U.S. can't get handle on fugitive foreigner wanted list

[peejay 327]

U.S. can't get handle on this wanted list

By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT

2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The number of foreigners targeted for removal from the United States has soared to more than 623,000 even as the federal government has dedicated nearly $205 million over the past four years to deploy new fugitive apprehension teams.

In a report issued Monday, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general said the 52 fugitive operations teams have been hobbled by insufficient detention space, inadequate databases and the inability to track individual teams' performance.

Though Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn't quibble with the inspector general's findings, the agency's detention and removal operations chief said the report represents a dated snapshot that doesn't reflect a huge infusion of funds to add more teams and jail beds, and improve an antiquated database.

Still, the inspector general found that the foreigners — defined by the agency as "fugitives" because they had either been ordered deported or had criminal records that made them ineligible to remain in the country — has swelled from 314,000 in 2001 to 623,292 as of last August. The fugitives are just one subset of the illegal immigrant population, which is estimated at 12 million.

The fugitive population is growing faster than the teams can cope with it, the inspector general said, estimating the backlog rises by 50,000 each year.

John Torres, the immigration agency's detention and removal chief, acknowledged the findings.

"We find a lot of common agreement with regards to what (the inspector general's staff) are trying to portray, which is we have not had the resources over the years and now that we're just getting the resources, they want to ensure through oversight that we are applying them appropriately," Torres said in an interview. "We couldn't agree with them more."

Going in 'right direction'

But he noted that $110 million of the $205 million for the fugitive operations teams was provided only last year, and that it takes time to hire, train and deploy the team members as well as add the necessary detention space.

Last month marked the first time that the agency actually removed more fugitives than were added to the list, Torres said. "I don't want to state that one month indicates a trend, but considering the trend has been increasing annually, we feel that finally we are starting to go in the right direction," he said.

Each of the fugitive operations teams, which will number 75 by year's end, is under orders to find and remove 1,000 fugitives annually — a lofty goal considering fewer than 12,000 were apprehended last year.

But some team supervisors reported to the inspector general that their teams were idled for weeks at a time because of insufficient detention space.

The immigration agency, which has added several thousand detention beds over the past year, now has close to 27,500 beds, Torres said, adding that teams are no longer sidelined by the lack of jail space.

He acknowledged, however, that the agency has yet to solve one of the inspector general's other complaints: The inability to track the performance of each team.

Ailing database

In the report, the inspector general said the agency improperly had commingled the teams' arrests along with those of fugitives apprehended by other agency officials, or federal, state and local law officers. The figures also include cases that were closed because the foreigners either were determined to have left the country voluntarily, because they died or because they found some way to legalize their status.

"Each fugitive operations team must now arrest 1,000 fugitives a year, yet it cannot be determined whether the teams have ever met any performance threshold based on the past reporting of apprehensions," the report said.

Torres said the agency is spending $62 million modernizing a 25-year-old database so that it can better track individual cases and teams' performance. For example, the agency has removed 19,000 names from the database since October because those individuals have left the country, died or legalized their status, he said.

The inspector general cited one database analyst who estimated only about half the information in the database is accurate.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4663696.html

[peejay 327]

Well...nobody took the bait.

The point I would want to get across from reading this article is this...

DHS, ICE, and US-CIS cannot keep up and are totally overwhelmed with the present situation. And the clowns that run this country are presently scheming to amnesty 12 to 20 million illegal aliens; increase legal immigration; add a massive new guestworker program for unskilled workers; lift caps on an already corrupt, fraud ridden, mismanaged H1B; etc., etc., etc. They don't even have a workable Entry/Exit system at legal Ports of Entry or operational control of the US borders (especially the border with Mexico)!

Don't you think the priority should be to fund and institute competent immigration law enforcement and immigration control infrastructure first? It hasn't been that way for over 25 years and doesn't appear that it will happen in the future either.

Unfortunately the President and a large portion of Congress' main priority is shove more immigrants (legal & illegal) into an already broken system at the behest of every self serving special interest except for the vast majority of the American people (the bulk of their constituents).

The situation is out of control and there are no responsible adults at the steering wheel.

[Ban Hammer 14,271]

i saw this one and thought about posting it

[almaty 19]

i agree with you brother peejay...terrible and they wanting to make it even worse

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

How can you blame the illegals and fugitives for the feds inability to keep track of them?

[/bleeding heart]

[Mirorgate 0]

the agency is spending $62 million modernizing a 25-year-old database

Linux Server with MYSQL would take of that issue.