Free Republic

<p>Title: "VICTORY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS"</p> <p>The decision of a US Federal Judge in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, was considered a victory for the illegal aliens when he declared unconstitutional a municipal ordinance that was established to punish and to fine those who employ and those who house people who cannot demonstrate their legal presence in the United States.</p>

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE) set new records for enforcement activity, ended the long-standing practice of “catch-and-release” along the borders, launched major new initiatives, transformed its detention and removal process, and improved its intelligence functions. Some milestones include: Total arrests made in worksite enforcement cases was more than seven times greater than in 2002, the last full year of operations for U.S. INS. Ended “Catch-and-Release” for non-Mexican aliens existed for years and was one of the greatest impediments to border control. DHS and ICE re-engineered the detention and removal process to end this practice along the border, an accomplishment considered...

MINNEAPOLIS U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested at least five people from a Minneapolis apartment building yesterday -- setting off protests in the street. After recent arrests in Willmar, the Hispanic community is fearful that raids will be aimed at arresting illegal immigrants. ICE spokesman Tim Counts says the main goal yesterday was to arrest people wanted for criminal offenses, not immigration charges. He would not disclose the nature of the criminal charges. But more than 100 people including community activists went to the area of East Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue to witness the arrests. Many used camcorders...

News Releases May 15, 2007ICE uncovers metropolitan area credit card fraud schemeTwo arrested for allegedly embezzling $6 million from major banks including Bank of America, Citigroup, Wachovia NEWARK, N.J. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents today announced the arrests of two men for allegedly masterminding a significant credit card fraud scheme that resulted in the loss of over $6 million to credit card lenders and banks nationwide. On May 11, special agents from ICE’s Office of Investigations in Newark, N.J., arrested Akbar Wrind, a 54-year-old resident of Bayonne, N.J., and Rafael Marte, a 47-year-old resident of Walnut Port,...

WASHINGTON - About 11 million illegal immigrants were living in the U.S. at the start of this year, the federal government said in a report Friday. That's up from an estimated 8.5 million living in the country in January 2000, according to calculations by the Office of Immigration Statistics in the Department of Homeland Security. The office estimated that 10.5 million illegal immigrants were living in the United States in January 2005 and that the number grew at a national average of 408,000 a year. Estimates of the size of the illegal immigrant population vary widely according to the political...

A man from the Republic of Georgia is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison on a federal detainer after he and another foreigner were found in Murrysville with 15 prepaid cell phones and $4,200 in cash, police said. Malkhaz Zakutashvili, 53, was held through the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Murrysville police Sgt. Charles Tappe said. The federal agency told police not to hold the second man, Zurabi Maisuradze, 25, who is also of the Republic of Georgia, Tappe said.

DULLES, Va. -- An immigration raid at Dulles International Airport resulted in about 50 arrests, Immigration and Customs Enforcement says. Without specifying exactly what jobs the people hold, immigration officials say those arrested work for contractors, and would potentially have access to runways and airplanes. Officials say this operation and others like it aim to guard infrastructure. The agency says it's important to make sure people who work at airports are here legally. Investigation into the workers' immigration status has been going on for a while, leading up to the raid. The arrests have not affected flights or travel to...

Rumors Of Immigration Raids Spark Fear Among Illegal Immigrants April 29, 2006 Email This Story | Print This Story MIAMI -- Thousands of illegal immigrants have stayed home this week amid rumors of immigration roundups. Federal immigration officials said the rumors are unfounded, but fears of random sweeps are rampant from coast to coast. Thousands of immigrants have stayed home from work, taken their children out of school and avoided church. Those absences have caused the rumors to build, as some thought their missing friends and co-workers had been arrested. Construction and agriculture were among the industries most affected by...

A nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrant workers netted some arrests in the Capital Region on Wednesday. And now, one of the workers is speaking out about the raid. All the men are either from Honduras and Mexico and have been living at a home on Western Avenue -- a home they said IFCO provided for them for about $50 a week. While many of the men don't speak English, one of them did. He didn't want his name used, but he said he is 28 years old, from Mexico, and has been living and working in the U.S. illegally for...

Details are very sketchy, but we're told the Department of Homeland Security raided a Northeast Ohio business Wednesday. Gregory Palmore is with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement for Ohio and Michigan, and he says there were arrests and detentions as part of an ongoing ICE workforce investigation. Palmore says specifics of Wednesday's activities won't be released until Thursday because the operation is still underway. There are unconfirmed reports that the business is in Rittman in Wayne County, and more than a dozen people may have been arrested. Stay tuned to Newsradio WTAM 1100 for updates as we get more information.

In past commentary on the mass illegal alien protests around the country, we have wondered aloud where Immigration chieftess Julie L. Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been. We've also wondered aloud why ICE agents aren't converging on the mas protests to arrest the illegals. It would be like shooting fish in a barrell and very efficient. Now, we know the answer. We assumed that Julie Myers a/k/a "The ICE Princess" and other Homeland Security officials ordered agents to stay away from the protests and not arrest anyone. Yes, the same ICE Princess who pledged to Congress...

56 ILLEGAL ALIENS ARRESTED BY ICE AT CONSTRUCTION SITE ICE executes a criminal search warrant against Reich Installation Services Inc. CARTHAGE, Mo. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents here arrested 56 illegal aliens this morning following the execution of a criminal search warrant against Reich Installation Services Inc. of Pewaukee, Wis. The search warrant was executed at the Schreiber Foods construction site at 1206 W. Fairview, Carthage, Mo. Reich Installation Services is employed as a sub-contractor at this site. In addition to arresting the aliens working at the site, the criminal search warrant authorized seizure of business, financial...

ICE ARRESTS 375 GANG MEMBERS & ASSOCIATES IN TWO-WEEK ENFORCEMENT ACTION Action is latest under Operation Community Shield, which has yielded 2,388 gang arrests in first year WASHINGTON, D.C. - During a two-week enforcement action that culminated yesterday, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 375 gang members and associates in 23 states in a joint effort with law enforcement agencies nationwide. The arrests are the latest under the auspices of “Operation Community Shield,” a comprehensive initiative launched by ICE roughly one year ago to disrupt and dismantle transnational, violent street...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Nearly five years ago, the U.S. government exerted high-profile diplomatic pressure on China to secure the return of scholar Gao Zhan, a researcher at American University whom Beijing believed was a spy for Taiwan. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is pushing with equal vigor to have her deported back to China. Gao's case, set for a hearing Monday on the latest twist, became international news in February 2001 when she and her family were arrested by the Chinese on suspicion of espionage. Her husband, Xue Donghua, and the couple's 5-year-old son were released after a month...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a ceremony today to unveil the national Money Laundering Threat Assessment, Julie Myers, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), highlighted ICE’s innovative efforts and ongoing commitment to combat those money laundering threats identified in the report. “ICE is proud of its substantial contributions to the government’s first national Money Laundering Threat Assessment. We look forward to working with our partners in formulating a comprehensive strategy to address these threats,” said Assistant Secretary Myers. “Over the past few years, ICE has dramatically expanded its anti-money laundering efforts to address those...

Debbie Schlussel: BREAKING: As PREDICTED by SCHLUSSEL, Unqualified Julie Myers Gets Bush Recess Appt. to Head ICE By Debbie Schlussel DAMN! You heard it here, first. Back in November, we broke the news that Julie L. Myers--President Bush's unqualified nominee to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)--would get a recess appointment. Unfortunately, yet another of our dark predictions has come true (like our Al-Arian-would-walk prediction). Today, the White House announced that President Bush gave Ms. Myers the ultimate undeserved Christmas present over the holidays. Bush gave Julie Myers a recess appointment as Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, overseeing ICE. Happy...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - US immigration authorities said they discovered 25 undocumented migrants from Latin America being "held hostage" by human smugglers in a Los Angeles neighborhood. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents went to a home in Riverside, some 90 kilometers (56 miles) east of downtown Los Angeles, where they found 25 migrants crowded into two of the upstairs bedrooms. The migrants, who came from Ecuador, Guatemala, and El Salvador, said they had been held for more than a month and fed only once a day, said ICE spokesman Virginia Kice. "They make people enter the US illegally,"...

Across South Texas, immigrant outlaws traditionally have not had much reason to worry about getting caught. But starting next month, a new team of federal agents will be hitting the streets of San Antonio and other South Texas communities with the sole purpose of tracking them down and deporting them to their native countries. The agents will form the new seven-member "fugitive operations team" run by the San Antonio office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Homeland Security Department and the country's second-largest federal investigative agency after the FBI. Eighteen such teams operate across the country and...

A Saudi national who served as director of the Virginia office of the Muslim World League (MWL) has been deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on immigration charges. ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said Abdullah Alnoshan, 44, of Falls Church, was returned to Saudi Arabia over the weekend. He was arrested in July by ICE and FBI agents assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force. A criminal complaint charged Alnoshan with conspiring to commit immigration fraud by using fake employment documents to enter, exit and live in the United States. Alnoshan also was accused of seeking to deter...

A violent street gang whose members were arrested as part a nationwide sweep by Immigration and Customs officials on Monday had ties to al Qaida, U.S. intelligence officials say. Officials said the Central American gang MS-13 is one of the largest and most violent street gangs in the United States, and the majority of its members are in the country illegally. The gang has carried out beheadings and grenade attacks in Central America and is known to hack their enemies with machetes in cities along the East Coast in the United States. Intelligence officials warned in January that al-Qaida members...