A shootout inside the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) office, Glenn M. Anderson Federal Building, in Long Beach, California on Thursday, February 16, 2012 killed one enforcement supervisory officer, wounded another high ranking supervisor and involved another who struggled with the dead officer for his gun. The wounded, second in command for the Los Angeles area, is recovering from his gunshot wounds at this time. What prompted the shooting is unclear at this time. However, the incident appeared to be happened during an employee performance evaluation. Published news stories indicates that the officer who lost his life wanted a transfer to another facility and may have been under pressure related to a personal family matter. The shooting is being investigated by the FBI, Long Beach police and ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility.
ICE was formed in 2003 in response to 9/11 attacks. Its primary responsibilities include protection of national security and public safety, protection of the integrity of U.S. borders, and enforcement of federal immigration laws which constitutes over 400 statutes.
ICE has about 400 offices throughout U.S. and other countries and employee about 19,000. The annual budget for the operation of ICE is about $5 billion.
President Barak Obama, among other things, challenged the Congress to pass legislation to provide a path to citizenship for illegal and legal students who are getting an education in this country, during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 24, 2012.
President Obama addressed those who came into the US more recently to “study science, business and engineering”. His argument for legal students to find a way to citizenship is that “as soon as they graduate we sent them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else”.
President Obama addressed the issue of “many hundreds of thousands of talented, hardworking students in this country …who aren’t yet American citizens. Many were brought here as small children.” They are “through and through” Americans but faces the threat of deportation. His argument for illegal children is that they get an education here in the US and are faced with an uncertain future.
He challenged the Congress to pass legislation paving the way for the above to get citizenship. In an election year, it is anyone’s guess what the Congress will do. But no matter what, this issue will get ample attention in coming months.
US immigration officials put the states on notice that the controversial Secure Communities law will be fully deployed nationwide by 2013 with more than 40 governors signing the memos to activate the program.
This law will identify illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds. It was launched by US immigration officials in 2008 after piloting it in Boston and 40 other states and enables law enforcement authorities to share fingerprints of suspects arrested by federal immigration officials in order to deport illegal immigrants who have a violent and dangerous past.
The law has sparked concern among police from areas with high immigrant population such as Boston saying that the program is deporting a lot of people who are not violent criminals. They say that they do not want to fight the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Democratic Governor Deval Patrick shared the same view, refused to sign the memo, and vowed to continue opposing the bill. His opposition to the bill has delayed the expansion of the law in Massachusetts for two years.
The supporters of the bill praised the efforts of the law to reduce the number of illegal immigrants who compete for jobs with the natives.
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