Illegal Border Crossings v. Visa Overstays

No one can get the image of the train carrying illegals out of their memory and with good reason. When anyone does a search on the internet to determine the actual and factual numbers of immigrants coming across the southern border by year, you will be disappointed, the charts and records are not there. Countless outlets and agencies report but with caveats and obscure labels. Still we are told the border is as secure as it has ever been.

Related reading: The Human Tragedy of Illegal Immigration: Greater Efforts Needed to Combat Smuggling and Violence

What is more chilling, are the reports that once again we are in a spike season of illegal entry due in part to threats of presidential candidates. Further, those already here are filing at an accelerated rate for citizenship for the exact same reason.

There is a clash however in the facts over which is worse, those coming across the border versus those coming in by air or other means possessing a vThe Visa Waiver Program (VWP) enables most citizens or nationals of participating countries* to travel to the United States for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without first obtaining a visa, when they meet all requirements explained below. Travelers must have a valid Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval prior to travel. If you prefer to have a visa in your passport, you may still apply for a visitor (B) visa.isa that has an expiration date. Take note that any international airport across the United States is a port of entry. Once a visa is issued by State Department contractors, it becomes the burden of the Department of Homeland Security to ensure compliance to dates. This is where the problem, yet another lays with fault.

One cannot overlook the Visa Waiver Program concocted by the U.S. State Department of which several in Congress are calling for a suspension.

Citizens or nationals of the following countries* are currently eligible to travel to the United States under the VWP, unless citizens of one of these countries are also a national of Iraq, Iran, Syria, or Sudan.

Andorra Hungary Norway
Australia Iceland Portugal
Austria Ireland San Marino
Belgium Italy Singapore
Brunei Japan Slovakia
Chile Latvia Slovenia
Czech Republic Liechtenstein South Korea
Denmark Lithuania Spain
Estonia Luxembourg Sweden
Finland Malta Switzerland
France Monaco Taiwan*
Germany Netherlands United Kingdom**
Greece New Zealand

There are an estimated 35 unique types of visa classifications under the management of the U.S. State Department.

 

Obama Admin Deported Less Than One Percent of Visa Overstays

Nearly half a million individuals overstayed visas in 2015, fewer than 2,500 deported

Kredo/FreeBeacon: The Obama administration deported less than one percent of the nearly half a million foreign nationals who illegally overstayed their visas in 2015, according to new statistics published by the Department of Homeland Security.

Of the 482,781 aliens who were recorded to have overstayed temporary U.S. visas in fiscal year 2015, just 2,456 were successfully deported from the United States during the same period, according to DHS’s figures, which amounts to a deportation rate of around 0.5 percent.

The sinking rate of deportations by the Obama administration is drawing criticism from Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are warning that the administration is ignoring illegal overstays and potentially opening the United States to terrorist threats.

The 482,781 figure accounts for aliens who entered the United States on a nonimmigrant visitor visa or through the Visa Waiver Program, which streamlines travel between the United States and certain other countries. The figure encompasses foreign nationals who were found to have remained in the United States after their visas expired or after the 90-day window allowed by the Visa Waiver Program.

The actual number of overstays could be higher. The latest figures published by DHS do not include overstays from other visa categories or overstays by individuals who entered the United States through land ports, such as those along the Mexican border.

Deportations by the Obama administration have decreased steadily since 2009, according to figures codified by the Senate’s Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest and provided to the Washington Free Beacon.

Since 2009, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has expelled 51,704 individuals who overstayed their visas. The total number of those expelled has decreased every fiscal year.

At least 12,538 illegal overstays were deported in fiscal 2009, while 11,259 were removed in 2010, 10,426 in 2011, 6,856 in 2012, 4,240 in 2013, 3,564 in 2014, and 2,456 in 2015, according to the committee.

The drop is being attributed by sources to an Obama administration policy directing DHS and ICE not to pursue visa overstays unless the offender has been convicted of major crimes or terrorism.

“The decision by the Obama administration not to enforce immigration laws by allowing those who have overstayed their visas to remain in the country has not gone unnoticed by the American people,” sources on the Senate subcommittee told the Free Beacon. “A Rasmussen Reports poll released earlier this year indicates that approximately 3 out of 4 Americans not only want the Obama administration to find these aliens who overstay their visas, but also to deport them.”

“The same poll indicates that 68 percent of Americans consider visa overstays a ‘serious national security risk,’ and 31 percent consider visa overstays a ‘very serious’ national security risk,” according to the sources.

Congress has long mandated the implementation of a biometric entry-exit system to track individuals who overstay their visas and ensure they leave the United States.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), chair of the Senate’s immigration subcommittee, recently proposed an amendment aimed at speeding up implementation of this system. Senate Democrats blocked the amendment.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement has received substantially more taxpayer money in recent years despite the plummeting rate of deportations. At least 43 percent fewer aliens were removed from the United States from 2012 to 2015, according to DHS statistics.

Advanced Copy: Groundbreaking Interview/Ben Rhodes

This is the most chilling interview since that of Jeffrey Goldberg’s Atlantic interview with Barack Obama. It all comes down to how Iraq drove this White House on all foreign policy decisions including that of normalizing relations with Iran and how the Oval Office propaganda arm worked and still works with particular emphasis on the nuclear deal.

Please ensure you seat belt is securely buckled. Turbulence ahead….comes with knowing the real facts and truths.

The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru

How Ben Rhodes rewrote the rules of diplomacy for the digital age.

Permit to Kill Eagles?

Reprehensible….sounds like a death panel for a historic American icon.

A federal depredation permit authorizes you to capture or kill birds to reduce damage caused by birds or to protect other interests such as human health and safety or personal property. A depredation permit is intended to provide short-term relief for bird damage until long-term, non-lethal measures can be implemented to eliminate or significantly reduce the problem.

You should review Title 50 parts 10, 13 and 21.41 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) with your application. You are responsible for reviewing and understanding these regulations before you request and accept a permit. These regulations are on our website at: http://www.fws.gov/permits/ltr/ltr.html.

The process, conditions, text and application document is found here.

 

U.S. proposes giving wind farms 30-year permits to kill eagles

Reuters: U.S. wildlife managers on Wednesday again proposed granting 30-year permits to wind farms that would forgive them for thousands of eagle deaths expected during that time frame from collisions of the birds with turbines, towers and electrical wires.

The proposed rule, like one struck down by a federal judge last year, would greatly extend the current five-year time frame in the permits required under U.S. law for the “incidental take” of eagles, including those killed by obstacles erected in their habitat.

Wind energy companies have pressed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lengthen the terms of the eagle permits, saying a five-year duration left too much uncertainty and hampered investment in the burgeoning renewable power industry.

The agency in 2013 approved a similar plan extending eagle-take permits to 30 years. But a U.S. judge overturned it last year, agreeing with conservation groups that the Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to properly assess impacts of the rule change on federally protected eagle populations.

The revised proposal cites significant expansion within many sectors of the U.S. energy industry, particularly wind energy operations in the Western states, at a time when bald eagle numbers are growing while golden eagles appear to be in decline.

Nevertheless, the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that the U.S. population of roughly 40,000 golden eagles could endure the loss of about 2,000 birds a year without being pushed toward extinction. And the agency suggested that bald eagles, estimated to number about 143,000 nationwide, could sustain as many as 4,200 fatalities annually without endangering the species.

The new proposal, which is open for public comment through July 5, would make wind farms and other energy developers responsible for monitoring eagle deaths from collisions with facility structures.

That arrangement was decried by the American Bird Conservancy, which led the successful legal challenge against the previous eagle permit plan.

The conservancy’s Michael Hutchins said a system that relies on industry rather than government regulators to monitor and report problems fails to protect a beloved bird of prey stamped on the great seal of the United States.

The American Wind Energy Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The number of eagles killed each year at wind facilities is not precisely known, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. An estimated 545 golden eagles are thought to perish annually from collisions with obstacles ranging from turbines to vehicles, the agency said.

Syrian Refugees Allowed in Russia, Not So Much

There are some refugees in Russia yet is seems the process is highly controlled and with stipulated boundaries and conditions.

There are currently about 12,000 Syrian refugees in Russia, according to the Federal Migration Service, only 2,000 of whom have so far received legal residency papers. Human rights activists say the bureaucratic logjam is unacceptable and point out that most of the Ukrainian refugees also lack legal documentation.

“There is no policy on refugees in our state,” says Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the Committee for Civil Assistance, a nongovernmental organization that works with migrants. “When large numbers of Ukrainians started coming here, they were at first met with kindness. But soon all official interest in them disappeared.”

Russia already has a huge and largely underground population of Muslim migrant workers, mostly from former-Soviet central Asia. Experts say that any Syrian refugees who have made it to Moscow are probably blending in with that group.

But that could change. A summary of press reports in the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda suggests that increasing numbers of savvy Syrians are entering Russia on student or tourist visas, hopping on the train to Murmansk, and then heading directly to Norway’s single border crossing with Russia. 

Fewer than 200 people have been so far recorded using this unique method of escape, to Russia’s far north by train and into Norway, often by bicycle from nearby Murmansk, high above the Arctic Circle.

The paper says that local taxi drivers are charging over $1,000 for the two-hour drive, while the price of bicycles has soared. Much more here from CS Monitor.

Syrians Have No Chance Of Asylum In Russia

A Russian solicitor working with Syrian refugees tells Sky News there are “unwritten rules” preventing them gaining asylum status.

Sky News has discovered the extraordinary lengths to which Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration is going to keep out Syrian asylum seekers.

Russia has granted two Syrians full asylum status since the conflict began in 2011.

In comparison, Germany is currently accepting about 35,000 people per month.

Makhachkala, the biggest city in the Russian state of Dagestan, is a chaotic spot – with half-built apartment blocks and partly paved roads fanning out, spaghetti-like, from the western edge of the Caspian Sea.

Makhachkala city

Makhachkala, the biggest city in Dagestan, is a chaotic spot

Among the 600,000 people who live here, there is just one man – a solicitor called Shamil Magemadov – who is willing to work with refugees.

“That’s surprising, I know,” says the 37-year-old.

“Syrians who come here (seeking asylum) share the same religion as the residents, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.”

As Makhachkala goes, so does the rest of Russia.

It may be the principal military backer of the Syrian regime but that does not mean Russia is willing to accept its citizens fleeing war and terror.

We joined Mr Magemadov as he made his way to the local lock-up where five Syrian asylum seekers are being held indefinitely.

They have all applied for refugee status but lack the proper paperwork permitting them to stay.

As a consequence, each one has spent more than a year behind bars – and human rights groups believe there are Syrians in similar circumstances sitting in just about every detention centre in the country.

“They are very depressed,” said Mr Magemadov, when I asked about their mental state.

“They have been in there a long time and they don’t know if they’re ever getting out.”

Makhachkala city

The detention centre where the five men are being held

What is clear is that these men have no chance of getting asylum.

Nonetheless, the ‘Makhachkala 5’ did leave the detention complex in February, when Russian migration officials tried to secretly deport them back to Syria.

A decision, says Mr Magemadov, that could have cost them their lives.

When he got wind of what was going on, he immediately tried to block it at the European Court of Human Rights.

“They were waiting at Moscow airport (to be deported) and I filed a petition to the court,” he said.

“We had no time to lose. If the court sided with me after the government put them on the plane, we knew we would never get them back.”

Sky News has learned that such deportations are common.

According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and other civil society groups operating in Russia, at least 18 Syrians have been sent back directly to Syria, contravening the 1951 Refugee Convention (of which Russia is a signatory) and the Russian Constitution.

Sky News has been told the total number of Syrians deported is “almost certainly far higher” but this number represents those cases they have heard about and can confirm.

The lives of the five men in Makhachkala may have been saved but they told us they have little, or nothing, to live for.

Zacharia Berri, from Aleppo in Syria, has spent almost a year inside and during that time, he has twice tried to take his own life.

The second attempt was made in February, just before Russian migration officials tried to take them all to the airport.

In a message recorded on a telephone inside the detention centre, Mr Berri told Sky News: “I don’t want to go to Syria, I oppose the regime.

“I am a wanted man. The security services are waiting for me to send me to the army. I don’t want to go.”

We have obtained this picture of the 24-year-old after he tried to slash his left wrist two months ago.

Zacharia Berri

Zacharia Berri tried to slash his left wrist

Sky News also received this picture, in the past few days, of another inmate called Rebar Kasar.

The young Syrian has taken a chunk out of his own arm because, after 14 months inside he says he is “going insane”.

Rebar Kasar

Rebar Kasar says he is “going insane”

Aleppo native Sabri Koro has spent 16 months inside and told us it has been particularly difficult because he has a Russian wife and child who he is not allowed to see.

Migration officials rejected his asylum request on the basis that he has failed to provide his family with “manly and fatherly care”.

The registration of his marriage, which took place after he had been detained, was proof, said officials, of paternal negligence.

Sabri Koro and family

Sabri Koro and his wife Kalimat Kouro

Mr Magemadov chuckles when the subject of the migration service’s ‘rejection notices’ is raised.

The Russian migration service uses – and reuses – the same templates when issuing these rejections, telling failed applicants they are “in no more danger than other citizens living (in Syria)”.

The country is safe, add the templates, because the regime is “in control of about 50% of the territory”.

For the troubled-looking refugee lawyer, in the sprawling city of Makhachkala, the arrests and detentions, the deportations and the rejection slips, are simple proof of an unacknowledged yet active government policy.

“I think there are unwritten rules regarding Syrians,” he said.

“Why do citizens of Ukraine get asylum without problems (in Russia), but citizens of Syria do not?”

Porn Scandal in Federal Govt Continues

SMH = Shaking my Head

Feds Have Found ‘Unbelievable’ Amounts of Child Porn on National Security Computers. Is This the Solution?

A top National Security Agency official wants to keep tabs on national security personnel off-the-clock, in part by tracking their online habits at home. The aim is to spot behavior that might not be in America’s best interests.

Historically, some illicit activity, like downloading child pornography, which is different to perfectly legal and enjoyable content from sites similar to tubev, has occurred on government computers and been prosecuted.

But today, the digital lives of employees cleared to access classified information extend beyond the office.

About 80 percent of the National Security Agency workforce has retired since Sept. 11, 2001, says Kemp Ensor, NSA director of security. When the millennial and Gen Y staff that now populate the spy agency get home, they go online.

“That is where were we need to be, that’s where we need to mine,” Ensor said.

Currently, managers only look for aberrant computer behavior on internal, agency-owned IT systems – it’s a practice known as “continuous monitoring.”

But the military and intelligence communities are beginning to broaden checks on cleared personnel in the physical and digital worlds. It used to be that national security workers were re-investigated only every five or 10 years.

Under the evolving “continuous evaluation” model, the government will periodically search for signs of problems through, for example, court records, financial transactions, and — if authorized — social media posts.

Ensor and other federal officials spoke April 28 about new trends in personnel security at an Intelligence and National Security Alliance symposium in Chantilly, Virginia.

On government devices, “the amount of child porn I see is just unbelievable,” said Daniel Payne, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Security Service. The point being, there’s a need to routinely scan agency network activity and criminal records to gauge an individual’s suitability to handle classified information.

Payne, whose 34 years of counterintelligence experience have spanned the military, CIA and National Counterintelligence and Security Center, was not referring to any specific agency or any specific timeframe, his current employer told Nextgov.

Payne just returned to the Defense Security Service in February, after starting his career there.

“Director Payne provided this example to demonstrate the range of issues identified during the personnel security process, and the range and value of different data sources that have a bearing on an individual’s ability to access sensitive information,” the Defense Security Service said in an emailed statement.

Ensor echoed his colleague’s concerns, noting he sees child pornography on NSA IT systems. In the national security space, “what people do is amazing,” he said. Ensor’s guess about the presence of explicit material is that there are many “introverts staring at computer screens” day in and day out. This is why it is so important to look at individuals holistically when determining who might be a so-called insider threat, Ensor said.

In the past, military and intelligence personnel have exploited minors online, without notice, for years or even an entire career.

The Boston Globe broke a story in 2010 that a significant number of federal employees and contractors with high-level security clearances downloaded child pornography — sometimes on government computers — at NSA and the National Reconnaissance Office, among other defense agencies.

At least one NSA contractor holding a top secret clearance told investigators in 2007 he had been spending $50 to $60 monthly fees on various sexually explicit websites similar to hdpornvideo.xxx for the past three years, according to a Defense inspector general report on the matter. After each session on the porn sites, he would wipe the browsing history of that system. The Pentagon investigation did not state who owned the computer.

More recently, a military official pleaded guilty to pedophile crimes and accessing child pornography through the Internet — but at home.

On April 15, a U.S. district judge sentenced former Army Corps of Engineers official Michael Beeman, of Virginia, to 30 years in prison for molesting minors, beginning in the 1980s while working in public affairs at Patrick Air Force Base. He later downloaded child pornography to personal devices, court records show.

Case files state the illegal online activity occurred between 2010 and 2014, which according to LinkedIn, was when Beeman served as an Army Corps of Engineers public affairs regional chief.