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Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, is scheduled to appear today at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Op-Ed editors asked seven legal experts to pose the questions they would like to hear the nominee answer. 1. If confirmed, you will be the only member of the Supreme Court who was a federal trial judge. You know that the factual findings of a trial judge or jury are based on a carefully assembled body of evidence. In your opinion, to what degree is an appeals judge confined by that evidential record in reaching...

Saying she still has no idea who sent her a box of dead fish, former top homeland security bioweapons official Maureen McCarthy says she has resigned from the department and begun legal action to clear her name. Occasionally breaking into tears during a 45-minute telephone interview, McCarthy called her resignation "involuntary" and said she had suffered severe financial distress since being suspended without pay in February over the incident. "I resigned against my will," she said. "I had no income, and I couldn't use my accrued annual leave" for cash. "By resigning I got that back," she said, and could...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano avoids mentioning terrorism or 9/11 in remarks prepared for her first congressional testimony since taking office, signaling a sharp change in tone from her predecessors. Napolitano is the first homeland security secretary to drop the term "terror" and "vulnerability" from remarks prepared for delivery to the House Homeland Security Committee, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press. Tom Ridge, who headed the agency when it was launched in 2003, mentioned terrorism 11 times in his prepared statement at his debut before the oversight committee in 2003. And in 2005 Michael...

Homeland Security plan also accounts for possible border surge by refugees fleeing the violence. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday that federal SWAT teams and military units are prepared to respond to Mexican drug gangs in the event they cross the Rio Grande and confront U.S. law officers. The forces, another department official said, also stand ready to manage any surge to the border by Mexicans panicked by the cartels’ violence. Chertoff described his department’s contingency planning in broad terms in an interview with the Houston Chronicle. The other department official provided details on condition of anonymity. Chertoff ordered...

Border communities from Tucson, Ariz. to Brownsville on Saturday will celebrate the end of Michael Chertoff's term as Homeland Security Secretary with piñatas, music and a retirement cake. There's only one catch: Chertoff isn't invited. Some of the secretary's most vocal critics will gather at Brownsville's Galeria 409, just a few yards from where the fence will be constructed, to commemorate what they consider Chertoff's disastrous tenure. "This is not a protest disguised as a party - this is a party," said Scott Nicol, of the No Border Wall Coalition. "Chertoff has only been secretary for three years but he...

Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees for a Maryland cleaning company before they entered the house of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation's top immigration official.

Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees for a Maryland cleaning company before they entered the house of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation's top immigration official. The company's owner says the workers sailed through the checks -- although some of them turned out to be illegal immigrants. Now, owner James D. Reid finds himself in a predicament that he considers especially confounding. In October, he was fined $22,880 after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators said he failed to check identification and work documents and fill out required I-9 verification...

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff declared success Wednesday on President Bush's vow to double the size of the U.S. Border Patrol and near-success on his pledge to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The two measures leave President-elect Barack Obama in a better position to get an immigration bill passed, he said.

Chertoff's letter to Perry reveals a clash of the titans U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff fired back Friday at Gov. Rick Perry's sharp criticism of federal efforts to deport illegal immigrants booked into Texas jails. Chertoff sent Perry a four-page letter defending what he termed as aggressive and expanded efforts by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to remove illegal immigrants, while complaining of a lack of cooperation from local law enforcement who jailed them for criminal offenses. "ICE, however, cannot remove and deport criminal aliens in State or local jails that it does not know about,' "...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government arrested and deported record numbers of illegal immigrants — nearly 350,000 — in the past year, authorities say. It has also naturalized a record number of new Americans during the same time period, more than 1 million. Bush administration officials consider these to be great accomplishments within a system that President-elect Obama calls "broken and overwhelmed" on his transition Web site.

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff plans to announce changes to rules designed to stop businesses from hiring people working in the country illegally. The rules proposed to force employers to fire workers whose names don't match their Social Security numbers. A Homeland Security official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement Thursday, says Chertoff will describe the changes, which were prompted by a judge's order. The American Civil Liberties Union, the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have sued Chertoff over the rules. They say the rules open the door for discrimination against legitimate workers....

Check it out, Live on FOX now. You can see why Bobby Jinal was on so many people's recomendation for VP.

Washington -- Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff on Monday blamed tightened security on the U.S.-Mexico border for increased violence there, and he said the border probably will not be fully secured until 2011, two years after President Bush leaves office. "(Increased violence) is what typically happens when you start to enforce and make it harder to fight over the shrinking pie, so to speak, and who gets the best opportunity to exploit the additional space that's left," Chertoff said at a news conference at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Monday. "That's a good...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has decided to award Boeing contracts for the construction of two sections of a high-tech fence to be built along the border with Mexico in Arizona, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Monday. The two fence sections would be an "operational configuration" of a much-criticized 28-mile (45-km) section of "virtual fence" built by Boeing and tested earlier, Chertoff told a news conference. He said the fence would include fixed towers, with radar sensors, remote control cameras, ground sensors and software linking border agents to give them a "common operating picture" of...

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday he had attended the funerals of too many Border Patrol agents killed in the line of duty to permit environmentalists to block construction of barriers and all-weather road along the Texas... Chertoff pitted the safety of Border Patrol agents against the efforts of environmentalists to stymie Bush administration plans to complete a border fence before leaving office in January. Some 670 miles of pedestrian fencing or vehicle barriers are planned along the 1,947-mile U.S.-Mexico boundary.Chertoff, who has set aside some environmental restrictions to speed fence construction, said he didn't want to "get enmeshed...

Security chief stresses that funds would fight drugs in speech at Rice Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Thursday accused congressional critics of imperiling a "historic opportunity" by tinkering with a proposal to provide $500 million in aid to help Mexico combat heavily armed narco-traffickers menacing the U.S.-Mexico border. Chertoff indirectly addressed criticism raised by lawmakers — including Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble; and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin — during a wide-ranging, 48-minute address at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have balked...

LONDON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff downplayed the threat of a nuclear terror attack Friday despite recent postings on al-Qaida-affiliated Web sites exhorting militants to pursue weapons of mass destruction for use against the U.S. Speaking at London's Oxford Union, Chertoff said that while officials acknowledge al-Qaida's interest in developing such capability, the U.S. was more concerned about terrorists' use of conventional arms. "The short answer is the intent is there. Its probability, particularly in the short term, is lower than conventional weapons," he told the students and journalists in attendance at the famed debating society.

GALVESTON — Saying he wanted to “drive a stake through the heart of a misapprehension which is out there,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Border Patrol checks will not bog down Rio Grande Valley or other hurricane evacuations. “Instructions to the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection are clear,” Chertoff said in a statement out of Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington. “They are to do nothing to impede a safe and speedy evacuation of a danger zone. “Now, obviously, the laws don't get suspended, but it does mean that our priorities are to make sure we...

Build the U.S. Border Fence Now! Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and the Bush administration are deservedly under assault for not keeping their promises. After a long public outcry over promises broken, the government says they have agreed to construct a border fence. But this is Washington, promises aren't meant to actually be honored. Chertoff and the Bush administration are creating needless public controversy about the fence over what must be done to and with the land, and they are exploiting a backdoor Democrat Party and Open Borders Lobby effort that provides a smoke screen for the feds to...

The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps. Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said...

Three years after Congress granted the federal government unprecedented waiver authority, 14 congressmen are challenging how that authority is being used to construct a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., led a group, including Rio Grande Valley U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, to file a brief in Supreme Court which questions the constitutionality of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's waivers. Last week's waivers filed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff would suspend more than 30 laws, which Chertoff said could interfere with "the expeditious construction of barriers." It was the fourth set of...

NEW HAVEN — Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff Monday said New Haven’s city ID card program is another example of why the country needs comprehensive immigration reform. Chertoff, who delivered the keynote speech at the Yale Law School at its first Heyman Federal Public Service Colloquium, was asked if the card “promotes or endangers public safety.” Probably the first in the country, the card offers a means of identification to all residents, including illegal immigrants, and provides entry to certain city services. City police have said the immigrants are now more willing to come forward as witnesses to crimes. Snip...

A failure to enact comprehensive federal immigration reform has led to extreme measures at the local level around the country on both sides of the contentious issue, the nation's homeland security secretary said Monday. Michael Chertoff, who spoke at Yale Law School, was asked about New Haven becoming the first city in the nation last year to issue identification cards to illegal immigrants. "New Haven is probably at one extreme of the approach to the issue of illegal immigration," Chertoff said. He said the other extremes were some parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia that have tried to make it illegal...

To the long list of things the Bush administration is willing to trash in its rush to appease immigration hard-liners, you can now add dozens of important environmental laws and hundreds of thousands of acres of fragile habitat on the southern border. On Tuesday, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, waived the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and other environmental protections to allow the government to finish building 700 or so miles of border fence by year’s end without undertaking legally mandated reviews of the consequences for threatened wildlife and their habitats. Will this stop or slow...

Secretary Chertoff is riding into the sunset—dragging the fence behind him. As mentioned in yesterday’s immigration blog by Steve Elliott the Sun Sets on the Border Fence On 12/31/08. This sunset provision of the Omnibus bill H.R. 2764 declares that the Secretary of Homeland Security loses all authority to build the fence—even if he wants to. However, even with the authority to build the fence, the Secretary has been lazy in using it. In a February 22, press release he claims that the Department of Homeland Security has built 302.4 miles of combination pedestrian and vehicle fencing and well on...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Homeland Security Department is appealing a judge's ruling against its proposal to force employers to fire workers whose names don't match their Social Security numbers, and promises to try to make the policy a law. A federal judge in San Francisco blocked the "no-match rule" in October, saying it would likely impose hardships on businesses and their workers. Employers would incur new costs to comply with the regulation that the government hasn't evaluated, and innocent workers unable to correct mistakes in their records in time would lose their jobs, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote. In...

WASHINGTON - Homeland security officials on Friday hinted at a possible face-saving deal to end their standoff with a handful of states over new driver's license rules — a dispute that, left unresolved, could cause big air travel headaches. For weeks, the Homeland Security Department has been headed toward a showdown with some states over a law called Real ID, which would require new security measures for state-issued driver's licenses. Yet a late Good Friday letter from a top DHS official suggested Washington may be backing away from a messy fight. South Carolina, Maine and Montana are the only states...

The Department of Homeland Security, continuing to enforce what it calls a "strict policy of arresting, prosecuting and jailing" illegal immigrants, deported a record number of those caught on the nation's borders last year — more than 280,000 in fiscal year 2007 compared to 186,000 a year earlier. It was the largest number of illegals ever removed from the country in a single year. The increase is attributable to what veteran law enforcement authorities said is a revised apprehension process, adding that the department no longer is targeting only criminal aliens for removal, but seeks eventually to apprehend, charge and...

The US government is demanding the right to ban British air passengers from flying over America en route to other countries – even when the flights will not land in the United States. Under anti-terrorism measures due to come into force within two years, the US authorities insist they need to do background checks on all UK air passengers travelling to Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. Direct flights to popular holiday destinations such as the Bahamas, Barbados, Toronto and Mexico City would all be covered by stringent US security checks examining people's passport details, travel plans and even...

208,000-worker, $38 billion agency fails to deliver on a slew of projects Stumping for President Bush's ill-fated immigration overhaul in 2006, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff vowed that his department would wrest "operational control" of the nation's borders away from human and drug traffickers within five years. That projection was based on the prospect of tough new enforcement measures as well as a temporary-worker program meant to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants, including the most ambitious use of surveillance technology ever tried on the U.S.-Mexico border. Two years later, the legislative overhaul has been shelved, development of the "virtual...

WASHINGTON — Bristling at attacks from Texans opposed to building a fence along the Texas-Mexico border, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday that he will not be intimidated into abandoning the federal government's plans by harsh words or lawsuits. "I'm willing to have a fair and constructive discussion, but I'm not willing to have an endless discussion," Chertoff told reporters at a breakfast meeting. "Insulting me or attacking me does not cause me to go, 'ooh, I've been insulted and attacked, I'm going to stop doing what I'm doing.' " The Homeland Security Department has been on the...

It is often said in Washington circles that when it comes to reforming U.S. immigration or helping the world in fighting AIDS, President George W. Bush far surpasses the capabilities of many of his predecessors. Again on January 28, 2008, President George W. Bush delivered an important message on strengthening U.S. immigration in his State of the Union Address. While millions of Americans watched, he stated, "America needs to secure our borders -- and with your help, my administration is taking steps to do so. We're increasing worksite enforcement, deploying fences and advanced technologies to stop illegal crossings. We've...

WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff's eyes narrow and his voice develops a stern, urgent tone as he reveals America's biggest vulnerability to terrorism. "The great weapon they have is persistence and patience, and the one weakness that we have is the tendency to lose patience and become complacent," Chertoff tells WTOP. "It strikes me as hard to accept that anybody would believe the threat is over. There is nothing these terrorists are doing or saying that could lead a reasonable person to believe that they have somehow lost interest. Our biggest challenge is making sure we do not...

EDINBURG— The federal government and local officials in one border county announced Friday they had reached a compromise that would eliminate the need for the much-maligned border fencing there. Private land in Hidalgo County border towns such as Granjeno, where dozens of homes could have been lost behind the fence in a no-man's land between Mexico and the United States, would no longer be threatened by a land grab, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. But the 22 miles of combined levee and border wall under the compromise would be a small portion of the 370 miles of border barriers...

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday he is heading to Texas to tie up plans for a flood wall along the Rio Grande that could double as part of a border fence. Chertoff told The Associated Press he would be in McAllen on Friday, and that he's very close to reaching an agreement with county officials to build the wall and hoped to "tie the knot" on the plans. His department has been discussing with Hidalgo County a proposal to build a wall to beef up flood levees and comply with a 2006 law requiring 700 miles...

Sunday, 20 January 2008 Statement by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on the Killing of a Border Patrol Agent in the Line of Duty Earlier today the Border Patrol lost a brave agent assigned to the Yuma Sector in a heinous act of violence. The agent was struck and killed while attempting to stop two vehicles believed to have illegally entered the country and were absconding back into Mexico. Our thoughts and prayers are with the agent's family, and with the entire Border Patrol community. I am outraged by this tragic loss. I have spoken to the Mexican ambassador who...

WASHINGTON - New border crossing rules to take effect at the end of the month will initially mean longer lines for those entering the country, including returning Americans, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday. But he said the rules are necessary to prevent another Sept. 11-style attack. Critics of the effort need to "grow up," Chertoff said in an Associated Press interview. Starting Jan. 31, a driver's license and oral declaration of citizenship will no longer be enough to enter the United States for Americans and Canadians age 19 and older. People will have to present proof of citizenship,...

WASHINGTON — Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11 security rules to be unveiled Friday by federal officials. The Homeland Security Department has spent years crafting the final regulations for the REAL ID Act, a law designed to make it harder for terrorists, illegal immigrants and con artists to get government-issued identification. The effort once envisioned to take effect in 2008 has been pushed back in the hopes of winning over skeptical state officials.

The Homeland Security Department today released the 284-page final rule for implementing the Real ID Act that would standardize the handling of personal information for driver’s licenses. The release of the long-awaited final implementation regulations — the law was passed in 2005 — is expected to spur contracting activity on the program after months of uncertainty as federal officials were crafting the rule. (snip) The final rule also requires a 2-Dimensional Bar Code Machine Readable Zone, which DHS said is already used by 46 jurisdictions. Under the Real ID Act of 2005, states must meet new rules for collecting, verifying,...

"There comes a point in time where all the discussion and analysis has to stop. We are now six years away from 9/11. Simply kicking this problem further down the road is a time-tested Washington way of smothering a proposal with process," said Chertoff. "The time has come to bite the bullet." Or, as Jack Bauer might say (while in the midst of breaking half a dozen laws in the name of stopping an impending attack), "We're running out of time!" Chertoff summarized the major features of the final rules as follows: People must provide documentation that proves who they...

McALLEN — The Texas Border Coalition — the anti-border fence group made up of elected officials along the Texas-Mexico border — is demanding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security meet with local leaders in light of the appropriations bill Congress passed Wednesday. “The consultation we’ve been having with them up until now, it’s just been smoke and mirrors,” said coalition Chairman Chad Foster, the mayor of Eagle Pass. “Now, we’re getting the Texas congressional delegation involved to make sure DHS is sincere when they sit down.” The border coalition has been trying to get DHS to listen to alternatives to...

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is giving Texas landowners opposed to a border fence one last chance to allow access to their land before he takes court action against them, a Texas senator said Thursday. Sen. John Cornyn said letters from the Department of Homeland Security are expected to go out Friday. But for those who refuse access, the department would likely seek a court order to enter the property, he said. "He assured me that negotiations would continue and his hope is the vast majority of these cases could be resolved without litigation, maybe in handful of...

Border wars Saturday, November 24, 2007 It is time to wrap the flag around U.S. Border Patrol Agents -- America's last line of defense. Vicious Mexican-based gangs are increasing their attacks on outmanned and outgunned law-enforcement authorities along the border. And The Washington Times reports the enemy arsenal includes assault rifles, high-tech radios, computers, cell phones, Global Positioning Systems and low-tech Molotov cocktails.

Sanctuary cities – whether their law enforcement personnel deliberately obstruct federal immigration enforcement or simply ignore such violations when they encounter them – soon could be facing the wrath of the federal government in court, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff recently told a congressional committee he didn't intend to "tolerate interference" by sanctuary cities that would block companies from participating in such programs as "E-Verify," which allows workers' IDs to be checked before hiring. "I intend to take as vigorous legal actions as the law allows to prevent that from happening, prevent that kind...

In an attempt to find alternatives to the proposed border fence, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has asked Homeland Security to find alternative means to the fence. Cornyn on Wednesday sent a letter to Secretary Chertoff asking that he consider improving the levees of the International Boundary and Water Commission as another choice to an actual fence being built. “The IBWC proposal presents good alternatives for border security fencing which can be a ‘win-win’ for both DHS and the Rio Grande Valley…I strongly encourage you to fully examine the IBWC alternative proposal and assess its merits, technical feasibility, operational advantages and...

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Monday invoked his power to bypass certain laws to restart construction of a fence on the Arizona-Mexico border. Chertoff's action allows construction to go forward on about seven miles of fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area near Naco, Ariz. Work on nearly two miles of the fence had been suspended since Oct. 10, when a federal district judge ordered a delay on its construction. She ruled the federal government did not fully study the environmental impact of the fence. Congress gave Chertoff the power to waive environmental and other...

House members allied with the domestic steel industry blasted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday for building a fence on the Mexican border with Chinese steel. “By allowing the use of Chinese pipe [a type of steel], DHS is allowing the U.S. taxpayer to subsidize Chinese production at the expense of the American workers,” Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) said at a press conference. “This is completely unacceptable.” “This is outrageous, it’s offensive and it’s unacceptable,” charged Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.). English displayed photos of a portion of the border fence from San Luis, Ariz., that shows pipes marked...

PHARR, October 11 - Texas border congressmen have formally asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to extend the comment period for those wishing to speak about the border wall environmental scoping process. “No one understands the intricacies of border communities – and the detrimental impact rushing into construction of fencing will have – more than the residents along the US-Mexico border,” the letter states. “Our communities support safe and secure borders and simply ask for adequate time to share their concerns with their government, as they have a right to do.” The letter goes on to say that the Department...

Today the feds will announce a huge nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrants, especially gang members. The goal is to take some of the more violent illegal immigrants off the streets. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says the crackdown serves as an example of how important the issue is. "For many years, the way we dealt with illegal immigration was we paid political lip service to toughness. I think we've got to show the public that we are serious about enforcing the laws."

Two editorials in today’s Washington Post and New York Times offer a good illustration of the kind of obstacles our Department faces in dealing with the problem of illegal immigration. The Washington Post writes that our use of Social Security no-match letters to prevent the hiring of illegal workers actually harms legal workers as well. That is simply not true. Legal workers can provide any number of identity documents to establish or clarify their work eligibility, including a passport. Having incorrect information in our databases, such as a name and Social Security Number that do not match, is not grounds...