GAO Faults ICE on Identifying, Removing Illegal Aliens

The Bush administration’s effort to increase enforcement of federal immigration laws is stretching the resources of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the limit, and agency officials need an updated set of guidelines when investigating and apprehending suspected illegal immigrants and undocumented workers, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released Oct. 15, 2007.

Several members of Congress asked the GAO to conduct the study after ICE investigators arrested thousands of undocumented workers in a series of high-profile workplace raids in late 2006 and early 2007. Immigration advocacy groups and politicians criticized the raids, saying that ICE did not consider how the raids would disrupt the lives of families who depended on these workers.

A raid conducted on Michael Bianco Ltd., a leather goods manufacturer in New Bedford, Mass., in March 2007, made headlines around the country when 361 undocumented workers were arrested. More than 200 of them were sent to a federal detention center in Texas, which left by some estimates more than 300 school-age children without any means of support. Dozens of the detainees were later released.”*

• At-risk Hispanic students get a hand up in after-school program at Bonnabel – Louisiana
• ICE audit plan for employers includes El Paso, draws criticism from rights group
• Mexican doctors pointed to parents as the reason Mexico leads the world in child obesity, a problem made worse in this country by the lack of sports training.
• “They” Are “Us”: The Devastating Effects of Broken Immigration Policy on Children in Immigrant Families
• Angel Reyes Interview About Child Safety In Cars On Good Morning Texas
• Interview with Children’s Author Lucia Gonzalez – Gonzalez’s latest children’s book, The Storyteller’s Candle, is dedicated to Pura Belpre
• ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton announces 1,000 new workplace audits to hold employers accountable for their hiring practices
• USDA data shows more Latino children going hungry
• New Report Shines Light on Detainee Rights Violations in Minnesota
• There are 16 million children in immigrant families in the United States
• Hispanics are 9% of the Virginia’s schoolchildren, but 5% of gifted students.
• New Report: More Than 2 Million Hispanic Households With Children Face Hunger – Hispanic households with children experiencing very low food security up almost 50%
• AT&T Announces Campaign to Support PADRES Contra El Cancer in Fight Against Childhood Disease
• Experts warned on Tuesday that the rise in health problems due to obesity among Mexican children, which is considered to be an epidemic, threatens “for the first time” to reduce life expectancy rates in the country.
• Hundreds of defendants awaiting trial for violent crimes in Dallas County have been deported by federal immigration officials and then set free in their home countries. – The practice goes back to at least 1991 and includes the release of murder, kidnapping and child rape suspects.
• Young Latino Children Throughout Los Angeles County to Benefit from IBM Donation of Educational Computer Learning Centers
• Interview with award-winning children’s author Lucia Gonzalez
• Lunes Libro for los Chicos Edition : Al Galope
• Postville Raid: Eighteen months have passed since immigration agents raided Agriprocessors Inc. meat plant, arrested nearly 400 workers, and sent the plant spiraling into bankruptcy. – On Thursday, the plant’s former vice president – Sholom Rubashkin – was found guilty of 86 of 91 counts of financial crimes. – Verdict brings closure to many in Postville
• Federal authorities have identified more than 111,000 immigrants with criminal records being held in local jails, during the first year of a program that seeks to deport immigrants who have committed serious crimes.