The New York Times reported earlier this week that Governor Patterson issued pardons last week to 24 lawful permanent residents (green card holders) with prior criminal convictions, to avoid deportation to their native countries. The Governor’s term and by extension, the pardon panel will end on December 31, 2010.  The panel received over 1,100 applications for executive clemency this year and the pressure to render decisions on [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported today that in Florida, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (USICE) officers under the leadership of Marc Moore who was appointed by the DHS earlier this year to head the USICE’s Office of Detention & Removal at the Miami Field Office, oversaw the deportations of over 15,000 foreign nationals, most of them were deported because of their criminal convictions. [...]

The New York Times reported today that New York State Governor David A. Paterson formed a special clemency panel consisting of a group of five (5) individuals from the governor’s office and state agencies earlier this year to expedite the granting of clemency, otherwise known as pardons to lawful permanent residents (green card holders) who are in deportation proceedings for criminal convictions that [...]

The Los Angeles Times reported today that all inmates who are booked into the Orange County jail system will now have their immigration status checked through a new biometric identification program that was implemented yesterday.  The program started in late 2008, and is currently in use by over 120 counties in 16 states across the United States. The Los Angeles, [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported today that agents from the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement  (USICE) arrested 286 people in California  in a 3 day operation to apprehend suspected immigrants with criminal records and, undocumented immigrants without criminal records in California. This enforcement action was conducted by the USICE’s Fugitive Operations Program, which is responsible for identifying, apprehending, and deporting criminal aliens and immigration fugitives who have [...]

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement  (USICE) announced that via their Secure Communities Program, that it has identified and deported over 110,000 criminal aliens who were apprehended by state and local law enforcement. USICE officials estimate that the program will be implemented in every state by 2011 and be available to every law enforcement agency across the country within 2 years from [...]

The New York Times reported today that agents from the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement  (USICE) who are responsible for identifying and apprehending immigrants who have ignored deportation orders, have recently been arresting more immigrants with criminal records. Statistics from the USICE has shown that in the past 3 years, over 70% of immigrants arrested by USICE agents had no criminal histories. About 45% of the approximately 35,000 immigrants [...]

The Houston Chronicle reported that the Obama administration is expanding a program initiated by former President Bush to verify the immigration status of every person that is incarcerated in the local jails. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (USICE) implemented a program called Secure Communities.  The program is currently in 48 counties in seven states.  The USICE plans to expand it to all jails and prisons by [...]

The Los Angeles Times reported that the Southern California counties of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego will be the first in the state to begin checking the immigration status of all inmates booked into the county jail system as part of a national effort to identify and deport immigrants with criminal records. Law enforcement officials in the 3 counties will [...]