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The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to ICE in early September 2016 asking for records from the fiscal year 2011 to the day ICE begins its search for records that were responsive to:

Any and all original records showing the number of offenses committed or attempted against ICE agents and non-agent staff by undocumented, or suspected, to be immigrants. Please include any and all details possible related to the offenses and associated harm caused.

The public-interest legal education and advocacy law firm and supporting organization of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said: ICE could not find any documents that related to assaults committed against ICE agents.

This non-tracking policys a huge insult to victimized agents and their families, said IRLI General Counsel Dale Wilcox.

National ICE Council President Christopher Crane confirmed the failure of ICE management to track these assaults in a phone conversation with Breitbart Texas.

Wilcox added, This will surely change under President Trump, however. He reasoned, Weve seen big strides in immigration transparency with the new administration, including the promise to report on sanctuary jurisdictions and illegal-alien crime. The only people that could be against such efforts are Obama-holdovers within DHS and anti-borders and anti-American extremists.

In February, Breitbart Texas reported on an assault against an ICE immigration officer engaged in a targeted operation of arresting criminal aliens in Austin, Texas.

Court records obtained by Breitbart Texas from the Department of Justices Western District of Texas stated that Baltazar-Ramirez attempted to escape apprehension after the deportation officer placed him under arrest for being unlawfully present in the United States. The officer caught up with the man after about a 200-yard foot pursuit. The criminal complaint states that Hugo Baltazar-Ramirez then fought with the officer.He then began striking the officers head against the ground several times, causing injury that would require medical attention.

Baltazar-Ramirez later pleaded guilty to the assault. The Mexican national faces a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years, followed by deportation.

The failure to track these important statistics by ICE administrators contrasts sharply with reports regularly released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tracking assaults against U.S. Border Patrol agents and CBP officers. Breitbart Texas reports regularly on these statistics and the assaults against law enforcement officials. The April CBP report shows a 120 percent increase in assaults against Border Patrol agents this fiscal year when compared to the same period in Fiscal Year 2016.

Brandon Darby, managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas reported on May 24 that the violence against U.S. Border Patrol agents is growing more violent. Smugglers linked to the Sinaloa Cartel and migrants in the Tucson sector are becoming more aggressive as penalties for their crimes become tougher. These human traffickers and their human cargo realize now that if they are caught they face almost certain prosecution and incarceration. They resort to violence to try to evade detention and escape.

On Saturday, Darby reportedon the violent assault on an off-duty Border Patrol agent in New Mexico. The agent, assigned to the Deming Station in the El Paso Sector, was found badly beaten alongside a roadway with injuries to his head, chest, and hands, CBP officials stated.

Border Patrol Agent Art Del Cueto told Breitbart Texas in his role as National Border Patrol Council (NBPC):

The smugglers are definitely becoming more violent with our agents. They now try to evade arrest and even use force to get away from us where during the Obama years they would joke with us and not mind being caught. They knew, back then, that they would get away with violating our laws.

Agent Del Cueto continued, We are talking about significant force and violence being used against our agents. Very recently, one smuggler slammed a large rock into the side of an agents head.

And the escalating violence is not limited to the cartels drug smugglers, Agent Del Cueto stated. Even the illegal aliens who arent smuggling dope are growing more violent as they now face consequences for illegally entering. Before they would be let go the next day or so, now they face incarceration for illegally entering. They are willing to do anything possible to evade us.

Cuerto noted that the situation is a worry for agents. Its a concern because when we use force we are put under a microscope and everything we do is scrutinized by different investigative bodies. There was a culture of destroying the lives of Border Patrol agents during the past presidential administration and unfortunately, that culture hasnt yet completely dissipated.

Fiscal Year 2017 got off to a very rocky start in regard to assaults against Border Patrol agents. Breitbart Texas reported in late 2016 that nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents were assaulted during the first two months of the new fiscal year which began October 1. The number revealed an increase of 230 percent plus over the same period in the fiscal year 2016. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials reported 149 Border Patrol agents were assaulted in October and November. During that same period in 2015, 45 agents were assaulted.

The numbers of CBP law enforcement agents and officers has been increasing for the past three years. Then-Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan first revealed these numbers during testimony before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee in November 2016, Breitbart News reported.

Morgan testified that Border Patrol agents are the most assaulted federal law enforcement (agents) in the United States. More than 7,400 Border Patrol agents have been assaulted since 2006. That rose in FY 16 by 20%, and year-to-date, were seeing an increase of assaults of 200% from the previous year-to-date. Its a dangerous job.

If asked by Congress or administration officials, management at ICE would not be able to provide this kind of information in order to protect its officers and agents.

Bob Priceserves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter@BobPriceBBTX.

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REPORT: ICE Admits It Does Not Track Assaults on Officers, Agents - Breitbart News

A loophole in immigration law could allow thousands ofillegal immigrants to be put on a path to citizenship, according to government data obtained by The Daily Caller.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which is former President Barack Obamas amnesty for illegal immigrants who arrived as minors, does not confer legal status upon illegal immigrants. Instead, it is aform of prosecutorialdiscretion that protects beneficiaries from deportation.

A 2012 administration court decision, however, allows DACA recipients to leave the country and return through a process called advance parole, and receive lawful permanent status (a green card) if they are a direct relative of an American citizen. A lawful permanent resident may become a citizen after five years.

The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) obtained figures from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that show that from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2016 an estimated 31,781 DACA beneficiaries were approved for advance parole. USCIS did not give the full figures for fiscal year 2016, and the amount for that year had to extrapolated from the October 2015 figure.

Advance parole is permission from federal authorities for immigrants to leave the country and then legally re-enter.An immigrant may get advanced parole to travel for humanitarian purposes (attending a funeral, getting medical treatment etc), educational purposes (study abroad programs, research etc), or employment purposes (work training, interview, etc).

DACA recipients, referred to as Dreamers by activists, need advance parole to leave the country. If they leave without it and re-enter, they will lose their status and could be deported. Collegesaround the country advertise study abroad programstoDreamers and help them through the process of getting advance parole.

Once an illegal immigrant returns to the country with advance parole, they are considered to have lawfully entered the country, allowing them to adjust their immigration status. A barrier to obtaining lawful permanent resident status is not having continuous legal statusin the U.S. However, through a direct relation with an American citizen (spouse, child, or parent), one can waive these barriers and get legal status, according to an explanation from the nonprofit ImmigrantLegal Resource Center.

It is unknown exactly how many DACA recipients have an immediate American citizen relative. The federal government has also not released updated data on how many DACA beneficiaries have gotten approved for advance parole, and IRLI obtained them only after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.

The amnesty program continues to process DACA applications and renewals. Nearly 100,000 illegal immigrants have benefitedfrom the program in President Donald Trumps first few months in office. A total of nearly 788,000 illegal immigrants are DACA beneficiaries. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said in a House hearing last week thatCongress has to solve this problem.

More:
EXCLUSIVE: Loophole Could Give Thousands Of Illegal Immigrants A Path To Citizenship - The Daily Caller

Actor Diane Guerrero, ofOrange Is the New Black and Jane the Virgin fame, had kept herfamilysimmigration and deportation experiencea secretuntil about a few years ago. She revealed much about her personal trajectory in her book, In the Country We Love: My Family Divided.

Donald Trumps negative rhetoric on the campaign trail about immigrants, depicting them as criminals and rapists, prompted herto speak out, she said during arecentepisode of Salon Talks.

Herimmediate family, originally from Columbia,was deported when she was just 14;Guerrero was born in the U.S and allowedto remainher butwithout them. I needed to share my story, just to share sort of the other side of who an undocumented person is andwhatfamilies are affected by deportation and overall sort what our system looks like; that we have millions of families here going through the same thing, shesaid.

Young people often bear the brunt of family separation, Guerrero explained. These are the people who are not considered by the politicians making decisions in D.C. and by a lot people who dont understand the immigration system and who dont care to fix it.

She decriedthe out there to do this or that and [that] no one is offering up solutions. And right now the rhetoric is poisonous and its dividing us and its not really helping the country. When asked what progress would look like to her, she said she wants to see an immigration reform bill passed, citing former PresidentBarack Obamas efforts to attempt such reform and expandthe Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has been stopped time and time again.

Right now, I would like to see the country unite, said said. I would like to see people voting in 2018 for a Congress that is representative of them and their families, and Id like to see some sort of reform pass. Id like to see the visa system updated. Added Guerrero: If we start there, then we can see what happens.I mean we havent tried anything different.

When questioned about another type of negative imagery that emerged recently when comic Kathy Griffin shared a bloody, severed image of President Donald Trumps head, Guerrero replied,I dont necessarily think that what she did was helpful but I dont really think its that important. I mean whats important is the overuse of police brutality thats important. The separation of families thats important. Whats happening with the environment thats important.

Catch more of her conversation about immigration reform on Salon.

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WATCH: Orange Is the New Black star gives a personal spin on immigration reform - Salon

To the editor:

Why dont they just get in line?

This is the question many ask when it comes to immigrants attempting to enter our country to work. At this point, it is important we acknowledge that under our current immigration laws, it is simpler to come here illegally than legally.

We need immigrants to fill labor shortages, and immigrants want work. A reformed guest worker program should encourage law abiding, taxpaying, industrious seasonal laborers to work through a period of intense labor needs, and then allow them to go back home to family.

At present, there are seasonal opportunities for agricultural workers and other less skilled workers; however, this process is not streamlined and quite fastidious. An employer must petition for the worker, and the worker must, in some cases, be able to provide proof of a certain level of income or education.

The demand for workers who would like to immigrate to the Unites States is higher than the number of spots available each year, with significant labor shortages. The result: backlogs for workers hoping to come to the United States legally. The path to citizenship for some immigrants can take decades.

American Farmers and Ranchers currently serves over 130,000 Oklahoma members with grassroots chapters in 162 communities across the state.

AFRs immigration policy, as approved by its membership, reads as follows: We support a documented guest worker program for immigrant laborers that results in these individuals paying taxes, obeying local, state and federal laws with the option of returning to their home country. We support immigration laws that provide a system of identification, classification and taxation. We support the development of new authorization documents that cannot be manipulated or duplicated.

Each year, thousands of acres of Americas farmland goes unplanted and hundreds of millions of dollars of produce rots in the fields. Our Oklahoma farmers are being robbed of opportunities to diversify and produce niche market, labor intensive crops. Consequently, our economy, both rural and urban, suffers employment and revenue loss. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Oklahoma currently ranks 23rd when it comes to farming revenue, this includes all agricultural and animal related products.

This is not just a problem in Oklahoma. Because U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable growers have not been able just to maintain the domestic market share they held from 1998-2000, imports of those food products have increased 80 percent. Many of those products also are not produced under the same labor and production regulations that guarantee food safety equal to U.S. products. Consequently, this country and individual communities have suffered a loss of jobs in packaging, transportation, food processing, retail and other sectors.

When it comes to immigration reform, American Farmers and Ranchers urges legislators and congress to immediately address this issue. It is imperative to our nation that we move away from policies that hurt this countrys economy.

The rest is here:
LETTERS: Immigration reform necessary for farmers - Stillwater News Press

EDITOR:

I read Congressman Mike Coffmans guest editorial in the Aurora Sentinel (May 18) about the countrys need for immigration reform. I share his sentiment and want to thank him for his leadership on this issue.

In the piece, Congressman Coffman touched on sanctuary cities, which we hear a lot about in the news lately, then did an excellent job explaining how cities that shelter undocumented immigrants are not the real issue, but rather our broken immigration system as a whole. What followed was a logical and well-thought-out description of how to reform some key components.

First, its clear that safety is an important and necessary impetus to reform. Direction at the federal level has specified that for public safety reasons, there is a need to deport undocumented individuals with a violent history who are currently here in the country. However, this has created tension between ICE agents and local law enforcement. Police Chief Nick Metz has repeatedly stated that local Aurora law enforcement will not act as federal immigration agents and for good reason. If immigrants fear deportation, they are more likely to live in the shadows and less likely to report crimes. Congressman Coffman encourages local officials to cooperate with ICE when it comes to public safety, but clearly a fine balance will need to be sought.

Everyone agrees that immigration laws need to be enforced in order to help stop the influx of people entering into our country, but I was happy that Congressman Coffman sees a more rational approach to securing our borders, rather than building a wall. Instead of focusing efforts on keeping people out of our country, he suggests utilizing the E-Verify for employers to ensure they are employing individuals with a valid visa. Our immigration system was last reformed 27 years ago and technology has vastly evolved since then, so it makes sense to utilize it to streamline verification and make it easier for employers.

However, prior to mandating E-Verify, there must first be a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S., and Congressman Coffman appears to take a humane and realistic approach to this. He speaks to creating a transitional period, allowing a window of opportunity for immigrants to feel safe enough to come out of the shadows, to go through background checks, and if they pose no threat to be allowed to remain in the country with legal status. This not only addresses the concerns about separating families but also the economic impacts of deporting such a large number of undocumented immigrants. And I was more than pleased that Congressman Coffman believes we need to find a pathway to legalization for youth who were brought to the U.S. by their parents. Hes not only talked about this, hes helped introduce two bills, the BRIDGE Act, a bipartisan effort, and the RAC Act each through differing means would allow these kids and young adults an opportunity to remain in the country legally to live, work and study.

Comprehensive immigration reform will be a tedious yet necessary effort. Im proud that our district is represented by a congressman willing to work across the aisle, to take an accurate assessment of our current immigration situation, and to offer real solutions. I hope Congressman Coffman will serve as an example to the rest of our Colorado delegation and that all of our representatives will take a leadership role in working towards reform.

Alex McShiras is an associate attorney with Joseph Law Firm in Aurora.

Read more:
LETTER: Coffman on target with push for immigration reform - Aurora Sentinel