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-- Worked with Department of Justice (DOJ) in document and immigration benefits fraud cases resulting in 235 investigations, 189 arrests and 80 convictions.
-- Expanded its partnership with state and local authorities training 40 state and county law enforcement officers as part of the 287(g) program of immigration enforcement with additional partnerships to come.
ICE listed a disturbing array of other FY-end 2006 "achievements" involving enhanced intelligence gathering and analysis; targeting "national security threats;" detecting, tracking and arresting visa violators; "enhancing border security;" targeting transnational gangs, human smugglers and sexual predators; targeting money launderers and others committing financial crimes while granting de facto immunity to large US banks, including major international money center ones, known to launder drug money as one of their major profit centers; and much more.
DHS/ICE Billions for the Border
With a budget increased by 50% over five years ago, DHS/ICE has billions to use guarding our borders from "dangerous" poor people. Ignored is that those working here pay billions more in federal, state and local taxes for performing services (in jobs others don't want) than they get back in meager benefits like sub-standard education for their children in inner city or other public schools and inadequate health care when they're sick.
Still they come from need, not choice in a risky, dangerous journey starting with what it costs for help getting here. It's plenty extorted by Coyote smugglers and other predatory intermediaries treating them like pollos (chickens) once on their way north. They get crammed in trucks and cars, travel after dark, and aren't prepared for the hazards they'll face including 115 degree or higher summer temperatures crossing an unforgiving desert that end up killing hundreds each year from exposure who when found are just anonymous John Does leaving families behind never knowing what happened or what to do next.
And handling those risks depends on getting past heavy DHS/ICE border security in place post-9/11. They're ready and waiting with video cameras, state of the art motion sensors, infrared goggles, other security electronics and helicopters with forward-looking infrared (FLIR) scopes plus an unforgiving thuggish army of 6000 or more National Guard troops as part of Operation Jumpstart. They supplement the Border Patrol agent staff of 12,349 heading for 17,819 proposed for FY 2008, double the number it had in FY 2001.
Add to this army an extremist well-funded volunteer force in place called the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) or "Minutemen" for short. Their name comes from those "ready in a minute men" dating back to the mid-1600s when volunteers were trained to be first on the scene to defend their communities in case of conflict. Today's Minutemen on our southern border are for offense, not defense. All they defend is white supremacy and racial hatred against poor, desperate people unable to survive at home. Left no other choice, they come north, but doing it pits them against these ultra-hard right volunteer paramilitary thugs licensed to kill. They man the southern border by the thousands hunting down and terrorizing anyone caught entering the country without visas.
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