Borders Security

Faced with a surge in illegal immigrants and delays in assisting immigrants, Atty. Gen. William P. Barr will announce today a major expansion of the Immigration and Naturalization Service that includes hiring 300 agents to help patrol the U.S.-Mexico border.

WASHINGTON - As a sweeping immigration bill moves forward in the Senate, Republicans are demanding stronger border security measures than those agreed upon during four months of bipartisan negotiation. The process of toughening the bill could win additional votes from the GOP, but there is also a risk of losing Democratic support if the amendments go too far. "If, in fact, the American people can't trust that the border is controlled, you're never going to be able to pass this bill," Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, told four officials from the Department of Homeland Security during a hearing Tuesday.

As part of a far-reaching and innovative plan for preventing war, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has proposed that U.N. troops take on the new role of patrolling the borders of countries that fear aggression by their neighbors.

Re "Congress, rethink that wall," Opinion, April 29 Former Mexican President Vicente Fox has spent much of his political career trying to convince us that shipping the poor from Mexico to the United States is a good thing. I wonder what would have happened if he had spent his six-year presidency improving the Mexican economy so that his citizens did not feel the need to flee their country. Additionally, it is hypocritical to condemn our security measures while Mexico stations law enforcement and military personnel on its southern border to prevent illegal immigration from Central and South America.

Less than a month after 14 smuggled migrants died in the scorched desert, U.S. and Mexican officials announced a plan Friday to expand manpower and resources at the Arizona border to prevent more deaths in a treacherous stretch known as "the devil's corridor." Some immigrant rights advocates labeled the commitment a well-intentioned but inadequate response to a mounting life-or-death problem at the border. But U.S.

WASHINGTON - As a sweeping immigration bill moves forward in the Senate, Republicans are demanding stronger border security measures than those agreed upon during four months of bipartisan negotiation. The process of toughening the bill could win additional votes from the GOP, but there is also a risk of losing Democratic support if the amendments go too far. "If, in fact, the American people can't trust that the border is controlled, you're never going to be able to pass this bill," Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, told four officials from the Department of Homeland Security during a hearing Tuesday.

A report released this week says that the U.S. government spends more on immigration enforcement than all other federal law enforcement combined. That should help silence Republican lawmakers who have steadfastly insisted that the Obama administration is doing too little to combat illegal immigration. Not only has the administration made enforcement the focus of its immigration policy, spending $18 billion last year and deporting more immigrants than any previous administration, but the number of people detained by federal officials nearly doubled from about 200,000 per year in 2001 to close to 400,000 in 2011, according to the study by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank.

The border barriers rise out of the Pacific Ocean, climb craggy California peaks, streak across Arizona desert valleys and meander through cattle ranches and fields of sorghum and citrus in South Texas. Tall steel fencing separates border communities. Camera towers and bright rows of stadium lights aim at smugglers' enclaves in Mexico. Migrants seeking out traditional crossing routes find them blocked, and many give up. But migrants still get across, by seeking out the one road or one mountain range or one desert trail beyond the reach of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Even those who are appalled by Arizona's harsh new immigration law — as we are — recognize that the state's misguided decision to take federal matters into its own legislative hands did not come out of the blue. Arizona is the preferred superhighway for drug and human smugglers. Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the nation, and almost all of those abducted are either illegal immigrants or linked to the drug trade. The recent killing of a rancher in southern Arizona has increased the sense of lawlessness and danger at the border; police believe the killer was involved with drug trafficking.

Congress gave final approval Thursday to a $600-million border security package that President Obama had sought to tighten the border with Mexico — a move supporters hope will open a broader political discussion on comprehensive immigration reform. The Senate gave quick final approval to the measure in an unusual special session that was arranged to rectify an earlier procedural glitch. The House had passed the bill without dissent Tuesday, and Obama is expected to sign it Friday.

Under the immigration bill proposed by a bipartisan group of senators, Maria Galvan could achieve her dream of opening a hair salon in Southern California. She has spent more than a decade doing odd jobs, barred from getting the required business license because she is in the country illegally. "It makes me happy to know we're being heard," said Galvan, 43, who is originally from Mexico City. "If this happens, it will be such a relief. " The path to citizenship as laid out in the bill is a lengthy one. Jose Cruz, a day laborer from Guatemala looking for work outside a Los Angeles Home Depot, said he was willing to wait.

WASHINGTON - A sophisticated airborne radar system developed to track Taliban fighters planting roadside bombs in Afghanistan has found a new use along the U.S. border with Mexico, where it has revealed gaps in security. Operated from a Predator surveillance drone, the radar system has collected evidence that Border Patrol agents apprehended fewer than half of the foreign migrants and smugglers who had illegally crossed into a 150-square-mile stretch of southern Arizona. The number of "gotaways," as the Border Patrol calls those who escape apprehension, is both more precise and higher than official estimates.

The border barriers rise out of the Pacific Ocean, climb craggy California peaks, streak across Arizona desert valleys and meander through cattle ranches and fields of sorghum and citrus in South Texas. Tall steel fencing separates border communities. Camera towers and bright rows of stadium lights aim at smugglers' enclaves in Mexico. Migrants seeking out traditional crossing routes find them blocked, and many give up. But migrants still get across, by seeking out the one road or one mountain range or one desert trail beyond the reach of the U.S. Border Patrol.

WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who sits at the center of the nation's immigration debate, pushed back Wednesday against congressional demands to tighten border security further before creating a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Napolitano argued that border security had "never been stronger. " She said the Obama administration had deported a record number of people, had increased the number of border agents to a record 21,300 and cut illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years.

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pushed back Wednesday against congressional demands to further boost border security, and said those calls shouldn't delay creating a path to citizenship for up to 11 million illegal immigrants. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Napolitano said the Obama administration has doubled the number of border patrol agents and deported a record number of illegal immigrants. The number of illicit border crossings has plummeted, she said.

A report released this week says that the U.S. government spends more on immigration enforcement than all other federal law enforcement combined. That should help silence Republican lawmakers who have steadfastly insisted that the Obama administration is doing too little to combat illegal immigration. Not only has the administration made enforcement the focus of its immigration policy, spending $18 billion last year and deporting more immigrants than any previous administration, but the number of people detained by federal officials nearly doubled from about 200,000 per year in 2001 to close to 400,000 in 2011, according to the study by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank.

In the nearly two decades since Californians voted to bar undocumented immigrants from utilizing public schools and hospitals, the state's electorate has become increasingly tolerant toward people who are in the country illegally, although it remains tough on border security and enforcement, a new USC Dornsife/ Los Angeles Times poll shows. The shift is partly explained by the growing clout of Latinos, who now make up 20% of California voters. But the attitudes of whites also appear to have changed.