BORDER NEWS WATCH SPECIAL EDITIONS - 5/2019

5/2/2019 BORDER NEWS WATCH SPECIAL EDITION

Opinion Polls
Poll Finds Growing Concern over Southern Border
Just 31% Oppose Plan to Send Illegals to Sanctuary Communities
For Voters, Illegal Immigration Remains Big Problem, But Not for Democrats
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Opinion
Let Immigrant Families Pay Us—Not Cartels—to Come
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US Congress
RSC Budget Proposes to Strengthen Immigration System
Reps. Cuellar, Rogers back bill to reinstate overtime pay for border agents
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CIS
A Bipartisan Panel Reports Alarming Findings on the Border Crisis
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Can the President Shut Down the Border?
Can the President Shut Down the Border?

Buttressing The Border – On Both Sides

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DHS
Migrant families and nowhere to put them: How the acting DHS chief plans to handle the southern border
DHS Nielsen: Border Security Is in ‘System-Wide Meltdown‘ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CBP
Chavez tabbed for Laredo Sector CBP post

Laredo BP announces hire of new chief patrol agent
‘Tip of the Spear’ Cuts CBP Hiring Contract Short __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Border Patrol
Border Patrol offers raises to keep agents as staffing falls below goals

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VISA Overstays
President Seeks to Reduce Visa Overstays
CBP: New Technologies Result in More Apprehensions of Visa Overstayers
Why Immigrants Who Overstay U.S. Visas Are So Difficult To Track
DHS Reports Slight Dip in Overstays in 2018
President Seeks to Reduce Visa Overstays
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CIS: Border Videos
2019 Border Tour Videos
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Transnational Organized Crime
Transnational Organized Crime and National Security
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Terrorism
Exclusive: Intelligence Report Refutes Donald Trump’s Claim Terrorists Are Pouring Across the U.S.-Mexico Border
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Pima County Arizona
Pima County asks Border Patrol for help with migrants
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GOM
Homan: Trump Is Right, Mexico 'Not Doing Enough' to Stop Caravans, Human Smuggling
Things getting tougher for Central American migrants who travel across Mexican territory ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lukeville
Lukeville, southwest of Tucson, now a hot spot for families crossing border
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Judicial
Prosecutors: Judge And Court Office Helped Illegal Alien Escape ICE
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The Most Dangerous Cities in the World
The most dangerous cities on Earth revealed ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

U of A
UofA “Campus Conversation” On Border Patrol Agents A Bust, Lawmakers Blast LaWall

· Costa Rica Sees Growing Demand for Ketamine, Synthetic Drugs

· Will an Algorithm Help Colombia Predict Crime?

· High-Ranking Bolivia Police Gave Protection to Wanted Drug Trafficker

· Peru Criminals Set Up Phony Govt Agency to Receive Bribes

· Okaida, Gang Inspired by Al-Qaeda, Expands in Northeast Brazil

· Prison Mafia in Venezuela is Not Just the ‘Pranes’: Carlos Nieto

· Will New Arrest Warrant Hamstring Colombia Peace Process?

· Mexico Cartel Presence in Colombia May Have Been Exaggerated

· Atlantic Cartel in Honduras Shipped Cocaine to South Korea

· Op-Ed: Could the FARC Peace Process in Colombia Still Fail?

· The ELN Gets Richer, Stronger in Southern Bolívar

· Mexico Red Cross Caught in Crossfire of Rival Criminal Groups

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The following was excerpted from: Breitbart News See: https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/01/08/29-facts-about-the-border-and-mexican-cartels-you-need-to-know/

29 Facts About the Border and Mexican Cartels You Need to Know

As the debate about the construction of a wall and other border security issues, here are 29 facts that you need to know. The topics came up during the most recent episode of “Coffee with Scott Adams.” Brandon Darby, the Managing Editor for Breitbart’s Border and Cartel Chronicles, sat down with the famed creator of the Dilbert comics to discuss the intricacies of border security.

1) No one is proposing a wall between all of Mexico and the U.S.—the U.S. southern border is approximately 2,000 miles. The discussion is about 1,000 miles of physical barriers in regions that are heavily controlled by drug cartels.

2) The Texas border is about 1,200 miles of the approximately 2,000 miles of the total southern border. Most of that border is the Rio Grande, a river which varies in intensity with respect to currents.

3) Mexico has numerous states under the direct influence of drug cartels that have standing armies with access to RPGs, armored vehicles, artillery, and explosives. Most of Mexico has military forces patrolling streets to deal with cartel paramilitary forces.

4) The most violent drug cartels operate south of the Texas border. Factions of Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel routinely allow their violence to spill over to the average person.

5) The border city of Tijuana has some of the highest murder statistics in all of Mexico. Despite record-setting figures, most of the victims tend to be tied to drug trafficking.

6) Border cities south of Texas like Reynosa, Tamaulipas, have much lower murder rates than Tijuana. Despite the difference, average citizens are often touched by cartels including shootouts, kidnappings, and other violent activities.

7) Most of the efforts by drug cartels to control migration happens South of the Texas border. Criminal organizations like the Reynosa faction of the Gulf Cartel profit more from human smuggling than drug trafficking.

8) The majority of tunnels are found on the Arizona and California borders. The tunnels are generally discovered in areas where there are population centers on both sides of the border and a wall or fence is already in place. Few have been found in Texas, where there is a river.

9) Most tunnels are discovered thanks to informants; law enforcement technology has rarely been successful in locating border tunnels.

10) Most of the border does not have a drug tunnel problem. They are typically found in Douglas and Nogales, Arizona, as well as Mexicali, San Diego/San Isidro, California.

11) Cartels spend a lot of money building a tunnel–only to be discovered shortly after.

12) Claims by Democrats about the low crime rates in El Paso are an example of walls working. In areas with considerable border barriers such as El Paso, the regional criminal groups turn more professional and shy away from illegal immigration to traffic harder drugs through ports of entry.

13) The presence of physical barriers in cities like El Paso has led to fewer people coming over the border to commit petty crimes or bring loads of drugs on their backs. The criminal organizations in the area shifted toward corrupting U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to smuggle harder drugs.

14) A partially secured border is more deadly than an open or well-secured one. Previous administrations put barriers south of most cities in Arizona and California to funnel illicit traffic into areas that were easier to manage or too desolate to cross. This led to a spike in deaths since the desire of people to reach the U.S. pushes them to more remote and dangerous areas

15) Human smuggling and illegal immigration will continue to be a problem until economic opportunities improve in Mexico and in Central America.

16) Mexican transnational criminal groups and their leaders have grown beyond the size and power of the American mafia from Prohibition Era and Al Capone. Cartels are integrated into the Mexican political culture and bureaucracy. Legalization would not stop them.

17) The decriminalization of marijuana and the production of higher quality plants in the U.S. versus Mexico had a series of unspoken consequences. After marijuana from Mexico was not able to compete with U.S.-grown plants, some cartels shifted their model more toward human smuggling–becoming a factor in the 2014 migrant crisis and the current one at the U.S. border.

18) After marijuana decriminalization in the U.S., cartels shifted to increase their cultivation of poppies and the production of black tar heroin. In order to compete with the Asian product, cartels use fentanyl–playing a role in the current opioid overdose epidemic.

19) The U.S. State Department influences how hard authorities crack down on cartels. U.S. agencies have been told to “measure their law enforcement priorities with the State Department’s diplomatic concerns.”

20) A cartel’s power in Mexico comes not from kingpins, but from politicians, financiers, lawyers, and money launderers. U.S. authorities and diplomats routinely focus on kingpins such as “El Chapo” and his lieutenants, but never go after the rest of the circle.

21) The state of Tamaulipas, directly south of Texas, has two former governors currently indicted for their alleged roles in helping cartels. One remains in Mexico, while the other is in U.S. custody awaiting trial.

22) U.S. diplomats are negotiating and playing along with the same Mexican politicians that protect cartels, in the interest of trade and diplomacy.

23) Certain factions of drug cartels have crossed the line into terrorism and should classified as such. The designation would change the way the U.S. alienates them from banks, financial resources, and politicians. Other cartels would be forced to tone down their actions or risk similar consequences.

24) Worries of Middle Eastern terrorists crossing the southwestern border are at times mitigated by cartel members who are informants for U.S. agencies that enjoy handsome incentives to turn people in.

25) The more likely scenario for terrorism deals with people flying into Canada and then entering the U.S. with visas. Most people on the terror watch list who try to enter the U.S. across the southern border are Somalis or Kurds.

26) Certain organizations like Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel present more of an imminent threat than foreign terrorists entering through the southern border.

27) Mexico’s ongoing cartel violence and drug war has led to more murders and disappearances than some international wars. Mexico has suffered more than 250,000 homicides and at least 30,000 disappearances since 2009.

28) Up to 70 percent of the women and girls from Central America who come through Mexico to the U.S. are sexually assaulted en route. Most women who leave Central America for the U.S. have the expectation of facing multiple abuses at the hands of cartel-connected human smugglers.

29) The State Department keeps U.S. law enforcement from being more aggressive against cartels. The State Department has everything to do with how law enforcement and intelligence agencies operate in Mexico–and any effort to secure the border without addressing the Department’s timidity in Mexico will likely fail or be less successful than it otherwise could be.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
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From ICE Acting Director Homan:

Excerpt from: https://www.numbersusa.com/blog/blame-congress-rapid-rise-illegal-border-crossings

REFORM THE TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION REAUTHORIZATION ACT (TVPRA) -- Commonly referred to as the William Wilberforce Act, TVPRA prohibits Border Patrol from quickly removing unaccompanied children from non-contiguous countries who attempt to cross the border illegally. UACs from Mexico and Canada can be quickly returned once Border Patrol is able to determine that they're not victims of human trafficking. But for minors from countries outside of Mexico and Canada, minors must be turned over to Health and Human Services, allowing them to stay in the country indefinitely.

REFORM THE ASYLUM PROCESS -- Under existing law, anyone apprehended at the border who makes a credible fear claim that passes the initial screening is released. Since 2008, there's been a 1700% spike in the number of credible fear claims made at the Southern border, and 80% pass the credible fear screening. However, only 20% of those who pass the credible fear screening are granted asylum by a federal judge.

MANDATE E-VERIFY -- Foreign nationals cross the border illegally because they can obtain jobs in the U.S. Homan said requiring all employers to use E-Verify would discourage most illegal immigration to the United States and dramatically reduce the number of illegal border crossings.

END SANCTUARY CITIES -- At last count, more than 300 sanctuary jurisdictions exist across the country, including California which recently passed legislation making it a sanctuary state. Jurisdictions that protect illegal aliens from removal encourages illegal border crossings because illegal aliens know they have hundreds of safe-havens to choose from once they get here.

TERMINATE FLORES AGREEMENT -- The spike in the apprehension of family units is a result of the Flores Agreement, which restricts the period of time that Border Patrol can detain family units. The Flores Agreement encourages illegal border crossers to cross with children, knowing that Border Patrol has to release them after a certain period of time. If BP were able to hold family units until their court date, family units would be less likely to cross the border illegally.

All of Homan's policy recommendations are included in Rep. Bob Goodlatte's H.R. 4760, the Securing America's Future Act, but not surprisingly, none are part of the ongoing DACA amnesty negotiations between House Republicans.

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Mexico
Here’s How Mexico Treats Illegal Immigrants

Authored by: Matt Palumbo

While combating illegal immigration has long been a bipartisan issue, the so-called anti-Trump “resistance” has decided that guilt tripping anyone who supports a sensible immigration policy is a viable political strategy. We’ve all heard the arguments; that opposing illegal immigration is preventing people from “just looking for a better life,” or over the past few months, is “separating families.” And of course there’s the most common insult, that enforcing immigration laws is “racist.”

But are America’s immigration laws, or our treatment of illegal immigrants uniquely awful?

To answer that question, let’s examine the situation in another nation: Mexico.

Mexico Rejects More Asylum Requests than the U.S.

Speaking of the rise in asylum request rejections under Trump, a writer at the American-Statesman noted a “dramatic” change. They write, “Immigration judges, who are employed by the Justice Department and not the judicial branch like other federal judges, rejected 61.8 percent of asylum cases decided in 2017, the highest denial rate since 2005.”

Meanwhile in Mexico, nearly 90 percent of asylum requests are denied (and the figures are similarly high for other Latin American countries, such as El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala).

Mexico Regulates Immigration Based on Race

I only bring this up, because for all the rhetoric about Trump’s supposed racism or disdain for certain immigrants, there is one country that does regulate their immigration flows by race, and that’s the country Trump is most accused of being racist against.

In Article 37 of Mexico’s General Law of Population, we learn that their Department of the Interior shall be able to deny foreigners entry into Mexico, if, among other reasons, they may disrupt the “domestic demographic equilibrium.” Additionally, Article 37 also states that immigrants can be removed if they’re detrimental to “economic or national interests.”

Mexico Deports More Central American Illegal Immigrants than the United States

In July 2014, former Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto and former president of Guatemala Otto Pérez Molina, announced the start of a migration security project called Plan Frontera Sur (Southern Border Plan). The U.S. has committed at least $100 million towards this plan to help aid Mexican border security, because it’s mutually beneficial. Both Mexico and the U.S. want to keep out Central American illegal immigrants (and they have to pass through Mexico to reach the U.S.)..

Since Plan Frontera Sur, Mexico has deported more central American illegal immigrants than we have in the U.S. Even CNN had to acknowledge that:

According to statistics from the US and Mexican governments compiled by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, Mexico in 2015 apprehended tens of thousands more Central Americans in its country than the US did at its border, and in 2015 and 2016 it deported roughly twice as many Central Americans as the US did.Since migrant children are the hot-button topic in the American immigration debate currently; In 2014 there were 18,169 migrant children were deported from Mexico, and 8,350 deported to Central America the year before. From January 2015 to July 2016, 39,751 unaccompanied minors were put in the custody of Mexican authorities.

A report this year from Amnesty International concluded that “Mexican migration authorities are routinely turning back thousands of people from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to their countries without considering the risk to their life and security upon return, in many cases violating international and domestic law by doing so.”

Mexico Has Their Own Southern Border – and Invisible Wall

For us much as Donald Trump is criticized by the political class in Mexico for wanting to beef up security on the U.S.-Mexico border, as previously mentioned, Mexico has accepted our help in enforcing their immigration laws on their own southern border with Guatemala. While they don’t have a literal border fence, they do have checkpoints, patrols, raids, etc. According to NPR:

Rather than amassing troops on its border with Guatemala, Mexico stations migration agents, local and federal police, soldiers and marines to create a kind of containment zone in Chiapas state. With roving checkpoints and raids, Mexican migration agents have formed a formidable deportation force.
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14 killed in shooting attacks in Mexican border city

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/64717234.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_cam____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In Homan's conversation with CIS's Jessica Vaughan, he identified five actions that Congress can take to end the surge of illegal border crossings.

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The Current "Wall" Images

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Includes Human/Drug/Terrorist/Disease/Gun/Money Traffic Law Enforcement and Self-Defense Matters

InHomeland Security: Terror Threat Snapshot

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NEW BOOK by Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton: Clean House: Exposing Our Government's Secrets and Lies

Complimentary PDF copy: Clean House: Exposing Our Government's Secrets and Lies

See Pages 9-13 Re Reforming the Freedom of Information Act
See Pages 93-116 Re Fast and Furious
See pages 181-206 Re Immigration and Border Enforcement
See pages 222-226 Re Opening the Border to Terrorists

Judicial Watch: Open Records Laws and Resources ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Leo Banks is a Tucson-based reporter who covers border-related issues.

New Book
Double Wide
A novel by Leo W Banks

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Excerpt from CIS: https://cis.org/Fact-Sheet/Asylum-Removal-and-Immigration-Courts

Asylum

Definition:

An applicant for asylum has the burden to demonstrate that he or she is eligible for that protection. To satisfy that burden, the applicant must prove that he or she is a refugee. A “refugee” is a person outside of his or her country of nationality or habitual residence who is “unable or unwilling” to return to that country “because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”

Talking Points:

The number of asylum applications that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has received has increased significantly in recent years, from 56,912 in FY 2014, to 84,236 in FY 2015, to 115,888 in FY 2016, to 142,760 in FY 2017.
Due to its surreptitious nature, it is impossible to measure the extent of fraud in the asylum process. As Denise N. Slavin, then-vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, told the New York Times in 2011, however: “Fraud in immigration asylum is a huge issue and a major problem.” In perhaps the most substantive attempt to examine asylum fraud, USCIS’s Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) partially completed an asylum-based Benefits Fraud and Compliance Assessment (BFCA).
The asylum-based BFCA Program was designed “[t]o determine the scope and types of fraud, and the application and utility of existing fraud detection methods” and “[t]o identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and propose/undertake corrective action.” It consisted of a “random sampling of [239 out of 8,555] pending and completed (approved/referred) [affirmative asylum applications filed] with USCIS between May 1 and October 31, 2005.” Of those 239 cases, 29 (or 12 percent) were determined to be fraudulent; 12 of those 29 cases had already been granted. While 72 (or 30 percent) of the cases did not contain any “fraud indicators” (that is, inconsistencies, derogatory, or negative information), 138 (or 58 percent) “exhibited possible indicators of fraud,” not counting 27 additional cases (for a total of 69 percent) that had been referred because of fraud indicators for overseas verification requests, which had not been completed.

Expedited Removal

Definition:

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows immigration officers — rather than judges — to order the deportation of arriving aliens who are inadmissible because of fraud or misrepresentation, because they have no documentation (like a passport or a visa) that would allow them to be admitted, or because they entered illegally and are apprehended within 100 miles of the border and 14 days of entry.

Talking Point:

Expedited removal was intended to speed the process by which inadmissible aliens were removed from the United States. Unfortunately, as explained below, it is actually become a gateway by which aliens can gain entry into the United States.

Credible Fear

Definition:

If an alien in expedited removal asserts a fear of persecution, the arresting officer will refer the alien to an asylum officer for a “credible fear interview”. If the asylum officer determines that the alien has a credible fear, the alien is placed in removal proceedings before an immigration judge, where the alien can file his or her application for asylum. Under the INA, the term “‘credible fear of persecution’ means that there is a significant possibility, taking into account the credibility of the statements made by the alien in support of the alien’s claim and such other facts as are known to the officer, that the alien could establish eligibility for asylum under section 208.” This is a very low standard, and credible fear is found in 75 to 90 percent of all cases in which an alien claims credible fear.

Talking Points:

The credible fear process itself hinders asylum officers in making credibility determinations. Aliens in expedited removal are subject to mandatory detention until they are found to have a credible fear. Because of the large number of cases and the lack of detention space along the border, many aliens subject to expedited removal are sent to detention facilities throughout the country. Due to the distance between these facilities and the asylum offices, many of the credible fear interviews occur by telephone. Most of the aliens in these proceedings do not speak English, requiring the asylum officers to employ interpreters, many of whom also appear telephonically.
The high grant rate for credible fear suggests that the standards are too low. For example, the burdens of proof for asylum are low (i.e., an alien without documents can establish an asylum claim simply to his or her own testimony). Because the standard for finding credible fear is low, in light of the low evidentiary standards for asylum, it is not surprising that so many aliens are found to have credible fear.
Further, even an alien who cannot satisfy the standard for asylum, but who makes a plausible claim that he or she has been harmed, or may be harmed, is still generally referred to an immigration judge for an asylum application to determine whether the alien is eligible for protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). That simply requires that an alien show they’ve been subject to harm by or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of, a government official or other person acting in an official capacity. Those determinations are left to the immigration court.
As a likely result of these factors, the number of credible fear reviews increased significantly, from 5,000 in 2009, to 94,000 in 2016. That number dipped to 78,564 in FY 2017; however, up to June 2018, there were already 73,283 credible fear claims made in FY 2018.
Prior to 2013, only 1 percent of arriving aliens claimed credible fear, whereas currently 10 percent make such claims. The attorney general has stated that half of those who pass credible fear screening never file an asylum application, however. ICE lacked detention space to hold all aliens who claimed credible fear in the past, and many were released for hearings that may occur years in the future. It is unclear whether DHS will be able to find sufficient space to detain aliens who are apprehended and are found to have credible fear pending a final decision on their applications for asylum, despite the department’s best efforts.

Bond

Definition:

“Bond” is the term used in immigration for the release of an alien pending removal proceedings or removal. Aliens can be released on their own recognizance, or on a minimum bond of $1,500. Bond can be granted by either an immigration judge or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Parole

Definition:

“Parole” is the term used in immigration for the release of an arriving alien. It can only be granted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Again, DHS can release an alien on parole on his or her own recognizance, or for a sum of money as bond.

Unaccompanied Alien Child (UAC)

Definition:

An alien under the age of 18 who enters the United States or is apprehended by DHS who does not have a parent or guardian in the United States. Under section 462 of the Homeland Security Act (2002), UACs must be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), not DHS, for detention.

Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA)

Definition:

Modified the rules governing the detention of unaccompanied alien children (UACs). Under the TVPRA, UACs must be turned over to HHS within 48 hours of detention by DHS, or identification as a UAC, and “promptly placed in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child,” generally meaning release to a family member or friend.

Talking Point:

The TVPRA distinguishes between UACs from “contiguous” countries (Canada and Mexico) and aliens who are nationals of “non-contiguous” countries. A UAC from a contiguous country can be returned if the alien has not been trafficked and does not have a credible fear. Under the TVPRA, however, “Other Than Mexicans” (OTMs) are to be transferred to the care and custody of HHS within 72 hours and placed in formal removal proceedings, even if they have not been “trafficked”. According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS): “ORR reported that children spent about 34 days on average in the program as of January 2016.” Between February 2014 and September 2015, 56,000 (80 percent) of the children were placed with sponsors illegally in the United States and an additional 700 were placed with sponsors in deportation proceedings. In FY 2014, according to CRS, most of the UACs who were released were placed with parents or legal guardians.

Flores Settlement Agreement

Definition:

An agreement between the then-Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and a class of alien minors in 1997, which is currently overseen by Judge Dolly Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. In 2016, it was read to create a presumption in favor of the release of all alien minors, even those alien minors who arrive with their parents.

Talking Points:

Under the Flores agreement, DHS can only detain alien minors for 20 days before releasing them to HHS, which places the minors in foster or shelter situations until they locate a sponsor. It encourages UACs to enter the United States illegally, and encourages the parents of UACs to hire smugglers to bring them to the United States. Further, it encourages people to bring their own children (or children whom they claim to be their own) when they make the perilous journey to the United States, thinking that it will make it more likely that they (the parents or purported parents) will be more likely to be released if they travel with children.
ICE explains: “While smugglers most often transport adult males, the number of women, children and family units seeking transport has increased dramatically in recent years. They often find themselves at risk for assault and abuse such as rape, beatings, kidnapping and robbery. Smugglers regularly overcrowd living and sleeping accommodations, and withhold food and water. In addition, individuals who are smuggled may be forced into human trafficking situations upon their arrival in the U.S. or their families may be extorted. Even knowing these dangers, the majority of people who travel with a smuggling organization do so voluntarily.”

Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)

Definition:

Agency of the Department of Justice (DOJ) with jurisdiction over the immigration courts and the Board of immigration appeals (BIA).

Immigration Courts

Definition:

Courts with primary jurisdiction over removal proceedings. Immigration judges in these courts determine removability, set bond where they have jurisdiction, and can adjudicate applications for relief from removal, including asylum.

Talking Point:

The number of cases currently pending before the immigration courts is called the “caseload”. Through August 2018, there were 764,561 cases pending before the 395 immigration judges in 58 immigration courts throughout the nation, or almost 1,936 cases per immigration judge.

Backlog

Definition:

Cases that have been pending before the immigration courts for more than one year. The backlog more than doubled from FYs 2006 through 2015, primarily due to declining numbers of cases completed per year. There were 437,000 pending cases at the start of FY 2015, when the median pending time was 404 days.

Talking Points:

GAO has found that the immigration courts’ “case backlog — cases pending from previous years that remain open at the start of a new fiscal year — more than doubled from fiscal years [(FY)] 2006 through 2015 ... primarily due to declining cases completed per year.” The courts’ backlog increased from approximately 212,000 cases pending at the start of FY 2006, when the median pending time for those cases was 198 days, to 437,000 pending cases at the start of FY 2015, when the median pending time was 404 days.
“[C]ontinuances increased by 23 percent from [FY] 2006 to [FY] 2015,” and “immigration judge-related continuances increased by 54 percent from about 47,000 continuances issued in [FY] 2006 to approximately 72,000 continuances issued in [FY] 2015.” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attorneys and others complained that the “frequent use of continuances [by immigration judges] resulted in delays and increased case lengths that contributed to the backlog.”
The number of cases the immigration courts “completed annually declined by 31 percent between [FY] 2006 and [FY] 2015 — from 287,000 cases completed in [FY] 2006 to about 199,000 completed in [FY] 2015”.
Total case completions declined, even though the number of immigration judges (IJs) increased 17 percent.
There are a number of reasons for the increase in the backlog:

Resources. There are too few judges and support staff to do the job adequately.
Increases in Benefits and Leave. IJs are government employees, and as they get more seniority, they receive more leave. This limits the amount of time that is spent hearing cases.
The “Surge”. The number of families and unaccompanied alien children (UACs) entering the United States began to increase in FY 2014.9 EOIR responded by “prioritizing” certain “cases involving migrants who had recently crossed the Southwest border and whom DHS had placed into removal proceedings.” This both swelled dockets and led to IJs being reassigned from already scheduled hearings. Those surge cases were also more complicated than cases involving single adult males, requiring more courtroom time (and continuances) per case.
Case Law. Recent federal court decisions have complicated IJs removal decisions, slowing proceedings and requiring additional continuances. In addition, recent decisions from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have increased the number of aliens who are eligible for bond, requiring the scheduling of bond hearings and rescheduling of cases when aliens are released from custody.
Obama Administration Policies. Policies instituted in the last administration led to numerous continuances, as aliens sought counsel and applied for relief or discretionary closures, release, or termination based on those policies.
IJ Burnout. A crushing docket adds to the stress of being a judge, and as that stress rises, performance logically suffers. This, in turn, results in more reversals and remands, adding even more cases to the backlog.

Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)

Definition:

Appellate tribunal with jurisdiction over appeals from immigration courts. Most aliens have a right to appeal immigration court decisions to the BIA.

Topics: Immigration Courts, Asylum

End of 5/2/2019 BORDER NEWS WATCH SPECIAL EDITION

5/9/2019 BORDER NEWS WATCH SPECIAL EDITION

Opinion
Congress to get act now amid reports of surging numbers at the border: ex-ICE acting director

Why are the cartels pushing family units (FAMUs) and unaccompanied children (UACs) on CBP (OFO & USBP)?

Commentary: Yesterday alone, in a sampling of 2 ports of entry in Arizona (Nogales & San Luis) there were twelve(12) seizures of drugs interdicted in false compartments in vehicles, mostly mixed loads, totaling:

* 71.5 lbs., fentanyl

* 566 lbs., methamphetamine

* 141 lbs., heroin

* 48 lbs., cocaine

(note: didn't even bother to count MJ seizures; remember, this is just one day's worth, in AZ alone)

The border is out of control, and the Democrats are colluding with the Mexican transnational criminal organizations to create this chaos.

--R

Joe Arpaio: Stronger borders save lives

Steller column: Tucson student released, but doubts remain about Border Patrol call
There is no national emergency on the border, Mr. President
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Vigilantes
Why States Can’t Stop Vigilantes Terrorizing Immigrants at the Border

· Timber Laundering in Peru: The Mafia in the Middle

· ELN-Urabeños Clashes Leave Thousands Trapped in Bojayá, Colombia

· Early Gains Cloud Need for Long-Term Approach for Mexico’s Oil Thieves

· Failed Venezuela Uprising Benefits Armed and Criminal Groups

· High-Profile Arrests Won’t Stem Cocaine Production in Peru’s VRAEM

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