Last July, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a raid of a home allegedly looking for a fugitive alien. Instead, they found a Customs and Border Protection officer.
Immigration
Securing the homeland, one liberty at a time
Posted: December 18, 2008 9:03 pm
Updated: December 18, 2008 11:19 pm
It’s that time again, time for outgoing government bureaucrats to make room for fresh new faces and to say goodbye. Today, outgoing Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff said goodbye to the country in a video. Of course, the government can’t seem to do anything right, and now we can add making simple videos to that list.
“Scheduled Departure” crashes, burns
Posted: August 25, 2008 1:34 am
A three-week trial program where illegal immigrants could voluntarily leave the country without being arrested has ended with only eight people signing up.
Illegal immigrants, please go away
Posted: August 4, 2008 8:27 pm
The federal government has tried almost everything in its various bids to get undocumented immigrants out of the country. Now it’s trying something simple and unusual: just asking them to please leave.
Bloody Toto Guilty of Mortgage Fraud
Posted: July 27, 2008 3:24 pm
A Brooklyn jury has found Emmanuel “Toto” Constant guilty of mortgage fraud and grand larceny. Constant is the former founder and leader of FRAPH, the Haitian paramilitary group that in the early 90’s systematically tortured and murdered thousands of supporters of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Electric shock for air passengers?
Posted: July 4, 2008 9:26 am
Updated: July 9, 2008 2:25 pm
You check in at the airline ticket counter. But instead of a boarding pass, you get shackled with an electronic bracelet which tracks your every move, contains all your personal information, and can shock you senseless. This vision of the future of air security is being floated around the Department of Homeland Security’s research and development office.
Bush: Federal contractors’ employees need permission to work
Posted: June 10, 2008 4:44 pm
President George W. Bush on Friday signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to verify the employment eligibility status of federal contractors and subcontractors.
New York gets REAL ID
Posted: November 2, 2007 5:58 pm
New York State will begin issuing new versions of so-called secure driver licenses as well as a version specifically for undocumented immigrants, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said last weekend.
Welcome: Portraits of America
Posted: October 28, 2007 5:43 pm
Updated: October 28, 2007 11:11 pm
Since September 11, 2001, getting in to the U.S. as a foreign visitor has become a harrowing experience. So much so, in fact, that foreign tourism is down 17% as many tourists choose to spend their holidays elsewhere rather than be poked, prodded, searched, fingerprinted and verbally abused by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
Not to fear, though; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of State have done something about it.
GAO: Not much progress at Homeland Security
Posted: September 12, 2007 4:11 am
In the four years since its creation, the Department of Homeland Security has fallen far short of expectations, according to an extensive Congressional audit released last week.
REAL ID: Arizona plans secure driver licenses
Posted: September 9, 2007 2:33 am
The state of Arizona will join Vermont and Washington state in creating a secure state identification document which can be used for travel within Canada and Mexico and will also likely meet the requirements of the REAL ID Act.
Vermont accepts the other REAL ID
Posted: August 22, 2007 7:28 pm
The state of Vermont has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security to develop a new driver license document which will be accepted in lieu of a passport for border crossings, the department announced Tuesday.
Bits of homeland stupidity
Posted: July 1, 2007 6:34 pm
Getting security right is a challenge for the best of us. But when you put security in the hands of government, getting it right is a virtually insurmountable obstacle. Here are a few ways government made you less secure and wasted your money over the last couple of weeks.
Land crossing passport requirement delayed
Posted: July 1, 2007 5:24 pm
Updated: July 1, 2007 5:56 pm
The Bush administration has suspended a pending rule which would have required travelers re-entering the country from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean by land or sea to present passports at entry.
Passport requirement to re-enter country temporarily suspended
Posted: June 9, 2007 3:31 am
The State Department announced Friday it would suspend a rule requiring Americans to have passports in order to re-enter the country from Canada, Mexico and certain Caribbean islands which went into effect earlier this year due to a months-long backlog of passport applications.
RFID passport card privacy threat debated
Posted: May 31, 2007 7:39 pm
A passport card set to be issued by the State Department for travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean doesn’t require privacy protection, even though it uses a radio frequency identification chip which can be read from 20 feet away, because the chip itself doesn’t contain personal information, according to the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Social Security card to be national ID
Posted: May 16, 2007 9:34 pm
Two proposals being floated around Capitol Hill call for the Social Security card to be updated with biometric information and for U.S. employers to be required to verify it with the Department of Homeland Security when hiring.
Airlines to be forced to fingerprint departing visitors
Posted: May 10, 2007 3:08 am
If you’re planning a visit to the U.S., you already have to give up your fingerprints and retinal scans to the Department of Homeland Security in order to enter the country. Now the department wants to require every visitor to go through the same procedure in order to leave the country.
And they want to force the airlines to collect your biometric information, rather than do it themselves.
DHS: You’ll take a national ID and you’ll like it
Posted: May 9, 2007 2:33 am
The Department of Homeland Security will move forward with plans to implement the REAL ID Act despite widespread opposition from citizens and state legislatures.
Peace Bridge border inspection talks end
Posted: April 26, 2007 11:08 pm
Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff broke off talks with Canada on Wednesday over a plan to move the U.S. border inspection facility at the Peace Bridge from its current location in Buffalo, N.Y., to the Canadian side of the border.
The dispute, it turns out, was over when the U.S. could take fingerprints of Canadians who aren’t even crossing into the U.S.
Census bureau gave up WWII internment camp evaders
Posted: April 5, 2007 6:05 am
Updated: April 5, 2007 6:48 am
The United States Census Bureau turned over names and addresses of American citizens of Japanese descent to the Secret Service during World War II. How dare those supposedly patriotic Americans not turn themselves in to their designated concentration camps!
TSA wants 2,000 more ID checkers
Posted: February 15, 2007 7:01 pm
The Transportation Security Administration wants to hire 1,300 people, and divert 700 more from actual airport screening duties, to look for fake IDs.
Feds to take DNA from everyone at arrest
Posted: February 5, 2007 8:59 am
You no longer have to be convicted of a federal crime in order for the U.S. government to take your DNA. Under the provisions of a little-known law passed a year ago, the Department of Justice will take DNA from anyone who is even arrested on federal charges.
Terrorists in Texarkana?
Posted: January 26, 2007 9:00 am
The city of Texarkana, Texas, has found the terrorists, and with money from the Department of Homeland Security, is going to go round ‘em all up.
Or, perhaps, not.
Mass deportations a drop in the bucket
Posted: January 25, 2007 4:45 am
The Department of Homeland Security can’t make more than the slightest dent in the illegal immigration “problem,” so officials have decided to focus their efforts on what they call the “worst of the worst,” those who had been deported previously or committed crimes while in the U.S.
2007 State of the Union Address
Posted: January 24, 2007 12:32 am
The rite of custom brings us together at a defining hour — when decisions are hard and courage is needed. We enter the year 2007 with large endeavors underway, and others that are ours to begin. In all of this, much is asked of us. We must have the will to face difficult challenges and determined enemies — and the wisdom to face them together.
EU travellers’ fingerprints to be added to national database
Posted: January 9, 2007 1:39 am
Beginning this summer, European travellers to the U.S. will face even more affronts to their civil liberties when new regulations designed to combat terrorism come into effect. “This must be the Keystone Cops school of border control.”
Transportation workers identity credential to cost $159
Posted: January 5, 2007 8:42 pm
The Transportation Security Administration is requiring port and maritime workers and truckers to purchase a $159 identity document and undergo a “threat assessment” to provide secured access to seaports, airports and other such facilities, but doesn’t yet have the technology to read the cards.
Being forced to give to charity?
Posted: December 26, 2006 11:39 am
Updated: December 26, 2006 11:59 am
Founded in 1888 as Travelers Aid, the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights calls itself “the country’s premier service-based human rights organization.” And while federal law may say they’re a charitable organization, the truth is that the majority of the income for their “humanitarian” work comes not from charitable contributions, but from taxes.
Border fence company hired illegal immigrants
Posted: December 19, 2006 5:43 am
The company which built much of the U.S. border fence in San Diego, Calif., agreed to pay $5 million in fines for hiring illegal immigrants.
US-VISIT land exit tracking to be sidelined
Posted: December 18, 2006 2:55 am
A Department of Homeland Security plan to track foreign visitors leaving the U.S. by land will be set aside after a report showed that it would be too expensive and cause significant inconvenience to travelers who frequently cross the border.
Chertoff: Real ID not “invasion of privacy”
Posted: December 17, 2006 5:45 am
The REAL ID Act of 2005, which mandates that states conform their driver’s licenses and identification cards to a common standard defined by the Department of Homeland Security and that states put personal information into a central database, is being sold as a secure document which will protect us all from terrorism, illegal immigration and identity theft.
But it will do no such thing.
Chertoff: We will “vigorously” enforce bad laws
Posted: December 14, 2006 12:36 am
At a press conference Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff defended the negative effects to the U.S. meat industry of a Tuesday immigration raid in which over 1,200 suspected illegal immigrants working at meat packing company Swift & Co. were detained.
Rocky Mountain Mortgage Fraud Fever
Posted: December 11, 2006 11:03 pm
Hundreds of illegal immigrants recruited to act as “straw buyers,” the lowest players in the mortgage fraud game, were supplied with stolen identities, including drivers licenses, social security cards, and income tax returns. Some were given green cards of legal immigrants. What couldn’t be stolen was forged.
Dispatches from the Drug War
Posted: December 11, 2006 5:23 am
Updated: December 11, 2006 5:44 am
How far will the government go to prosecute its so-called War on Drugs? It will look the other way while one of its informants commits multiple murders. Then it will try to cover up its own complicity.
Entry to U.S. scares away tourism, business
Posted: November 29, 2006 6:52 am
Updated: November 29, 2006 7:26 am
A survey of business travelers and tourists visiting the United States shows that foreign visitors worry more about customs officials at ports of entry than about terrorism.
Social Security data used for criminal investigations
Posted: November 9, 2006 9:37 pm
Wage and earnings data held at the Social Security Administration has been used in terrorism investigations since September 11, 2001. But few if any of those investigated have been brought up on terrorism charges.
Federal prosecutors don’t actually bring terrorism charges if they can find any lesser charges which will result in a deportation and preserve national security secrets, officials said.
The cover-up of Homeland Security’s virus infection
Posted: November 7, 2006 4:24 pm
Last August a Windows virus infected over 1,300 computers which Customs and Border Protection uses to screen foreign travelers visiting the U.S. The bureau almost immediately tried to cover up the incident.
In “The Virus That Ate DHS,” Wired reporter and former hacker Kevin Poulsen illustrates that the Department of Homeland Security’s grasp on computer security is tenuous at best.
The news just keeps breaking
Posted: November 4, 2006 1:15 pm
Here are three short updates to stories previously covered at Homeland Stupidity. We’ve got good news and bad news. First, the good news.
New immigration Web site sucks
Posted: November 3, 2006 8:17 am
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, that part of the government responsible for preventing people from immigrating to the U.S., rolled out a redesigned Web site Wednesday. And the new site sucks.
The news just keeps sneaking across the border
Posted: September 27, 2006 2:06 pm
Four updates to news items previously covered at Homeland Stupidity focus heavily on immigration, border controls and terrorism, and include an update on the Western Hemisphere Travel-crippling Initiative, detention facilities for illegal immigrants, terrorism insurance, and intelligence.
Hospitals not taking free money for illegal immigrants
Posted: September 20, 2006 9:18 pm
What if the government tried to give away a billion dollars to pay for emergency hospital bills for illegal immigrants? Do you think half the Southwest would be up in arms protesting? Far from it, in fact. The federal government actually does have such a program, but it hasn’t been much of a success.
The program, passed a couple of years back to reimburse hospitals for spending money on emergency care for illegal immigrants, has had very few claims filed, primarily because the paperwork is too onerous, hospital administrators say.
Immigration paperwork to be digitized in pork-barrel contract
Posted: August 19, 2006 4:32 pm
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is moving forward with a plan to digitize millions of immigration documents, making them easier to access by immigration and law enforcement officials, the agency said Friday.
U.S. will require passport from everyone to enter country
Posted: August 13, 2006 12:31 am
If you’re a U.S. citizen and haven’t obtained a passport yet, now would be a very good time to do so, even if you don’t have any immediate travel plans. Five months from now, new regulations proposed by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department will require U.S. citizens returning by air or sea from certain countries to have a passport or other proof of identity and citizenship in order to re-enter the country.
Your new e-passport can be cloned
Posted: August 3, 2006 1:23 pm
Updated: August 3, 2006 3:04 pm
The U.S. State Department is already issuing passports containing an electronic Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip containing data about the passport holder, and not only do the chips provide no national security benefit whatsoever, they are also easy to forge.
Carnival of Liberty LVI
Posted: August 1, 2006 10:20 am
Welcome to the 56th Carnival of Liberty, celebrating the principles of Life, Liberty and Property, a weekly whirlwind tour of the blogosphere’s best writings on these principles.
Permission to work to be required from Homeland Security
Posted: June 29, 2006 6:01 pm
A Department of Homeland Security test program to have U.S. employers verify all new hires against a central database to verify employment eligibility and immigration status will help cut down on illegal immigration, said Robert Divine, acting deputy director of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
CBP considers creating detention barges
Posted: June 6, 2006 5:14 pm
When the Department of Homeland Security ends its catch and release policy toward non-Mexican illegal immigrants, and detains them all until deportation proceedings, where is it going to put the thousands — or even tens of thousands — of people? The whole catch and release policy came about because there simply isn’t enough jail space. Some bright bulb had the idea of stuffing them into old cruise ships.
DHS committee: RFID offers no security
Posted: June 4, 2006 7:20 pm
The Department of Homeland Security Privacy Advisory Committee published a draft report on the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track people, urging caution and saying that the use of RFID “increases risks to personal privacy and security, with no commensurate benefit for performance or national security.”
Wait just a minute. No national security benefit for using RFID?
Minuteman Project builds border fence
Posted: May 29, 2006 1:04 pm
If you want something done right, they say, you have to do it yourself. That seems to be the attitude of members of the Minuteman Project who began construction of a 10-mile section of fence on the Arizona border with Mexico Saturday.
Actors prepare for border security theater
Posted: May 18, 2006 9:58 am
Updated: May 18, 2006 2:18 pm
The President hath spoken: Let there be border security. At those words, hundreds of people in Washington jumped up and began preparing to do their part to stage what will become at best border security theater, and at worst a border security nightmare.
Bush proposes border security theater
Posted: May 16, 2006 5:30 am
President George W. Bush went on prime time television Monday night to talk about immigration reform. “We will fix the problems created by illegal immigration, and we will deliver a system that is secure, orderly, and fair,” he said. So he proposes to send the National Guard to patrol the border, a task for which they are ill-prepared and not at all trained.
Bureaucrats fight to hide US-VISIT incompetence
Posted: May 12, 2006 3:25 am
In the last year, the Department of Homeland Security paid over $10 million to a public relations firm to sell the public on the benefits of the US-VISIT program and help it downplay the inevitable incompetence endemic to the bureaucracy.
Immigration process stuck in 19th century
Posted: May 10, 2006 6:26 pm
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is responsible for deciding who can immigrate to the U.S. and processing their applications for green cards and for citizenship, hasn’t yet discovered the modern wonder of computers. Its records comprise about 55 million paper-based files housed at the National Records Center in Lee’s Summit, Mo., and attempts to drag the bureau kicking and screaming into the 20th century — nevermind the 21st — are at risk of failure, according to a government audit.
CDC pushes HIV testing for everyone
Posted: May 10, 2006 3:03 am
New guidelines to be released this summer by the Centers for Disease Control call for doctors to begin offering HIV tests to all patients, not just those in high-risk categories. The new guidelines have biotech companies cheering, but others are worried about the possible impact on the estimated quarter million people who don’t know they have HIV.
Specter: Uribe wants RFID for migrant workers
Posted: May 5, 2006 5:51 pm
Updated: May 5, 2006 6:11 pm
Here’s an interesting immigration idea. Why don’t we put RFID chips inside every foreign person who enters the country?
Should immigration into the U.S. be allowed?
Posted: April 24, 2006 3:39 pm
Immigration seems to be one of the most contentious issues of this decade. I say “seems” because much more is going on than immigration itself, and the issue isn’t a single issue, but encompasses a wide variety of issues all across the spectrum.
I asked my readers if they thought immigration into the U.S. should be permitted, and the results are in.
Bits of homeland stupidity
Posted: April 20, 2006 2:26 pm
It must be Week of the Weird. This week I’ve gathered three of the strangest examples of stupidity of government officials ever to cross my desk.
Border surveillance system on hold
Posted: February 23, 2006 7:16 pm
The Department of Homeland Security has suspended plans to establish a surveillance network along the U.S. northern and southern borders because the program had “unresolved key issues that, if not addressed, would have introduced unnecessary and unacceptable risk,” according to a Government Accountability Office report published Wednesday.
National ID: Employers to check immigration status
Posted: February 7, 2006 5:53 pm
The Department of Homeland Security wants U.S. employers to be required to verify the immigration status of their employees.
KBR contracted to build temporary detention facilities
Posted: February 7, 2006 2:32 pm
Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, has won a five year contingency contract from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to build temporary detention facilities “in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.”
Transcript: State of the Union Address
Posted: January 31, 2006 9:13 pm
Updated: January 31, 2006 10:26 pm
In a system of two parties, two chambers, and two elected branches, there will always be differences and debate. But even tough debates can be conducted in a civil tone, and our differences cannot be allowed to harden into anger. To confront the great issues before us, we must act in a spirit of goodwill and respect for one another — and I will do my part. Tonight the state of our Union is strong — and together we will make it stronger.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Blogger
Posted: January 20, 2006 9:30 pm
Updated: January 20, 2006 10:16 pm
I used to think you had to be pretty smart to successfully carry out a terrorist attack.
As it turns out, you only have to be smarter than the people looking to stop you.
This story is about a terrorist wannabe who wasn’t smart enough.
Coca-Cola: Preserving the myth of the real thing
Posted: January 13, 2006 7:05 am
The myth, of course, is that Coca-Cola is the same everywhere you go, and that that bottle marked “Original Formula” actually uses the original formula.
The Real ID nightmare
Posted: January 13, 2006 6:10 am
Updated: January 13, 2006 11:37 pm
State motor vehicle divisions, faced with implementing the Real ID Act passed in 2005, are calling the measure a “nightmare” to implement, and saying it will be “impossible” to meet the 2008 deadline.
Passport costs going up again
Posted: January 11, 2006 3:51 am
President George W. Bush on Tuesday signed a bill authorizing the State Department to raise the price of a U.S. passport.
Court: DHS must issue green cards
Posted: December 29, 2005 5:47 pm
A federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security on Dec. 22 to issue green cards to over 6,000 lawful permanent residents who were represented in a class action lawsuit.
Gazumped: A brief history of the Department of Homeland Security
Posted: December 21, 2005 10:30 pm
Bringing 22 different government agencies under a single umbrella is no easy task, as former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge discovered. And now, under a new secretary, the work to integrate the department is far from complete.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests street vendors at All-Star Game
Posted: July 14, 2005 6:43 am
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, with state, local and Coast Guard assistance, spent the day at the All-Star Game. But instead of being inside watching the game and the crowd, they were outside busting street vendors who were selling knock-off hats and jerseys.
Hey, who’s watching the chicken coop?
Posted: July 1, 2005 12:30 am
As the U.S. throws its resources into Iraq and Afghanistan, not enough attention is being paid to … er … homeland security.
