Report Duestions DHS Focus on Immigration

Orange County Register ^ | May 28, 2007 | NORBERTO SANTANA JR.

[kellynla]

A new report casts doubt on the terrorist-fighting credentials of the Department of Homeland Security.

The report released today by a Syracuse University-based think tank concludes that out of more than 800,000 cases filed in federal courts by the Department of Homeland Security since 2004, only 12 were related to terrorism. Another 112 cases were filed using national security charges.

DHS officials say the report's conclusions are misleading, arguing that many terrorist cases are ultimately prosecuted by bringing immigration-related charges. The goal, said an agency spokesperson, is often to deport individuals that present a threat as quickly as possible.

By using Freedom of Information Act requests from immigration courts and attorneys general, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse analyzed millions of records to shed light on what types of cases were filed by the federal agency, created in 2003.

Out of 814,073 individuals against whom the DHS filed charges in immigration courts from 2004 to 2006, the report found that 86.5 percent of all cases involved some sort of immigration violation, such as entering the United States without inspection, not having a valid immigrant visa or overstaying a student visa.

That is in stark contrast to what agency directors are telling Congress and the American people, said David Burnham, a former New York Times reporter who now co-heads TRAC and worked on the report.

Burnham said the agency continually sells itself as a central player in the war on terrorism.

"Despite the repeated statement by the DHS that stopping terrorism and preventing serious crime are its core missions, the record shows that since the DHS was established in the wake of 9/11/2001, most of the agency's actual work recorded in the Immigration Courts has focused on traditional immigration matters," concluded the report.

[kellynla]

For fiscal years 1994 to 1996, national security charges made up 0.031 percent of all immigration charges. For fiscal 2004 to 2006, such cases represented 0.014 percent. Regarding terrorism charges, the percentage of cases filed represented 0.009 percent during fiscal years 1994-1996. A decade later, that percentage also dropped to 0.0015 percent.

[kellynla]

ping

[kellynla]

ooops...
title should read “Report Questions DHS Focus on Immigration”

[kellynla]

Immigration real time counter:
http://www.immigrationcounters.com/

[Prokopton]

Immigration real time counter:

This should be on a thousand billboards across the Country.