US has barred HIV-positive travellers and potential immigrants from entering the country since 1987.

An Aug 16 rally in support of lifting all travel restrictions on HIV positive visitors to the United States took place at the Peace Arch at the Canada-US border. Canadian Martin Rooney, who was denied entry into the United States in 2007 because he is HIV positive, organized the event. “Please Mr Obama lift this ban now,” said Rooney to approximately 30 attendees. “There is no medical science to support that HIV is a contagious disease that presents a threat to public health or national security of the United States.” He said the immediate publication of new regulations removing remaining travel restrictions would be “an enormous step forward” in treating HIV positive people with the dignity they deserve.”Former US president George W Bush lifted an outright ban in 2008, but HIV positive visitors are still required to submit a waiver before entering the United States. On World AIDS Day 2006, Bush instructed the secretary of homeland security to “initiate a rulemaking that would propose a categorical waiver for HIV-positive people seeking to enter the United States on short-term visas.”At the time, AIDS activists were cautiously optimistic but wary about what shape the new rules would take.The US has barred HIV-positive travellers and potential immigrants from entering the country since 1987. Congress codified this policy in 1993, as part of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), meaning it would take an act of Congress to reverse the ban completely.Under the new rules, waiver applicants would have to agree to give up the ability to apply for a change in status while in the US, including applying for legal permanent residence.Applicants would also have to travel with all of their HIV meds needed during the trip, prove they have medical insurance accepted in the US, and prove they won’t engage in behaviour that might put the American public at risk.David Parsons, who enjoys travelling to Seattle to watch professional sports, spoke about his experience with the new waivers. “Once you figure out the process, it takes maybe five days to get [the waiver],” he said. “It’s pretty easy and it costs $135. It’s not the best but it’s an improvement. You just go to an American consulate website and click on visa and you just follow the instructions from there.”But Rooney opposes the waiver on principle.“If I have a contagious disease of significant public threat to the United States and its people then $135 US doesn’t make me any less of a threat,” he said. “So on those grounds alone I will not apply for the United States waiver.”The restrictions, according to many rally attendees, serve as a reminder of the stigma faced by people living with HIV and AIDS. Sonia Marino, who works for an AIDS service organization, says she knows many people who face discrimination at the border due to their perceived HIV status.

Continue reading here: http://www.xtra.ca/public/Vancouver/Please_Mr_Obama_lift_this_ban_now_Rooney-7372.aspx

A trail of a Joke comes to a Reality. Canada deports disabled U.K. Citizen.

::: BREAKING NEWS :::
In 2009 the government will start deporting
all the mentally ill people.
I started crying when I thought of you.
Run my little crazy friend, run!

Well, what can I say?? Someone sent it to me, and I'm NOT going alone !!

I receive this email that it may offend some people like me but many found it to be so funny. You will said that I do not have a sense of Humour but you are wrong; I believe we should not be laughing on behalf of the people who needs us the most, people who needs our care, our compassion, our support, our understanding and we needs to change our inmoral behavior to be more Humane. I understood from the beginning that Canada was a Green, tolerant, modern thinking, progressive nation....how wrong. Shame on you Canada.!!!! This is why I am ashamed and disgusted from this joke comes to a reality for people who needs us the most. See for yourself and do not forget about Pedro Guzman mentally disabled U.S. citizen who was mistakenly deported to Mexico.

Canada deports disabled U.K. citizen

A British man who was injured while working in Canada has been deported because authorities concluded keeping him in the country would be an economic burden for taxpayers.

Chris Mason, 36, was ordered deported to the United Kingdom after Canadian immigration officials determined that granting the wheelchair-bound man permanent resident status would create an undue economic burden.

Border services agents took Mason to Winnipeg's James Richardson International Airport on Monday and put him on a flight to Manchester. Several of Mason's friends were at the airport to give him money and his belongings — but they were barred from seeing him. Mason had been in detention since last Wednesday.

Mason said he had no desire to return to England where he hasn't lived since he was a child. He lived with his father in Greece before coming to Canada in 2001.

Once here, he began working as a truck driver in Ontario and British Columbia before settling in Winnipeg. The long-haul trucker became a paraplegic after damaging his back on the job.

Mason was further injured in 2007 when he was hit by a taxi while leaving hospital and has been unable to work since.

He had been living in Canada illegally without a visa for more than two years and had been collecting social assistance while battling Manitoba's Public Insurance Corp. over injury benefits when his application for permanent resident status was denied.

"You'd think he was a terrorist," said his mother Gillian Kilford from Manchester. "He was injured during the course of this work. After a period of readjustment he went back to work. He paid taxes in Canada."

She said her son would face hardship finding wheelchair accessible accommodation in Britain. Her son would not be able to negotiate the stairs in her home, she said, adding she had no idea Monday where or when Mason would arrive back in the U.K. since no one from the Canada Border Services Agency had contacted her to make arrangements to greet him at any U.K. airport. "I expect they'll just dump him at immigration," she said.

Advocates for the disabled have been lobbying for Canada to amend the Immigration Act, removing a clause that says anyone who might cause undue economic demand on the social welfare system can be denied the right to live here.

Refugees, who can be injured before being admitted to Canada, are excluded from the "excessive demand" clause in the Immigration Act, but the clause applies to everyone else.

"The Immigration Act frankly prohibits people with disabilities from immigrating to Canada," said Laurie Beachell of Disabled People's International. "The effect would mean people like Stephen Hawking, world-renowned physicist, brilliant man, could never become Canadian

A Canadian Immigration Officer posed as a Lawyer.

A man hiding in Toronto after he was ordered deported to Brazil claims a border services agent arrested him after posing as his lawyer using the Terrorism bill to identify, persecute, prosecute, convict and punish undocumented Immigrants as Terrorists but also Canada's widely known values of fairness and respect for human rights. Hmmmmm?
.

Fabricio Campos's lawyer, Guidy Mamann, said the failed refugee claimant was arrested Tuesday outside his friend's west-end apartment by an immigration enforcement officer who had called Campos's cellphone that morning identifying himself as one of his lawyers and offering to take him to meet his wife.

"This is not about (my client) but about people who get a call from a lawyer, who ends up being a law enforcement officer impersonating and interfering (in) one's rights to legal counsel," Mamann said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Campos, a drywaller, is being detained at an immigration holding centre. He's due for deportation to Brazil on Tuesday.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Canada Border Services Agency would not comment specifically on Campos's claims, but it did say "our information conflicts with the complainant's."

The release said all allegations of employee misconduct are taken seriously, and management reviews and investigates all complaints.

In an affidavit not yet filed in court, Campos claimed he had a call on his cellphone Tuesday morning from a man claiming to be a lawyer "Joel" from Mamann's law firm.

"Naturally when the caller identified himself as `Joel,' I believed he was referring to Mr. Sandaluk. The caller told me that he wanted to take me to see my wife in detention," Campos said in the affidavit. "He asked me if I was at 75 Emmett Ave. I told him, no, I'm at a friend's house at Trethewey and Black Creek. I told him the address."

Campos said he asked the caller twice if it was safe to see his wife since immigration authorities were out looking for him. "He assured me that I wouldn't be detained," he said. Ten minutes later he was arrested by two immigration enforcement officers in the lobby.

Mamann said Campos's phone displayed the caller's number – the same as that used by one of the officers. "Why would someone in hiding tell an arresting officer where he was?" the lawyer asked.

Campos has been in Canada since 2002. His wife, Marta Sousa, was arrested with their Canadian-born daughter a day earlier when officers arrived at their home looking for him. Sousa and the girl were released after Campos's arrest.

Mamann plans to complain to the Canadian Bar Association, the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Civil Liberties Association about the officer's alleged conduct

Deportation of U.S. War Resisters.

On Friday, August 15, 2008, a Canadian supporter of U.S. war resisters challenged Canadian Immigration Minister Diane Finley to explain why she is deporting U.S. war resisters to court martial and military prison.

64% of Canadians want the war resisters to stay here, 82% of Canadians are against the Iraq war, and on June 3, 2008, the Canadian Parliament passed a motion calling on the government to halt the deportation of war resisters.

With the recent decision to deport Jeremy Hinzman, the first war resister to come to Canada, the question remains: does the minority Conservative government support democracy in Canada or does it support the Iraq war?

The motion states: "immediately implement a program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members (partners and dependents), who have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations and do not have a criminal record, to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada; and that the government should immediately cease any removal or deportation actions that may have already commenced against such individuals

Frozen River at the Northern Border

Frozen River at the Northern Border.



film about borders, both physical and psychological, "Frozen River" (Sony Classics) is the somber, understated but dramatically effective feature debut from writer-director Courtney Hunt.

It opens with the arresting image of a woman silently but passionately weeping, then gradually unfolds the reasons for her despair. Upstate New York working-class mom Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo), we learn, has just been abandoned by her gambling-addicted husband, who's taken with him the down payment on the family's desperately needed new trailer home.

So, leaving her 5-year-old son, Ricky (James Reilly), in the care of his 15-year-old brother, T.J. (Charlie McDermott), Ray sets off to retrieve the funds. Her hunt leads instead to a violent confrontation with Lila (Misty Upham), a local Mohawk woman now in possession of the deadbeat's abandoned car.

A former cigarette smuggler, widowed Lila has more recently turned to transporting undocumented aliens across the ice-covered St. Lawrence River from Canada into the United States. Wielding a gun, she compels the normally timid Ray to make such a run, assuring her that, since she's white, the patrolling troopers will let her pass unchallenged.

Though shaken by the ordeal, Ray is drawn to the financial rewards of this human trafficking and volunteers to make another trip. As she and the reticent Lila slowly bond, their repeated border crossings become riskier and they become increasingly desensitized to the plight of the people they're ferrying.

Yet by the film's conclusion, a series of harrowing events breaks the cycle of victimization, pulling both women back from the moral margin across which they've strayed.

An unflinching study of hard times, racial divisions, the plight of migrants and the lure of fast money, "Frozen River" is also, ultimately, a celebration of barrier-transcending friendship, rediscovered decency and the quiet, self-sacrificing heroism that makes for a morally satisfying, if less than happy ending.

Leo and Upham give powerfully restrained performances, with Leo in particular presenting a fully rounded character whose flaws and limitations are as clearly delineated as her virtues. Every detail of the Rust Belt setting adds to the air of authenticity.

The film contains a human trafficking theme, some rough and crude language, and a brief strip-club scene without nudity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

The Border: A wall or a Barrier?








In the current flap over building a wall between Mexico and the United States, it would be well to keep in mind Robert Frost’s injunction “something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” That “something” is that a wall is a barrier.

In the case of a “wall” between the United States and Mexico, a wall is a manifestation of conflict, just as the Berlin Wall was a manifestation of conflict. Essentially, conflict is an interactive process or behavior. That’s why the Berlin Wall escalated the Cold War. And why a wall be-tween the United States and Mexico will only escalate the enmity between the two countries.

Ronald Reagan’s plea to Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”—referring to the Berlin Wall—is not what brought down the wall. On the contrary, it was Mikhail Gorbachev’s response that brought down the wall. Instead of escalating the cycle of conflict, the Soviet leader chose to ignore the rhetoric of conflict and for whatever reasons take the first step in repairing U.S.—Soviet relations. There is no doubt that the U.S.—Soviet conflict had developed mutually destructive patterns of interactive behavior, the consequences of which heralded Armageddon.

When asked about the U.S.—Mexico wall in a 2006 visit to the United States, Mikhail Gorbachev responded that the United States seemed to be building the Great Wall of China between itself and Mexico (Midland Reporter-Telegram, 10/18/2006).

In the current American rhetoric about controlling the nation’s borders the question looms large: Why on the one hand did the U.S. want the Berlin Wall torn down and on the other hand does it want to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico? There is no evading the possibility of racism and selective amnesia about the history of walls.

While the Berlin Wall did function as the perimeter of a "prison" state, its principal objective was to keep out extra-territorial influences that were anathema to the state dictum of the Soviet Union. A U.S. wall on its border with Mexico has the same objectives -- to keep out extra-territorial influences (the uninvited, the unwelcome, the Undesirable, and the unwanted) that are deemed anathema to the apodictic values of the United States

In Europe and well understood the nature of the Berlin Wall. But a wall between the United States and Mexico is not about penetrability. It’s about “good neighbors.” Why not a wall between the United States and Canada? Or a wall along the Florida coast to keep out Cubans? The inference is that Canadians and fleeing Cubans are good neighbors; Mexicans are not?.
Will a wall between the United States and Mexico help the United States in controlling its border with Mexico?.

In a piece on “Fences and Neighbors,” Rick Toone characterized the U.S.—Mexico wall as “a shining symbol of American economic and environmental arrogance.” And in a washington-post.com article (Sunday, May 27, 2007; B01), Luis Alberto Urrea quotes the Mexican consul in Tucson calling the U.S.—Mexico wall “the politics of stupidity.” In the National Geographic (May 2007), Charles Bowden concludes that “Fences may make good neighbors, but the barriers dividing U.S. and Mexico are proving much more complicated.

Exposing The Morally Corrupt Family Courts.

.

A short clip complete with live interview with one father who immigrated to Canada and now says he would never have set foot in this country had he known about the Family System of Injustice here in Canada. Are we following the same path. We always boasts to the World as the most Democratic, Free and fighter for Indivuals Human righst But the mirror has been twisted too often that's sad and ashamed seen kids and parents torn apart without see their pain and human side. What crime those kids committed to taken away from parents? Do their Punishment fit their crime? Where are those moral values?

Canada Open Border. It’s a unique situation and it requires a unique solution.





" But from a security standpoint, most of the threats around the northern border revolve around terrorism, and most of the threats on the southern border revolve around immigration ".

Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Paul Schneider joined U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., at the Port of Scobey on Monday during a tour of the northern border between Montana and Saskatchewan.

Accompanied by Secret Service agents, Schneider arrived shortly after noon by helicopter at the U.S. Border Patrol station in Scobey, located about 14 miles south of the Scobey Port of Entry.

Homeland Security’s No. 2 man, Schneider said he was not personally familiar with the remote region of the border. But after a 90-minute flight and a tour of the Scobey facility, the Washington, D.C., official admitted his surprise at the breadth of terrain crossing the state’s northern tier.

“It’s a unique situation and it requires a unique solution, basically, in how you control the border,’’ Schneider said. “It’s absolutely essential to get a bird’s eye view of the ground. It will help inform the decision-making process.’’

Schneider’s arrival in Montana kicked off a series of border tours and community hearings that began Monday morning at the Sheridan County Courthouse in Plentywood and is scheduled to end Wednesday with a Senate field hearing in Havre.

“By his own admission, (Schneider) said he would not have believed the border’s rural nature unless he had seen it firsthand,’’ Tester said. “Because of our rural nature, we have challenges at this border that are different than anywhere else.

Tester, a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, has spent the last year advocating improvements to U.S. security along the northern border, particularly the 550 miles spanning Montana and the three Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

In that year, Tester helped pass legislation securing $3 billion for security upgrades for all U.S. ports and borders, and pushed for a series of reviews on border vulnerabilities and needed improvements.

“There’s a lot of emphasis going to the southern border, and I’m not going to say that’s right or wrong,’’ Tester said during the town-hall meeting in Plentywood. “But from a security standpoint, most of the threats around the northern border revolve around terrorism, and most of the threats on the southern border revolve around immigration.’’

During the morning meeting, Tester took comments from area residents, many of whom do business across the northern border or have Canadian spouses.

Some in the audience asked why they had to travel to Helena, more than 500 miles away, to acquire paperwork for Canadian family members when a 24-hour port of entry sat just minutes away.

Other questions focused on green cards, citizenship and immigration reform and extended hours at several ports of entry.

“There’s not an awareness in Washington of the distance in Montana,’’ said state Rep. Julie French, D-Scobey, who spoke at the Plentywood meeting. “The other issue is fees. We saw a huge jump in passport fees. When you have a family of five in Scobey who travel across the border because they have family there, it kills us.’’

“My wife should have been Mexican,’’ added Gary Steinberg, an area resident. “It would have been easier for her to get a green card.’’

Tester noted the concerns and later said it was good to hear from those on the ground about the issues they’re concerned about.

Tester added that improved border security doesn’t have to take place at the expense of smooth commerce and strong U.S.-Canadian relations.

In recent months, some Canadian officials have expressed concerns that a ramp-up in border security could stop commerce in its tracks.

“On the northern tier, there’s a lot of business that goes on on both sides of the border,’’ Tester said. “It’s got to be secure, but it’s also got to work, and I think we can have both

Empirical Image. Sealing the U.S. Mexico Border doesn't match the reality. .






To maintain a climate of uncertainty and fear of immigrants, it is necessary to portray the border region as unstable, porous, and the source of society’s ills. Despite being accepted as biblical truth, the image does not really match the reality.

The U.S.-Mexico border is the most traversed border in the world. With an average of 250 million crossings annually, only less than 1 percent estimated occurs without authorization and attracts all of the political attention.

In San Diego alone, over 70,000 Mexicans cross over daily, mainly to buy consumer goods. In 2003, shoppers spent $40.8 billion in the local economy, adding an extra $3.3 billion through sales tax. Considering there are several major twin cities that straddle the border, Mexicans help sustain the whole border economy by contributing taxes and creating jobs.

While the regularized influx of migrant workers is nothing new, the shaping of the imagery is a recent phenomenon.

According to Peter Andreas:

Public perception is powerfully shaped by the images of the border which politicians, law enforcement agencies and the media project. Alarming images of a border out of control can fuel public anxiety; re-assuring images of a border can reduce such anxiety…[therefore], successful border management depends on successful image management and this does not necessarily correspond with levels of actual deterrence.

This “image management” is used in the current context to criminalize migration while moving the focus away from the real issues. While no “terrorists” have been caught crossing through the Arizona desert, there is the permanency of fear (and perpetuation of the belief) that terrorists are coming across, blending into the stream of migrant workers.

The other phantom of border enforcement, drug trafficking, is also linked with migration through the “unguarded wastelands.” In fact, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report in the aftermath of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the further opening of the borders to cargo traffic, it was estimated that most cocaine coming into the U.S. entered through official ports of entry, occasionally with the collusion of corrupt customs agents.

According to José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, federal deputy attorney general and the head of the elite SIEDO anti-organized crime unit, the Mexican government is currently investigating possible links between state police in Baja California and U.S. Border Patrol agents in drug trafficking.

Migrants themselves face the greatest danger along the border. Pushing the crossing routes into the desert and mountains has created a human rights tragedy. Dying at the rate of one a day, casualties on the border will soon surpass the number of people killed on 9/11, and are ten times the number of people who died escaping over the Berlin Wall. Border militarization has not stopped migration, only imposed new, deadly rules on it.

But the biggest smuggler or coyote is the U.S. immigration system that forces them into such a perilous journey in the interests of big business in the first place.

Organ Harvesting at the tip of the Iceberg in America?



During the press conference, Kilgour and Matas focused on their home country of Canada as an example for some of their recommendations.

"There is no doubt that Canadians are among those going to China from many parts of the world for transplants," the press release stated. Kilgour called it "organ tourism." He said he and Matas have recently obtained confirmation from hospitals in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary that Canadians are going to China for transplants.

Matas emphasized that Canada should issue travel advisories telling Canadians going to China for organ transplants that they may think they are getting an organ from an executed murderer but "in all likelihood" they are getting the organ "from someone who has done nothing wrong." Travel advisories should warn that organ sources in China consist "almost entirely from un-consenting prisoners, whether sentenced to death or Falun Gong practitioners."

Jews second most targeted for hate crimes in Canada.


TORONTO — A survey of police-reported hate crimes released recently by Statistics Canada showed that in 2006, Jews were Canada’s most targeted group by religion and second only to blacks as the most victimized group overall.

Jews continue to be subjected to anti-Semitic vandalism

Of 220 hate crimes motivated by the victim’s religion, 137 were aimed at Jews, or almost 63%. Muslims were the next most affected religious group, with 46 incidents (21%) reported, followed by Catholics, who experienced 13 incidents (6%).

Overall, blacks were the most targeted group, whether considered on racial, ethnic, gender or religious bases. Some 238 hate events were reported involving blacks out of a total of 892 incidents. Blacks were victims in 27% of all occurrences, Jews in 15%.

The data were obtained from the Hate Crime Supplemental Survey, a study of hate crimes reported by police departments across Canada that cover 87 percent of Canada’s population. Statistics Canada reported that the number of hate crimes “accounted for less than one per cent of all criminal incidents reported to police.”

The study showed that half of all hate-motivated crime concerned property offences, while one-third involved violence. The highest rates of police-reported hate crime were in Calgary (9.1 per 100,000 residents), Kingston (8.5), Ottawa (6.6), London (5.9) and Toronto (5.5). “Hate crimes were most likely to involve young people, both as victims and accused persons,” the report stated.

“Most violent hate crimes are committed by strangers rather than persons known to victims. In 2006, 77 percent of victims of police-reported hate crime did not know their perpetrators, compared to 33 percent of victims of other violent crimes.”

The national hate-motivated crimes statistics parallel findings by the hate crimes unit of the Toronto Police Service. In its 2006 report, the unit found that Jews were the second most victimized group, behind blacks.

Twenty-eight of 162 incidents were aimed at Jews (17%), while 15 incidents (9%) targeted Muslims. Blacks were singled out in 30 per cent of occurrences.

Const. Wendy Drummond, a spokesperson for the Toronto Police, said the most recent data for 2007 again showed that Jews were the second most targeted group, behind blacks. Altogether, Jews were affected in 29 percent of incidents, while blacks were targeted in 33 per cent of events. Gays were next at 13 percent, followed by Muslims and Pakistanis at 9 percent each.

Police also recorded a “multi-bias” category – where the motivation involved more than one type of animus, such as a black and gay – in which Jews were the second-most-targeted group, she said.

Wendy Lampert, national director of community relations for Canadian Jewish Congress, said the findings are consistent with long-standing patterns.

“Historically, we have been targeted,” she said. “We really have to remain vigilant as a community and take appropriate measures to secure our facilities going forward.”

The Melca Salvador History facing deportation in Canada.

Indian Citizen deported from Canada.

Exist Hate crimes in Canada?




Statistics Canada provides invaluable service as national provider of statistical information, the first of its two self-proclaimed "main objectives."

But the federal body did a great disservice to Kingston and fell down on the job on objective No. 2, promoting "sound statistical standards and practices."

That's because Statistics Canada released 2006 information about hate crimes that ranked Kingston as the second-most racist city in Canada, behind only Calgary.

The survey found an incident rate of 8.5 hate crimes per 100,000 as based on police reports - nearly triple the national average of 3.1. Calgary's rate was 9.1 and Kingston was followed by Ottawa at 6.6, London at 5.9 and Toronto at 5.5.

But by the time the Whig-Standard crunched the numbers - or the comparisons, at least - they no longer seemed valid. It seems that the Calgary and Kingston police forces may be more zealous in the way they report the statistics than in other cities.

Sgt. Helene Corcoran of the Kingston Police has investigated hate crimes for three years and in that time has only encountered two or three violent crimes against people of a visible minority.

And specific to 2006, the year of focus for the Statistics Canada report, a series of disparaging letters sent to local mosques and politicians were all classified as individual hate-crime occurrences. That process would have inflated Kingston's numbers.

At the other extreme of the statistical ledger, criminologists and other experts suspect that many police forces are under-reporting hate-crime occurrences in their communities.

"There are protocols that can differ between police services that can also affect the volume of crime that is reported to them," said one of the report's authors.

Which begs the question: What purpose does the publishing of the results serve?

Do we should embrace our role as a Land of Opportunity and Liberty Or We should start turning people away. Where are those fundamental and Humane Values?

CNN's Lou Dobbs Is Clueless When It Comes to a Broken border and protection. My Opinion: It's sad history but doesn't mean that we are less corrupted than the Mexican counterpart. Blaming Mexico and Mexicans doesn't make you an exception of pathetic and Anti Mexican.




MIAMI — Bribery. Drug trafficking. Immigrant smuggling. McClatchy Newspapers.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is supposed to stop these types of crimes.
But instead, so many of its officers have been charged with committing those crimes themselves that their boss in Washington recently issued an alert about the "disturbing events" and the "increase in the number of employee arrests."

Thomas Winkowski, assistant commissioner of field operations, wrote a memo to
more than 20,000 officers nationwide noting that employees must behave professionally at all times — even when they are not on the job.
"It is our responsibility to uphold the laws, not break the law," Winkowski wrote in the Nov. 16 memo, which was obtained by The Miami Herald. Winkowski could not be reached for comment.

Winkowski's memo cites several employee arrests involving domestic violence, driving under the influence and drug possession. But court records show that Customs and Border Protection officers and other Department of Homeland Security employees from South Florida to the Mexican border states have been charged with dozens of far more serious offenses.

Among them: A Customs and Border Protection officer at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was charged in February with conspiring to assist a New York drug ring under investigation by tapping into sensitive federal databases.
Winkowski's warning signals an overwhelming preoccupation with public perception in the era after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Two highly controversial issues, illegal immigration and national security, have thrust Homeland Security into the public eye as it tries to prevent another terrorist attack.
The bureaucratic behemoth grew out of a controversial consolidation five years ago of several federal agencies, including the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Employees of both agencies joined either of two new agencies: Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known for their acronyms CBP and ICE.
CBP handles the border, airports and seaports; ICE investigates immigration- and customs-law violators.
"We as an agency are constantly policing ourselves so that the public trust is not diminished as a result of inappropriate activity, whether it's on the job, off the job, criminal or not criminal," said Zachary Mann, a special agent and CBP spokesman in Miami.
Some ICE employees also have been caught up in episodes of alleged misconduct — although a senior Miami-area official said he was not aware of any increase in criminal or administrative actions.

"I haven't noticed an uptick in misbehavior, even though we have had a substantial increase in personnel since the merger," said Anthony Mangione, the ICE Miami special agent in charge.

Administrative incidents are normally kept quiet by federal authorities. But officials can't control publicity when misconduct escalates to serious criminal behavior, such as the February case involving the CBP officer at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Elizabeth Moran-Toala, a six-year veteran, was accused of accessing an electronic database known as the Treasury Enforcement Communications System, which serves as a tool to stop illegal drug imports.
According to an indictment, she is accused of tapping into the system several times to pass along information to a Delta Airlines baggage handler who was conspiring with a drug ring to transport cocaine and heroin on flights from the Dominican Republic to New York. Moran-Toala, 36, was transferred to New York in late February for prosecution.

Other recent South Florida cases — mirroring a pattern on the border states — have involved officers and agents accused of accepting illegal payoffs for migrant smuggling, drug trafficking, witness tampering, embezzlement and rape.
CBP and ICE managers say these cases simply reflect individual criminal behavior, not the culture of the married agencies.
But some longtime employees said administrative incidents, such as hostile confrontations or heavy drinking, may reflect the low morale and intense rivalries after the merger of federal agencies under Homeland Security.
Some employees from the old INS are the most vocal in their complaints. They bitterly denounce employees who came from the old Customs Service for "seizing control" of both CBP and ICE, "lording it over" former INS employees and showing disdain toward immigration-related work.

Expected to improve efficiency, the merger has instead spawned tension. Both CBP and ICE scored near the bottom in a 2007 survey of employee satisfaction at 222 federal government agencies.
Mangione, the ICE agent, dismissed the notion that employee misbehavior is a result of post-merger friction.
"An employee smuggling aliens has nothing to do with the merger," Mangione said. "It's somebody being a criminal."
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/228232

The blind side of Lou Dobbs on War on drugs. B.C. Cannabis on the Northern Border.




Stopping smugglers is left to a multitude of government agencies and agents on both sides of the border. The political intrigue and sovereignty issues symbolized by anti-smuggling efforts became clear to me when I tried to interview top government bureaucrats in Ottawa and Washington, DC. Obfuscation, unreturned phone calls and non-responsive answers were the rule rather than the exception.

Because they are losing the war, officials are unwilling to provide stats or policy statements regarding smuggling. They're embarrassed. Federal officials in both nation's capitols sheepishly told me to contact local offices of the US Border Patrol and Customs Service, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Vancouver.

When I spoke to representatives of local agencies, I found them to be candid, affable and good-humoured about the obvious challenge of interdicting the total Canadian marijuana outflow. They seem like nice people.

"We're doing as much as we can," said Gene Davis of the US Border Patrol, "but marijuana is just one of many things we're trying to catch. We have a serious alien smuggling problem because Canada has a relatively open policy toward Third World immigrants, and that's a stepping stone for them entering the United States. The Southern border has gotten all the attention for so many years, but when Congress found out that even terrorists were coming across the northern border, and how few agents we had up here, they were really shocked."

Davis says that seizures of Canadian marijuana are up six hundred percent over last year's figures.

"Seizures are up because demand has increased, and so has supply. Why? Because the Canadian marijuana is so potent, between 25 to 30 percent THC, and everybody wants it. The BC bud is second to none in the drug world. The Blaine office has to patrol a very busy corridor which covers from the top of the Cascades west and includes the Olympic peninsula. There's lots of rugged hills and mountains. There are roads parallelling each other on both sides. We've asked for more manpower, and it looks like we might get it, but we've got so much territory, they could give us another 100 officers and it wouldn't be enough," he said.

US Border Patrol Intelligence Specialist Dave Keller says 42 agents are responsible for interdicting the 40 mile smuggling corridor near Vancouver.

"If we're getting more than two percent of what's coming across, we're lucky," he says. "The bulk of it is in commercial vehicles, but an average load is 35 pounds, enough to fit in one duffel bag. We haven't had the resources to examine the sea routes, and we don't think the air routes are significant. Many of the people we catch are ethnic minorities, like Central and South Americans who are also involved in gun and hard narcotics smuggling.

"We're seeing a rapid infiltration of organized crime, apparently a more rapid infiltration than what happened on the Mexican border. They're bringing marijuana south and sending guns, meth, cocaine and heroin. Definite Hells Angels involvement, Asian Triads, the works. Sometimes we see personal use smugglers: people who pick up one to three pounds of BC bud and bring it across for their own smoke."

I think race is definitely a factor in the immigration issue.




Because from the way the topic is framed in the media, Nativists, political stand point it seems that the issue is only about illegal immigrants from Latin America, and even more specifically, Mexico.

Nobody seems to be much concerned about security along the Canadian border where most of the drugs confiscated by federal agents in Montana come from people crossing the border at legal ports of entries, which begs the question: Do most smugglers try to sneak their wares into the U.S. from Canada through these legal crossings, or are the agents just not finding those who are crossing illegally?

The answer seems to be a little of both, according to Mike Milne, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

He notes that the vast majority of people coming into the United States do so at legal border crossings, which could be part of the reason for the larger number of drugs confiscated there.

“For instance, on a typical day nationally, 1.1 million people are processed through our points of entry,” Milne said, adding that the figure includes both northern and southern borders. “Those who are coming here between the legal crossings are A) entering the U.S. illegally, so they already have a violation there or B) are entering illegally because they’re up to no good in other ways. They’re smuggling narcotics, currency or other items.

“Are we perfect and catching everything? The answer is no. … Are the borders impenetrable? No. But we’re making them more secure and have more resources available now.”

Those realities are reflected in statistics compiled for the Havre sector, which covers 454 miles of the Montana-Canadian border, according to Ramon Rivera with the border patrol’s office in Washington, D.C

At legal ports of entry in the Havre sector during fiscal year 2007, which runs from Oct. 1, 2006, through the end of this month, agents confiscated marijuana 20 times, methamphetamine four times, cocaine six times, and psilocybin mushrooms, poppies and Oxycontin once each.

By comparison, during that same time frame at non-legal points of entry like trails or rural roads between the two countries the agents were involved in only four incidents involving marijuana, and one each of mushrooms and heroin. Only one of those incidents amounted to a quantity large enough n almost 19 pounds n to be considered something other than personal use.

Alex Harrington, spokesperson for the Havre sector, said it’s not just that more people go through the legal entry points; it’s also that the main mission of the border patrol is to search for terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, not drug smugglers.

“Our main mission is to look for illegal aliens and terrorists, and if the people we stop do have something on them, that’s good for our agents but it’s not the main reason we stop people,” Harrington said.

Confiscating small quantities of street drugs seems to be typical for what’s also happening at the legal border crossings in Montana, where agents typically make one or two large drug busts each year.

“They’re coming through with marijuana, coke or ecstasy in their pockets because they’re users,” Milne said. “But we’re certainly looking for and celebrate when we find our commercial loads.”

He expects more smugglers will try to cross the border via Montana in the future, since agents have been working the Washington-Vancouver border hard during the past decade. He warns that these drug dealers typically are well financed, dedicated and resourceful, which makes them “a formidable foe for law enforcement.”

“The pressure we put on them in western Washington has pushed larger amounts, specifically marijuana, into eastern Washington and parts of Montana,” Milne said. “It’s like that carnival game, where you whack a mole and it comes up somewhere else. We put pressure in one area, and they pop up somewhere else, quite possibly between ports of entries. It’s a moving target and we have to adapt and apply our resources based on risk management.

“The border patrol will tell you they don’t have enough officers to stand arm to arm, so we have to use our intelligence, training and experience.”

Since 2003, the office of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has almost tripled the size of the force on the 4,000-mile Canadian border, from 300 to 928. Overall, that that means each person is responsible for 4.3 miles.

In the Havre sector, which stretches from the eastern Montana border to the Continental Divide, its 92 agents equates to an average of about five miles per agent.

Havre generally ranks in the middle of the agent/per mile ratio of the eight sectors along the northern border. To its immediate west, the Spokane sector has 122 agents who patrol 307 miles of border, creating an agent-to-mile ratio of about 2.5 people per mile. The sector to the east, which basically covers the North Dakota border, has only 105 agents to patrol the 861 mile border, which equates to about eight miles per agent - the largest agent-to-mile ratio on the border.

The 863-mile Detroit sector has 122 agents, or 7 per mile; the Houlton, Maine, sector has 105 agents patrolling 611 miles of border, or about 6 people per mile. On the lower end of the scale, the Blaine sector, which covers western Washington, has 123 agents patroling 252 miles of border, or 2 people per mile. Buffalo, N.Y., which includes Niagra Falls, has 113 people for 341 miles, or 3 miles per agent. and the Swanton, VT., sector, which covers 295 miles of border, has 146 agents, or two per mile.

And with all this emphasis on catching terrorists or weapons of mass destruction, is it a success or failure of the Havre sector that it’s made only one arrest of an individual wanted for questioning in connection with possible terrorist activities?

“They’re not pounding on our door, but we are here just in case,” Harrington said. “It only takes one terrorist, one individual with a grudge against the United States, to come across with something on them.

“We want to make sure another 9/11 doesn’t happen.”

Immigration around the Globe: Canada. Immigration: A broken and dysfunctional system.


Canada's border agency doesn't know the whereabouts of 41,000 people ordered to leave the country, makes flawed decisions about when to lock up suspected illegals and keeps poor tabs on spending when it does usher them out of Canada, says the federal auditor general.

In a report Tuesday, Sheila Fraser criticized the Canada Border Services Agency for failing to monitor its detention and removal decisions across the country to ensure they are being made properly.

Fraser says as a result, growing numbers might be in Canada illegally, jeopardizing the integrity of Canada's immigration program.

"If people can come into the country and stay here illegally, why would they go through what was a very long and complicated process to become a resident in Canada?" she said.

Some of the problems were traced to difficulties with a major new computer system that lagged years behind schedule.

"The agency needs to track the status of cases at a national level according to its priority areas - which are to remove dangerous individuals and criminals first," the auditor's report says.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the government was acting on Fraser's advice.

"CBSA has already put in place quite a few of the recommendations that she's talked about, so we're improving. It's not perfect yet but it's a big improvement over what it has been."

In her review of other federal activities and programs, Fraser also found:

-Children on native reserves across Canada are eight times more likely to wind up in unevenly funded, poorly tracked foster care that appears to be failing them.

-Renovating drafty and crumbling 24 Sussex Drive, the prime minister's residence, would involve about $10 million of intensive repairs that could take as long as 15 months.

-Foreign Affairs lumps an unfair consular services fee of $25 - a kind of travel insurance for Canadians who might need assistance abroad - into the $85 cost of an adult passport.

-Several weaknesses in how Transport Canada has managed the transition to a new approach for overseeing air transportation safety.

-The federal Public Health Agency of Canada risks not reporting the spread of infectious diseases to the World Health Organization in a timely way because it lacks information-sharing agreements with the provinces.

The report tabled in Parliament marks the second time the auditor general has come down hard on the border services agency, created in December 2003 as part of a government reorganization to bolster national security. Previously she found weaknesses allowed many potentially dangerous people and goods to slip into the country.

The auditor general undertook the latest review following a request by the House of Commons public accounts committee to report on whether management of detentions and removals had improved under the border agency since 2003.

The agency has the power to detain foreign nationals and permanent residents considered a risk or danger to the public, and to remove people ruled ineligible to enter Canada.

In 2006-07, it held more than 9,000 people in its own facilities and another 3,500 in provincial cells.

Fraser found, however, the border agency failed to ensure it meets its standards for treatment of detainees. And it has not established backup plans for bed shortages. For instance, the Toronto holding centre has sometimes increased space by placing sleeping bags and blankets on the floor.

"In another region, holding cells for individuals awaiting hearings, which are designed for three people, had been used to hold 10, without enough space for some to sit."

New Democrat immigration critic Olivia Chow decried the conditions: "This is not Afghanistan. This is Canada. We can't treat our deportees that way."

Further, the auditor concluded the agency was not effectively managing detention costs, which amounted to more than $36 million in 2006-07.

Fraser says the agency has increasingly used alternatives to detention, such as releasing individuals on condition they post a sum of money. But she noted 368 of 2,038 cash bonds posted in 2004-05 were forfeited because the individuals failed to comply with terms of release.

The agency has located 178 of these people, removing 146 from Canada. But it doesn't know what happened to the remaining 190 who forfeited their bonds, and has issued warrants for their arrest. Eighteen have criminal histories.

"While infrequent, there have been cases where individuals who have been released on condition committed violent crimes," the report says.

Both the border agency and Citizenship and Immigration have power to allow people into the country under temporary resident permits even if they would otherwise be ineligible. Exceptions include humanitarian grounds or economic benefit to Canada - for instance a visiting performer or athlete with a criminal record.

The auditor found, however, that reasons for issuing the permits were often poorly documented and the border agency did not monitor whether the individuals with permits left the country upon their expiry.

Fraser found while the number of people removed from Canada annually has climbed in the last five years, there is still cause for concern.

As of September 2007 there were 63,000 people slated for removal. Among these were 22,000 facing formal orders, whose whereabouts were known to the border agency. However, the agency lacked contact information for another 41,000 due for removal under immigration warrants.

"How do we know that all 41,000 are harmless? We don't know," said Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh, who wondered what Day was doing about the problem.

"What kind of a minister do we have?"

Part of the difficulty stems from an aborted plan to replace a computerized case management system, originally intended to be in place three years ago.

"As a result, the agency's ability to track individuals in the detention and removal process remains limited," the report says, adding five-year-old recommendations from her office on case tracking remain to be addressed.

Fraser noted that the precise number of people remaining in Canada illegally is impossible to determine due in part to the fact Ottawa does not record departures from the country.

Chow said the entire immigration system is broken, noting the thousands of removal lists include undocumented workers in trades like construction who are badly needed in Canada.

People considered violent or a potential flight risk are escorted by officers to their destination country, which can cost thousands of dollars per case and tallied more than $8 million in 2006-07. Fraser said there was no assurance escorted removals were being done cost-effectively.

The border services agency agreed with all of the auditor's recommendations for improvement.

The case and testimony of passport and Identity fraud: Ahmed Ressam.







He Isn't a Latino or Mexican!!!!!!! Ouch but they want to build a wall against Mexican Border because it's the major corridor of Terrorists. Right Lou Dobbs, Tommy Tancredo?.

When Ahmed Ressam was caught at the Canadian-U.S. border, he was using a false Canadian passport with the alias Benni Noris. He was carrying fake identification with another alias. And investigators soon discovered he had entered Canada using yet another fake passport, from France. He had also manipulated Canada's asylum system by applying for political asylum at the border, knowing that the Canadian authorities would refer his case to another agency and let him stay in Canada while he waited for his asylum hearing.

Here are short excerpts from his trial testimony specifically dealing with Ressam's use of fake passports and how his terrorist network relied on them:

Q. What type of travel document did you use to get into Canada?
A. A fake French passport.

Q. What city did you go to?
A. To the city of Montreal.

Q. What happened when you arrived to Montreal?
A. Immigration stopped me.

Q. At the airport?
A. Yes. Immigration stopped me at the airport. At that time, I requested asylum.

Q. And how did you request -- how did you request asylum?
A. I provided them with a false story about -- to request political asylum. They kept me at their center there and then they let me go.

Q. When they let you go, what city did you live in?
A. I lived in the city of Montreal.

Q. How long did you live in Montreal?
A. From 1994 to 1998.

Q. How did you support yourself during that four-year period?
A. I lived on welfare and theft.

Q. What do you mean by "theft"?
A. I used to steal tourists, rob tourists. I used to go to hotels and find their suitcases and steal them when they're not paying attention.

Q. And what would you do with the contents of those suitcases?
A. I used to take the money, keep the money, and if there are passports, I would sell them, and if there are Visa credit cards, I would use them up, and if there were any traveler's checks, I would use them or sell them.

Ressam describes how a lieutenant of Osama bin Laden's asked Ressam to provide the group with Canadian passports:

Q. What country did you see Abu Zubeida in?
A. In Pakistan.

Q. He was leader of the camps?
A. Yes.

Q. Did you discuss anything when you met with Abu Zubeida on your return back to Canada?
A. Yes. He asked me to send him some passports, some original passports if I had that he can use to give other, give to other people who had come to carry out operations in U.S.

Q. What type of passports was he looking for?
A. Canadian passports, but original.

Q. Did he tell you the names of the people he wanted those passports for?
A. He gave me some of the names.