Andy: That story about ICE vastly exaggerating the level of enforcement is probably a little more complicated. The researchers are putting ICE in the hot seat, saying the agency either is lying about the level of enforcement or withholding massive amounts of data requested under the Freedom of Information Act, intentionally or negligently. The researchers’ FOIA appeal spells this out (emphasis added):
If we assume the agency’s public claims are correct, then the files we received were grossly deficient – a fact immediately apparent from how few records they contained. Records for 80,695 apprehensions were missing. Information on 159,169 individuals deported weren’t there, and data on 226,639 individuals who had been detained weren’t in the files we received.This is withholding on a massive scale! Indeed the margin of discrepancy suggests either extreme negligence in how our FOIA request was handled or willful unlawful behavior in knowingly withholding these public records.
On the other hand, if one assumes that the FOIA request was properly handled, then ICE has been making highly exaggerated and inaccurate claims about the level of its enforcement activities. We note that the alleged failure of the federal government to enforce immigration laws has been a hotly debated topic during both the Bush and Obama administrations. Thus,the agency’s apparent inability to substantiate the level of its claimed enforcement activity is a very significant matter. Indeed, it is central to the current public debate on federal immigration enforcement policy in the ongoing presidential election campaign.
I suspect the problem is a combination of all three possibilities: Janet Napolitano’s subordinates intentionally withheld some data, botched the collection of other data, and are exaggerating the level of enforcement, though that would mean the exaggeration isn’t as gigantic as these data would suggest.
But whatever the real story is, it’s pretty clear we still don’t have the institutional capacity to properly enforce the immigration laws. Two other bits of news reinforce that conclusion. The Daily reported yesterday that:
Higher-ups within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are pressuring rank-and-file officers to rubber-stamp immigrants’ visa applications, sometimes against the officers’ will, according to a Homeland Security report and internal documents exclusively obtained by The Daily.
Of course, this pressure to “get to yes” is pervasive in the State Department, as my colleagues Jessica Vaughan and David Seminara, both former Foreign Service officers, have noted, so it’s no surprise to see it at USCIS, too. Congressional hearings are being scheduled, but even throwing the current management out as of January 2013 won’t be enough. Any time you have a complicated body of law that various pressure groups benefit from, there will be implacable political pressure to game the system. This is as true of immigration law as it is of the tax code or environmental regulation. While this problem will never disappear (unless we enter the libertarians’ Bizarro World and abolish all regulation of immigration), there are ways to address it, and they’re the same as with the tax code — minimize and simplify. Cut the level of taxation and immigration, and radically streamline the system by eliminating loopholes and targeted programs.
Finally, my colleague David North just today has crunched numbers dumped by USCIS and found that it’s become dramatically easier to get citizenship. Of the naturalization decisions rendered in FY 2000, 31.1 percent were denials. In 2011, only 7.6 percent were denials. As David notes:
The data in the table reinforce what I have written in several previous blogs: USCIS is an agency that loves to say “yes” when asked to grant a benefit and its current leadership is leaning on the system to make it even more friendly to applicants of all kinds.
As I've mentioned before, my neighbor received her green card last year just 5 months after marrying a citizen, despite being a 6-year tourist overstay and waitressing during much of that time. She was very pleasantly surprised, as speedy approval in such a case has not traditionally been the norm.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd Mine(Employment based) took a full 9+ years and got approved around 3 months back. Wish I could find someone with that "yes" attitude in USCIS. The agency actually sucks. Not because it approves too many people, but for not doing much for the money they get. This includes deportations. Once a lazy, always a lazy.
During Obama times, however things are slightly more orderly. During Bush days, the agency did minimal work for long periods of time and then all of a sudden open a lottery style flood gate to clear applications once they found themselves short of revenue. Bush folks also changed policy and procedures every other day and kept telling us.. oh here.. here is the new hoop now for you to jump..
So I know why Mark loves the Bush team.
However, marriage(to USC) based green cards take only 3-6 months. It has been true always. The green card is conditional and conditions are removed if the marriage stay intact after 2 years.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLEGAL IMMIGRATION—NOT—illegal immigrants? There is a vast difference.
Now that we have the results from the Iowa Caucuses, we must carefully peruse the issues as seen by the candidates and the ever present innocuous problem of the illegal alien occupation.
Mitt Romney during a campaign stop in Iowa on New Year’s Eve, the former governor stated that he would veto the so-called DREAM Act if he was president. And as governor of Massachusetts, Romney allowed state troopers to be deputized to help with the enforcement of immigration laws. He also opposed attempts to allow illegal aliens to pay the lower in-state tuition rates at state universities. Although he opposes the DREAM Act, Romney seems open to grant legal residency status to those who serve in the U.S. military.
Rick Santorum throughout his time as senator, Santorum consistently opposed bills that would grant amnesty or other legalization benefits for illegal aliens. He voted against a bill that would have produced a guest worker program with a path to US citizenship for certain illegal aliens. In addition he voted in opposition to a bill that would allow certain illegal aliens to participate in social security system. Rick Santorum also voted in support of constructing a fence along our Southern border and doesn’t believe in amnesty, although he opposes deporting the millions of illegal aliens already residing in the U.S.
Ron Paul has a similar attitude towards illegal immigration, that he opposes Amnesty, but does not support deporting the estimated 20 million plus illegal aliens currently squatting in the U.S. Paul introduced a bill that would amend the 14th Amendment to the Constitution so that children born to non-citizens within the U.S. could not attain automatic citizenship.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, has the best stance on illegal immigration, but sadly she has stepped down as a presidential candidate. Although Bachman has left the race, she will still carry the banner of the TEA PARTY. As Senators and House members are regurgitated so to speak for reelection. We must insist that they will follow the laws passed down to us by our founding fathers? Not the Socialist movement by President Obama and his rat patrol, assaulting the sovereign rights of individual states. Every politician should promise to uphold the U.S. Constitution, which is the promise to tens of millions of TEA PARTY members of freedom and liberty. To restrain a government out of control and shrink it; to rewrite the antique current tax code and replacing it with a fair and equitable tax for all and no special advantages for those in power; open up our abundant oil deposits and tell the environmentalists, ‘to put a sock in it.’
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich surprised his audience at a town hall meeting in Naples, Florida in November. He said, “I am not for a path to citizenship for anybody who got here illegally… But I am for a path to legality for those people whose ties run so deeply in America that it would truly be a tragedy to try and rip their family apart.” But Rick Perry, the Texas governor has not only granted illegal aliens to pay the lower, in-state tuition at state colleges and universities, he also proposed legislation that allows them to receive tax-payer supported state education grants. In August the Obama administration began a new policy that subject to the illegal alien apprehended, only those with severe criminal records would be deported. Perry at a campaign stop in New Hampshire told the crowd that under his administration, “I call this a horrific policy, but the Obama administration has a catch and release policy where non-violent illegal aliens are released into the general public today. My policy will be to detain and to deport every illegal alien that we apprehend. That is how we stop that issue.”
Just in California, L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich States the illegal alien cost is $550 million for public safety and nearly $500 million for healthcare, the total cost for illegal immigrants to just Los Angeles County taxpayers exceeds $1.6 billion dollars a year. These costs do not include the hundreds of millions of dollars for schools.
Notably is the Liberal press using a different stance to promote the millions of illegal migrants and immigrants already here--saying that it’s good for the economy or asserting these people pay taxes. Yes many do, but they are using either stolen Social Security numbers from innocent citizens, or an IRS number known as an ITIN number. A substantial motivation is they have no alternative, if they want to get a payroll job? Then according to the 'Heritage Foundation' the amount of $113 Billion dollars goes to supplementing illegal aliens by hard-pressed taxpayers and every year that amount is rising. The liberal Progressives are also pushing the environmental position, elaborating the issue for no fencing, because it was detrimental to wild life. Of course nothing is said about the crisis situation for ranch owners, who live in fear from the criminals and illegal aliens passing through their land. These parties burglarize their homes, cutting fences and committing other crimes in the four Border States. Equally unappetizing is the mounds of human garbage left in the border regions, with animals caught up in the tangle of plastic bottle holders or other trash.
As released by the IRS, illegal immigrants are returned 4.5 Billion in child/parent tax credits on fraudulent documentation. Little known to most readers is that these foreign invaders send out of the country annually to foreign banks, between 40-46 billion dollars. Yes! They do pay taxes, but it hardly has any impact on the money that is extorted from federal and state taxpayers for children of illegal aliens and drains state treasuries, without compensation. Money going to educate, the massive health care deficit and an overpopulated prison system filled with drug dealers, killers, molesters, pedophiles and a growing proportion of hit and run propagation of drunken drivers; those that are caught.
The Tea Party doesn't discriminate against any nationality or race, this is an offensive plan by the Democrats to undermine the alternative party who are strictly against illegal immigration, but openly welcomes those who patiently legally wait their turn, in becoming part of the opportunity that is America.
If Obama remains president and reigns supreme for another term, he will rescind the immigration laws that make us safe from drug dealers, drunken hit & run drivers and a whole mess of criminals reaching American soil. The Obama mob led by Eric Holder, Morton, Pelosi and Napolitano have divided American society after not only suing starting with Arizona, but have committed their Liberal agenda of using their mismanaged force to go after Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa county whose duty is to enforce his state law. Obama is complicit in not enforcing immigration laws and now suddenly become slack in deporting nationals. Demand your politician’s co-sponsor the ‘Legal Workforce Bill, known statewide, Mandatory E-Verify. Stop the occupation of our country from other nations, before it’s too late. You can by calling your Senator and Congress person in Congress at 202-224-3121.
Our countries laws are being undermined and our sovereignty trashed by Obama's mules in the Department of IN-Justice. Join a constitutional-oriented TEA PARTY near you. Make sure Obama becomes a one term president, before his Liberal henchman erodes away the US Constitution. Join the non-profit pro-sovereignty organization. NUMBERSUSA. Be on your guard as illegal aliens have vote and will again in 2012, unless we institute that every voter posses picture ID--which can be authenticated. After the true double fence is built along the border, then at such times a uniform ‘Guest Worker’ program can be enacted by Congress. The TEA PARTY believes in an immigration ‘Point System’ like Europe, Australia and New Zealand, that welcomes highly skilled workers with exception background in Engineering, the Sciences and Mathematics. We must be more selective and enforce the laws as legislated in the 1986 Simpson/Mazzoli bill.
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