Drugs linked with illegal immigration?

It's dangerous enough to enter the United States illegally through the Arizona desert. Temperatures can top 100 degrees Migrants often don't carry enough water to remain hydrated for the days-long hike. And unscrupulous smugglers have been known to abandon their charges if they've already paid the crossing fee.

Now, imagine doing it high on amphetamines.

Border Patrol agents say that's happening more and more, as hapless border crossers find themselves entangled with drug smugglers looking for a way to get their product into the country. In exchange for carrying drugs across the border, the smugglers called "narcotraficantes" or "polleros" cover some of what the immigrants pay to their guides. The crossers then take a pill typically speed so they'll have enough energy to make it to the drop site.

"The drugs are just as fatal for the immigrants as their trek through the desert," said Hector Salazar of Grupo Beta, a rescue group created by the Mexican government to help stranded migrants near the U.S. border. "The polleros need them awake to make the crossing."

Most illegal drugs enter the United States at the southern border, where millions of people cross through 25 ports of entry each day, said Anthony Placido, the Drug Enforcement Administration's acting assistant administrator for intelligence.

Though the vastness of the region and the huge volume of border traffic complicate the enforcement picture, official corruption in Mexico remains the largest impediment to slowing drug traffic from that country, he said.

"In actuality, law enforcement in Mexico is all too often part of the problem rather than part of the solution," Placido told a House committee earlier this year. "This is particularly true at the municipal and state levels of government."

Even the Mexican prison system contributes to the problem. Major drug lords have been incarcerated, but they are able to continue running their businesses from their cells, Placido said.

At the northern border, the problem is less acute. Better coordination between the Border Patrol and Canadian authorities helps, said Joseph Giuliano, deputy chief patrol agent for the Blaine, Wash., sector.

Also, the forbidding landscape makes it harder for smugglers to come across. According to the DEA, drugs are ferried in both directions via all modes of transport: cars, backpacks, all-terrain vehicles, even snowmobiles.

But the importation of drugs from Canada is a growing threat, mostly because of links between Asian organized crime and groups in Canada, Placido said. While drugs such as heroin were previously sent from Southeast Asia directly to New York, the DEA now believes more is being smuggled through such cities as Toronto and Montreal.

Border Enforcement

Border Patrol agents have an unofficial adage about the undocumented immigrants they see crossing illegally into the United States. For each one they catch, they say, three more make it through unscathed.

The agents aren't to blame, said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. With so many migrants desperate for better lives, the tide of humanity simply overwhelms the agents.

"Blame our system," Bonner said. "Blame our system that allows people to cross the border and get jobs here."

Once undocumented immigrants are in the country, the story changes. Since the vast majority of the Border Patrol's resources are directly along the United States' international borders, the question arises: Who's enforcing immigration law in the nation's interior?

The answer, in many ways, is no one.

Organizational changes that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks fractured the federal government's immigration responsibilities among several different agencies. Additionally, the diversity, geographic distribution and sheer number of illegal immigrants already here makes any effort at simply rounding them up next to impossible.

Just a few thousand officers work for the agency charged with deporting criminal aliens, compared to estimates of 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. And those immigrants have support networks made up of friends, family and advocacy groups that help them find work and avoid capture.

Faced with the often negative consequences of massive illegal immigration -- unlicensed drivers on the road, employers violating minimum wage requirements, uninsured patients using emergency rooms -- some local law enforcement agencies are taking up the mantle of enforcing immigration law themselves.

Until recently, that step was all but unheard of. But many officials who've taken up enforcement offer the same explanation why: The federal government isn't doing enough, and someone's got to pick up the slack.

Focus on criminals

Immigration enforcement in the nation's interior is the responsibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- one of three agencies created from the ashes of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was abolished in 2003.

While the INS was involved in finding illegal immigrants of all stripes, ICE's focus is on criminal aliens. The agency's programs include deporting immigrant sex offenders, finding undocumented employees at sensitive workplaces, and working against human smuggling, money laundering, document fraud and other international crimes. ICE also includes some functions tangential to immigration, such as the Federal Protective Service, which handles security at government buildings.

ICE is in the midst of an ambitious effort dubbed Endgame, which has as its goal the deportation of all "removable aliens" in the United States by 2012.

A removable alien is, theoretically, anyone who entered the country illegally or overstayed their visa. But in practice, ICE's Detention and Removal Office focuses mostly on those who have committed crimes or been ordered deported by an immigration judge.

ICE's various enforcement efforts -- with names like Operation Predator, ICE Storm and No Safe Haven -- have been successful at targeting criminal aliens. Thousands of sex offenders, weapons smugglers and human traffickers have been arrested and deported in the two years since ICE was formed. Additionally, marriage scams to help immigrants obtain illicit green cards, and DMV workers offering licenses in exchange for bribes, also have been exposed.

But deporting every illegal immigrant in the country is next to impossible, as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October. "It would take billions and billions and billions of dollars to do it," he said.

The current removal efforts are minuscule compared with the total number of illegals here. ICE removed roughly 200,000 immigrants in fiscal 2003, and the same number in 2004. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates the total number of undocumented immigrants in the United States at close to 11 million.

At least one study found the total might be so high partly because of relatively strict enforcement along the nation's borders. Princeton professor Douglas Massey says that when it's harder to cross the border into the United States, illegal immigrants who make it across are more likely to remain here longer, rather than risking multiple trips back and forth.

"Not only have U.S. policies failed to deter Mexicans from migrating to the United States, they have promoted a more rapid growth of the nation's undocumented population," Massey wrote in a study for the libertarian Cato Institute earlier this year.

For local police and sheriff's departments in border states, the situation presents a quandary. Many law enforcement agencies have standing policies that bar officers from inquiring about anyone's immigration status during the course of their regular duties.

The Los Angeles Police Department, for example, has maintained such a policy since 1979. Then-Chief Daryl Gates believed undocumented immigrants wouldn't report crimes if they feared police could have them deported after doing so.

Now, however, the population of illegal immigrants has exploded, and some local agencies, believing the federal government has fallen down on the job of enforcing immigration law, are looking for ways to do it themselves.

Getting it done locally

San Bernardino County is one of three counties in California where officials are getting ICE training in how to check for deportable illegal immigrants in local jails. The federal agency performs jail checks on a regular basis, but not frequently enough to catch everyone, a spokeswoman said.

"The fact is, those facilities have significant turnover," said ICE's Virginia Kice. "Because of that, it's possible we are not identifying every deportable criminal alien going through those jails."

Los Angeles County has been participating in the program for several months, under ICE's supervision, and Riverside County plans to follow suit. San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod believes the program will save his jails close to $1 million each month.

Although illegal immigrants won't be deported immediately after they're identified, having an accurate accounting of how many undocumented aliens the counties have jailed will make it easier to get more money from the federal government, said Carolyn Bondoc, a financial manager for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

Federal reimbursements are available for local agencies that hold illegal immigrants in jails. Pending legislation would allocate $950 million for the program next year, though nationwide, such costs are estimated at $2 billion annually.

"There are more and more agencies that are applying for (federal) money," Bondoc said. "We're not getting full reimbursement -- not even half."

In Florida and Alabama, state police have reached agreements with ICE that go one step further. A handful of officers in both states have gone through training with ICE and become certified to enforce federal immigration laws, meaning they can arrest undocumented immigrants simply for being here illegally.

Officials said those officers aren't conducting raids on agricultural fields or labor camps, trying to root out anyone and everyone here illegally. They're mostly taking illegal immigrants encountered during the course of criminal investigations into custody themselves, instead of calling ICE and waiting for federal agents to respond, said E.J. Picolo of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Calling the program a success in his state, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican, wants to expand it throughout the country, because ICE's limited enforcement personnel can't possibly patrol all of the United States.

"There is no way those 2,000 officers can ever adequately patrol our streets for immigration violators and do a good job of handling these problems," Sessions said on the Senate floor this summer. "But we have 750,000 state and local law enforcement officers who are on our streets and in our communities every single day."

Overwhelming numbers

Even if they don't choose to enforce immigration law, local police and sheriff's departments are still dealing with the effects of weak borders.

Some illegal immigrants commit new crimes after entering the United States -- like trespassing on border ranches, stealing food or turning to prostitution to survive. Some commit more serious crimes, like sexual assault or murder. Others make easy targets for thieves and scam artists, since new immigrants often are afraid to contact authorities out of fear of deportation.

Rep. John Culberson, a Texas Republican, wants the Department of Homeland Security to cover the cost of hiring additional deputies for sheriff's departments in border towns. In his mind, local law enforcement agencies need more resources to deal with crimes caused by illegal immigrants and drug traffickers.

The problem is acute in the Texas border town of Laredo, Culberson said, where drug cartels with superior firepower terrorize residents in the United States and Mexico.

"The sheriff and the local authorities are outgunned and overmatched," the congressman said on the House floor.

Culberson also has legislation pending that would allow the governor of any border state to create an armed citizens' militia empowered to prevent illegal border crossings.

In California, Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, isn't waiting for that proposal to get off the ground. He's launched a signature drive for a ballot initiative that would create the California Border Police, a statewide law enforcement agency with immigration violators as its only focus.

"Quite simply, it's going to do what the federal government's not doing, and that is comprehensively enforce immigration laws in the state of California," Haynes said.

Haynes envisions a police force of up to 3,000 officers who work in the interior of the state, as well as at the border and other ports of entry.

The Border Police would cost millions to start up and operate. But Haynes said California would recoup its money, and then some, by no longer paying for services used by illegal immigrants, such as free public education or food stamps.

"We would basically have nine dollars in social welfare savings for every one dollar in costs of enforcement," estimated Haynes, who hopes to have the initiative on the ballot in 2006.

Other agencies across the country have tried more creative moves. A county in southern Idaho unsuccessfully attempted to sue several companies for hiring illegal immigrants earlier this year.

Regular citizens are itching to get involved, too. ICE receives thousands of calls each month to its hotline, (866) 347-2423, where callers can report illegal immigrants, human smugglers, employers hiring undocumented workers and other immigration law violations.

Hundreds of regular people have already gotten involved through the much-hyped Minuteman patrols, a civilian project that stationed volunteers along various sections of the nation's borders. Their intent is to assist the Border Patrol in finding those who enter the country illegally.

Even if the Minuteman effort accomplished little other than increased media attention and a temporary slowdown in border crossings near Arizona, the group's leaders say the movement showed growing frustration over what they see as the government's failed policies.

"This is a cavalier attitude our lawmakers have taken that has jeopardized our security and put our country at risk," said Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project. "America is not interested in rhetoric or empty promises. Americans are interested in results, and we will not stop until those results are realized."

Majority of Americans want automatic citizenship for illegal aliens revoked

It's been a cornerstone of American law since shortly after the Civil War: Children born in the United States become citizens, even if their parents are here illegally. Now some conservatives are taking aim at that birthright. They call the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants "anchor babies" because pregnat illegal aliens purposly , and a growing group of House Republicans wants to change the policy. They hope to add a provision to the immigration bill that the House of Representatives will consider next week that would deny citizenship to those children.

"They see people are coming here simply for the purpose of having a child here and then, because they're the anchor, they can have all the family come in on that child's ticket. ... There are thousands upon thousands of people who are doing it," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a leading opponent of illegal immigration. He cited "surprising" momentum behind the plan. A House bill to make the policy change has 77 co-sponsors.

Because of widespread opposition in the House and even more in the Senate, the measure is unlikely to become law, and would face a constitutional challenge in court if it did. But it promises to make the debate over illegal immigration even more divisive and could reverberate in next year's midterm elections.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who serves on the House immigration subcommittee, said it would take a constitutional amendment to deny birthright citizenship. "You can only assume they are offering this for political reasons and not a legal reason," she said.

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas, whose grandparents emigrated from Mexico, said: "To change the way we establish citizenship is such an extreme measure, and it makes you really question what is motivating people to come up with those ideas."

According to the Constitution's 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 to give former slaves U.S. citizenship, "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

Tancredo said citizens of other countries are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and he added that drafters of the 14th Amendment did not intend it to apply to children of illegal immigrants.
But in a case in 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that a baby born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents was legally a U.S. citizen, even though federal law at the time denied citizenship to people from China. The court said birth in the United States constituted "a sufficient and complete right to citizenship."

Many conservatives have been pressing for stronger actions against illegal immigrants, such as building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. A national poll last month by the nonpartisan Rasmussen Reports found that 49 percent favored denying citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, with 41 percent opposing such a proposal.

Immigration office ignores fake marriages

Documents show that the Houston office of the federal agency charged with interior immigration enforcement has stopped investigating individual cases of "sham" marriages, which terrorists have used in the past to stay legally in the U.S.

"Due to our current goals, priorities and lack of resources, we will not be participating in conducting one-on-one marriage fraud investigations," Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent Gus Meza wrote in an October 2004 e-mail obtained by The Washington Times, citing the direction of supervisory agents in Houston.

In another e-mail, an official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the bureau that grants visas, says ICE agents regularly decline to investigate 70 percent of fraud cases, including sham marriages, sent over by the fraud unit at USCIS.

Both federal agents and independent analysts say "sham marriages" are a common tool used by terrorists to remain in the United States, making them a national security issue.

A recent report for the Center for Immigration Studies by Janice L. Kephart, who was one of the staff members on the September 11 commission, found that of 20 terrorists she studied, 18 married U.S. citizens, 10 of whom entered "sham marriages."

Regardless of whether a person entered illegally or on a legal temporary basis, "marrying an American provides an entree toward a permanent legal status and eventual naturalization," she says in the report.

Gene Lowery, the assistant special agent in charge of marriage fraud at the Houston ICE office, didn't return a call for comment.

Nick Smith, a spokesman at ICE headquarters, said the agency's policy nationwide is to review every case but to investigate only when there is evidence of an important target or a large-scale criminal organization like a marriage-fraud ring.

"There is a clear understanding throughout ICE that all cases are vetted," he said. "When there is not an extraordinary circumstance such as a criminal record or a national security threat, we focus our resources on criminal organizations engaged in marriage fraud."

He disputed the 70 percent figure and said ICE actually accepts more than half of USCIS' referrals for investigation.

Even if the ICE office in Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city, investigated all marriage fraud cases, another issue is whether the U.S. attorney would be able to prosecute them. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas did not have any comment.

Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican, said the issues extend beyond marriage fraud probes. He said ICE and USCIS "cook the books" so they don't have to do investigations. He also said USCIS cares more about finishing applications than in making sure those it admits are deserving.

"Their focus is customer service for the foreign national applying for the greatest privilege in the history of humanity -- American citizenship -- instead of providing national security protection," he said.

Mr. Culberson obtained a memo from the Houston USCIS office that offers time off for employees who churn out cases quickly. According to the memo, completing an average of six cases a day over a given quarter earned an employee an extra day off and averaging 10 cases per day for the quarter earned an employee a week's time off.

"The Houston office has had a reputation of being an easy mark for the foreign national that wants to slip into the country," Mr. Culberson said.

He said he was so angry during at meeting with CIS officials in Houston last year that he pulled out a picture of a first-grade class and told the employees that they had it wrong.

"It isn't about quotas; it's about protecting these children," he told them. "You've got your priorities totally backwards, and it's outrageous, appalling and unacceptable that you're more concerned about that Iraqi or that Muslim terrorist out in the lobby than you are the national security of the United States."

USCIS is without a director, and Mr. Culberson said he hopes and thinks Emilio Gonzalez, whom President Bush has nominated for the slot, can right the agency.

Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for USCIS, said that his agency and ICE work together on fraud cases and that even when ICE doesn't open an investigation, USCIS does its own checks.

"When ICE declines to open a criminal investigation, USCIS suspends the adjudication and conducts an administrative inquiry aimed at verifying the suspected fraud," he said.

He also said the time-off incentives don't affect adjudicators' abilities.

"USCIS evaluates employee performance on both productivity and quality. National security is not sacrificed for expediency," he said.