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U.S. Can't Account for 600,000 Fugitives Teams assigned to make sure foreigners ordered out of the United States actually leave have a backlog of more than 600,000 cases and can't accurately account for the fugitives' whereabouts, the government reported Monday. The report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general found that the effectiveness of teams assigned to find the fugitives was hampered by "insufficient detention capacity, limitations of an immigration database and inadequate working space." Even though more than $204 million was allocated for 52 fugitive operations teams since 2003, a backlog of 623,292 cases existed as of August of 2006, the report said. The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has been estimated at between 11.5 million and 12 million. About 5.4 percent of them are believed to be "fugitive aliens," those who have failed to leave the country after being ordered out. The inspector general found there is not enough bed space available to detain such fugitives and that agents are hampered by an inaccurate database. Other factors that limit the teams' effectiveness are insufficient staffing, the report said....
Border Inspector Gets Nearly 6 Years An American border inspector was sentenced Monday to nearly six years in prison for taking cash and cars from smugglers, allowing them to shuttle illegal immigrants from Mexico into the United States. Richard Elizalda, a 10-year veteran of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, worked at the world's busiest border crossing, the San Ysidro Port of Entry between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego. Investigators said he sent text messages directing smugglers to his inspection lane, then waved their vehicles through. In return, he received as much as $1,000 for each immigrant, totaling $120,000 in cash starting in 2004. "This is a terrible thing that you did," U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns said. "You're one of the gatekeepers of the safety and security of the United States and you abdicated that role." Elizalda was arrested in June....
Chertoff praises "enhanced" WA licenses for border crossings High-security driver's licenses aimed at letting U.S. citizens return from Canada without a passport could be adopted elsewhere if Washington state's experiment works, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday. The pilot project, signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire and formally approved by Chertoff on Friday, calls for Washington to begin issuing new "enhanced" driver's licenses in January. They will look much like conventional driver's licenses, but will be loaded with proof of citizenship and other information that can be easily scanned at the border. Radio frequency ID chips and other advanced security features also would make the enhanced licenses less vulnerable to forgery. At about $40, they also would be less expensive than a $97 passport. Chertoff's endorsement of the pilot project comes as border states prepare for new federal security requirements mandating a passport for travelers - including U.S. citizens - who enter the country by sea or land from elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere....
Ordinary Customers Flagged as Terrorists Private businesses such as rental and mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of customers against a list of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers made publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying services to ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the list. The Office of Foreign Asset Control's list of "specially designated nationals" has long been used by banks and other financial institutions to block financial transactions of drug dealers and other criminals. But an executive order issued by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has expanded the list and its consequences in unforeseen ways. Businesses have used it to screen applicants for home and car loans, apartments and even exercise equipment, according to interviews and a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area to be issued today. "The way in which the list is being used goes far beyond contexts in which it has a link to national security," said Shirin Sinnar, the report's author. "The government is effectively conscripting private businesses into the war on terrorism but doing so without making sure that businesses don't trample on individual rights."....
Gun shop aims at city, but misfires Of all the gun shops being sued by Mayor Bloomberg, only one dealer is demanding to see evidence that New York City has suffered financially because of mayhem inflicted with illegal firearms. The demand by an attorney for Bob Moates Sports Shop in Virginia was promptly rejected yesterday by a federal judge, who advised the lawyer to buy a newspaper. "You can pick up the newspaper any day and there are people being killed on the streets of New York," said Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein. "Policemen, bystanders ... and in a substantial number of cases these are by illegal guns," an incredulous Weinstein continued. Richard Gardiner, the attorney for Bob Moates, tried to argue that the Bloomberg administration must demonstrate, for the case to go forward, that guns bought at the Midlothian shop have caused more than $75,000 in harm. But the judge cut him off. "One gun, one bullet is enough," Weinstein shot back. Bloomberg has filed federal lawsuits against 27 out-of-state dealers accusing them of illegally peddling weapons that end up in the hands of New York criminals....
Webb Aide Arrested for Gun Possession An aide to Sen. Jim Webb was arrested Monday when he entered a Senate office building with a loaded pistol belonging to the senator. Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said the aide was charged with carrying a pistol without a license and possessing an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition. The office of Webb, D-Va., identified the aide as Phillip Thompson and said he was "a former Marine, a long-term friend and trusted employee of the senator." A congressional official briefed on the incident said Webb gave the gun to Thompson when the assistant drove him to an airport earlier in the day. Thompson, upon entering the Senate building, forgot he was carrying the weapon. "To our knowledge, this incident was an oversight," Webb's office said in a statement. It said it had no other details.