Showing posts with label dhs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dhs. Show all posts

Monday, April 25, 2011

EXCLUSIVE: DHS Can’t Account for 10 Libyan Men It Caught and Released Inside U.S.








After two weeks of inquiries about the Libyans from CNSNews.com, ICE finally responded on Thursday afternoon that it had already released to CNSNews.com all the information that was “available” on these Libyans and that the agency had “nothing more to add on the matter.”

ICE describes itself as “the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the second largest investigative agency in the federal government.” It says its “primary mission is to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration.”

The information about the unaccounted-for Libyans derives from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that CNSNews.com filed with ICE on Dec. 1, 2010. This FOIA request asked for records about non-Mexican foreign nationals processed by ICE in fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

On Jan. 28, 2011, ICE responded to the FOIA request by providing CNSNews.com with two Excel spreadsheets including information about 286,769 non-Mexican foreign nationals processed by the agency over the two years. One Excel spreadsheet contained information on 143,543 non-Mexican aliens processed by ICE in fiscal 2009, and another Excel spreadsheet contained information about 143,206 non-Mexican aliens processed by ICE in fiscal 2010.

The Excel spreadsheets did not include the names of the aliens, but did include eight columns of information about them. These columns included: 1) the “book in” date on which the alien had been detained, 2) the “book out” date on which the alien had been released from detention, 3) the ICE geographical “area of responsibility” in which the alien had been detained, 4) the alien’s "case status,” 5) the alien’s “case category,” 6) the alien’s date of birth, 7) the alien’s gender, and 8) the alien’s country of citizenship.

In all 286,769 cases, ICE had redacted the unnamed alien’s date of birth from the version of the database released to CNSNews.com citing the (b)(6) and (b)(7)(C) exemptions under FOIA. As ICE explained in a letter to CNSNews.com, these exemptions allow the government to withhold information from a FOIA response if releasing it would be an “unwarranted invasion of privacy.”

Generally, the spreadsheet entry for an alien detained by ICE included information in each of the other seven columns. For example, the first alien listed in the database is a 1) female, 2) Nicaraguan, 3) booked in by ICE on Oct. 29, 2008, 4) in the St. Paul, Minn. area of responsibility, 5) who was booked out on Nov. 19, 2008, 6) whose “case category” was “[8C] Excludable / Inadmissible--Administrative Final Order Issued,” and 7) whose “case status” was “8-Excluded/Removed--Inadmissibility.”

The spreadsheets also generally indicated when an alien had been granted some form of relief or given permanent resident status in the United States. For example, a Honduran man detained in the San Antonio area on April 8, 2009 and held in custody until Sept. 16, 2009, was marked as having a case category of “Excludable/Inadmissable,” but after his case was adjudicated by an immigration judge, his case status column was marked “L-Legalization--Permanent Residence Granted.”

The spreadsheets included a total of 27 citizens of Libya who were processed by ICE in 2009 and 2010. All 27 were men.

The spreadsheet entries for 15 of these 27 Libyan men had information in all seven columns, showing when they had been booked in, when they had been booked out, and what had happened to their cases.

The spreadsheet entries for another two of the Libyan men do not make clear if they were ever booked out. One of these two, who was booked in by ICE on July 25, 2009, in the Buffalo, N.Y. area, had a five-digit number --“40050”—in his “Book Out Date” column. His “Case Category” and “Case Status” column were left blank.

The other of these two, who was booked in by ICE on Sept. 30, 2009 in the Denver, Colo. area, had a blank in his “Book Out Date” column as well as blanks in his “Case Category” and “Case Status” column.

Read the rest at the link above...

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Hezbollah Working with Cartels

Even with this new information, you can bet, that this lame administration won't do anything to secure the border. They are more interested in trying to secure amnesty for millions of people in this Country illegally than they are in the safety and security of American citizens.

obama and his gang of thugs care only about the next election. They prove it every day by neglecting the real issues in this Country. Border security, unemployment and the economy don't even appear to be on the radar of this bunch of incompetent buffoons.

Instead, they are more interested in garnering union support by attempting to thwart the efforts of a legally elected Governor, both in Wisconsin and in Arizona.

We have entered bizzaro world...

By Adam Housley - FoxNews

As if the threat of deadly drug cartels in Mexico wasn't enough, some of them are joining forces with Middle East terror groups.

"Hezbollah are absolute masters at identifying existing smuggling infrastructures," says former DEA Chief of Operations Mike Braun, adding that the group "is developing relations with those responsible for operating those smuggling operations and then forming close relations with them, so that they can move anything they have an interest into virtually anywhere in the world." That comment comes from former DEA Chief of Operations Mike Braun. He goes on to tell me that the Middle East terror group is "rubbing shoulders" with drug cartels around the globe.

My military and Department of Homeland Security contacts are insistent...it's not if Hezbollah operatives have been smuggled into the U.S....but how many? They note that drug tunnels are becoming much more sophisticated and striking similar as tunnels being used by terror organizations to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip. My contacts also say they have real concern that bombing techniques used in the Middle East to promote terror are now also being used inside Mexico, as the cartels war with each other and anyone in their way.

This comes as Mexican authorities busted a senior Hezbollah operative who employed Mexicans nationals with family ties to Lebanon to set up the network, designed to target Israel and the West, according to multiple reports. The man's name is Jameel Nasr and he was arrested after a Mexican surveillance operation revealed that he traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive information and instructions from Hezbollah commanders and he also spent several months in Venezuela working with the terror group and Hugo Chavez's people. American security contacts say the Mexican operation was impressive and they are seeing some increased pressure on the cartels from Mexican authorities and thus...their friends.

Meantime, over this past weekend President Calderon of Mexico sent a significant number of troops to the border regions and while they are there to help battle the cartels, they have also been sent to deal with the growing connection to Hezbollah. As one contact told me, "Mexico knows the seriousness of a cartel connection with Hezbollah and the threat to their national security."

We also know from DHS documents that over 180,000 illegal aliens from countries Other than Mexico were apprehended from 2007 through mid-March 2010 and the State Department Country Reports on Terrorism said that "smuggling rings have been detected moving people from East Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia". I am told these people and drugs are then moved up through Central America and into the Unites States through Mexico.

Congressman Connie Mack chairs the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee and says, "I think the question that we all have to ask is, when the terrorist come into Latin America, when they move into Mexico, how many have come into the United States? Our government doesn't know the answer to that question. That should make all of us very fearful."

The Congressman is critical of the Administrations response to this increased threat, "What are we going to do to secure our border step one and step two what are we going to do to confront the drug cartels in Hezbollah from continuing to create a force inside Mexico that will destabilize the United States?"

In response to this story, I contacted DHS and various departments within the administration. To be fair, they are obviously not going to give up information on operations or threats that they are working to eliminate, however, we didn't get much in feedback about our story, or in a way of a statement. I did have testimony forwarded to me from Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela from February 15th where he acknowledges the threat to American security and says the U.S. will continue to assist in the region's need to combat drug trafficking and transnational crime.