One if by land two if by seize
Instead of jumping the fence in Arizona, it looks like immigrants are trying to beat the heat by boating to America. Last week Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) reported three separate smuggling attempts by sea.
According to CBP, the first seizure took place on July 5, when agents intercepted a private vessel named the ‘Oh Yeah’ that had traveled into U.S. waters. Agents found half a ton of marijuana hidden in a “false deck” and arrested the operator, a U.S. citizen.
At 1:30 a, a boat was spotted dodging search helicopters. Border Patrol and Coast Guard followed the boat until it docked near the town of Encinitas, CA. A total of 16 immigrants were arrested shortly after landfall.
In one of the less strategic attempts at illegal entry this week, a second boat dropped off 18 people on the Marine base Camp Pendleton, North of San Diego. CBP and Coast Guard officials were alerted by Marines who spotted the illegal immigrants on the base. Interviews with the immigrants revealed that they reached land just two hours before their capture.
The states stick it to the Man
The Justice Department may be suing Arizona for their controversial immigration law, but that hasn’t stopped twenty states from pushing their own immigration bills.
According to a recent Chicago Tribune article, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement John Morton is urging states to leave immigration law to the Feds. “I don’t think that 50 different Immigration enforcement laws is the answer to our Immigration troubles,” Morton says. “I understand the frustration that many communities feel over the question of illegal Immigration, but having a patchwork of state laws, I don’t think is the right way to go.”
Arizona and Texas Perry-ng up
Arizona may not have the support of Mexico’s governors or the Feds, but at least Governor Rick Perry has their back. Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer recently canceled the annual border governors meeting, set to take place in Phoenix, after six Mexican governors vowed to boycott the meeting in protest of SB1070. Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Richardson suggested to move the meeting’s location instead of canceling it.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Perry explained his support of Gov Jan Brewer’s decision to cancel the border governors’ meeting after Mexican governors refused to attend.
“It’s supposed to be in Arizona. And if others governors decide they don’t want to come, in some type of a protest, frankly, that’s their business and it’s their loss,” explains Perry. “I think this idea of boycotts and not going here or not going there — sitting down and talking has always been rather smart. But the fact of the matter is this is Arizona’s time. And that’s what we told Jan, and, you know, we weren’t going to move this to another state.”
Common sense (or lack thereof)
After successfully capturing scores of seafaring smugglers in recent days, Border Patrol found themselves in their own hot water over seismic sensors. A recent review of the Secure Border Initiative (SBI) by the DHS Inspector General, a program created to install immigrant sensing technology, found that both the Department of Homeland security and CBP caused cost overruns due to lack of oversight.
The audit found that CBP program officials failed to properly use a “project management tool” designed to predict possible cost overruns. Furthermore, SBI officials “did not did not ensure that a program event was properly completed before progressing to the next event.”
In addition to the poor oversight findings, a federal judge says CBP also skimped on their rent. Court House News Service reports a D.C. court of appeals has ruled that the “federal government [must] pay a San Diego County landowner more than $3 million in back rent after the Border Patrol installed seismic sensors on several lots along the U.S.-Mexico border in order to catch illegal immigrants”
In 2009 a trial determined that the US government was required to pay property owners for easements necessary to install the sensors but did not rule on the amount. Based on other comparable real estate easements, the landowners asked for a total of $23 million; while claiming that the sensors did nothing to the property value, the federal government had offered $100 for each landowner.
Taxation without documentation
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) released a new study outlining the financial burden illegal immigration has on taxpayers. According to their research, the cost of illegal immigration at the federal, state and local governments totals around $113 billion. A further breakdown of the total shows the federal government fronts about $29 billion of the total while the states pay $84.2 billion. The report fingers education as the biggest ticket item for tax payers, costing them $52 billion a year.