Immigration Laws: July, 2004 - Number #02

Border, Interior, Visas

Border. Apprehensions of Mexicans just inside the US border totaled 1.1 million in FY03, and are on track to top 1.2 million in FY04; there were 660,000 apprehensions in the first six months of FY04. The jump is attributed to demand-pull factors in the US, including a recovering economy and President Bush's January 2004 proposal to legalize some unauthorized foreigners employed in the US, and to supply-push factors in Mexico, such as drought and the continued displacement of farmers due to high input prices and low commodity prices, and the dearth of jobs in urban areas.

There is no doubt that fences, lights and more Border Patrol agents have pushed migrants attempting to enter the US to the Arizona deserts, where 154 died last year. Most try to cross the Sonoran Desert, between Yuma in the west and Nogales in the east: 50,000 a month were apprehended there in the spring of 2004. About 40 percent of the approximately 900,000 border apprehensions in FY03 were in Arizona, which has a 350-mile border with Mexico. The danger comes from having to walk 50 miles through the desert to the nearest US road and needing perhaps 10 gallons of water, which weighs eight pounds a gallon.

Interviews with apprehended Mexicans suggest that some had jobs paying relatively high wages in Mexico, such as the public bus driver apprehended in Arizona in May 2004 who was earning $136 a week in Mexico.

In June 2004, the US and Mexico announced a plan to fly migrants caught just inside the Arizona border to the interior of Mexico. The first 130 were flown home in mid-July, and DHS expects to fly 300 migrants a day from Tucson to Mexico City and Guadalajara on two chartered flights- each flight can take up to 150 people and costs $28,000. In the Border Patrol's Tucson district, an average of 2,300 Mexicans were detained every day between March and July 2004.

The $12 million deep repatriation program is to be paid for by the US and be strictly voluntary; migrants can insist on being bussed to the Arizona-Mexican border, but the US estimated that 300 to 400 migrants a week might elect to be flown home. The goal is to separate migrants from smugglers who typically offer several attempts to enter the US illegally for one payment.

US-VISIT is a system of computer databases to tracks foreign visitors inside the US. DHS plans to enlarge and extend it to new points of arrival, and the cost of improving the computerized system may be as high as $15 billion. The theory is that, by obtaining fingerprints from visitors at 211 US visa-issuing posts overseas, and then screening arriving foreign passengers en route, the inspector at the physical US border is a last rather than a first line of defense against the entry of unwanted foreigners.

However, experience with anti-missile systems has shown that the best technology cannot reliably detect enemy missiles that may be hidden in clouds of decoys, and experts say that computer systems will not be able to identify terrorists unknown to the US government hidden among millions of foreigners. They also warn that "false positives" in a system with millions of entries will cause problems for thousands of foreigners. The reason that the US-VISIT system applies the same level of scrutiny to all incoming foreigners is to avoid accusations of discrimination by race or religion or country of origin.

At the request of the Bush administration, Congress extended the Fall 2004 deadline by which nationals of 27 countries in the Visa Waiver Program were to have high-technology passports. Under the visa waiver program that began in 1986, foreigners can enter the US for up to 90 days without visas.

Port security has been stepped up. Beginning July 1, 2004, ships bound for the 360 US ports must submit manifests at least 24 hours before departing, and can be inspected by US officials if they depart from any of 19 major foreign ports. Once in transit, ships must give a 96-hour advance notice of their arrival.

Nationals of nine countries have Temporary Protected Status in the US, and for those from seven countries it has been extended year-to-year since 1997 or earlier. Nationals of Honduras and Nicaragua in the US received TPS after Hurricane Mitch hit them in 1998, and Salvadorans received TPS after two earthquakes hit in 2001. The Employment Authorization Documents of some 238,000 Salvadorans with TPS have been renewed until March 5, 2005, and Guatemala is pressing for TPS for its nationals in the US.

Interior Enforcement. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) testified in May 2004 that the smuggling and trafficking of 17,500 foreigners a year into the US generates $9.5 billion in revenues. Trafficking differs from smuggling in that it involves force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. In Los Angeles, it was reported that the smuggler's price for bringing a Mexican into the US was $1,500 to $2,500, and for Central Americans $3,000 to $6,000.

DHS has about 5,500 agents to enforce immigration laws inside the US. Their major activity is locating the 400,000 foreigners who have been ordered to depart from the US. One explanation for increasing expenditures on border enforcement and little enforcement of employer sanctions laws inside the US is that Americans oppose unauthorized foreigners in general, but once they arrive and find jobs, their employers and fellow employees do not want them removed.

In the quest for more interior enforcement, the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act (CLEAR) pending in Congress would penalize state and local law enforcement agencies that do not cooperate with DHS to enforce immigration laws. Advocates of CLEAR hope that many of the 640,000 state and local law enforcement officers would obtain training and enforce immigration laws. Two states, Alabama and Florida, have signed agreements with DHS to have a few state troopers (21 in Alabama) take five weeks of training, after which the troopers have the right to detain suspected immigration violators. Los Angeles, Orange, and Maricopa (Phoenix) counties are considering similar agreements.

Prosecutors will make New York truck driver Tyrone Williams, a Jamaican immigrant who was paid $5,000 to drive unauthorized migrants north through Texas, the first person to face the death penalty for smuggling foreigners. Williams and 13 other people accused of running a human-smuggling ring were charged in a 58-count indictment in connection with the deaths of 17 migrants in the back of Williams' truck May 14, 2003. Karla Patricia Chavez Joya, the alleged leader of the smuggling ring, in June 2004 pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in the prosecution; she is the fourth of those charged to plead guilty.

In Los Angeles, ICE discovered a safe house with migrants in April 2004, and charged two men with being smugglers. In June 2004, the two were returned to El Salvador as migrants who were smuggled, and ICE admitted that it had no idea who the smugglers were. ICE's Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit said that smuggling rings were "complex and deep-seated," with migrants reluctant to testify for fear of retaliation.

ICE in July 2004 launched an effort at LAX to prevent migrants smuggled into the US from flying to the eastern US, predicting that airport enforcement actions would lead to more migrants waiting in safe houses. However, the airport operations were criticized by migrant advocates, who predicted that ICE agents would rely on ethnic profiling, targeting Latino men on overnight flights.

Sweeps. There is little enforcement of laws against being illegally in the US, or working illegally in the US- most interior enforcement seeks foreigners convicted of US crimes who are subject to removal. When in June 2004, 12 Border Patrol agents made over 400 arrests in Riverside and San Bernardino counties after engaging people in "consensual conversations," critics decried the resumption of "sweeps" for unauthorized foreigners, and criticized "racial profiling" and the "atmosphere of fear" created by the patrols.

The UFW and other Hispanic groups led demonstrations against the Border Patrol sweeps across California around July 4, 2004.

Rep Linda T. Sanchez (D-CA) called the raids "a blatant abuse of power," and Mexican President Vicente Fox said that he would protest "the recent operations against Mexicans." In its defense, Mobile Patrol Group agents based in Temecula said they do not "routinely go to commercial places and ask people to see their papers." Even critics noted that the patrols do find unauthorized foreigners, and the fact that several hundred were removed may deter others from trying to enter the US.

In the past, immigration agents stopped interior enforcement in the face of criticism. In 2003, agents withdrew from one city after Latinos staged demonstrations and held community meetings to protest arrests outside apartments, at bus stops and around the downtown train station. Most police departments in Southern California have a policy of not actively getting involved when agents are making arrests, saying they do not want to discourage illegal immigrants from reporting crimes. In response to the June 2004 criticism, DHS in Washington said that the Temecula Border Patrol agents should have sought prior approval for their roving patrols.

Services/Visas. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported in June 2004 that it needs two more years to get current on applications for citizenship, green cards and work permits. USCIS has 6.1 million pending applications for naturalization or other adjustments in immigration status, including 3.7 million that were filed more than six months ago. President George Bush in 2000 promised that all immigration applications would be processed within six months, and USCIS said it will achieve this goal in 2006 by moving toward "decision at first review" rather than asking applicants to resubmit information several times because the adjudication process is slow.

The National Foreign Trade Council reported that the US policy of conducting background checks on all foreigners needing visas involved with technologies deemed sensitive for national security reasons, such as aerospace, chemicals or advanced computers, cost US business $31 billion since it went into effect in July 2002. About 1,000 foreigners a month require security checks, and businesses complain that the visa-issuance process, especially for applicants from China, India and Russia is lengthy and uncertain, costing their would-be employers money.

Some 25 US science organizations in May 2004 complained that new US visa rules are curbing the entrance of foreign students and scientists, especially from China. Foreigners must pay a nonrefundable $100 visa application fee, and another $100 to register in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), the US database that tracks them while they are in the US. There are an estimated 1.2 million foreign students in the US. Their most popular fields of study are business and management (20 percent) and engineering (15 percent).

State Department officials say that the average waiting time for visa applicants fell from 70 days in 2002 to 30 days in 2004, and that it continues to fine-tune the balance between security and openness.

Solomon Moore. "Border Patrol Arrests Violated Policy," Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2004. Vicki Kemper and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, "U.S. Tries to Speed Flow of Immigration Paperwork," Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2004. Edward Alden, "Visa delays cost corporate America," Financial Times, June 2, 2004.