Obama Proposes Cuts to Important Immigration Enforcement Programs

On February 1, President Obama released the details of his Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 Budget Request, which seeks to cut funding for important immigration enforcement programs. Specifically, the president’s budget would slash funding for the Secure Border Initiative; cut funding for US-VISIT; and cut 180 agents from the Border Patrol. The president’s proposed budget also proposes to merely maintain funding for the critically underfunded State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP).

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Senators Push for Immigration Measures in Jobs Bill

In anticipation of jobs legislation Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid intends to bring to the floor this week (see, e.g., CBS, February 5, 2010), true immigration reformers in the Senate are seeking to add measures that would improve immigration enforcement while simultaneously helping the American worker. Last week, Senators Sessions (R-AL), Grassley (R-IA), Coburn, (R-OK), Vitter (R-LA), Chambliss (R-GA), Isakson (R-GA), Bunning (R-KY), and Inhofe (R-OK), sent a letter to Reid asking that he add these measures to any jobs legislation aimed at reducing unemployment in the United States.

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Fourteen Texas Busing Companies Implicated in Illegal Alien Smuggling Scheme

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 22 individuals charged with conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants as a result of a three-month investigation into fourteen Houston-area transportation businesses.  According to federal officials, the individuals “allegedly accepted cash from alien smugglers to move undocumented aliens in vans and SUVs from Houston to other cities around the United States.” ICE also arrested 81 suspected illegal aliens during the operation, who were then placed in deportation proceedings. (Id.).

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Obama’s Aunt Remains in the U.S. Illegally

Last week, a federal judge continued the asylum hearing for President Barack Obama’s aunt, Kenya native Zeituni Onyango. Ms. Onyango, the half-sister of Obama’s father, has been in the United States on an overstayed visa since 2000. Immigration officials ordered Onyango deported in 2004 after her first asylum request was rejected, but she ignored the order and is currently living in taxpayer-subsidized public housing in Boston. Id. At the immigration hearing last Thursday for her second bid for asylum, there was no immediate decision from Judge Leonard Shapiro.  Shapiro scheduled a follow-up hearing for May 25, though he may issue a ruling before then.

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