ICE leaves police in the cold

Boston Globe Staff Writer – 16 July 2011

BOSTONIANS SUFFER more aggravation from neighbors who steal their parking spots during winter storms than they do from illegal immigrants. In a border state like Arizona, the term “unlawful immigrant’’ might conjure up the image of a drug smuggler. Around here, it’s more likely to evoke the valedictorian of a local high school whose parents entered the country illegally when the kid was 3.

The Boston Police Department blundered in 2006 when it rushed to participate in the federal Secure Communities program, which matches the fingerprints of anyone arrested locally with those in federal immigration data banks. At the time, officials from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement promised that the matches would be used only to take action against illegal immigrants charged or convicted of serious crimes. Mayor Menino, therefore, blew his stack when the Globe published a story earlier this month showing that 183 of 352 immigrants deported from Boston since 2008 had no criminal records.

On Thursday, ICE director John Morton came to Boston to clear the air. But it’s still a little hazy, like nearly everything connected to federal policy on illegal immigration. Morton apologized for his predecessors who gave the false impression that only violent criminals faced deportation under the Secure Communities program. But he was adamant that the program could not be restricted solely to “serious offenders.’’

He said that 55 percent of the 352 illegal immigrants deported from Boston had criminal convictions. The remainder fell equally into the following three categories: those arrested after illegal reentry into the country; immigration fugitives who had ignored deportation orders; and people who had overstayed their visas.

Morton also said that miscommunication between ICE and local police left the false impression that the Secure Communities program is voluntary. It’s not. The target date for nationwide implementation is 2013, he said.

This isn’t going over well in cities where immigrants make up a significant percentage of workers, customers, classmates, and friends. Urban dwellers don’t want their police force to be perceived as de facto immigration agents. It undermines the image of successful cities as expansive and accessible. And police worry that crime victims and witnesses in immigrant neighborhoods won’t come forward for fear of deportation.

Boston Police commissioner Edward Davis said he tried to communicate his concerns to Morton on Thursday, but the ICE director was “cavalier’’ and “pretty dismissive.’’ Now Davis wants to break with Secure Communities. But he isn’t sure how that is even possible.

There is no obvious way short of refusing to send the fingerprints of people arrested in Boston to the FBI data bank. And no police commissioner in his right mind would risk overlooking a minor offender here who might be wanted for a heinous crime in another state. ICE has cornered the local police, who can’t prevent the FBI from forwarding the prints to the immigration data banks.

But it may not be as grim as it appears. There is recent evidence that ICE has heard the complaints of police and public officials, including Governor Patrick, who wants no part of detaining illegal immigrants for ICE’s administrative purposes. A recent ICE memorandum to its field office directors and special agents states that “it is against ICE policy to initiate removal proceedings against an individual known to be the immediate victim or witness to a crime.’’

Another ICE memo on “prosecutorial discretion’’ lists 19 factors to consider when deciding if deportation is warranted. The agency looks to be in no particular rush to kick out primary caretakers of sick relatives, pregnant or nursing moms, victims of domestic violence, people with serious health conditions, immediate relatives of US soldiers, minors, the elderly, and others who fall into sympathetic categories.

This is a good start. But ICE is still undermining the credibility of the police and making city officials look small-minded by implicating them in the deportation of illegal immigrants for administrative violations.

“What part of the word ‘illegal’ don’t you understand?’’ is the usual comeback to anyone who see shades of gray on the subject of illegal immigration. Bostonians could confront these hardliners with a question of their own: “What part of the word ‘communities’ don’t you understand?’’

Comment:

I had just finished reading this article when I received a call from one of the young undocumented Irish with whom I work on a daily basis. He informed me that another member of the group was stopped for making a left turn where he was not supposed to. He claims that he did not see the sign. The police officer asked for his driver’s license whereupon he gave the officer an Irish license. He was taken to the police station and charged with several traffic violations including driving without a valid driver’s license even though his Irish license was a valid one. His immigration status was checked through ICE and he was found to be undocumented. He is currently being detained for possible deportation as an undesirable alien. We have several influential people working on his behalf but the sad truth is that he will most likely be deported for nothing more than a simple traffic violation. It was the first encounter that this young man has had with the police since he arrived in the United States.

Does a simple traffic violation warrant deportation when we have violent criminals walking our streets? I certainly do not think so but I would welcome the opportunity to respond to others with opposing points of view.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Adams: Orange parades will have role in united Ireland

By Noel McAdam - The Belfast Telegraph

Orange Order marches would have a place in a new united Ireland, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said today.
In an speech to the British Irish Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, meeting in Wales, he insisted republicans had no desire to conquer or humiliate unionists.
The veteran party leader, who recently appealed through the Belfast Telegraph for the Order to open talks with Sinn Fein, said the genuine fears and concerns of unionists — including their sense of Britishness — needed to be explored in a meaningful way.
And he also told the gathering in Swansea, made up of MPs, members of the regional Assemblies as well as elected representatives from the Isle of Man and Channel Islands, that the people of Britain have a duty “to themselves, to unionists in particular, to the Irish in general and even to the world” to give their opinion on Irish reunification.
“We need to look at ways in which the unionist people can find their place in a new Ireland. In other words it needs to be their united Ireland,” the West Belfast MP said.
Sinn Fein’s vision of a new Ireland was where unionists have “equal ownership” with respect for cultural diversity, and political, social, economic and cultural equality because nationalists and republicans did not seek to deny the rights of others.
“The real distinction that we have always drawn is between justice and privilege. Justice for all and privilege for none. This means, for example, that Orange marches will have their place in a new Ireland, albeit on the basis of respect and co-operation,” he said.
With the main focus of the two-day event on the recession, Mr Adams argued that in economic terms the border is more than just an inconvenience — it is an obstacle to progress.
“While its adverse affects are most clearly felt in the communities that straddle the border, it also impacts negatively throughout the island. The reality is that the economy of the North is too small to exist in isolation.
“There are some who suggest that because we live in a period of severe economic difficulty that Irish reunification should be put off for the foreseeable future. In fact the opposite is the case,” Mr Adams went on.
“There is now a need, more than ever, for the island economy to be brought into being in the fullest sense, and for the political and administrative structures to be instituted with that in mind.”

Comment:

I wonder if this new enlightened point of view has been discussed with the residents of the Garvaghy Road or the Lower Ormeau Road and other areas where these obnoxious displays of Loyalist triumphalism have caused grief and mayhem for generations. I would venture to guess that the Catholic Nationalist residents in these areas would have quite a different opinion about acceptance of these parades and the anti-Catholic, anti-Irish bigots who conduct and participate in them. There is certainly reason to question the wisdom of accepting these parades without drastic changes in the manner in which they are presently conducted or, for that matter, allowing them at all.

McGuinness slams Orange Order parades

By Staff reporter – Belfast Telegraph

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has accused the Orange Order of refusing to make a contribution to the peace process.
In a stinging attack on the Orange Order, delivered at the annual Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown on Sunday, the Sinn Féin leader said the Order must deal with the issue of contested parades.
“In the course of the past 15 years there have been many important contributions to the peace process. The IRA made significant contributions. So too the loyalists. So have many political parties and governments. However the Orange Order, the cement which for decades held the unionist regime together, has refused to make a contribution. That has to end. The leadership of the Orange Order can no longer abdicate its responsibilities,” he said.
Mr McGuinness also suggested that republicans would no longer be prepared to act as stewards during parades at flashpoint areas while the Orange Order refuses to negotiate with residents.
“Now is the time for the Orange Order to step forward. There are hundreds of Orange Parades each year. Only a few cause controversy. The days of republicans stretching ourselves and our communities to maintain calm in the face of sectarian provocation cannot last forever. It is now time for the issue of contested parades to be dealt with once and for all.
“That means the Orange Order making its contribution to peace. It means a declaration from the Orange Order that in future they will no longer seek to force parades through catholic areas and risk bringing violence onto our streets,” he said.
Mr McGuinness said if the Orange Order do not engage with local communities it will be regarded as “an abdication of their responsibilities.” He also called on unionist political leaders to confront what he described as “its own ideology of inequality.”
Responding to Mr McGuinness’s speech, an Orange spokesperson said; “The Orange Order is working very hard to make its parades more family-friendly and welcoming, particularly to tourists, and these remarks from the deputy first minister are extremely unhelpful."
Elsewhere in the speech, Mr McGuinness also criticised armed dissident republican groups.
“Activity by small militarist factions will not advance the cause of Irish freedom. It is worth remembering that the United Irishmen did not choose armed revolt as their option of first resort. 'Thinking' republicans have always sought alternatives to armed revolt to achieve freedom. And so it is today. Whatever their motivation they offer no realistic alternative to the strategy pursued by Sinn Féin,” he said.

Orange Order Membership Oath

The Orange Order - even though it has influence in many parts of the world - is in reality a Northern Ireland phenomenon. Part of the phenomenon is that there is a belief deeply rooted within it that it is an instrument in God's hands for the preservation of His Kingdom. An instrument in God's Hands to keep 'popery' at bay and to maintain religious liberty. The advertised qualities of an Orangeman make very impressive reading..

"An Orangeman should have a sincere love and veneration for his Heavenly Father; a humble and steadfast faith in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, believing in Him as the only Mediator between God and man He should cultivate truth and justice, brotherly kindness and charity, devotion and piety, concord and unity, and obedience to the laws; his deportment should be gentle and compassionate, kind and courteous; he should seek the society of the virtuous, and avoid that of the evil, he should honour and diligently study the Holy Scriptures, and make them the rule of his faith and practice; he should love, uphold, and defend the Protestant religion, and sincerely desire and endeavour to propagate its doctrines and precepts; he should strenuously oppose the fatal errors and doctrines of the Church of Rome, and scrupulously avoid countenancing (by his presence or otherwise) any act or ceremony of Popish worship; he should, by all lawful means, resist the ascendancy of that Church, its encroachments, and the extension of its power, ever abstaining from all uncharitable words, actions, or sentiments, towards his Roman Catholic brethren; he should remember to keep holy the Sabbath day, and attend the public worship of God, and diligently train up his offspring, and all under his control, in the fear of God, and in the Protestant faith; he should never take the name of God in vain, but abstain from all cursing and profane language, and use every opportunity of discouraging these, and all other sinful practices, in others; his conduct should be guided by wisdom and prudence, and marked by honesty, temperance, and sobriety; the glory of God and the welfare of man, the honour of his Sovereign, and the good of his country, should be the motive of his actions"


Comment:
Please see the comment on this page from Gerry Adams regarding Orange Order parades. Also, it would appear as though the Deputy First Minister of the Stormont Government’s attitude toward the Orange Order bigots has certainly changed significantly since the Smithsonian “love-in” on the National Mall in Washington, DC in 2007. Perhaps Mr. McGuinness and Mr. Adams should come to some kind of agreement to clarify their positions and end the confusion that these opposing points of view project to the Nationalist community. “Are the Orange Order “good guys or bad guys”?

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Minor offenders snared in immigration program aimed at serious crimes

By Maria Sacchetti – Boston Globe Staff

Lizandra DeMoura, 18, is facing deportation to Brazil after a traffic arrest in May. She came to the United States as a child.

One early evening in May, a Boston police officer arrested Lizandra DeMoura for traffic violations and driving without a license. In another city, she might have been booked and released for a court hearing. But in Boston, the 18-year-old was jailed overnight, taken to court, and handed over to federal immigration agents, who hauled her away in chains.

Now she is facing deportation to Brazil.

“I felt like an animal,’’ DeMoura, who has lived here since she was a child, said in a recent interview in her lawyer’s office in Boston, wearing an electronic monitoring device around her ankle.

Her case - one of three to emerge in recent weeks - lies at the center of the contentious debate over Secure Communities, a federal program pioneered in Boston that uses fingerprints supplied by police and other law enforcement agencies to detect illegal immigrants.

The cases disprove for the first time claims by Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis that the federal program, as implemented by the city, is only being used to root out serious criminals.

After the Globe presented him with these examples last week, Davis urged US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to halt deportation proceedings against them. Davis said Boston joined the program to sweep out violent criminals, and would withdraw if cases such as DeMoura’s are widespread.

“I’m disappointed with what I’m seeing,’’ Davis said, adding that he has asked the immigration bureau to review the noncriminal cases.

Though critics of illegal immigration encourage police to enforce immigration law, Davis said he only wanted to target criminals. A broader net, he said, would discourage ordinary immigrants from reporting crime. “I don’t want people to feel that they have to fear the police, no matter what their status is.’’

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to questions about Davis’s concerns. But spokesman Chuck Jackson said the agency recently announced changes to Secure Communities to more tightly focus it on serious criminals, including a new advisory committee that will make recommendations about whether the US government should pursue immigrants stopped for minor traffic violations.

Jackson pointed to several cases that he said Boston police helped bring to light. These included a 2009 case when Boston police helped find a Jamaican man, a violent gang member with a drug conviction. He had illegally reentered the country after being deported, a federal crime, and is now serving 57 months in prison for that offense. He will be deported when the sentence is completed.

Officials launched Secure Communities in 2008 to automatically check the fingerprints of everyone arrested through immigration databases. The computer system alerts Immigration and Customs Enforcement when someone is here illegally, and the bureau decides whom to detain for deportation. The program, piloted in Boston in 2006, has expanded to more than 40 states. Boston is still the only Massachusetts community participating

Catching serious criminals is the bureau’s stated top priority under the program, which federal officials plan to implement nationwide by 2013 as mandatory even for states that object. But officials have said that anyone under arrest who is here illegally could be deported.

Because of concerns about racial profiling and high numbers of noncriminals being deported under the program, Governor Deval Patrick last month followed the governors of New York and Illinois in rejecting Secure Communities for state law enforcement. Massachusetts, however, turns over convicted criminals to Immigration and Customs Enforcement once their sentences are served.

Federal statistics show that 183 of 352 immigrants deported from Boston since 2008 - or about 52 percent - had no criminal record, this is much higher than the national average of 29 percent.

“If the goal is to get the bad people off the street, nobody can object to that,’’ said DeMoura’s attorney, William Joyce, a former Boston immigration court judge who is fighting her deportation. “The problem is they don’t seem to be getting the right people.’’

Supporters say Secure Communities has become a valuable tool in fighting crime. Since 2008, the program has deported 30,000 violent Level 1 criminals nationwide, including murderers and rapists, and thousands of others convicted of lesser crimes. In Boston, the program swept out 96 such criminals and 73 more convicted of lesser crimes.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that favors stricter controls on immigration, said she believes cases such as DeMoura’s are the exception. Had Secure Communities been fully deployed, she said, it might have prevented the brutal rape of a Rhode Island woman in 2008 by an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, or this year’s savage murders of a Brockton woman and her son in which police indicted a man from Ecuador. Both men had past arrests.

“The benefits that the program offers in being able to more easily find all of the really serious cases far outweighs the very tiny risk that a sympathetic case might get caught up in the system,’’ she said. “Though the case might seem sympathetic, they’re still here illegally.’’

Advocates for immigrants say that in Boston, Secure Communities makes immigrants afraid to report crime. The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, an umbrella group, and others have urged Boston to withdraw from the program.

“End the program. It doesn’t work,’’ said Heloisa Galvao, executive director of the Brazilian Women’s Group in Allston. “We had this idea that Boston was friendly to immigrants. . . . This program, it tells the opposite. We really feel betrayed.’’

The Globe documented three cases of immigrants stopped for minor traffic violations and then arrested on charges such as driving without a license, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 10 days in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. All were picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and none had criminal records. In each case, charges were dismissed or the person was found not responsible.

Lindomar Da Silva, a 36-year-old laborer who came to America 10 years ago from Conselheiro Pena, a small town in southeastern Brazil, was stopped in April for turning into a Burger King without signaling.

Da Silva said he spent several days in jail and had to pay a $5,000 bond to the federal government - money he hopes they will return to him.

The episode was in stark contrast to an encounter with the State Police the year before, when another driver rear-ended Da Silva in Everett. Court records show that Da Silva was issued a citation for driving without a license and released. He said he never heard from federal immigration authorities.

Now he is fighting deportation in federal court.

“There are more cases happening here [like mine],’’ Da Silva said. “There are more people in the jail, people like me, but they didn’t have money to get out.’’

Also in April, police stopped Leonardo Machado, a construction worker from Brazil, for having a broken brake light and arrested him on charges of driving without a license. His voice faltered as he recalled a sudden swarm of police officers around the truck and his subsequent delivery to federal immigration offices in Burlington.

He said he was so traumatized by being put in chains that he signed a voluntary deportation order agreeing to leave the United States at his own expense.

“I think it’s better I go back to Brazil,’’ he said. “ I don’t want to be here anymore.’’

DeMoura said she is terrified that authorities will send her to Brazil, where she does not speak the language. But she also feels lost in America, where she is ineligible for a driver’s license and college scholarships. Feeling helpless, she dropped out of high school and took a cash-only job as a secretary.

She had lived a quiet life until that night in May, when she borrowed her mother’s car to drive to a friend’s house to print out dance instructions for a church performance. A police officer in Charlestown stopped her for allegedly going through a stop sign and speeding at 40 miles per hour. She was arrested on traffic charges including driving without a license.

She spent the night sobbing on a concrete bench in a Boston jail. The next day a judge dismissed the charges and immigration agents took her to their Burlington headquarters for processing. They affixed a tracking device to her ankle that was finally removed almost two weeks ago. The device made it hard to ride her bike.

Now, she is making plans to return to school and trying not to think about her future.

“It just scares me a lot,’’ she said, twisting tissues in the lap of her yellow sundress. “I’ve been here all my life.’’

Comment:

Two weeks ago I sent out an article pertaining to the Secure Communities Program which is already in practice in certain locations and the E Verify Program which is voluntary in some locations. U.S. Representative Lamar Smith, (R-Texas), Chairman of the House Judiciary has been putting forth great effort to pass legislation making the E Verify Program mandatory for all employers before hiring any employee. If enacted, Rep. Smith’s bill would levy heavy fines on any employer who hires an employee, for any type of employment whatsoever, who is not authorized to work in the U.S. This would deal a devastating blow to a very significant number of undocumented residents who are employed in menial jobs such as migrant farm hands, housekeepers, kitchen help etc. which would, most likely, be rejected by U.S. citizens or legal residents with work authorization. While it is true that many of these hard working people who are prevented by their undocumented status from paying taxes on their earnings, actually do contribute to our economy when they purchase the necessities of life for themselves and their families. It must also be remembered that the children of most undocumented residents are actually U.S. citizens. Perhaps simple Christian Charity should govern our treatment of the vast majority of these people who merely seek to provide for themselves and their families and live with the hope that someday they will be able to resolve their legality and take their place as productive citizens of the greatest nation on earth.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Catholic Church and Archbishop Dolan
lose out badly in New York gay
marriage defeat

Irish Central – 24 June 2011

The vote for gay marriage is a major setback for Archbishop Timothy Dolan and the Catholic Church in New York which fought the legislation tooth and nail.

However, it is clear that the church power has waned in the aftermath of the pedophile sex scandals which have plagued the church in recent years.

Until quite recently a 'belt of the crozier' from the Catholic church would have stopped any such gay marriage bill in its tracks, especially one actively promoted by a Catholic governor.

Not any more and the church now looks exposed because of its opposition and its failure to turn the tide,

Dolan and another leading Irish American, Michael Long of the Conservative Party, made last ditch efforts to overturn the legislation which passed 33-29 with four Republican votes.It was signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Afterwards the church issued a statement which read;

"We strongly uphold the Catholic Church's clear teaching that we always treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity and love. But we just as strongly affirm that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman in a lifelong, loving union that is open to children, ordered for the good of those children and the spouses themselves.

This definition cannot change, though we realize that our beliefs about the nature of marriage will continue to be ridiculed, and that some will even now attempt to enact government sanctions against churches and religious organizations that preach these timeless truths."

Regardless of the statement the church has been comprehensively defeated on one of their signature issues. The four Republican senators, two of them Catholic, who voted for the bill and the Senate leader Senator Dean Skelos who allowed the vote have made clear that it was a personal decision and they refused to be swayed by the Church lobbying.

Sinn Féin - Proud to support PRIDE

An Phoblacht – 24 June 2011

Sinn Féin will be supporting the Dublin Pride Festival Parade on Saturday June 25th. Republican activists are encouraged to join the Party's contingent on the Parade. Please register with the organisers at the Garden of Remembrance before 12.30 to be able to march behind the Sinn Féin banner.

What is Dublin Pride

The Dublin Pride Festival, organised this year by Dublin L.G.B.T.Q. Pride Ltd, starts this June the 17th, and culminates in the Dublin Pride Parade on the 25th of June 2011,

Dublin Pride has three core values which it aims to promote through the festival:

Celebrating Diversity

Not only to tolerate, but to accept and celebrate diversity with the understanding that it is our differences which make us extraordinary.

Inclusiveness

To seek out those who are on the fringes and to take practical, concrete steps to ensure their inclusion in society.

Increased Visibility & Mutual Respect

To increase the visibility of the Dublin LGBTQ community within the wider Dublin, Irish and global community while communicating the message of mutual respect; to appreciate others for what they are, for how they are different and to respect them for such.

Parade Times and Route

The Pride Parade will start at the Garden Of Remebrance at 2pm Saturday the 25th Of June. To join the Sinn Féin contingent on the parade you have to register before 12.30 at the Garden of Remembrance. Failure to register will mean that you will have to join the end of the Parade.

The route will be the same as last year. From the Garden Of Remembrance down O’Connell Street, over O’Connell Bridge, on to Dolier Street and Dame Street, passing City hall and finishing at the Civic Offices.

Last year over 20,000 March.

Comment:

It is very clear from the content of these articles that our Catholic faith as well as our AOH National Constitution which requires us, as Hibernians, to be practicing Catholics and to work in harmony with the teachings of the Church, is in imminent danger from many outside forces. Unfortunately, politics often plays a prominent role in the danger to our faith and to the principles that we espouse as members of our noble Order. It is not always easy to make a principled choice and to stand up and be counted among those whose Catholic faith and devotion to our noble Order mean much more than political correctness whether here in the United States of America or in Ireland. Brothers, the time is now to show the world that we are proud to profess our Catholic faith and also proud to practice the principles enshrined in the National Constitution of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Knights of Columbus – 4^th Degree

Secure Communities

Secure Communities

Through the Secure Communities strategy, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) improves public safety every day by transforming the way criminal aliens are identified and removed from the United States. This strategy leverages an existing information sharing capability between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to quickly and accurately identify aliens who are arrested for a crime and booked into local law enforcement custody. With this capability, the fingerprints of everyone arrested and booked are not only checked against FBI criminal history records, but they are also checked against DHS immigration records. If fingerprints match DHS records, ICE determines if immigration enforcement action is required, considering the immigration status of the alien, the severity of the crime and the alien's criminal history. Secure Communities also helps ICE maximize and prioritize its resources to ensure that the right people, processes and infrastructure are in place to accommodate the increased number of criminal aliens being identified and removed.

Secure Communities modernizes the identification and removal processes by:

Using fingerprint-based biometric identification technology, Prioritizing resources toward the greatest threats, and Sharing information between law enforcement partners.

287g Bill

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security, enforces federal immigration laws as part of its homeland security mission. ICE works closely with federal, state and local law enforcement partners in this mission.

The 287(g) program, one of ICE’s top partnership initiatives, allows a state and local law enforcement entity to enter into a partnership with ICE, under a joint Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). The state or local entity receives delegated authority for immigration enforcement within their jurisdictions.

Work site enforcement:

Effective worksite enforcement plays an important role in the fight against illegal immigration. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has developed a comprehensive worksite enforcement strategy that promotes national security, protects critical infrastructure and targets employers who violate employment laws or engage in abuse or exploitation of workers.

An effective worksite enforcement strategy must address both employers who knowingly hire illegal workers, as well as the workers themselves. In worksite cases, ICE investigators adhere to high investigative standards, including the following:

ICE will look for evidence of the mistreatment of workers, along with evidence of trafficking, smuggling, harboring, visa fraud, identification document fraud, money laundering and other such criminal conduct. ICE will obtain indictments, criminal arrests or search warrants, or a commitment from a U.S. Attorney's Office to prosecute the targeted employer before arresting employees for civil immigration violations at a worksite.

The Law Enforcement Support Center

(LESC) is a national enforcement operations facility administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The LESC is a single national point of contact that provides timely customs information and immigration status and identity information and real-time assistance to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies on aliens suspected, arrested or convicted of criminal activity.

Located in Williston, Vt., the LESC operates around the clock – 365 days a year. State and local law enforcement officers seeking information about aliens are the primary users of the LESC.

The LESC also receives queries from federal, state and local correctional and court systems seeking information about individuals in custody or encountered elsewhere in the criminal justice system. Law enforcement officers have immediate access to alien records entered with the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and immigration information from every alien file maintained by DHS— approximately 100 million records—by using the formatted Immigration Alien Query (IAQ) screen incorporated within each state's law enforcement communications system. LESC Services In addition to providing immigration and identity information on suspected criminal aliens, the LESC offers other vital services, including:

National Crime Information Center

(NCIC)—The LESC administers and controls all ICE criminal and administrative records in this nationwide law enforcement consortium and criminal database. There are now over 277,000 ICE records in NCIC. Communications Center—The LESC operates a communications center that provides NCIC Hit Confirmations (within 10 minutes) to law enforcement agencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, the command center agents and officers place immigration detainers on aliens wanted by ICE. The command center also provides assistance on immigration alien queries, instant immigration status checks for ICE Officers, and answers the dedicated law enforcement phone lines. Other services provided by the command center include contacting ICE duty agents for ICE field responses, and handles ICEPIC/LEISS requests for information. A public affairs unit is also available to handle media calls during normal business hours. Special Response Tasks—The LESC is the central point of contact for a number of special information requests. For example, The LESC conducts “Brady checks” for the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), screening the immigration status of foreign-born, non-citizen firearm permit applicants before authorizing purchase or possession of a weapon. Since March 2003, the LESC has performed 498,741 Brady checks for the FBI. The LESC also provides daily assistance to the U.S. Secret Service by assisting in the screening of persons seeking to visit or work on the White House grounds. The LESC has helped USSS screen 377,944 individuals over the last seven fiscal years. Law Enforcement Training—To help the law enforcement community make better use of information the LESC provides, the center offers an on-site training and outreach program that provides instruction on how to access the LESC information and instruction on ICE's role and responsibilities. ICE 287(g) training includes an LESC training module presented by an LESC officer. Significant Accomplishments for FY 2010 The number of requests for information sent to the LESC increased from 4,000 in FY 1996 to 807,106 in FY 2008, to 1,133,130 in FY 2010 setting a new record for assistance to other law enforcement agencies. During FY 2008, special agents at the LESC placed 16,423 detainers on foreign nationals wanted by ICE for criminal and immigration violations. This number increased in FY 2010 to 20,446. The records of more than 270,000 previously deported aggravated felons, immigration fugitives and wanted criminals are now in the NCIC system. Special agents at the LESC confirmed 6,150 NCIC hits during FY 2010. Some LESC accomplishments since DHS and ICE were created in March 2003 include:

Over the past seven fiscal years, the LESC has responded to a combined total of 5,737,803 electronic queries. In FY 2010, the LESC received queries from more than 13,000 distinct ORIs (electronic addresses) representing law enforcement agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, two U.S. territories, and Canada. Since November 2004, the LESC has received more than 946,907 telephone calls on its dedicated law enforcement lines from law enforcement officers around the country seeking ICE information or assistance. The ICE special agents assigned to the LESC have lodged more than 121,734 ICE immigration detainers against criminal and wanted aliens over the last seven fiscal years. Of those, at least 51,837 detainers were placed on criminals or fugitives who were NCIC hits. Viable leads are sent electronically to ICE field offices for action or investigation within 24 to 48 hours of the call.

Comment:

If you know any undocumented Irish, do them a really big favor and share this with them. Make no mistake about it, it is not only persons who are arrested for serious crimes that can feel the wrath of ICE. Young undocumented Irish nationals who might have a "few beers" with their friends and are foolish enough to get behind the wheel of a car and get stopped,, or maybe get into a bit of an argument that winds up in fisticuffs where the police get involved, could very well be apprehended, detained, and eventually deported. And it is getting worse, the immigration authorities mean business. Remember, forewarned is forearmed!

Jack Meehan,

Past National President Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

No limit to this nauseating Provo hypocrisy

Kevin Myers - June 02 2011

I WAS against the peace process: I was and am and will always remain against it, which is why I do not spell it with capital letters.

I am in favour of peace, but not in favour of conciliating murderers and I believe it is the first duty of any state to impose its lawful monopoly on the use of armed might upon dissident armies within its realm -- by its own armed might, if necessary. One law: one army; one police.

But the Irish Republic chose to ignore these fundamental principles of any democracy and instead tried to deal with an insurgent terrorist force of the Provisional IRA by using various weak-willed adaptations of common law. The consequence was a conflict that lasted longer than both Boer Wars, the Anglo-Irish War and the two world wars combined.

So I bade a fond farewell to Garret FitzGerald last week for his contributions as a thinker: but I was silent about his role as Taoiseach, for which I feel much disdain, not least because although he wrung the Anglo-Irish Agreement from the British (Sunningdale II), he did not in exchange crush the living daylights out of the IRA. Nor did his predecessor, Liam Cosgrave, after Sunningdale I. And by the time of Sunningdale III, namely the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Fein-IRA were in the political driving seat and able to do largely as they pleased.

Throughout the peace process and the gruesome minuet beforehand, no one ever told the Shinners, firmly and unequivocally: "This is how we do things. We do not murder our purely political opponents. We do not break legs. And by the Grace of a Limitlessly Forgiving God and some astoundingly supine terrestrial politicians, if you are ever lucky enough to be admitted into the sunlight of an open and accountable democracy, you will not insult the dead by foisting convicted killers on the institutions of state."

But this didn't happen, with the outcome that someone like Mary McArdle has now been made special adviser to Northern Arts Minister Caral ni Chuilin, or, as Eilis O'Hanlon pointed out in the 'Sunday Independent', just plain old Carol Cullen in her schooldays. That was before she came over all patriotic, and started dabbling in high explosives, when the Xmas Carol became the SemtX Caral. But her current chum, Mary McArdle, went one better, with her involvement with the gang which carried out the cold-blooded murder of 22-year-old Mary Travers during a gun attack on the Travers family as they left Sunday Mass in 1985.

This is how magistrate Tom Travers described his daughter's last moments: "At that time, Mary lay lying on her mum's breast, her gentle heart pouring its pure blood on to a dusty street in Belfast. The murderer's gun, which was pointed at my wife's head, misfired twice. Another gunman shot me six times. As he prepared to fire the first shot, I saw the look of hatred on his face, a face I will never forget."

Judge Travers told of how he and his family had heard the Pope in the Phoenix Park say: "Murder is murder and never let it be called by another name." Referring to the later and quite scandalous Irish Supreme Court objections to the extradition of IRA killers from this Republic, he added: "These people. . . (the judges of Ireland) must in reality have believed that murder could be called by another name."

Quite so.

Mary McArdle -- who was the operationally vital gun courier for the killers and who heard her victim's father repeatedly break down while giving evidence -- was imprisoned for life for her part in this disgusting murder. She smiled and waved at her family at the sentence: clearly, a lovely girl. Her co-accused was acquitted on the grounds that Tom Travers' evidence of identification might have been flawed. So much for the lie that nationalists could not get justice in Northern Irish courts. (For the record, as a mere civil magistrate, Tom Travers was not involved in terrorist trials -- and nor should this make any difference to any but the most demented of Sinn Fein cultists).

AFTER poor Mary Travers' sister Ann spoke on 'Liveline' last week about her distress at hearing that the co-murderer of Mary had been rewarded with a prize appointment in the Stormont Executive, there were the usual sanctimonious cries from Sinn Fein that though the killing was "regrettable", Mary's family should "move on". Better still, there came the accusation that for victims' families to complain now was to put the perpetrators at risk of retaliatory violence.

I know, I know: in SF/IRA martyrology, the victims ALWAYS become the culprits. Why can't patriots be allowed to kill as much as they want and then live in peace and prosperity, just as in the good old 1920s?

So the Shinners still luxuriate in their own selective amnesia, still furiously demanding enquiries into the Monaghan and Dublin bombings and into the murders of Seamus Ludlow and Eddie Fullerton.

And why wouldn't they? Because no one in government, North, South, East or West, ever takes them by the scruff of their self-pitying necks, waves a mailed fist under their nose and tells them to shuck the fut up, or else.

Comment:

Please read this article carefully and then try to explain rationally what the difference is between this act of cold blooded murder allegedly committed by an IRA death squad and the cold blooded murder of civil rights attorney Pat Finucane allegedly committed by a loyalist death squad. Murder is murder, is murder, and in these two cases, there is only one significant difference and that is the political and/or paramilitary affiliation of the perpetrators. Do those affiliations provide any rationalization or justification for committing such heinous crimes? They certainly do not and those who authorize them as well as those who commit them deserve nothing less than to be punished to the full extent of the law.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

The Non-Existent Irish-American Vote

Posted: 05/18/11 01:30 PM ET

I'm delighted to see President Obama make good on his campaign promise to visit Ireland. He has a great ability to inspire and if any place needs a 'yes we can moment,' it's Ireland.

There are already the inevitable suggestions that he is making the trip as part of his 2012 re-election campaign. The Irish Independent reported that "his popularity is likely to soar among the Irish-American vote." And the Irish Examiner claimed that the Irish- American vote "will be vital" in the election. But the thing is, there is no 'Irish vote.' Irish-Americans are Democrats and Republicans, Catholics and Protestants, and there are no galvanizing issues around which a significant number of them rally.

You don't find breakdowns of voting on the basis of ethnicity, except for the Latino vote. When people suggest x% of Irish-Americans voted a certain way, you'll likely find they simply take the percentage of Catholics that voted a certain way and call that the Irish vote.

But that is spurious. More than half of Irish America is Protestant. And the Irish are but one segment of the Catholic vote. Latinos now make up the largest segment of that vote, which also includes Italians, French and Poles. So you can't simply take the Catholic vote and suggest that it is Irish. Nor can you assume that all Irish-Catholics vote the same way.

Catholic voters are of interest in the U.S. because they are swing voters -- they have been on the winning side of presidential elections since 1972. Hillary Clinton got the majority of the Catholic vote in the Democratic primaries and she didn't win the nomination. So if you believe there is an Irish vote and Hillary Clinton got it, wouldn't that mean that Obama won despite the Irish vote?

The fact is, demographics and political power have changed in America. Rahm Emanuel was just inaugurated as the first Jewish mayor of Chicago, a city long led by the Daleys. When Thomas Menino became the mayor of Boston back in 1993, he was the first non- Irish mayor in about 60 years. Ted Kennedy, Tip O'Neill and Daniel Patrick Moynihan are all, sadly, no longer with us.

People who vote can be many things: male/female, Catholic/Protestant, blue collar worker/college-educated, urban/rural, etc. The proverbial white guy in rural Pennsylvania (a place I know something about as I come from there) will make up his mind about Obama (if he hasn't already) because of the economy, Social Security, Medicare, guns, abortion, education, Afghanistan and several other factors.

You could count on one hand the number of people who would vote for the President on the basis of his stopping in Ireland for less than 24 hours.

I think it's great that the president is visiting for the simple reason that there is no surer way for him to have a positive feeling about Ireland than to visit himself. We see it every year with the impact Ireland has on our George J. Mitchell Scholars. And I recall when President Clinton rang Senator Kennedy from Ireland in 1995 to say his days there were the best of his presidency to date. But I won't pedal nonsense about an Irish vote that doesn't exist. The visit simply is what it is. The president has already visited ten European countries. It would be a disappointment if he didn't visit Ireland. It just gets silly to suggest he's going to all these countries for votes when most Americans won't even register that he's been there. Do any Irish people vote for the Irish prime minister because he's visited the U.S.?

Some Irish will also go along with the fiction of the power of the Irish vote because, as one journalist once said to me, 'it's what we want to believe about ourselves.' It reminds me of something said by the haughty JohnnyPateenMike in Martin McDonagh's play, The Cripple of Inishmaan: "Ireland mustn't be such a bad place so, if the Yanks want to come to Ireland to do their filming."

The only concern I have is that while some spin this trip to be more than it is, that only feeds into a sort of complacency about the real work that needs to be done to sustain the relationship for future generations. As the American civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman would say, it's time to sell the shadow for the substance.

Comment:

I have not always agreed with Ms. Vargo since the days when she served on Ted Kennedy’s staff. However, she is “spot on” in her assessment of the non-existence of a cohesive Irish American voting block. In a way, that is probably a credit to the majority of Irish Americans in that it indicates that they are people who form their own opinions on issues and candidates for political office and vote in accordance with their own beliefs and the dictates of their own conscience. I, for one, would much rather be challenged for voting as a free thinking individual than be considered to be part of a group who are led around “like a bunch of sheep” by a small opinionated minority.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America