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The 1,200 National Guard who are headed to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona won't be on the front lines but will be helping out in vital support roles, President Obama said Thursday. Speaking at an East Room press conference in the White House, the president said the Guard will primarily assist with intelligence, but troops will not not nabbing illegal immigrants and smugglers as they cross into the southwestern state. "What we find is, is that National Guards persons can help on intelligence, dealing with both drug and human trafficking along the borders. They can relieve border guards so that...

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SNIPPET: "HOUSTON -- A Homeland Security Alert is asking Houston police and Harris County Sheriff’s deputies to keep their eyes open for a potential terrorist. The alert focuses on Mohamed Ali, a suspected member of the terrorist group Al Shabaab. It indicates he may be traveling to the U.S. through Mexico." SNIPPET: "In 2007, former Houstonian Daniel Joseph Maldonado was brought back to Houston by the U.S Attorney in the Southern District after he was captured in Somalia reportedly training with terrorist groups. “He had initially been on the frontlines of Al Shabaab, but when they realized he was an...

Jack Webb didn't quite get it right in "Arizona law racially profiles for a reason" (Letters, Wednesday) when he wrote, "The problem at issue is people illegally crossing the southern border with Mexico - and it so happens that virtually 100 percent of the people doing so are Hispanic." An even greater threat to U.S. security than illegal Hispanic immigrants is the number of immigrants from terror-sponsoring countries who are crossing our borders. Hundreds of such people are detained by the U.S. Border Patrol; however, our government is catching only one out of 10 people crossing the border. Those immigrants...

As the debate over illegal immigration and Arizona’s response to it continues to heat up, one aspect seems to have been forgotten. OTMs. Thousands of illegal aliens apprehended along the 2000 mile long border that stretches through California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas aren’t even from Mexico. They are from other foreign countries. The Border Patrol refers to them as “Other Than Mexicans”, or OTMs. Many of these illegals come from countries that are sponsors of terrorism. While Felipe Calderon and Barack Obama spent a good portion of the last few days lecturing America on the ‘misguided’ Arizona law that...

Arab terrorists 'are getting into the US over Mexican border'By Julian Coman in Washington(Filed: 15/08/2004) President Bush has launched a drive to halt illegal immigration across America's porous southern border, amid growing fears that terrorists may be using Mexico as a base camp before heading to Arizona, Texas and California.A string of alarming incidents has convinced Bush administration officials that lax immigration rules, designed to cope with the huge numbers of illegal entrants from Mexico, have become a significant loophole in the war on terror.Over the past month, border agents from Arizona and Texas have anonymously reported recent encounters with...

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

LA JOYA, Texas — Local police are accustomed to dealing with illegal border crossings, but they were astounded by the video of 15 Chinese immigrants unfolding themselves from the back of a red Suburban near this small border town. The vehicle appeared abandoned when police rolled up early on a recent Saturday morning. But when Border Patrol agents arrived and swung open the double rear doors, the Chinese immigrants tumbled out, squinting in the sunlight. "They were in bad shape," said La Joya Police spokesman Joe Cantu. The immigrants were silent, able to communicate only with hand gestures. One man...

There's good news, bad news and worse news on the immigration issue. The good news is that Congress and the White House are moving forward with prudent steps, gaining control of the border, securing the homeland against terrorism and reasserting American sovereignty. The bad news is that, in the past four decades, we've lost a lot of time fighting off the open-borders advocates and the anti-Western multiculturalists. Even as we now seek elementary homeland security measures - so that we can be safe in a world awash with jihadists, narcotraffickers and weapons-of-mass-destruction peddlers - we must first undo the grievous...

DALLAS – After about 400 foreign nationals – most of them Middle Eastern, half living illegally in the United States – took advantage of a loophole in Texas driver's license requirements from 2003 to 2005. It took the Texas Department of Public Safety more than a year to cancel the licenses, a newspaper reports. The agency says that because of questions as to whether the department had the right to invalidate the licenses and an e-mail miscommunication, it wasn't until May of this year that the licenses were canceled. Since the abuse, DPS has changed its driver's license requirements. "The...

Amid all of the xenophobia and nativism surrounding the immigration debate, there is a real security concern. In the language of the bureaucracy, the problem is referred to as the "OTMs," or Other Than Mexicans. Thousands of non-Mexicans are caught crossing the United States border every year. They cannot be sent back to Mexico, but must be deported to their home country. Until recently, most were given a deportation hearing date and then simply released. Not surprisingly, few showed up for their scheduled appearances. Beginning last year, however, most who are caught are put into detention. They are then put...

Let's see if we have this straight. 1 — Six terrorists right here on U.S. soil plot to kill American soldiers. Those are the charges. 2 — Thankfully, they were nabbed by the FBI in a sting operation. 3 — Three of the alleged terrorists are illegal aliens. Nonetheless, we cannot treat any of the six as enemy combatants. We must go through the criminal justice system, the same system that is available to a masked bandit who knocks off a 7-Eleven.  By any standard, that is nothing short of outrageous. Late Wednesday, this column pointed out that no one...

COLUMBUS, N.M. - On Sept. 5, a man calling himself Miguel Alfonso Salinas was apprehended off a deserted highway near the U.S.-Mexico border. The tinted windows on Alfonso Salinas' vehicle aroused the suspicion of Border Patrol agents patrolling a dark and desolate stretch of Highway 9, which runs parallel to the border and is the site of large numbers of illegal crossings. The agents discovered three Mexican migrants in the vehicle with Alfonso Salinas. But what they discovered several days later made a far greater impression. Alfonso Salinas was not who he seemed, according to U.S. Department of Justice and...

Several legal advocacy groups asked a judge to order the immediate release of four immigrants who have been detained for months or years without receiving a hearing on why they're being held so long. The motion filed Friday in federal court in Los Angeles asks U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter to release the detainees under conditions of supervision or grant them hearings. The move followed a class-action lawsuit filed Sept. 25 on behalf of six detainees by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project and the Stanford Law School Immigrants' Rights Clinic. Two detainees...

From yesterday's (9/21/2006) Press Briefing by Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff: Last November, we announced our moving forward on the Secure Border Initiative, and we laid down a number of milestones and a number of different elements to the strategy. The elements included additional personnel, additional tactical infrastructure, ending "catch and release," which was that pernicious policy that allowed people who got caught at the border to be released into the community, and very importantly using some of the proven tools that we have developed over the years for interdiction in the context of border control. And therefore, we...

WASHINGTON – Nearly all non-Mexican illegal immigrants caught sneaking into the United States are being held until they can be returned to their home countries, the Bush administration said Wednesday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said this marks the end of the “catch-and-release” practice that for years helped many illegal immigrants stay in the United States unhindered. “There is a real deterrent effect to this policy,” Chertoff told reporters in Washington, pointing to a 20,000 drop in the number of illegal immigrants caught crossing the southwest border between this summer and the same period last year. “Although we're not ready...

Almost half of the illegal aliens arriving in the U.S. from terrorist-sponsoring or "special interest" nations in the past few years have been released into the American population following their apprehension. This key finding is published in an internal audit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obtained by Cybercast News Service . The so-called "catch and release" policies have allowed more than 45,000 illegal aliens from countries that are well known for their anti-American views or considered "hotbeds of Islamic fundamentalism" to be freed. U.S. Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), in conversations with sheriffs operating along the Texas-Mexico border, learned...

HIDALGO An Afghan man remained in federal custody in the Valley Monday after being caught illegally entering the country. U.S. Border Patrol officials told Action 4 News that the 30-year-old man was captured around 3:00 p.m. Friday about 1 mile east of the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge. As he swam across the Rio Grande, he was quickly apprehended by agents without incident, authorities said. Because it is an ongoing investigation, Border Patrol refused to say much about the man other than that he was being detained and questioned by its agency and the FBI on charges of entering the country illegally....

2-year contract OK'd to operate $50 million detention facility RAYMONDVILLE - Willacy County commissioners entered into a contract with a company through which the federal government could pay the county as much as $13 million a year to house 2,300 illegal immigrants, records show. Late Thursday, commissioners entered into the contract with Management Training Corp. to operate a new $50 million detention center that's part of a national crackdown on illegal immigration. "It will bring economic development to the Willacy County," Commissioner Emilio Vera said Monday. As part of a two-year contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the...

WASHINGTON — Texas lawmakers filed a bill Wednesday that would overturn a longstanding court injunction and make it easier to deport undocumented immigrants from El Salvador and other countries who qualify for temporary protected status under federal law. The legislation would close a legal loophole under which criminals, including members of a violent Salvadoran gang, have been allowed to stay in the United States pending court hearings, the bill's sponsors said. “We must not allow terrorists and criminals from around the world to abuse loopholes in our legal system, turning our Southwest border into a revolving door,” said Rep. Henry...