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The tactic would be a major step toward marrying local and federal law enforcement, a centerpiece of Mr. Trumps plan to thwart illegal immigration and one that immigrant advocates have scrambled to block at every opportunity. If enough sheriffs participated, the approach could lead to many more immigration arrests, which have already risen more than 40 percent since last year.

Since Mr. Trump was inaugurated, ICE has issued roughly 11,000 detainers a month, a 78 percent increase over the previous year. The agency declined to make data available on the number of detainers that are currently declined by sheriffs and other local departments. Even under President Barack Obama, detainers created friction between ICE and sheriffs departments because hundreds of them have policies against honoring the requests.

But the Trump administrations promises to deport more undocumented immigrants, particularly those with criminal records, have resonated with many sheriffs across the country, and the plan may serve cut through unlikely tension between the two groups. Mr. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have sparred repeatedly with jurisdictions that do not honor detainers, even where local officials support an immigration crackdown.

Sheriff Richard Stanek of Hennepin County, Minn., a Republican, found his jurisdiction included in ICEs periodically distributed list of places that do not honor detainers, alongside well-known sanctuary cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. The administration discontinued publishing the list after he and other sheriffs complained, but the sheriffs say the sting has been lasting.

We raised holy hell, Sheriff Stanek said. We said: Were your allies. Why are you shooting at us?

ICE issues detainers for roughly 1,000 people in his jail each year, Sheriff Stanek said, and roughly two-thirds are ultimately freed before ICE agents can arrive to arrest them.

Sheriff Stanek said he would like to honor the detainers, but would do so only if the plan was approved by the courts. We want to find a way to say yes, he said.

Sheriffs are seen as particularly important allies in immigration enforcement. They operate 85 percent of the nations jails and have ready access to the most desirable candidates for deportation: undocumented immigrants with criminal records or charges. Immigration arrests that are made in jails are also safer and require fewer resources.

ICE sends detainers to jails when it becomes aware that someone suspected of being an undocumented immigrant is being held on a criminal charge because the persons name or fingerprints match those of someone ICE has previously arrested or deported.

But since defendants can post bail or otherwise win their freedom at almost any hour, they are often released before ICE agents can arrive to take them to immigration detention centers. To address that, detainers ask that these people be held for up to an additional 48 hours.

The practice has raised a number of legal issues, many of which hinge on that crucial period. Under federal law, sheriffs cannot make immigration arrests because they are civil in nature, and sheriffs enforce criminal law. As a result, judges have found that jailing people during that gap constitutes an unlawful seizure, in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Under the proposed legal tactic, ICE and the sheriff would sign a contract that pays the sheriffs department a daily fee to hold the immigrant until ICE can take the person into custody. The legal argument is that the arrangement effectively makes the immigrant a detainee of ICE, not the sheriffs department, and allows the sheriff to hold the person on a noncriminal charge.

Its a seamless transition, said Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County, Fla. They are immediately in ICE custody. And what ICE does with them, thats up to ICE. Thats not our business.

It was Sheriff Gualtieri, who is also a lawyer, who devised the reasoning behind the new tactic and presented it to ICE.

He unveiled the plan in a presentation to the National Sheriffs Association at its annual convention in June. Several sheriffs who were present described the reaction as one of excitement and relief.

Sheriff Gualtieri, as well as Sheriff Stanek, Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Ariz., and Sheriff Greg Champagne of St. Charles Parish, La., who was president of the National Sheriffs Association when the discussions began, have all traveled to Washington or corresponded with the Trump administration to discuss the new approach.

Sheriff Gualtieri said ICE officials had told him that the plan would begin with a pilot program in Florida, and be expanded nationwide eventually. Although the sheriffs said it was expected to be announced after Labor Day, the ICE spokeswoman, Sarah Rodriguez, said, ICE continues to explore a variety of options that address the concerns of our sheriff partners when honoring ICE detainers.

Lawyers who have fought cases involving detainers question whether the courts would approve of the plan.

Its a kind of window dressing on the same practice, said Omar Jadwat, the director of the American Civil Liberties Unions immigrants rights project. It doesnt really change the legal analysis.

Mr. Jadwat and other advocates raised concerns that the plan would be a return to the days when local law enforcement and the immigration authorities worked hand in glove, sometimes leading to overzealous policing and racial profiling.

I do fear that, particularly in localities that dont have laws in place limiting this practice, that youre going to have sheriffs who are going to see the dollar signs and feel that maybe this is lawful to do ICEs bidding, said Mark Fleming, a lawyer for the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago.

Some states have policies or court rulings that could stop sheriffs from signing up under the proposed plan. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled last month that local law enforcement officials did not have the authority to comply with ICE detainers. Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, quickly proposed legislation that would provide authority in cases where detainees were charged with serious crimes.

Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois, a Republican, is under pressure from advocates for immigrants to sign a bill passed by the legislature that would severely limit the ability of law enforcement agencies to honor detainers. Similar laws are in place in California and Connecticut.

Sheriffs who honor detainers continue to face consequences in court. Last month, a Virginia judge ordered the state to pay more than $20,000 in damages and legal fees because an undocumented immigrant was held beyond his scheduled release date on a drunken-driving charge.

Even in the face of scrutiny, many sheriffs say that they are desperate for a legal means to honor detainers, and that ignoring the requests is not just a moral complication but a political one. After the sheriffs office in Newport News, Va., was listed on the report of declined detainers, Sheriff Gabriel Morgan was flooded with phone calls and emails from constituents who demanded to know why he was not cooperating with ICE.

Youre giving me a detainer thats not worth the paper its written on in my courts, he said. Then you are trying to say Im not looking out for public safety.

Well, Sheriff Morgan said, thats problematic.

Follow Caitlin Dickerson on Twitter @itscaitlinhd.

A version of this article appears in print on August 22, 2017, on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Expanding the Deportation Dragnet.

See the article here:
Trump Administration Moves to Expand Deportation Dragnet to Jails - New York Times

By Francisca Ortega, Chron.com / Houston Chronicle

>>The many ways people have attempted to enter the United States.

>>The many ways people have attempted to enter the United States.

A look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into the country looking for a better life, comparably better wages, and promised personal freedom can find themselves lodged into secret compartments in cars, vans, and heavy-duty trucks in an effort to get over the border.

A look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into the country looking for a better life, comparably better wages, and promised personal freedom

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into the country looking for a better life, comparably better wages, and promised personal freedom can find themselves lodged into secret compartments in cars, vans, and heavy-duty trucks in an effort to get over the border.

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into the country looking for a better life, comparably better wages, and promised personal freedom can find themselves lodged into secret compartments in cars, vans, and heavy-duty trucks in an effort to get over the border.

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into the country looking for a better life, comparably better wages, and promised personal freedom can find themselves lodged into secret compartments in cars, vans, and heavy-duty trucks in an effort to get over the border.

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into the country looking for a better life, comparably better wages, and promised personal freedom can find themselves lodged into secret compartments in cars, vans, and heavy-duty trucks in an effort to get over the border.

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into the country looking for a better life, comparably better wages, and promised personal freedom can find themselves lodged into secret compartments in cars, vans, and heavy-duty trucks in an effort to get over the border.

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into the country looking for a better life, comparably better wages, and promised personal freedom can find themselves lodged into secret compartments in cars, vans, and heavy-duty trucks in an effort to get over the border.

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into the country looking for a better life, comparably better wages, and promised personal freedom can find themselves lodged into secret compartments in cars, vans, and heavy-duty trucks in an effort to get over the border.

With the immigration debate poised to play a major role in the coming presidential election we look at some of the ways that humans are smuggled across the border and into the United States.

Those coming into

A woman was found inside a Chevy pickup's hidden compartment.

A woman was found inside a Chevy pickup's hidden compartment.

See some of the biggest recent cases and players in the world of sex trafficking.

See some of the biggest recent cases and players in the world of sex trafficking.

Gerardo "El Gallo" Salazar is seen in an undated courtesy photo provided by the FBI. He was considered by authorities in Houston to have been the region's most wanted human trafficker.

Gerardo "El Gallo" Salazar is seen in an undated courtesy photo provided by the FBI. He was considered by authorities in Houston to have been the region's most wanted human trafficker.

The former Las Palmas II in the 5600 block of Telephone Rd. was a brothel and cantina used by sex traffickers, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, in Houston. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)

The former Las Palmas II in the 5600 block of Telephone Rd. was a brothel and cantina used by sex traffickers, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, in Houston. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)

A worker completes the demolition of La Costeita bar which was a location for a human trafficking ring shown on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013, in Houston. ( Mayra Beltran / Houston Chronicle )

A worker completes the demolition of La Costeita bar which was a location for a human trafficking ring shown on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013, in Houston. ( Mayra Beltran / Houston Chronicle )

Officers arrive in yet another visit to the cantina, for years considered a haven for human trafficking in Houston.

Officers arrive in yet another visit to the cantina, for years considered a haven for human trafficking in Houston.

Mayor Annise Parker speaks during a news conference at City Hall announcing an Anti-human trafficking campaign, Tuesday, June 3, 2014, in Houston. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)

Mayor Annise Parker speaks during a news conference at City Hall announcing an Anti-human trafficking campaign, Tuesday, June 3, 2014, in Houston. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)

60 illegal immigrants found in cold produce truck

After the high-profile and tragic deaths of immigrants locked inside trailers in sweltering heat, at least some smugglers have switched tactics.

Border patrol agents announced they found 60 immigrants inside a refrigerated truck early Saturday morning. The immigrants were found on pallets of produce that were coated in a layer of ice. The truck's internal temperature was measured at 49 degrees Fahrenheit, according to KRISTV.

IN COURT: Driver of deadly truck faces charges

The group contained 22 Guatemalans, 17 Mexicans, 13 Salvadorans and 8 Hondurans. Medical attention was given before they were transferred to the Falfurrias station to be processed. The driver of the truck was arrested and faces federal charges, according to telemundo47.

Last month three dozen people, 10 of whom died, were found in a truck trailer in a Wal-Mart parking lot in San Antonio. The deaths were reminiscent of a 2003 case in Victoria, Texas, in which 19 immigrants died. When Texas heat can reach heat indexes of over 100 degrees, the temperature inside these trucks can quickly become deadly.

Scroll through the gallery above for a look at some of the many ways immigrants have attempted to enter the United States.

Read the original here:
60 illegal immigrants found in cold produce truck - Chron.com

Charlie Reich

St. Augustine

Lots of talk going on in D.C. regarding building a fence across our southern border to keep out illegal immigrants. The word is we have 12 million or so illegal immigrants living in the U.S. who walked across our border. Thats about 7 percent of our population.

Now we are going to build a multi-billion dollar fence to keep them out. This dream comes at a time when we have a short-term debt of a $1 trillion-plus catchall spending bill covering the rest of the fiscal year that must be paid by Sept. 30 in order to avoid a government shutdown.

This emergency appropriation will throw our national long-term debt to over $21 trillion, and those on both sides of the fence on Capitol Hill are finally starting to worry about how we can start paying down this debt rather than keep adding another $1 trillion every year.

The Department of Homeland Security has estimated the wall will cost nearly $22 billion. But Democrats have said the price tag could be as high as $70 billion. Oh well, whats a few (?) billion dollar difference between friend? Its only taxpayer money, anyway.

And now we hear of forthcoming tax cuts for the rich, and some companies. Were already minus $1 trillion every year and now were going to give tax cuts to the wealthy people and Industries? Who makes up the difference? What are they smoking up in D.C.?

Those folks that walked over the border have secured jobs that most of us dont want to do in on farms, ranches and in industries that require back-breaking hard work much of it outdoors in all kinds of (increasingly hot) weather. (That increase in hot weather is another unspoken D.C. subject, while we continue to turn down our AC and watch the icecaps melt). The fact is we need these industrious, hard-working immigrants. Theyve established their families here, pay taxes and are educating their children to become future citizens and taxpayers in the U.S.

The government says the mission of the Department of Defense is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of our country. The departments headquarters is at the Pentagon.

If the idea is to protect the security of our country, why didnt it secure our southern border and prevent 12 million immigrants from invading our shores? Maybe they were too busy invading other peoples borders in the name of wars we couldnt win like Korea, Vietnam plus a few others I missed.

And we have The United States Department of Homeland Security a Cabinet department of the government, with responsibilities in public security roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries.

Its stated mission involves anti-terrorism, border security, immigration and customs, cyber-security and disaster prevention and management. It was created in response to the 9-11 attacks and is also currently the youngest Cabinet department.

Again: whose border security is it securing?

We have these two multi-faceted departments with thousands of military under their supervision. Why arent they protecting our southern border? Establish small military bases along that area and provide 24-hour patrols.

When illegals are caught, give them a meal, a bottle of water and immediately transport them back across the border to Mexico. Procure an agreement with Mexico for its military to accept them back from U.S. when caught, and arrange transportation back to their homes.

Dont lock them up in a jail awaiting a bus to take them back to a border station or whatever long-term expensive transfer process is currently being used.

And dont spend billions of dollars more shipping those back that are already here. Let them work off a future citizenship.

We dont need De-fence. We need defense by those departments we taxpayers pay them to do!

Go here to see the original:
Illegal immigration: Use defense, not 'de fence' - St. Augustine Record

WASHINGTON Before President Donald Trumps hardline immigration policies took effect early this year, thousands of undocumented residents were given a break from being deported.

Government immigration officials would hold off if the illegal immigrants were married to American citizens or longtime residents of the U.S., gainfully employed and had committed no crime other than being in the country illegally.

It was, said immigration lawyer Heather Prendegast of Cleveland, the governments attempt to be nice.

The cordiality ended when Trump officials instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to get tough on illegal immigration, according to a study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Giving undocumented residents a pass has largely been abolished, the study concluded.

From February through June of this year, less than 100 immigrant cases per month were dismissed or suspended, compared with 2,500 per month during the same period last year, the study found.

The administration is taking such an inflexible approach that ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez said in an email the agency no longer accepts requests for leniency from lawyers for illegal immigrants.

Instead, it is re-examining earlier deportations ICE attorneys had agreed to put on hold before Trump took office to see if they should be re-opened, particularly if the person has since been arrested or convicted of a crime.

Private immigration attorneys have noticed. Prosecutorial discretion has come to a screeching halt, said Michelle Edstrom, an Oklahoma City attorney who is the American Immigration Lawyers Association liaison with the government.

Boston attorney Gregory Romanovsky, chairman of the associations Massachusetts chapter, said ICE has privately said deportations will not be put off unless someone is dying.

The shift reflects the unbending stance on illegal immigration Trump promised during his presidential campaign. Arrests are being carried out on a broad scale.

The Obama administration prioritized the arrest of serious criminals, including suspected terrorists, persons who committed violent crime, dealt drugs or were considered a serious threat to public safety. It did not aggressively pursue law-abiding immigrants.

ICE said in a statement to CNHI this week it is no longer excusing those undocumented residents who have not committed weighty crimes.

All of those in violation of the immigrant laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, said the agency.

Reaction to the change illustrates divisions over how to handle longtime illegal immigrants who havent caused problems. Advocates of leniency argue they should be left alone. Hardliners say all immigrants have committed a crime by illegally entering the U.S. and should be treated as criminals.

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the tougher enforcement advocate Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the numbers show how the Obama administration had been overly lenient in its deportation policies.

In essence, said Mehlman, the Obama policy wasnt prosecutorial discretion but rather nullification of most immigration laws.

Jessica Vaughan, policy director for the Center for Immigration studies, another group that wants tougher enforcement, said ICE under Obama carried out a giant rolling amnesty for thousands of illegal aliens, just by throwing their cases out of immigration court.

She said government data shows just how dramatically things have changed under the Trump administration.

But critics of Trumps hard-nosed policies say the numbers illustrate how the country has moved away from humanitarian considerations to going after any undocumented immigrant ICE encounters or discovers.

According to Justice Department figures released last week, 57,069 illegals were either deported or left voluntarily between Feb. 1 and July 31 nearly a third more than the same period last year.

Edstrom, the Oklahoma City attorney, said one of her clients was caught up in Trumps tougher stance. The man is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico married to a U.S. citizen but he cannot gain re-entry to the U.S. to be with his wife.

Under the Obama administration, he could obtain a waiver in advance to leave the U.S. and then return by going to the American consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and applying for citizenship and a green card. The purpose of that approach was to minimize the amount of time immigrants had to be away from their U.S. family, said Edstrom.

ICE attorneys no longer agree to allow people in the situation to apply for a waiver until they first leave the U.S., Edstrom said. Thats a problem because it can take six months to get an appointment at the consulate and almost another five months to get a waiver to return to the U.S. and obtain a green card.

The result is the Mexican immigrants U.S. wife has to fend without the income from her husbands job in America and will likely end up on government assistance.

How does that make any sense whatsoever? she asked.

Contact reporter Kery Murakami at kmurakami@cnhi.com.

Minnesota

Nearly 4,500 Minnesota residents have cases pending in immigration courts, according to data compiled by Syracuse Universitys Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. In the last three months, 313 immigration cases have been opened against Minnesota residents.

Minnesota ranks 21st in the number of deportation cases. California ranks No. 1 with nearly 112,000 cases.

In south-central Minnesota, Watonwan County has the most residents in immigration court: 54, with three of those cases filed in the last 90 days.

In Sibley County 29 residents are facing deportation, and in Le Sueur County 26 residents are in immigration court. In both those counties four cases were recently filed.

Twenty-five residents of Blue Earth County and 23 residents of Nicollet County are in immigration court, with three of those cases recently filed in Blue Earth and two in Nicollet.

No cases have been filed in the last three months in Brown, Faribault or Waseca counties.

Follow this link:
Immigrant deportations up sharply under Trump - Mankato Free Press

Twitter has rejected a conservative organizations request to promote tweets highlighting the harmful effects of illegal immigration, apparently because using the word illegal to refer to immigrants violates the companys hate speech rules.

Organizations can pay Twitter to re-up previously posted tweets in the form of promoted content. The promoted tweets function as ads, allowing businesses or advocacy groups to push their content out to a wider group of Twitter users.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a Washington, D.C.-based immigration research group, recently submitted three tweets for promotion:

Much to the groups surprise, all three tweets were rejected on the grounds of hate, says executive director Mark Krikorian.

According to Twittersad policy, promoted content cannot include hate speech or advocacy against anyone belonging to number of protected categories, including refugees and immigrants. The CIS tweets, which pointed out the fiscal drain of illegal immigration in the U.S., were apparently too hateful to be re-posted as promoted ads.

The question over how far internet content hosts should go to censor speech in the digital space has taken greater salience in the wake of the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville on Saturday. Following the rallies, web hosting company Cloudflare canceled the account of The Daily Stormer, a white supremacist website that had suggested the company secretly supported the Stormers agenda.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince told CNBC that he expelled The Daily Stormer because he woke up in a bad mood and decided someone shouldnt be allowed on the Internet, but he acknowledged that such power could be abused to tamp down on the speech of other individuals or groups decidedly less extreme than the Stormer.

That looks to be the case with Twitters rejection of the CIS tweets even objective but inconvenient facts about illegal immigration still run afoul of the sites hate speech censors. As Krikorian noted in a blog post Thursday, the case offers a small but illustrative example of why internet companies may need to be regulated like public utilities not to restrict speech, but to allow it.

The internet is now a utility more important than phones or cable TV, Krikorian wrote. If people can be denied access to it based on the content of their ideas and speech (rather than specific, illegal acts), why not make phone service contingent on your political views? Or mail delivery?

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Anti-Illegal Immigration Ads Violate Twitter's 'Hate Speech' Rules - The Daily Caller