• Tough, controversial immigration laws go into effect around U.S.

    The beginning of the new year saw tough immigration laws go into effect in several states, including Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Most of the laws require employers to use E-Verify to check to employment eligibility of job applicants, and in some authorize law enforcement personnel to inquire about the immigration status of individuals stopped for conduct unrelated to immigration.

  • Giant weed complicates border security

    To add to the difficulties of patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border, an invasive species of giant weeds has infested rivers throughout the southwest, particularly the Rio Grande in Texas, providing dense cover for illegal activities

  • Volunteers and cash pour in for private border fence

    Donations and volunteers continue to pour in for a privately funded fence along the U.S.– Mexico border in Arizona, according to Republican state legislator Steve Smith

  • DHS to drawdown troops along U.S.-Mexico border

    Beginning in January the National Guard troops deployed along the U.S-Mexico border will begin heading home to their respective states as part of a broader shift in their mission; the 1,200 troops currently deployed will be reduced to 300, with the majority of them focusing on supporting border patrol efforts in the air rather than on the ground

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  • CBP wasted $69 million in building border fence

    A recent government report reveals that DHS wasted $69 million by buying too much steel for a border fence project

  • Another foreign executive arrested in Alabama on immigration charges

    For the second time in recent weeks, Alabama law enforcement officials arrested a foreign car manufacturing executive under the state’s strict new immigration law

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  • Congressional Hispanic Caucus moves against Alabama immigration law

    Representative Luis Gutierrez (D – Illinois) is stepping up his attacks against Alabama’s immigration law by seeking to enlist DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano; this week Gutierrez and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with Secretary Napolitano to request that top federal immigration officials make it clear that immigration enforcement is a federal matter and out of states’ jurisdiction

  • DHS will provide immigration data demanded by House Republicans

    The Obama administration has agreed to provide information requested by House Republicans regarding its Secure Communities program and the process it uses to determine which illegal immigrants should be deported

  • DHS launches wide-ranging review of immigration court cases

    DHS said it will begin reviewing about 300,000 deportation proceedings to implement prosecutorial discretion measures laid out in a June 2011 ICE memo. The review is intended to allow overburdened immigration judges to focus on deporting foreigners who committed serious crimes or pose national security risks.

  • DHS will comply with subpoena regarding non-deported aliens

    House Republicans want to know how the Obama administration decides which aliens to deport and which aliens to allow to remain in the United States. DHS says it will comply with a congressional subpoena seeking DHS records on the issue.

  • Coyotes using GPS and smartphones to smuggle immigrants, avoid capture

    Human smugglers, or coyotes, have increasingly taken advantage of GPS equipped smartphones to sneak illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border; using the GPS capabilities of smartphones, coyotes stand at elevated points to carefully guide groups of illegal immigrants

  • DHS offers new guidance for when to dismiss immigration cases

    On Thursday, DHS issued guidelines to federal officials, advising that they should consider dismissing pending immigration cases involving some groups of illegal immigrants, among them children, college students, the elderly, and victims of domestic violence.

  • Alabama lawmakers backpedal on tough immigration law

    Republican senators in Alabama are currently working on a series of amendments that would ameliorate the tough immigration law that has sharply divided the state

  • Congressman says Obama's immigration strategy a “backdoor amnesty policy"

    Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) recently spoke with Homeland Security NewsWire’s Executive Editor Eugene K. Chow; in the interview Representative McCaul offered his views on President Obama’s current administration strategy, cost-effective strategies to secure the border, and ways DHS could improve Secure Communities; McCaul: “Technology working in concert with boots on the ground is the key to securing the border… [Border Patrol] agents need the benefit of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and infrared sensor technology to conduct surveillance, and then the resources to quickly pursue what is found”

  • Sixteen nations challenge South Carolina immigration law

    Sixteen nations are challenging a controversial new South Carolina immigration law; Mexico, Honduras, and Chile as well as thirteen other countries from Latin America and the Caribbean have asked to join the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit against the South Carolina law aimed at curbing undocumented immigrants