years. Tens of thousands of migrants, including thousands of asylum seekers and families with children, are currently being held in immigration detention centres up and down the country, under the supervision of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), while they fight for their right to remain in the United States. The Trump administration has used immigration detention as a way of punishing people solely on the basis of their immigration status and criminalizing those fleeing persecution and violence in their own countries.

These detention practices are exacerbating a crisis beyond the US borders: tens of thousands of people have been deported during the COVID-19 pandemic, including hundreds who tested positive after contracting the virus while being detained in unsafe and unsanitary detention facilities in the United States. Deportees have reported facing exposure to the virus, a quarantine system in their home countries that violates human rights, and stigma.

By March 2020, there was virtually no further possibility of seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext, the Trump government has illegally expelled tens of thousands of people, including families and unaccompanied children, under an order nominally issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that empowers border officials to summarily return people to Mexico or rapidly return them to their home countries.

Making the most of his last months in office, President Trump has introduced a number of new anti-asylum eligibility laws, including a ban on asylum for any persons transiting through a third country en route to the United States; a broad new regulation that radically redefines all elements of the definition of refugee; and a general prohibition on eligibility based on public health, which is rooted in xenophobia and discrimination rather than science.

It will be no easy matter to reverse the suffering these policies have caused. Joe Bidens incoming government has promised a radical change in migration and asylum policy. And yet many of the human rights violations suffered by migrants and refugees are neither new nor exclusive to the Trump administration; his government merely sped up the machinery and dramatically exacerbated its dire consequences. This forms an outstanding historical debt that requires urgent attention.

President Biden will be able to set a new direction for his administration by, for example, issuing executive orders in his first days in office that place the human rights of people in need of protection at the heart of his actions. The United States has an opportunity to end its practice of unnecessary, costly and punitive immigration detention, which has caused such enormous human suffering and led to a crisis of infection during the pandemic.

Many of the human rights violations suffered by migrants and refugees are neither new nor exclusive to the Trump administration; his government merely sped up the machinery and dramatically exacerbated its dire consequences

Among other things, the Biden administration should also establish a moratorium on deportations during the COVID-19 pandemic, while dismantling the architecture of the Trump eras illegal asylum and immigration policies. Restoring the asylum system and humanitarian protection must start by annulling the 20 March order automatically expelling asylum seekers and unaccompanied children without due process, as well as overturning the dozens of policies that unfairly limit access to the right to seek asylum, including at the US-Mexico border.

The new administration must ensure that people who are waiting in border communities in Mexico under the Remain in Mexico programme are immediately accepted into US territory to continue their asylum application processes. It is therefore essential that Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obradors government cooperates closely with President Biden to put an end to this cruel and illegal policy.

The Biden government must furthermore establish strong alternative avenues of protection for people whose evident risk in their home countries requires urgent attention, such as the designation of temporary protection status for Venezuelan nationals and other forms of protection for people arriving from countries in crisis situations.

The road will not be an easy one but the political will shown by the Biden government since the election will be crucial in reversing the dire legacy of the Trump administration.

Go here to read the rest:
Rebuilding from the ashes, Trump's heritage on immigration and asylum policy - Amnesty International

Re Biden plans big changes in immigration system some wont be easy (Nov. 18): Just read Michael Smolens column about immigration.

One thing that is seldom mentioned in the debate is sanctioning employers. When I was a young contractor looking for day laborers, I heard that the Border Patrol was confiscating peoples trucks if they were transporting illegal workers. So I started asking for papers from the workers.

If Homeland Security started fining or arresting employers for employing illegal workers, both the job market and the reason to immigrate would dry up.

I know well-connected employers would cry bloody murder. And society would have to face the paradox of plentiful cheap labor versus illegal immigration. Perhaps it would allow a real conversation to take place.

Neil MeyerEscondido

Opinion resources

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters.

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Readers React: Employers must be part of the illegal immigration issue - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Italian and Slovenian police say they have foiled an international criminal organization that helped migrants travel from a center for asylum seekers in Ljubljana to European countries -- mainly Italy, France and Germany. Alleged members of the association included people in charge of security at the hosting facility, investigative sources said on November 20.

Investigators at the police department of Ljubljana and Italian police last week completed a joint investigation into a criminal organization that allegedly trafficked immigrants in Slovenia and Italy.

A total of 12 people were charged as part of the investigation, including seven suspects who were detained, the police department of the north-eastern Italian city of Trieste said on November 20.

The investigation was directed by prosecutors in Trieste, based on a European investigation order requested by Slovenian magistrates.

The probe was carried out by security officials and border police in Trieste together with officials in Rome. The criminal complaints and arrests were filed and carried out in Slovenia.

Security officials said they discovered at least 26 episodes in which the criminal organization aided and abetted illegal immigration with the illicit transfer of 108 immigrants.

Italian authorities, alerted by Slovenian police, reported eight episodes between June and October this year in which 31 immigrants were apprehended by police along the border between Italy and Slovenia in the woods between Trieste and Gorizia.

During one of these operations, an Afghan citizen was arrested in the north-eastern Italian city of Gorizia on charges of aiding and abetting illegal immigration.

The probe, which was mainly carried out in the Slovenian Republic, discovered a criminal group that favored illegal immigration from Turkey, Iraq, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia until Slovenia, and from Slovenia to other countries in the European Union, investigators in Trieste said.

In many cases Italy was the country of destination.Several members of the criminal group, who were waiting to obtain international protection, were staying at the hosting center in Ljubljana, where the illegal transfers were organized.

According to evidence discovered by Slovenian police, one of the main suspects, who is also an asylum seeker, managed contacts abroad with the other members of the organization in order to follow the arrival of migrants in Slovenia and their subsequent illegal transfer to Italy and to other EU member States.

Members of the criminal group were well informed regarding immigration laws within the European Union and police procedures, investigators said.

The group was structured and members had different roles: some organized the departure of migrants from the country of provenance while others selected the places where they would be staying along the way. Others selected payment methods and confirmation of the migrants' arrival at their final destination in order for payments to be completed, the sources said.

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Migrant trafficking ring uncovered by Italy-Slovenia probe - InfoMigrants