The Counterterrorism Blog
The first multi-expert blog dedicated solely to counterterrorism issues, serving as a gateway to the community for policymakers and serious researchers. Designed to provide realtime information about cases and policy developments.
Supreme Court Sending Immigration Message – Deport Deportable Aliens
By Bill West
Recent Supreme Court immigration related cases make it clear the Court supports treating aliens fairly and humanely and with appropriate judicial due process; but a Somali case originating in Minnesota also makes it clear the Court believes aliens who are finally adjudicated deportable should be removed from the United States and the decision gives wider authority and latitude to the Executive Branch of the Government to do just that.
The US Supreme Court recently decided that certain criminal aliens who had been indefinitely detained after having final deportation orders rendered against them, because their home countries refused to accept them, had to be released by the Government after a certain reasonable period of time. This decision mostly affected Cuban criminals, some of who entered the US during the Mariel boatlift in the early 1980s.
A fewer number of other nationalities were also facing similar circumstances, such as alien criminals from Vietnam and Somalia. A separate, somewhat different case was pending before the Court involving a Somali criminal from Minnesota who had been a refugee and was subsequently convicted of a crime that rendered him deportable from the US. This case was JAMA v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Jama was ultimately placed under a final removal order by the Immigration Court, but appealed that order all the way to the Supreme Court, claiming he could not be deported to Somalia because, essentially, Somalia had no viable government and therefore could not officially accept his return.
On January 12, 2005, the Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 decision, ruled against the Somali alien and decided the US Government could deport him to Somalia notwithstanding the conditions in that country. The ruling, however, is notably broad and affirms the clear meaning of the Federal statute dealing with the Government’s authority to remove deportable aliens to designated countries.
An excerpt from the decision is noteworthy:
To infer an absolute rule of acceptance where Congress has not clearly set it forth would run counter to this Court's customary policy of deference to the President in foreign affairs, and would not be necessary to ensure appropriate consideration to conditions in the country of removal, since aliens facing persecution or other mistreatment have a number of available remedies.
The Court made a clear statement, again, deferring to the Executive Branch on immigration related matters and linking those matters to foreign policy. The decision, however, clearly clears the way for the deportation of aliens who are under final removal orders to not only Somalia but to other countries where the aliens may not have “acceptance” before being deported.
The Court has given the Executive Branch broader immigration enforcement authority with this decision, broader authority that may well factor into the Government’s counter-terrorism efforts, since many terrorist-producing countries are not ready, willing or “able” to accept their deportable citizens back.
Taken in conjunction with its other recent decision requiring the release of long-term detained criminal aliens (who are not deported essentially for foreign policy reasons) the Court may well be sending another clear message…that the real solution is not to backlog and warehouse illegal and deportable aliens who go through the removal court process and have final deportation orders; the answer is to actually deport them, whether their home countries want them back or not.
Positive Changes at Key U.S. House Committee
By Andrew Cochran
Rep. Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, has announced major changes that, in my opinion, will result in a very forceful role on counterterrorism issues, beyond the current position as the leading House committee in the Oil-for-Food investigation. Highlights: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher will chair a new Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee that will focus on the corruption at the U.N. The corrupt or incompetent bureaucrats at the U.N. who let Saddam steal billions are in for a shock - Rep. Rohrabacher will surely pursue the investigation and proposals for changes in U.N. governance at full speed. Rep. Ed Royce will chair the International Terrorism & Nonproliferation Subcommittee. He is passionate in their desire to defeat Islamic-based extremism and very knowledgeable, having studied the issue for years at that committee and the House Financial Services Committee. Rep. Chris Smith will chair an expanded Subcommittee on Africa, Human Rights, and International Operations. This is bad news for weak-kneed bureaucrats and so-called "allies" who don't keep their promises. I predict that "House IR" will be one of the most energetic committees on the Hill during the next two years.
Houston Chronicle article: Border travelers warned of violence
By Michael Cutler
The article that appeared in Today’s Houston Chronicle reported on the fact that on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 the United States Department of State issued a travel advisory to citizens of the United States because of increased violence in the northern regions of Mexico that extends to the border of the United States. The alert stopped short of recommending that Americans not travel to Mexico, but it is certainly incredible that the country that shares our southern border and sends us more illegal aliens than any other country, should be experiencing such extreme levels of violence while the president of that country talks about the need to virtually dismantle the border that separates the United States from Mexico. Additionally, the administration has stated that although Congress has authorized the hiring of an additional 2,000 Border Patrol agents to secure the border, only about 10 percent of that number will be hired. The article can be found at: www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3011137
The security of our nation’s borders is critical to the security of our nation. Our politicians speak often and passionately about the need to protect our homeland and, in fact, this administration created a new agency of several component agencies, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which, as its name clearly indicates, was created to secure the homeland. A component of DHS is the Border Patrol, formerly of the INS. Acting on recommendations of the 911 Commission, Congress authorized the hiring of an additional 2,000 Border Patrol agents to help to secure our porous borders through which at least half of our illegal alien population and tons of narcotics enter the United States. The administration has agreed to only fund about ten percent of the authorized 2,000 new Border Patrol positions. Yet, as this article shows, violence is increasing along our southern border. This fact is being acknowledged by the United States Department of State and has caused that agency to issue a warning to United States citizens who might travel to the border region of the United States and Mexico. Clearly this is a paradoxical situation in which the officially stated concerns of a federal agency are not being acted on by the administration. We are fighting a ‘war on terrorism’ and a ‘war on drugs,’ both of which require that we do everything we can to secure our borders and yet, the Border Patrol will not be getting the new personnel it so desperately needs.
There is a clear nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism. There have been various articles published outlining concerns that terrorists and members of organized crime groups may well be availing themselves of the services of alien smugglers or human traffickers operating along the borders of the United States to surreptitiously enter the United States. United States citizen civilians living along the Mexican border have begun organizing civilian patrols to attempt to find illegal aliens who violate our nation’s borders. There have been many reports of heavily armed Mexicans, possibly related to the Mexican military, entering the United States to support drug smuggling engaging U.S. Border Patrol agents in fire fights and yesterday the United States Department of State has issued what has to be considered a dire warning to our citizens about murder and kidnapping being carried out in close proximity to our border with Mexico. It would seem that the administration needs to accept the will of the Congress and hire and every one of the additional 2,000 Border Patrol agents that have been authorized.
HoustonChronicle.com -- houstonchronicle.com | Section: World
Jan. 27, 2005, 7:21AM
Border travelers warned of violence
U.S. alert cites 'deteriorating security' in northern Mexico
By DUDLEY ALTHAUS and IOAN GRILLO
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
MEXICO CITY - Amid escalating narcotics-related violence across northern Mexico, the U.S. State Department alerted Americans on Wednesday to the enhanced dangers of crossing the border.
"U.S. citizens should be aware of the risk posed by the deteriorating security situation," said a written statement. "Although the majority of travelers in the region visit without mishap, violent criminal activity, including murder and kidnapping, in Mexico's northern border region has increased."
The department stopped short of warning Americans against visiting Mexico.
But it advised them to take extra precautions, such as visiting border cities only in daylight and avoiding the seedier sections known for prostitution and drugs.
"We certainly do not want at this time to advise Americans to refrain from traveling to Mexico by land or to avoid the border areas," U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza wrote in a separate letter to senior Mexican officials Wednesday.
"But it is our responsibility to alert them to the enhanced risks and to provide guidance on how best to protect themselves."
Mexican President Vicente Fox and other officials have vowed to break the power of the country's drug cartels that earn billions of dollars a year by supplying buyers in the United States. As part of that strategy, army troops and federal paramilitary police have been sent to patrol border cities, most recently this week.
Efforts sometimes backfire
But the government efforts have sometimes helped spawn violence, with rival gangs trying to grab smuggling routes controlled by gangsters who have been jailed or killed.
Garza, a former prosecutor and county chief executive in Brownsville, said that while the Fox government's efforts to confront its drug gangs have been encouraging, the situation had become alarming.
The State Department warning noted that Mexican border communities' police "suffer from lack of funds and training, and the judicial system is weak, overworked and inefficient."
"I worry that the inability of local law enforcement to come to grips with rising drug warfare, kidnappings and random street violence will have a chilling effect on the cross-border exchange, tourism and commerce so vital to the region's prosperity," Garza wrote Mexico's foreign minister and attorney general.
Unless the State Department extends it, the alert will expire on April 25.
A spokesman for Fox withheld comment on the State Department's warning, saying it was "a diplomatic, not a presidential matter." The Mexican Foreign Ministry was preparing a response, a spokesman there said.
Some officials on the Texas side of the border reacted with immediate groans.
"Oh no, that's all we need," said Nancy Boultinghouse, marketing director of the McAllen Economic Development Corp.
Thousands of U.S. citizens cross into Mexican border cities daily to shop, dine or work in the manufacturing plants known as maquiladoras.
The exchange is considered key to the economic health of border communities, which include some of the wealthiest in Mexico and the poorest in the United States.
"We're not going to say there's not a problem — there are deaths and killings in all border towns," Boultinghouse said. "If you're not dealing drugs, or involved with the drug cartels, I don't feel you'll have a problem."
But concerns about border violence have been increasing in recent years as rival gangs, sometimes aided by corrupt police and soldiers, have battled for control of the lucrative routes for smuggling cocaine, marijuana and heroin into the United States.
Scores of people have been killed or disappeared along the border. Mexican officials say most victims were somehow connected to the drug trade. But innocent people have suffered as well.
At least five U.S. citizens were killed and as many as dozen others were missing last year in Nuevo Laredo alone, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Consulate there.
A recent advisory issued by the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros said there were 26 drug related killings in Tamaulipas state, which borders Texas' Lower Rio Grande Valley, in the first 20 days of this year.
Prison employees slain
Concerns about border security worsened last Thursday when six employees of a federal prison outside Matamoros were found blindfolded and shot to death inside a sport utility vehicle parked near the facility. On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that a 650-man security force seized control of the prison.
Mexican officials say the six employees were killed in retaliation for a Jan. 14 government crackdown on gangsters jailed at another federal prison near Mexico City. Osiel Cardenas, the reputed head of the so-called Gulf Cartel based in Matamoros, most likely ordered the slayings, Mexican officials said.
Cardenas has been jailed in La Palma federal prison, about 50 miles west of Mexico City, since March 2003. Until the crackdown at the prison two weeks ago, his cell was next to that of Benjamin Arrellano Felix, one of the leaders of a Tijuana-based smuggling organization.
The two men continued to manage their enterprises from the prison with the aid of corrupt jailers, officials say. Both have been locked in a war with other gangs.
Garza formally complained to the Fox government last spring about the apparent state police torture of a young U.S. citizen accused of murder in Nuevo Laredo.
Mario Medina, 23, of Laredo, was charged on the basis of a confession allegedly extracted under that torture.
Medina was knifed to death in a Nuevo Laredo prison last May.
Chronicle reporters James Pinkerton in Harlingen and Patty Reinert in Washington contributed to this report.
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