City Cops to Obama: We Don’t Want to Enforce Broken Immigration System

By Afton Branche In a recent White House meeting, President Obama and an eclectic group of administration officials, business and law enforcement leaders, former and current elected officials and other "stakeholders" discussed current prospects for comprehensive immigration reform, one of Obama's notable and still unfulfilled campaign promises. According to official records of the gathering, big-city law enforcement leaders relayed their concerns that “without reform, enforcing federal imm...

Austin Police Chief Slams Arizona-Style Immigration Law

By Nathan Bernier Austinites might have to wait longer for police to respond in an emergency if the Texas Legislature adopts a law similar to Arizona's controversial anti-illegal immigration measure, Austin Police Department chief Art Acevedo said today. "I'd rather spend my time responding to public safety threats than going after the day laborer at the Home Depot," Acevedo said in a media conference call hosted by the Law Enforcement Engagement Initiative. Acevedo said div...

Immigration overhaul effort seems dead

By Brian Bennett, Washington Bureau When Republican lawmakers take over the House and gain strength in the Senate after the new year, a decadelong drive to overhaul the immigration system and legalize some of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants seems all but certain to come to a halt. When New York Republican Peter T. King takes over the House Homeland Security Committee in January, he plans to propose legislation to reverse what he calls an "obvious lack of urgency" by the...

BNHR Statement: El Paso named safest U.S. City

SUCCESS ACCOMPLISHED DUE TO COMMUNITY TRUST ON LAW ENFORCEMENT. El Paso, TX –The Border Network for Human Rights, a 13-year-old community organizing group with about 4,000 members in El Paso and Southern New Mexico, is happy, but not surprised about the recent ranking of El Paso as the safest City of the Country by CQ Press, a publishing firm based in Washington D.C. Border Network strongly believes that this accomplishment is due to the trust that communities have towards law enforcement ...

ESCONDIDO: Rights group decries deportation of family

By Edward Sifuentes The deportation of a 9-year-old girl, her mother and her grandmother after a minor traffic violation earlier this month has sparked criticism from immigrant rights groups, who say that law enforcement officers should not enforce immigration laws, particularly as a result of minor violations. Minerva Santos was driving her 9-year-old daughter, Nadia, to the doctor on a recent Friday morning, when she was stopped by a San Diego County sheriff's deputy in Escondido for mak...

Does Illegal Immigration Cause Violent Crime In Arizona?

PHOENIX —  The sun glared off the polished wood of a conference table in downtown Phoenix, but U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke — who was also at the table during SB1070’s court hearing as part of the Department of Justice — had a much cooler attitude than Senator Pearce towards what he described as the politicization of the challenges faced by the U.S. and Mexico. Burke cited the outcry after Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s unprecedentedly critical address to a joint session of Congress ...