ICE & Border Patrol officers vote "no-confidence" in current leadership

In recent months, labor organizations representing federal immigration agents have been among the most outspoken challengers of Obama's enforcement campaign. In June, the American Federation of Government Employees' National Council 118, which represents Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, issued a no-confidence vote for ICE Director John Morton, claiming he is promoting amnesty instead of enforcement because most ICE officers are unable to make immigration-related arrests on the streets, leading to "amnesty by policy." The National Border Patrol Council adopted a similar no-confidence resolution targeting Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar. Brandon Judd, union vice president and president of Local 2544 in Tucson, said this week that the Obama administration has purposefully understaffed remote areas and attempted to limit the number of undocumented immigrants captured in Arizona so that it can assert that illegal immigration is dropping because of improved enforcement. "The border is just as wide open in some areas as it's ever been," Judd said. "Yes, I do believe the administration wants as few arrests as they possibly can. If they can have fewer arrests, then they can say fewer people are crossing the border. This administration is desperate to say the border is secure." In a joint phone interview Friday, Morton and Aguilar bristled at claims that their enforcement campaigns are ineffective or designed to fail...more