The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged Janet Napolitano

Arlington, Va., drops effort to opt out of immigration enforcement program

By | 11.08.10 | 9:18 am

After meeting with immigration enforcement officials, the county of Arlington, Va., is giving up on its push to remove itself from Secure Communities, a program that shares fingerprints collected for criminal background checks with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Arlington was one of three counties where officials said they More…

Report: Workers, visa system exploited by employers

By | 11.05.10 | 3:04 pm

Via the Kansas City Star, a government report released this week found that foreign workers are at times abused and exploited under the H-2B visa program, which allows companies to hire foreign workers for temporary jobs they can’t fill with Americans. The Government Accountability Office found that some More…

Arizona immigration law author elected state Senate president

By | 11.04.10 | 10:43 am

A quick dive into Arizona state politics: State Sen. Russell Pearce, the author of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, was selected as president of the Arizona Senate Wednesday after Republicans gained super-majorities in the state House and Senate in the elections. The new title will make Pearce even more powerful — More…

Virginia Tea Party Convention - Day 2

GOP aims to bolster immigration enforcement, but little change is likely

By | 11.04.10 | 6:00 am

During his campaign for the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama made the now-broken promise to Latino supporters that he would pass comprehensive immigration reform in his first year as president. But in remarks to the press on Wednesday, after Republicans took control of the House and won back several More…

Immigrant Rights Groups Demand Opt-Out Info

By | 10.28.10 | 6:27 pm

The process of opting out of the immigration enforcement program Secure Communities has been shrouded in secrecy and contradictory statements — most recently due to revelations that an opt-out process does not exist at all. In hopes of clarifying whether the program is mandatory, a coalition of immigrant More…

How Would a Republican Congress Handle Immigration?

By | 10.26.10 | 10:39 am

According to supporters of progressive immigration reform, not very well. A Republican-run House would put Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) in charge of the Judiciary Committee and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) atop its immigration subcommittee — meaning the two border security hawks would have a major say in all immigration-related legislation More…

GOP Senators Accuse Obama Administration of Avoiding Immigration Enforcement (Again)

By | 10.21.10 | 3:37 pm

Senate Republicans have long criticized the Obama administration as lax on immigration enforcement, and their argument was bolstered by news this week that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is dismissing a record-high number of cases against immigrant detainees in Houston. In response, seven pro-enforcement Republican senators sent a letter More…

Santa Clara Plans to Push Back on Immigration Enforcement Program

By | 10.20.10 | 2:29 pm

After Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials shot down the idea of communities opting out of an ICE program, law enforcement leaders in Santa Clara, Calif., are looking at other ways to avoid stepping up their involvement in immigration enforcement. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted Sept. More…

Report Blames DHS and Boeing for Delays With Border Security Project

By | 10.19.10 | 9:24 am

One of the major tenets of the Bush administration’s border security plan was the Secure Border Initiative Network, or SBInet, a system of high-tech radars, satellites and cameras to monitor the borders. The “virtual wall” is being developed by Boeing, but four years after a contract was awarded More…

Detention center

Undeterred by Government Reversal, Communities Keep Up Fight to Opt Out of Immigration Program

By | 10.08.10 | 6:00 am

Until last week, local officials in Arlington, Va., Santa Clara, Calif., San Francisco and Washington, D.C., thought they’d have no trouble opting out of the Secure Communities program, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiative that runs fingerprints collected by local police through federal immigration databases. After all, Secretary of Homeland More…