U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and the Obama administration have repeatedly said this summer that the agency is on track to meet its stated goal -- or what its budget allows for: to remove about 400,000 people from the country this year.

The number, officials say, indicates that ICE is tougher than ever on immigration. The agency projected, however, to be "well under" that goal about halfway through the fiscal year -- at a rate 20 percent below the year before. Reaching 400,000, therefore, would be an achievement.

As of August 2nd, the agency had removed 310,013 people, about 90,000 removals shy of its 400,000 projection with two months left in the fiscal year. In the final two months of last fiscal year, the agency removed a little more than 67,000 people.

A review of ICE's own figures, as posted on the agency's web site, shows that the most removals in any month in the last four fiscal years, including FY2010 to date, is slightly more than 39,000. This year in only three months -- October, November and June -- have ICE removals exceeded the same month in FY2009.

So, is or isn't ICE on pace to reach 400,000?

ICE spokesman Brian P. Hale wrote in an email:

At this point in time indications are that we will meet or exceed our overall removal numbers from last year. The caveat is that criminal removals take longer to complete and the average length of stay (in detention) is longer too. So the lag time (in reporting the statistics) can take a few months.

Last year, ICE removed nearly 390,000 people. Including the "lag" from FY 2008, the agency removed 389,834 individuals. Excluding the lag, the agency removed 387,790.

The latest figures -- as of Aug. 23 -- show ICE has removed a total of 343,883 people, of which 167,742 are convicted criminals, Hale said. That means the agency has deported more noncriminals -- 176,141, to be precise -- than criminals so far this year. A month earlier -- as of July 22 -- the agency' figures showed total removals at 292,663.

The record the Obama administration is setting is the removal of criminals, as ICE expects to have a significantly higher number of criminal removals than last year, Hale said. Many of those people have been found through a program that enables local law enforcement to identify immigrants with criminal records who are in their custody. The program, dubbed Secure Communities, has been criticized for sweeping up noncriminals despite the stated goal of targeting the "worst of the worst" criminals.

Overall, the Obama administration seems hard-pressed to please anyone when it comes to immigration. As the rhetoric heats up this political season, the right has hammered the White House for being soft on immigration enforcement while the left has slammed Obama and ICE for being too tough. John Morton, the agency chief, just says the administration is putting more people into immigration proceedings than ever before. But some telling shifts may be happening.

ICE has begun a review of all cases in immigration courts, and in some instances is dropping efforts to deport illegal immigrants and legal residents who have committed minor crimes.

Morton also issued a memo recently instructing ICE attorneys and immigration officials to dismiss deportation charges in certain situations where, among other concerns, the person has properly requested to stay in the country, and has an application or petition that appears eligible for approval.

The issue at hand addressed in the latest Morton memo is the growing backlog -- nearly 250,000 -- in the nation's immigration courts. Morton points out in the memo that in July 2009 there were roughly 17,000 removal cases held up in immigration courts because of pending applications.

A version of this story also appeared on the Huffington Post.

Martha Garnica was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Photo: Department of Homeland Security

EL PASO — A veteran customs employee who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, human smuggling and bribery charges was sentenced today to 20 years in prison by a Federal District Judge.

Martha Alicia Garnica, 43, was also ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 and supervised release for four years once released from prison. Judge David Briones denied prosecutors' request for Garnica to forfeit $1 million.

Garnica, who pleaded guilty in May, choked back tears in the courtroom as she apologized to several family members in attendance, the government and the judge. About two dozen federal agents sat in the courtroom as the sentence was handed down.

Garnica conspired with drug traffickers to import more than 200 pounds of marijuana between April and November 2009. Garnica and a co-defendant also paid bribes totaling $5,500 to a Customs and Border Protection officer to allow drugs and an illegal immigrant into the country. The inspector, in turn, cooperated with federal internal affairs agents in the investigation.

Hired as customs inspector in February 1997, Garnica became a CBP officer when DHS formed in 2003. Since March 2008 she had been a technician assigned to an El Paso-area border crossing.

Three other defendants received prison sentences, ranging from two years to a little more than five years. A fourth defendant was murdered in February in Juarez.

A high-ranking immigration official brushed off claims that the Obama administration wants to make an end-run around Congress to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, saying the notion is "nuts."

Roxana Bacon, the top attorney at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that many of the administrative remedies outlined in a leaked draft memo she co-wrote are concepts that had been floating around the agency, which oversees legal immigration, for years. The memo caused a backlash among Republicans, who asserted it was proof that the Obama administration is looking for a "backdoor amnesty plan."

Bacon, who became USCIS chief counsel last October, explained that the memo is only a snapshot of a long conversation and represents government at its best: deliberative and open-minded.

"The ideas are not new ideas, and came out of many different sources: Congress, advocacy groups, academia and within government itself," she said. "It's only a collection of ideas, not a final determination."

Speaking last Friday on a panel at the American Bar Association's annual meeting in San Francisco, Bacon made her first public statements about the memo, titled "Administrative Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform." Bacon and three other officials sent the draft in April to the agency's director, Alejandro Mayorkas, according to news reports.

The unadopted memo outlines potential administrative fixes to immigration law if Congress doesn't pass new legislation. Among them is a form of immigration "relief" to exercise discretion to delay -- even indefinitely -- deportation.

Here's how the officials introduce the draft:

This memorandum offers administrative relief options to promote family unity, foster economic growth, achieve significant process improvements and reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization. It includes recommendations regarding implementation timeframes and required resources.

Although the need for comprehensive immigration reform is frequently mentioned, Congress has not seriously debated the controversial topic since 2007. Chances appear slim that legislators will take up the matter in an election year. Nevertheless, the immigration issue has heated up in recent months as states, such as Arizona and Virginia, have waded into the debate.

Meanwhile, criminal immigration prosecution and deportation levels under the Obama administration rival or surpass those during the Bush era, according to recent reports by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Republicans have nonetheless blasted the White House for being lenient on illegal immigrants and lax on border security.

Figures posted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Homeland Security Department arm that detains and deports immigrants, show that the agency's removal numbers for the first nine months of Fiscal Year 2010 are down by nearly 9,000 compared to the same time period last year. TRAC notes in its report that delays in recording can result in preliminary FY 2010 figures missing some cases, making comparisons between 2009 and 2010 year-to-date unreliable.

Lucas Guttentag, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants' Rights Project and a co-panelist with Bacon, said that the memo illustrates that the Obama administration is thoughtfully considering modest steps to address some of the "perverse aspects of immigration law."

Obtained by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the 11-page memo outraged Republicans, who said it showed the Obama administration was trying to sneak around Congress to give amnesty for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. The memo became public the day after a federal judge blocked key provisions of Arizona's controversial immigration law, known as SB 1070.

"The document provides an additional basis for our concerns that the administration will go to great lengths to circumvent Congress and unilaterally execute a backdoor amnesty plan," Grassley told The Associated Press.

USCIS could grant deferred action to an unrestricted number of illegal immigrants, but "doing so would likely be controversial, not to mention expensive," the memo states. Instead of an umbrella "amnesty," the agency could use deferred action with specific groups, such as young immigrants who would be eligible under legislation known as the Dream Act.

The proposed bill aims to create a pathway to citizenship for people who have clean criminal records, graduated from high school in the United States and have at least two years of college or military service.

A version of this story also appeared on the Huffington Post.

The draft memo ICE wants comment on

In an unusually open move, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking public comment on a policy that directs immigration officers on when they can request local police to temporarily detain immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally.

The draft memo states that immigration officers generally should not issue detainers - or an immigration hold - on a person charged only with a traffic-related misdemeanor unless or until the person is convicted, except for the following reasons:

• the alien has a prior criminal conviction;
• the alien previously has been excluded, deported, or removed from the United States or allowed to voluntarily return to his or her country of nationality;
• the alien is the subject of an outstanding immigration warrant or is the subject of a final order (of deportation);
• the alien is part of an existing criminal investigation;
• an articulable reason exists to believe that the alien presents a danger to national security or a genuine risk to public safety; or
• the traffic-related misdemeanor involves driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, physical injury to a person or property, or flight from the scene of an accident.

The agency posted the draft memo on its web site Friday, and included an email address to send comments.

Request for Public Comment on Immigration Detainer Policy

ICE has drafted an immigration detainer policy to engage all interested stakeholders and solicit a broad range of views and comments. This is not a final policy and is disseminated solely to collect feedback. ICE is interested in a concrete assessment of how this draft policy, if issued and implemented, would affect the agency's law enforcement partners, the operation of the criminal justice system, communities and individuals. Please respond with your comments to ICEDetainerComments@dhs.gov by Thursday, September 30, 2010.

Not known for its transparency, ICE has pulled back the curtain in a few areas as the agency's leadership pushes various reforms, such as civil enforcement measures and overhauling immigration detention. The agency has also recently launched a new system to locate locked-up immigrants.

The draft policy comes on the heels of a federal judge's decision to block key parts of Arizona's controversial immigration law, and days after the Virginia attorney general issued a legal opinion that permits police to "inquire into the immigration status of persons stopped or arrested."

The policy defines then instructs immigration officers that they can only issue a detainer on an immigrant who has been arrested on a criminal charge. Immigration officers, which include local law enforcement officers who are given authority to issue detainers under a provision known as 287(g), are not allowed to seek an immigration hold on someone who has been temporarily detained, such as a roadside stop.

The previous policy is here.

Earlier in the week ICE chief John Morton signed an interim memo, a summary of which, posted below, was also sent to ICE employees.

10074.1 Interim Detainers Directive

Only immigration officers may issue detainers. Immigration officers shall issue detainers only after a local law enforcement agency (LEA) has exercised its independent authority to arrest the alien for a criminal violation. Immigration officers shall not issue detainers for aliens who have been temporarily detained by the LEA (i.e., roadside or Terry stops) but not arrested.

If an immigration officer has reason to believe that an individual arrested by an LEA is subject to ICE detention for removal or removal proceedings, and issuance of the detainer otherwise comports with this policy and appears to advance the priorities of the agency, the immigration officer may issue a detainer (Form I-247) to the LEA.

Immigration officers are expected to make arrangements to assume custody of an alien who is the subject of a detainer in a timely manner and without unnecessary delay. If at any time after a detainer is issued, ICE determines it will not assume custody of the alien, the detainer should be withdrawn or rescinded and the LEA notified.

Immigration officers shall take particular care when issuing a detainer against a lawful permanent resident (LPR) as some grounds of removability hinge on a conviction, while others do not [e.g. removability pursuant to INA § 237(a)(4) and INA § 237(a)(1)(E)].

David Leopold, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said exposing the draft memo to public scrutiny may lead to better policy.

"People who work in the system day in and day out - lawyers, advocates - may be able to offer constructive criticism the government hasn't thought about," he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of legal advocates from Seattle to San Diego have sued the U.S. government over the detention of immigrants with mental disabilities.

The class-action suit, which the ACLU of Southern California called the first of its kind, asks a Federal District Court in California to push the government to create a system to determine which immigrants facing possible deportation are competent to represent themselves and to appoint legal representation for those who cannot defend themselves, according to a statement.

The complaint, filed late Monday, names seven plaintiffs, including lead plaintiff Jose Antonio Franco-Gonzalez, whom CIR and the Los Angeles Times previously reported on in March. Franco, who suffers from moderate mental retardation, was detained for nearly five years until ICE officials released him after another suit was filed on his behalf.

The ACLU and Human Rights Watch published last month a report on the mentally disabled in the immigration court system and detention.

The complaint can be found here.

ICE's new online detainee system Photo: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that wants attention more for its complex customs and terrorism investigations than its immigration duties, has gone on a media blitz as of late.

ICE chief John Morton has popped up all over the place, from making public appearances around the country — including co-headlining a press conference Tuesday in San Francisco on a counterfeit clothing bust — to writing a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed piece with Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan D. Bersin to sitting for a Washington Post interview amid calls for his resignation to announcing in June a big drug bust with cohorts at the FBI, DEA and Justice Department.

(non-subscribers can find the WSJ op-ed here on the Homeland Security Department's social networking site, ourborder.ning.com)

Along with increasing Morton's visibility, the agency has also tried to raise its profile in other ways, with an organizational shake-up and a steady flow of press releases on everything from child pornography busts to its efforts to crackdown on human rights violators seeking safe haven in the United States.

Under the Obama administration ICE officials have stated that one of their priorities is to reform how the agency detains immigrants. In late July, the agency unveiled a new online system to find detained immigrants after previous reports of detainees moved around the country.

Last week the agency posted on its web site a month-by-month report of deportations. ICE has also tweaked its site, with prominent displays of the statistics, the new detainee finder system and its list of reforms. The agency, however, might take another look at some of these displays, immigration advocates say.

Notice the image of the tandem searching for someone — a friend, a sibling, a parent or a spouse — on the computer. Who are they? Mother and daughter? Aunt and niece? Tutor and pupil? Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a pro-immigration group that advocates for reform, wondered what the two are doing: Searching for a relative, or solving a homework problem?

"ICE has separated more families than any other federal agency by far, and a stock photo on a web site is a cruel joke rather than an image enhancer," Sharry said. "It just shows how tone deaf they are."

Update:
ICE replaced the image for the online detainee locator system on Wednesday. The image of a computer keyboard, below left, replaced the original image, below right.

ICE's new online detainee system (revised) Photo: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

ICE's new online detainee system (original) Photo: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

The text doesn't appear in Internet Explorer or Safari, but it's right there in Firefox:

Detainee Care and Safety
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

The jumbled Latin phrase is, of course, often used as placeholder text.

Update:
The placeholder text was removed as of Wednesday morning.

An ICE spokesman said the agency would review the web site.

A bill aimed at preventing corruption among border agents and keeping drug cartels from infiltrating the ranks of U.S. Customs and Border Protection has moved out of committee and will now be considered by the full Senate.

The bill, S. 3243, also known as the Anti Border Corruption Act, passed out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee on Wednesday. Introduced in April by Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., the legislation requires CBP to administer polygraph examinations to all applicants seeking a law enforcement position within the agency, among other measures.

As previously reported by CIR, officials are concerned about an increased risk of infiltration and border corruption. The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's office launched 576 investigations on allegations of improper conduct by CBP employees last year, according to the bill.

Less than 15 percent of applicants receive such a screening, according to CBP's internal affairs office, although the agency's policy is for all applicants to sit for a polygraph examination. The new law, if passed, would also require the agency to complete periodic background re-investigations of employees.

As of March 2010, the agency had a backlog of about 10,000 re-investigations. The backlog could nearly double to 19,000 by the end of the fiscal year if CBP doesn't get more money, according to the bill.

In introducing the legislation Pryor cited a CIR/Washington Post story that detailed how turf battles by the various agencies that police border corruption can have a negative effect on investigations.

The union that represents Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers said that a probe apparently seeking to identify the source of leaked internal documents detailing arrest quotas has unfairly targeted a suspected agent, the Washington Post reported.

The American Federation of Government Employees Council 118, which represents ICE officers, accuses the agency of initiating a "witch hunt" that tried to link the agent and the Post reporter, Spencer Hsu, both of whom have Asian surnames. The union declined to name the ICE agent.

In collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Post published in March documents and emails from ICE officials that outlined arrest quotas, which the agency has since distanced itself from.

The published story provoked an immediate response from ICE Director John Morton, who insisted the agency doesn't utilize quotas.

Immigration advocates also criticized the agency for the arrest quotas, which Morton had previously said the agency had ended. Some even called for Morton's resignation or termination.

In fact, the Post ran its story about the leak probe along with a profile of Morton, in which he said calls for his resignation were "just part of the territory."

As for the probe, "ICE leaders got caught doing something they shouldn't have been doing, and now they want revenge and are targeting their own employees," AFGE Council 118 President Chris Crane said in the statement.

An ICE spokesman told the Post that the agency's senior leadership did not request or pursue the investigation, but declined further comment on who might have launched the probe.

Eric Macias was sentenced to six years in prison. Photo: Department of Homeland Security

A Border Patrol agent who helped drug traffickers smuggle cocaine and marijuana into the country for about two years was sentenced today by a federal judge in New Mexico to six years in prison.

Eric R. Macias, who was stationed in Deming, New Mexico, previously pleaded guilty to one count of bribery and one count of attempt to aid and abet possession and intent to distribute five kilograms of cocaine. Macias also accepted about $14,000 in bribe money, according to court records.

A federal grand jury in Las Cruces indicted Macias in March 2009 on eight counts. Four other counts of bribery and two other drug-related charges were dismissed, according to court records. The case was investigated by the FBI, Department of Homeland Security Inspector General and Customs and Border Protection internal affairs.

The former agent admitted in his Oct. 2009 plea agreement that from March 2006 until at least February 2008 he helped drug traffickers transport cocaine and marijuana.

Macias, 31, was hired by the Border Patrol in 2005, said Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier. He was arrested in January 2009 after he told a confidential informant how to avoid getting caught smuggling marijuana. He also provided cover by escorting two shipments of cocaine.

He admitted to accepting a $10,000 bribe to escort in early December 2007 a person he thought was a drug trafficker smuggle five kilograms of cocaine, according to the plea agreement. The drug trafficker was a government informant.

Macias admitted that while he was on roving patrol he escorted the informant’s vehicle. He would distract other Border Patrol agents by pulling off to the side of the road to speak with them to allow the vehicle to pass undetected. Macias would then catch up with the vehicle and continue the escort, according to the plea agreement.

The agent's sentencing comes on the heels of the arrest of Daniel Ledezma, a Customs and Border Protection officer. Ledezma, 33, was swept up last week as part of a 22-month, multi-agency drug-trafficking investigation that resulted in 2,200 arrests and seizures of more than 70 tons of drugs and $154 million, according to a Justice Department press release.

Martha Garnica was arrested in November 2009. Photo: Department of Homeland Security

A veteran customs inspector arrested last November on corruption-related charges is expected to enter a guilty plea next week, according to federal court records.

Martha Alicia Garnica, 43, is scheduled to change her plea to guilty on May 14 in U.S. District Court in El Paso. She previously pleaded not guilty.

She was arrested with two other suspects last November and indicted on charges of conspiracy to smuggle undocumented aliens, two counts of bribery, and one count of importation of a controlled substance. The charges she was indicted on could result in a sentence of 10 years to life. Prosecutors are also seeking forfeiture of $1 million and other property.

Prosecutors alleged that she and four other suspects imported more than 200 pounds of marijuana between April and November 2009. Garnica and a co-defendant also paid bribes totaling $5,500 to a Customs and Border Protection officer on three occasions to allow drugs and an illegal immigrant into the country, according to a superceding indictment.

The CBP officer cooperated with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General and CBP Internal Affairs, who investigated the case against Garnica and her co-defendants.

Three other defendants already pleaded guilty. Garnica's nephew, Edgar "Ely" Meraz, pleaded guilty on March 26 to a drug smuggling charge. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 4. Her boyfriend, Carlos Ramirez Rosales, pleaded guilty on April 30 to bribery of a public official. Other charges were dismissed. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15. The other defendant, Arturo Leal Rosales, pleaded guilty on a drug-smuggling charge April 29 and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 13.

Another suspect died in Juarez, Mexico, in February after gunmen shot him to death, the El Paso Times reported. Hugo Flores Colmenero, a U.S. citizen, was shot 14 times. He was killed about a month after the indictment against him was unsealed.

The government's witnesses said Flores Colmenero gave orders to Garnica and the other defendants, the Times reported. An ICE agent testified that Garnica took over the operation after Flores Colmenero's brother was killed last August at a bar in Juarez.

Garnica was hired as a customs inspector in February 1997 and became a CBP officer when the Department of Homeland Security stood up in 2003, a CBP spokesman said. Garnica had been assigned to an administrative position as a CBP technician since March 2008 at an El Paso-area border crossing point. She was an El Paso police officer from 1990 to 1997.

According to the Times, Garnica was shot in the left hand in 1996 when she got in a scuffle as she stopped to check on two men. One of the men reached for her gun, which fired and injured her.

Another recent case involving a corrupt female customs inspector working in El Paso with Mexican drug traffickers resulted in a 20-year prison sentence for the woman.

Margarita Crispin, who became a CBP officer in 2003, was arrested in 2007 on corruption-related charges. She was ordered to forfeit $5 million, and is believed to have aided several traffickers smuggle thousands of pounds of marijuana into the country.