Mexican official in US custody doesn’t want asylum – El Paso Times A Mexican human rights official who has publicly said he feared for his life has been detained by U.S. immigration authorities as an asylum-seeker—even though he doesn’t want American protection, his lawyer said.
The tortured saga of RT is pretty well known, but during his confirmation hearing Thursday, the nominee for Administrator for the Transportation Security Administration Erroll Southers indicated his strong support for a risk-based Registered Traveler program.
Administration Quietly Campaigning for Anti-Terrorism Provisions: CQ Homeland Security The Obama administration is pressuring lawmakers, both publicly and privately, to renew expiring provisions of the anti- terrorism law known as the Patriot Act with as few changes as possible. The Justice Department has nodded to civil libertarians’ concerns about the law’s broad reach with vague […]
This week has been a telling one for those of us who follow border security closely. Congress and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have made a series of bold moves that arguably make our borders less secure. At the same time, the changes will be hailed by some as overdue upgrades to a flawed border management policy that built fences between neighbors and sought to imprison illegal aliens for ‘just’ entering the country.
By Edward Alden
The front page of the New York Times this week has re-launched the debate over whether the United States should finally complete the long promised comprehensive entry-exit system as a tool for preventing terrorist attacks. It should be a short debate: the answer is no. To confront the enormous logistical difficulties of creating a comprehensive entry-exit system for minimal investigative benefits doesn’t make a shred of sense.
The pursuit of bureaucratic dominance after 9/11 gave us the divorce of counter-terror from counter-crime, creating a duopoly that is massively expensive in terms of money, manpower and effectiveness. Illegal immigration and smuggling are becoming a major focus of manpower, and runs the risk of the same bureaucratic wrangling that sacrifices effect and efficiency in the name of departmental primacy.
The White House says that President Obama is taking the unusual step of personally lobbying the international Olympic committee in order to help create jobs, spur tourism and promote economic growth for the US and especially his home town of Chicago. Certainly, the President should promote trade and tourism, but it is a pity that he can’t get DHS fully on board and willing to make a similar commitment.
IG: TSA employees are well-informed on privacy issues – Nextgov The Transportation Security Administration has made progress educating employees on protecting private data stored on computers, but could further strengthen security by deploying technology that automatically monitors systems for breaches, according to a new report from the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general.
TSA and its critics: fish, barrel, and foot – Skating on Stilts TSA has taken another couple of steps to improve air security. For starters, airline ID checkers are actually checking IDs — with black lights and magnifying glasses. And now they’re getting ready to scan boarding passes in order to make it harder to […]
Perhaps the most compelling feature of the Pittsburgh preparations for G20 has been the apparent attitude in Pittsburgh of, “It won’t happen here.” This attitude is dangerous – the local government can argue that it took all necessary precautions to warn people of the threat, but even with less than a month to go the warnings and preparation advice was basically to, “prepare as though it’s a snow day,” and to “have pre-drilled boards available for the windows” just in case.
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