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MICHIGAN— Over 3,000 convicted immigration fugitives were arrested as part of a nation-wide sting operation, with nearly 70 of them in Michigan. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led the six day operation, said to be the largest of its kind. In all, it involved 1,900 ICE officers, with assistance from ICE Homeland Security Investigations. Arrests were made in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, three US territories and Washington DC. Of the 3,100 arrests, 67 were made in Michigan. Twenty-one were arrested in the Detroit area, 19 in the Grand Rapids area and the remainder was arrested around the...

More than 3,100 illegal immigrants living in the U.S., including 139 in South Florida, were arrested and are scheduled for criminal trial or deportation after a weeklong roundup that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement touted as the largest in years. Those picked up across the country last week included almost 1,500 men and women convicted of murder, sexual offenses and other violent felonies.

Without a new kidney, Jesus Navarro will die. Although the Oakland man has a willing donor and private insurance to pay for the transplant, he faces an additional hurdle in the race to save his life: He is an illegal immigrant. That fact prompted administrators at UC San Francisco Medical Center to refuse to transplant a kidney from Navarro's wife because they cannot be sure he will receive adequate follow-up care. Their decision taps into the tension between health care and immigration policies in the state and the role medical professionals should play in trying to save the lives of...

relatively new Georgia Board of Regents policy regulating the admission of undocumented students and illegal immigrants has prevented a football recruit from gaining admission to the University of Georgia. Chester Brown, a 6-foot-5, 340-pound offensive lineman from Hinesville, committed to the Bulldogs in July, but he confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and several other media outlets late Monday night that he was withdrawing his UGA commitment “for personal reasons,” declining to elaborate However, a variety of people with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to the AJC on Tuesday that Brown’s change of heart was because his admissions application to...

JOE vs. JOSE You have two families: "Joe Legal" and "Jose Illegal". Both families have two parents, two children, and live in California. Joe Legal works in construction, has a Social Security Number and makes $25.00 per hour with taxes deducted. Jose Illegal also works in construction, has NO Social Security Number, and gets paid $15.00 cash "under the table". Ready? Now pay attention.... Joe Legal: $25.00 per hour x 40 hours = $1000.00 per week, or $52,000.00 per year. Now take 30% away for state and federal tax; Joe Legal now has $31,231.00. Jose Illegal: $15.00 per hour x...

President Obama's plan to ease rules for some illegal immigrants is likely to shore up his standing among crucial Latino voters while igniting a new fight with Republicans as he seeks reelection. His proposal will probably affect tens of thousands — perhaps more than 100,000 — illegal residents. Under the new rule, which does not require congressional approval, immigrants would be allowed to stay in the U.S. and apply for a waiver, which can be granted if deporting an immigrant would cause undue hardship to his or her U.S. family.

The Obama administration on Friday proposed new hardship rules that would make it easier for illegal immigrants to apply for legal status and stay in the country if they have a spouse or parent already living here legally. Immigrant-rights groups called the move a “tremendous” victory while those who favor a crackdown on illegal immigration said it is another step in what they describe as administrative amnesty. Homeland Security officials, who announced the change in the Federal Register, said the change only applies when an illegal immigrant has a family member living in the U.S. legally and who would be...

Reporting from Washington— The Obama administration will announce Friday a proposed new regulation that would allow certain undocumented immigrants to remain in America while applying for legal status -- a step aimed at keeping families intact and one that may also shore up the president's support with Latino voters. As it stands, people living in the U.S. illegally who leave the country to apply for a green card face years of separation from family members. Depending on how long they've lived in America, once they leave they are barred from returning for up to 10 years.

Higher-ups within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are pressuring rank-and-file officers to rubber-stamp immigrants’ visa applications, sometimes against the officers’ will, according to a Homeland Security report and internal documents exclusively obtained by The Daily. A 40-page report, drafted by the Office of Inspector General in September but not publicly released, details the immense pressure immigration service officers are under to approve visa applications quickly, sometimes while overlooking concerns about fraud, eligibility or security. One-quarter of the 254 officers surveyed said they have been pressured to approve questionable cases, sometimes “against their will.” The report does not call out any...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration plans a rule change to help reduce the time illegal immigrant spouses and children are separated from citizen relatives while they try to win legal status in the United States, a senior administration official said Thursday. Currently, illegal immigrants must leave the country before they can ask the government to waive a three- to 10-year ban on legally coming back to the U.S. The length of the ban depends on how long they have lived in the U.S. without permission. The official said the new rule would let children and spouses of citizens ask...

Obama to ease green-card rule? By: Tim Mak January 6, 2012 06:43 AM EST The Obama administration will propose a new rule Friday that will allow certain illegal immigrants to remain in the United States while applying for legal residency, according to reports. Currently, those living illegally in the U.S. are required to leave the country in order to apply for a green card, even if they are married to or are children of American citizens, and they are often barred from returning for up to 10 years, the New York Times and the L.A. Times reported. The Obama administration’s...

Santa Fe police expressed frustration on Wednesday as they said illegal immigrants who were arrested on various different charges are ending up back on the streets time after time. Police said they’re frustrated that they keep arresting the same criminals over and over when there's supposed to be a system in place to prevent that. Mario Orantes-Munoz, 22, is a wanted man. Police said he's accused of breaking into someone's home and stealing two powerful rifles. In June, he was also charged with burglary. According to his records, Munoz is not in this country legally, and in June, U.S. Immigration...

Some children didn't write to Santa with their most heartfelt wish this holiday season. Instead, more than 5,000 sent letters to the nation's political leaders, asking them to stop a wave of deportations that is tearing immigrant families apart. On Thursday, dozens of children brought the letters to President Barack Obama and Congress as part of the "A Wish for the Holidays" campaign, organized by the coalition We Belong Together

The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday that it has sued a major San Diego hospital, saying it discriminated against immigrant employees and job applicants. The department said UCSD Medical Center demanded excessive documentation from non-citizen job applicants and employees to prove they were eligible to work.

The House measure to expand the number of family visas for relatives of U.S. residents hoping to make the U.S. home is expected to benefit, among others, Mexicans, who often wait roughly 10 years for permission to live here. Under a measure approved by the House Tuesday, with a 389-15 vote, family-based visa limits rise from 7 percent per country to 15 percent per country, an adjustment that could slightly ease the backlog for naturalized citizens, particularly from Mexico and the Philippines, trying to bring relatives into the United States.

Former President Bill Clinton praised his erstwhile nemesis former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, crediting his strong debate performances with propelling him into front-runner status for the GOP presidential nomination. (snip) Clinton was impressed that Gingrich devised a “red card” system that would be used to stop normalizing the immigration status of illegals if efforts to control the border proved ineffective.“That was a thoughtful response,” Clinton said.

Authorities in Alabama dropped charges Wednesday against a German Mercedes-Benz executive who was arrested under the state's stringent new illegal-immigration law after a police officer caught him driving without required identification. Last week, a Tuscaloosa police officer pulled over Detlev Hager, 46, for driving a rental Kia with no license plates. After Hager was only able to produce German identification documents, an unacceptable form of identification under the new law, he was arrested, Police Chief Steve Anderson said. The Alabama law, considered the nation's strictest, includes a provision requiring police conducting traffic stops to check the residency status of people...

People entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico are believed responsible for more than one-third of human-ignited wildfires in Arizona over a five-year period, according to a government report that could stoke congressional debate over illegal immigration. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the Government Accountability Office report supports remarks he made earlier this year after his state was hit hard by wildfires. At the time, McCain was accused of "scapegoating" immigrants. "I hope this report is a lesson to the activists and public officials that would prefer to engage in partisan character attacks rather than help focus the discussion on the...

Florida Republican Rep. Sandy Adams wants answers from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Adams says she is not following existing law, which requires the federal government to cut off visas from countries that refuse to re-admit their citizens who have committed crimes while residing in the U.S. illegally. If these countries refuse to take the criminal illegal immigrants back after a six-month “detention period,” the U.S government releases them back into U.S. communities.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House subcommittee on Wednesday authorized a subpoena against the Homeland Security Department for information about illegal immigrants who have been identified but not deported. The authorization cleared the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration policy and enforcement by a 7-4, party line vote. Democrats voted against the measure, saying it was premature to issue a subpoena because Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is cooperating with the committee. House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, says the subpoena authorization is necessary because the Obama administration hasn't responded quickly enough to his request, which was made in...