County Clerk Dianne Florez noticed it first. Plumes of smoke were rising outside the small West Texas town of Pecos. "The prison is burning again," she announced. The Reeves County Detention Complex burns on themorning…
The Obama administration is trying to wiggle its way out of the immigration crisis created by the Bush administration without taking any decisive steps to distance itself from its predecessor’s immigration policies and enforcement practices.…
Getting into the federal building in Pecos, Texas takes political sophistication—something I was apparently lacking when attempting to enter the building for the trial of a couple of immigrant inmates indicted for their role in…
Part I: Building the Paso del Norte Security System Part II: Contributions and Contracts Part III: Electronics and Earmarks on the Border Part I: Building the Paso del Norte Security System—from Academics to Economics City…
Who’s taking care of our national security—our nation’s defense, military operations, homeland security, and intelligence? There’s the Department of Defense, the U.S. Armed Forces, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the "intelligence community" of…
Contracts with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are spewing billions of dollars into private industry, largely to companies that also rely on Pentagon military contracts. In this new variation of the military-industrial complex a…
This is the third policy report on related themes of immigration enforcement. Also see: Immigrant Crackdown Joins Failed Wars on Crime and Drugs, and Restoring Integrity to the Immigration System.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a bad case of mission creep. Created in the wake of Sept. 11 to better protect the country against attacks by foreign terrorists, DHS now believes it is also responsible for community security.
Since its creation in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Department of Homeland Security has assiduously responded to the clamor of anti-immigrant forces demanding that the federal government take more seriously its responsibility…
There is broad agreement that the immigration system is broken. But reaching a political consensus on how to fix the system has in recent years proved impossible. In the absence of a comprehensive immigration reform,…
There is no good financial justification for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). Yet the Obama administration, which says it will no longer fund the program, is drawing heavy fire from representatives in states…