Department of Homeland Security

Immigration Services,

Customs & Immigration Enforcement.

Homeland Security Immigration Supervisor Found Guilty of Selling Green Cards after More than a Decade of Government Inaction

4 December 2006

(c) DOJgov.net Newswire

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A former Department of Homeland Security supervisor pleaded guilty to accepting at least $600,000 in bribes to provide fraudulent citizenship documents to hundreds of Asian immigrants.

Robert T. Schofield, 57, of Fairfax, who once supervised as many as 50 employees in Citizenship and Immigration Services, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to bribery and aiding and abetting the illegal procurement of citizenship.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Robert T. Schofield, 57, was arrested and originally charged with taking more than $8.1 million in bribes to sell phony green cards.

Immigration experts say the Schofield case shows how five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, the agency charged with screening foreign visitors remains deeply flawed. Charging documents claimed that prior to his arrest at his Fairfax office last summer, the government had investigated Schofield for some ten years, for numerous allegations that he was taking bribes.

In 1991, Schofield, then an INS special agent, botched an investigation of an Asian brothel in Washington after he allegedly had an affair with an informant.

After he was demoted, Schofield fled to East Asia, where he spent more than $36,000 on two government credit cards.  According to former colleagues, Schofield was coaxed back to Washington and was able to keep his job as an immigration application examiner. 

Never complaining and displaying "agency loyalty," Schofield rose through the ranks until he became a supervisor in charge of approving citizenship.

Mr. Schofield was so overt that the day after he started his new job, law enforcement sources and colleagues say, a line of beautiful Asian women formed outside his new office.

Authorities say that over a five-year period, 200 immigrants each paid up to $50,000 for the fake documents.  

“That guy should have gone to jail a long time ago,” said Jim Goldman, a former INS director in Miami.  Whether many were spies or terrorists is unknown and the fact remains that until his performance became so overt and embarrassing that action finally had to be taken, Homeland Security Immigration did nothing about his criminal behavior.

Inaction and apathy at Homeland Security was the culmination of Schofield's ten earlier years.  During that period, Immigration and Naturalization was a Bureau of the United States Department of Justice.  Nothing was done to stop him there either.

Fake IDs get undercover border investigators into United States

5 July 2006

(AP) - WASHINGTON-Undercover investigators who repeatedly entered the United States using fake documents this year told stories of not even being asked for identification by Homeland Security Department agents.

At nine crossings on the Mexico and Canadian borders, agents "never questioned the authenticity of the counterfeit documents," according to Government Accountability Office.

"This vulnerability potentially allows terrorists or others involved in criminal activity to pass freely into the United States from Canada or Mexico with little or no chance of being detected," concluded the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, in testimony obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The GAO probe follows a similar inquiry in 2003 and 2004 when undercover investigators crossed unhindered into the United States at least 14 times using counterfeit drivers' licenses and, in one case, an expired, altered U.S. diplomatic passport. During that investigation, however, border agents in New York and Florida stopped three undercover officials who had been using expired and forged passports, drivers' licenses or birth certificates.

By comparison, between February and June 2006, 18 GAO investigators breezed by border agents at checkpoints in California, Texas, Michigan, Idaho, Washington state, and twice each in Arizona and New York. In two cases - in Arizona and California - border agents did not ask the undercover investigators for any identification.

In a third case, in Texas, investigators offered to show identification, a counterfeit drivers' license from Virginia. The border agent replied, "OK, that would be good," but released the investigators before inspecting it, according to the prepared testimony by GAO investigator Gregory D. Kutz.

Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers used fake Virginia residency certificates to get valid state ID cards needed to board the planes that flew into New York's World Trade Center. Neither GAO probe specified the location of any border checkpoints investigators went through.

Immigration Services of Homeland Security illegally selling Passport Stamps and setting potential terrorists loose on America

DOJgov.net newswire exclusive July 9 2005

In spite of the transfer of Immigration Services from the US Department of Justice to the Homeland Security Agency, illegal practices placing America at risk have continued.

DOJgov.net has first hand witness information that 26 Federal Plaza, NYC is continuing their practice of illegally selling passport stamps on site.  These stamps indicate that an immigrant has been approved for legal permanent residency, or a green card.  It gives them open access to America.

This practice is being carried out in the open, with employees working together and collecting pay-offs on-site.  Corrupt or incompetent Mid level management is doing nothing to stop this.  Upper Management is turning their backs on this terrorist friendly corruption.

Corruption such as this is endemic in Immigration Services.  It works hand in hand with the selling of Green Cards and processing of visas with incomplete background checks.

Whistleblower employees like Caryl B. Leventhal (see www.Justice-Denied.net) have been attempting to stop practices that invite terrorists into America since late 1995.   They have been met with termination, threat of death and threat of arrest and prosecution (by the US Attorney's Office) if they didn't keep quiet.

Workers say INS Newark office was bribery haven

DOJgov.net - January 10, 2004

It was December 20^th 2003, some five days before Christmas Day.  And during this time of brotherly love, one cornered witness after another testified that bribes were standard operating procedure at the Newark, New Jersey INS office.

As in the past, the US Attorney’s Office was prosecuting INS employee felons instead of silencing dedicated whistleblowers, because things were becoming so flagrant.

When immigrants applied for work permits or green cards, one former officer testified, he would often take the money orders, cash them for himself and stash the applications in a locker. 

Another former INS supervisor testified she accepted $40,000 to $70,000 in bribes to create fraudulent work permits for more than 50 illegal immigrants.  And when that same supervisor passed a co-worker her share of a $2,200 bribe to approve green cards for two ineligible illegal immigrants from India, the woman complained the sum was too small, the woman testified. Other workers in the Newark district, she said, were getting bigger bribes.

During an ongoing but little publicized federal corruption trial in Newark, former INS workers have described an office in which employees often approved immigrants for legal residency not because the foreigners were eligible under the law, but because they had paid thousands of dollars in bribes to a middleman who paid off federal US Department of Justice employees

The scenario for the US Department of Justice’s Immigration and Naturalization Service (now hidden in The Department of Homeland Security and divided into the “Citizenship and Immigration Services Bureau” as well as “Border Control”) has continued the endemic practice of allowing potential terrorists and criminals to buy their way into America.  Its name may have changed after the September 11^th terrorist murder of some 3,000 Americans, but since nobody was fired for enabling terrorism, there was no fear for continued corruption and wrongdoing.

Jerome Audige, 73, of West Orange is on trial for bribing two former INS officials to obtain immigration documents for a pair of clients who paid him up to $10,000.

Closing arguments before U.S. Judge William Martini were scheduled for the morning of December 20^th 2003, with the jury expected to begin deliberations that afternoon.

The three former INS workers, two of whom are cooperating with authorities under threat of longer sentences, pleaded guilty and testified at Audige's trial.

Audige was president of the Irvington-based New Jersey Haitian American Cultural Organization.  His arrest, along with the three INS employees and a second middleman, stem from an investigation launched in 2001 by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General targeting suspected corruption within the Newark office, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hammer. 

This investigation began little more than one year after Deputy US Attorney Eric B. Fisher and a “cheering gallery” of some 15 US Attorneys silenced whistleblower Caryl B. Leventhal.  She and her husband Michael Leventhal were threatened with arrest and prosecution if they didn't censor their website www.Justice-Denied.net to make it more amenable to US Department of Justice corruption and apathy.

At INS 26 Federal Plaza, NYC, Ms. Leventhal was the one who fought to stop this very same type of behavior.  And the actions in INS Newark occurred less than two years after the USDOJ’s Immigration and Naturalization Service transferred Brenda J. Grant (Caryl Leventhal’s main antagonist) from 26 Federal Plaza to Newark, after being their for some 25 years.

Andrea Quarantillo, former director of the INS Newark district and now head of the Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the scandal was limited to three employees who have pleaded guilty and the agency had taken measures to prevent further incidents.  This “case closed” excuse was used in 1998 when it was said that some 10 INS employees in 26 Federal Plaza were considered the only ones involved.  A few obvious heads roll to protect others, most particularly, a corrupt and apathetic middle management, protected by the civil service system and ravenously seeking to retain power.

"We hire people and we're very concerned we give training and we put in checks and quality checks, and when it comes to giving out benefits, we expect people to live up to their oath of office," said Quarantillo. "And when they do not, as in this case, we go back ... to look at the processes, and we fix any law and loopholes that allow these things to happen."

In testimony earlier this week, Special Agent Eric Blackman of the Office of Inspector General said investigators had hoped Audige would cooperate by providing information on other INS workers.  Over four days of testimony, a pair of government witnesses testified that Audige recruited INS workers to approve immigration documents for clients who were ineligible under U.S. immigration law.

Brenda Parmely, a former INS supervisor applications clerk described by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Resnick as "no stranger to corruption," said she accepted several thousand dollars from Audige to process immigration documents for his nephew and four other illegal immigrants from India and Haiti.

Parmely, 40, of Elizabeth, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to accepting bribes.

Testifying for the prosecution, Parmely said that by the time she met Audige at the Chateau of Spain restaurant in Newark during the summer of 2000, she was already processing fraudulent claims for another woman, Maria Bravim of Harrison. Parmely testified that Bravim paid her $40,000 to $70,000 to process fraudulent work permits for as many as 50 illegal immigrants.

Bravim, a Brazilian national, pleaded guilty in August 2001 and is wanted by authorities after failing to appear at sentencing.

Several times a week, Parmely testified, she would wait until other employees had gone to lunch, then produce laminated Employment Authorization Cards for customers whose names she received from Bravim or Audige. The cards allow holders to live and work legally in the United States and are a crucial step toward permanent residency and citizenship.

After she began dating Audige, Parmely testified, she recruited another INS employee, Tonya Allen, to handle Audige's requests for a more lucrative product: passport stamps indicating an immigrant has been approved for legal permanent residency, or a green card.

But when she gave Allen $2,200 to stamp the first two passports, Parmely testified, Allen became angry because she thought the payoff was too small.

"She was angry because she had heard other persons doing things she was doing and she thought it wasn't enough," Parmely testified.

The government's case also included testimony by former INS information officer Michael Bridgeforth of Yonkers, N.Y., who agreed to cooperate with investigators after he was arrested for bilking $8,000 to $9,000 in application fees paid by immigrants seeking to legalize their status.

In a Nov. 18, 2001, meeting with Audige, Bridgeforth wore a recording device and secretly taped a conversation in which Audige handed him $2,000 and promised "you can make a lot of money" in exchange for helping him obtain fraudulent documents for his clients.

"There are a lot of people involved in schemes like this," Bridgeforth recounted Audige telling him. "He said he had other people that are working for him in the INS, as well."

Bridgeforth pleaded guilty to theft of government funds and awaits sentencing.

Yesterday, Allen, a former INS officer, testified she approved five to eight fraudulent green cards after receiving money from Parmely, a crime to which she pleaded guilty and served five months in federal prison. Allen, of Orange, repeatedly denied any involvement in Audige's alleged ring.

Under Resnick's repeated questioning, Allen, who earned a salary of $47,716 a year and declared bankruptcy in January 2000, told of purchasing two Lexus automobiles, a Mercedes and a $250,000 home later that year.

Asked repeatedly about bank records showing she deposited in her personal checking account more than $34,000 in 18 cash payments between April and November 2000, Allen stated she was not sure who had given her the money.

"Not sure, maybe my family," Allen responded at least eight times.

One of Audige's clients, Ravinder Singh of India, testified he overstayed a tourist visa, then paid Audige $10,000 to obtain a green card.

Singh said he knew he was ineligible for legal residency because his wife, a lesbian U.S. citizen whom he paid $2,000 to marry him and sponsor him for a green card, left him a week before their scheduled interview with INS officials.

Despite attending the interview by himself and having none of the required paperwork, Singh said he received his passport stamp and later, a green card, in the mail.

When the INS was disbanded last March, its duties were folded into the new Department of Homeland Security. Workers who handled benefits like green cards were transferred to the DHS' Citizenship and Immigration Services bureau.  INS’s Border Patrol has been combined with Customs.  Most of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms was given to the US Department of Justice to repay them for their loss in numbers.  In a Bureaucracy, numbers of employees signifies power.

And the game of musical chairs continues.

Sep 11, 2007 (c) DojGov.net newswire

In the midst of Homeland Security and their Immigration Services (aka "ICE") claiming to protect the nation, a criminal investigations report points fingers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees who are aiding Islamic extremists.

Selling Green Cards and approving visas without background checks has been endemic in Immigration services when INS was a part of the US Department of Justice. During the Islamist terrorist rise of the 1990’s, INS whistleblowers such as Caryl B. Leventhal were routinely brutalized and terminated after pointing fingers at the problem (see www.justice-denied.net).

These activities were and still are conducted through gross incompetence or personal financial gain. Unfortunately, it is even more difficult to target this problem now that Immigration has been folded into the mega-dysfunctional bureaucracy called Homeland Security.

The confidential 2006 USCIS report said that despite the severity of the potential security breaches, most are not investigated "due to lack of resources" in the agency's internal affairs department.

"Two District Adjudications Officers are allegedly involved with known (redacted) Islam terrorist members," said the internal document obtained by The Washington Times.

The group "was responsible for numerous robberies and used the heist money to fund terrorist activities. The District Adjudications Officers made numerous DHS database queries to track (Alien)-File movement and check on the applicants' status for (redacted) members and associates."

According to the document as it appeared in the Washington Times, other potential security failures include reports that:

1. Employees are sharing detailed information on internal security measures with people outside the agency.

2. A Lebanese citizen bribed an immigration officer with airline tickets for visa benefits.

3. A USCIS officer in Harlington, Texas, sold immigration documents for $10,000 to as many as 20 people.

A USCIS employee, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, said many of the complaints in the multiage document are as many as three years old, but not acted upon.

"Terrorists need immigration documents to embed in our society and work here without raising alarm bells," said the employee.

"Whether through bribing an immigration officer, an employee with the department of motor vehicles, or utilizing highly effective counterfeit documents produced by the Mexican drug cartels. They are always looking for that documentation to live amongst us."

Bill Wright, spokesman with USCIS, said that he could not comment on any ongoing investigations but that USCIS "takes all internal allegations seriously."

"The investigations that are referenced are ongoing investigations that we can not comment on," Mr. Wright told The Times. "We take all of these allegations seriously, and we are acting on them. For anyone to suggest that they are ignored is blatantly wrong." And yet, nothing seems to be done.

In March, USCIS established the Office of Security and Integrity to investigate internal corruption. On the other hand, this has been done before to no avail.

In August 2007, The Times disclosed a confidential DEA report substantiating the link between Islamic extremists and Mexican drug cartels. The 2005 DEA report states that Middle Eastern operatives, in U.S. sleeper cells, are working in conjunction with the cartels to fund terrorist organizations overseas. Several lawmakers promised congressional hearings based on the information disclosed in the DEA documents. But never ending hearings never seem to bring action.

The DEA report also stated that Middle Eastern extremists living in the U.S. — who speak Spanish, Arabic and have even learned Hebrew fluently, are posing as Hispanic nationals.

USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez in March told Congress that he could not establish how many terror suspects or persons of special interest have been granted immigration benefits.

Local blogs glean the internet for information that proves to be revealing and consistent with that discovered by the Times.  One such Michigan blog written by a Debbie Schlussel has compiled further information.  If substantially accurate, the information further confirms that taking INS away from the US Department of Justice and hiding it in Homeland Security, eliminates nothing.

Stripping away the crudely written prose so common in a non-literary blog world, several items of interest include:

Daphiney Caganap, Customs and Border Protection port Director.  In this capacity, she received thousands of dollars in bribes.  Rather than arrest, prosecution and imprisonment, she was awarded probation.  Naturally, Ms. Cagtanap was allowed to keep whatever bribe money she received.  Many consider this to be a de facto reward for betraying the American people but remaining loyal to her government agency.   Undoubtedly, she will also get to keep her pension.

Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Detroit's top CIS official, Carol A. Jenifer, was caught taking bribes in exchange for immigration benefits (visas and citizenship).   Due to civil service protection and bureaucratic apathy, she remained in her position for several more years until retirement.  Again, agency loyalty seems to trump moral and judicial justice, with the reward of a substantial pension.

One of Ms. Jenifer’s employees got caught accepting thousands of dollars in bribes in order to “speed up” citizenship applications for over 100 Lebanese and Yemeni Muslims in the Detroit area.   Aided by Federal Judge Avern Cohn, those in question were not only allowed to remain in the United States, but those deported in the bribery scheme were allowed to return to the America.  Ms. Jenifer received no punishment.

Roy Bailey is, the former Field Office Director Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  Bailey was allegedly caught stealing property of illegal aliens being detained in his facilities prior to deportation.  He was removed from his active position in 2003 and placed on Paid Administrative Leave of $139,900 per year.  After four years of receiving income for what is in fact, a multi-annual vacation, he was granted a $100,000 pension and full healthcare for life.

Some would hint that there might be a racial component involving these corrupt Immigration employees, because all are black.   In fact, the racial aspect  is very similar to the case of whistleblower Caryl Leventhal (www.justice-denied.net).

In 1998 Larry Zieff D/Regional Counsel to INS in Burlington Vermont informed her husband that they would not investigate her allegations of selling green cards and processing visa applications without proper background checks.  The logic was that those accused would "scream race," and they didn’t want that kind of problem. It was just easier to fire Ms. Leventhal because she was white.

But race is not really the problem. Whites are corrupt too. It’s the attitude of people in Immigration and other government agencies that prefer the Politically Correct easy way out.

Corruption never seems to end, as federal bureaucrats nudge America towards terrorism that will dwarf the 3,000 murdered on September 11th. 

Incompetent Government Employees Place American's at Risk by welcoming in a "Typhoid Mary"

1 June 2007

(c) DOJgov.net newswire
 

ATLANTA - What do you do when an irresponsible Atlanta Personal Injury lawyer with a  highly contagious, virtually untreatable strain of tuberculosis  with a 50% mortality rate wants to re-enter the United States?  Does it matter if this person is on a computer warning list designed to keep him (and terrorists) out?  What does one of our "highly trained" border inspectors do when he sees the warning appear on his computer screen?  The answer seems to be that he lets him in, because that's exactly what happened.

Not only did the Federal Civil Servant allowed Andrew Speaker back into the U.S., but he didn't even question Mr. Speaker with the required protective gear.  Not only did the "highly trained" Federal Homeland Security employee lack the presence of mind to keep himself from being infected, but set the man loose to spread his deadly microbes on the rest of America.

According to government officials, the border inspector who disregarded a computer warning to stop him and don protective gear has been removed from border duty with pay.  This usually means that they get an unscheduled paid vacation for weeks on end, which is essentially a reward for incompetence.

The unidentified "highly trained" inspector explained that he was no doctor but that the infected man seemed perfectly healthy and that he thought the warning was merely "discretionary."  This raises the question of whether the "highly trained" inspector even has normal reasoning skills.  If he admits to not having medical training, why did he make the medical decision to let the man in because he "seemed perfectly healthy," irregardless of computer instructions?

The patient was identified as Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old personal injury lawyer who, in spite of CDC warnings, returned last week from his wedding and honeymoon trip through Italy, the Greek isles and other spots in Europe. His new father-in-law, Robert C. Cooksey, is a CDC microbiologist whose specialty is TB and other bacteria.
 

Former Immigration Services - Homeland Security supervisor Arrested for Selling Citizenship Documents

27 October 2006

(c) DOJgov.net Newswire

In the midst of a constant terrorist threat and a corrupt Immigration division of Homeland Security (Formerly part of the US Department of Justice), a former Immigration supervisor was arrested for selling citizenship to ineligible aliens and placing America at further risk of terrorism.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcus Asner said Jimmie Ortega was the central player in a scheme that awarded at least 60 phony citizenships in return for bribes of between $1,500 and $4,000.

"We believe we are scratching the surface," Mr. Asner said, of what had been uncovered so far in a 10-month-old investigation of whether Mr. Ortega teamed with others to grant citizenship to people who could not otherwise pass tests.

Selling citizenship and Green Cards along with approving visas without proper background checks has been endemic in both Immigration Services/Homeland Security and when it was called the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the U.S. Department of Justice.  Whistleblowers to these activities have been routinely brutalized and terminated, while upper management turned a blind eye to anything but the most overt activities, as long as the perpetrators were considered "loyal to the agency."

U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra C. Freeman, ordered Mr. Ortega held without bail, citing what she said seemed to be a lack of trust and candor.  This was not done because Mr. Ortega was putting America at risk.  Rather, the decision was made after discovering that Mr. Ortega was essentially a bigamist, with two families and two sets of children.

A current immigration supervisor also was charged in the citizenship case, along with several brokers and people accused of paying bribes to become citizens. The prosecutor said the government had several cooperating witnesses and extensive telephone records linking Mr. Ortega to those who paid bribes.

The prosecutor said bribes cleared the way for people otherwise not entitled to citizenship to become legal Americans, without being interviewed or demonstrating they could speak English or pass the required civics and U.S. history examinations.  Their receiving prior Green Cards legally or through prior financial bribes was never explored.

Mr. Ortega's lawyer, Lee Ginsberg, said his client would not flee, in part because his $4,000 in monthly pension benefits might be placed at risk.

Mr. Ortega retired as a supervisory district adjudications officer with the naturalization unit of the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, 26 Federal Plaza in New York. 

Mr. Ortega began employment on or about 1995, the same time that Caryl B. Leventhal started working in the same facility, when INS was part of the US Department of Justice.  Mr. Ortega kept his mouth shut, accepted his bribes, received promotions and currently collects a substantial pension. 

Caryl Leventhal was a whistleblower to these activities.  Typically, she received physical brutalization, termination, death threats and threat of arrest and prosecution (by the US Attorney's Office) for not remaining silent to activities that enabled the terrorism of September 11, 2001.

April 25, 2006

Playing Americans for Fools on Illegal Immigration

Homeland Security does nothing about high quality fake IDs sold in New York City to illegals and potential terrorists
 

DOJgov.net Newswire December 8 2005

Less than four months after www.dojgov.net broke the story that immigration documents were still being openly sold by Homeland Security Immigration personnel, 26 Federal Plaza NYC, The New York Sun published an expose on the open selling of high quality documents on the streets of New York City.

The ease at which high quality counterfeit Green Cards, Social Security Cards and other documents could be purchased was made frighteningly clear, although the federal government constantly reiterates its desire to tackle document fraud.
 

Roosevelt Avenue in Queens has become an international market, with fake green cards costing $100.00 in an open air bazaar. According to The Sun, this business is booming.

Local dealers said most of their clients were immigrants from Latin America, but also include illegals from all over the world.

The Department of Homeland Security said it is aware of the problem and claims to be working with local enforcement agencies to prevent it.  The president of the National Border Patrol Council, representing more than 10,000 border patrol agents, T.J. Bonner, said. "As long as there's a demand for these documents and the documents continue to be accepted, people will be out there supplying."

Despite increasing immigration enforcement on the border, the inflows of illegal immigrants last year for the first time outnumbered legal immigrants to America, according to research by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington. The organization estimates the total of illegal immigrants at 11 million nationwide and 525,000 in New York City.

Mr. Bonner of the border patrol group said he was "not very impressed" with the federal and local response. "They have had such a pathetic showing in interior enforcement that it's been a joke for several years," he said. "Politicians like to pretend we can have open borders for laborers but somehow seal the borders off against criminals and terrorists. It's a laughable notion, but they actually try and sell that notion."

Border Patrol catches, then releases, illegals

USA TODAY February 2, 2005

FLORENCE, Ariz. — Thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly from Central and South America, are being released into the USA almost immediately after they are picked up by the Border Patrol as part of a policy that U.S. officials acknowledge represents a significant gap in homeland security.

The treatment of illegal immigrants from Mexico has not changed. U.S. Border Patrol agents continue to catch and deport waves of Mexican illegals, who last year accounted for most of the 905,000 people caught sneaking into the USA along the 2,000-mile Southwestern border.

But deporting illegals from countries other than Mexico — known here as "OTMs" — is far more complicated. Several Central and South American governments have been reluctant to accept groups of people for repatriation.

The result: With no place to put thousands of captured illegals from Central and South America, the Border Patrol has begun releasing them after giving them written orders to appear at deportation hearings in nearby U.S. cities. Immigration officials acknowledge the exercise is futile: About 86% of those issued such notices never show up for the court hearings.

In a procedure that has been ridiculed by local law enforcement officials and even some Border Patrol agents, the agents are told to make sure that illegal immigrants provide U.S. addresses and contact telephone numbers before they are released. The information is supposed to be included on copies of the immigration court notices.

But local law enforcement officials who have reviewed dozens of the notices say that many illegals provide false addresses or none at all. That leaves U.S. authorities with few clues about where to look for the illegals if they fail to appear in court.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that in 2003, as many as 6,000 illegals entered the USA under the government's "catch and release" policy. Officials in U.S. border towns and other critics say the policy threatens local residents' safety and undermines security along the Southwestern border at a time when counterterrorism officials believe al-Qaeda operatives could be focusing on Mexico as an entry point to the USA.

"The Border Patrol is admitting that they don't have a clue about who these people really are or what kind of threat they might pose," says D'Wayne Jernigan, the sheriff in Val Verde County, Texas. "During these times when everybody's concerned about who's coming into this country, I think you have to question the wisdom of this policy."

The "catch and release" policy has existed for several years but has become particularly evident since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which led U.S. officials to tighten border security.

Immigration inspectors continue letting people in using stolen foreign passports

Extract from Washington Post report 2 Feb 2005

DHS immigration inspectors had continued to let dozens of people using stolen foreign passports enter the United States -- even after other governments had notified the agency of the passport numbers. Using stolen passports is a well-known tactic of al Qaeda operatives.

Even when immigration officials realized someone had entered the United States on a stolen passport, they did not routinely notify sister agencies that track illegal immigrants, the report said. 

"Nobody's kicking anybody to do things" at Homeland Security, said Seth Stodder, former policy and planning director at the department's Customs and Border Protection agency. "There's a reluctance to make decisions that will be unpopular with the loser, so things just drift."

U.S. Decides to track down 400,000 fugitive Immigrants after allowing them to Roam the U.S.

PHOENIX, Nov. 16 2004 (UPI) -- Immigration officials across the United States are aggressively tracking down illegal immigrants who have disobeyed orders to leave the country.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deployed 80 agents assigned to "fugitive operations teams" in 16 cities to find 400,000 fugitive immigrants in the United States, 80,000 of whom were ordered to leave the country after criminal convictions, the Arizona Republic reported.

The $50 million program is part of a Bush administration initiative launched in 2003 and will be expanded by another 30 teams in all 23 field offices, including two teams each in Los Angeles and New York. 

(Editor's Note: It seems Immigration and Customs Enforcement [formerly the dysfunctional Immigration and Naturalization Service, subsequently renamed and hidden in Homeland Security] has learned nothing since 911.

Why should we expect criminals to voluntarily leave the United States?  Why aren't they physically deported on the spot?  We don't need more agents in the federal bureaucracy.  We just need some common sense.)
 

The September 11th Terrorist Murder of 3,000 Innocent Americans and the Setting up of Sleeper Cells in America... Brought to you Through the Indolence and Corruption of the US Department of Justice and Immigration and Naturalization Service.