U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Welcome to Phoenix, the ethnic cleansing begins at noon.

GOOBER CAVES: Mayor Phil Gordon bows to violent extremists, seeks to ditch Operations Order 1.4.3.

Not just for conspiracy theorists, anymore: Jay Johnson-Castro and Operation ENDGAME.

Child Kidnapping Shows Callousness of Smugglers -- and Desperation of Immigrant Parents

Local ICE Office Removed a Record 72,955 Illegal Immigrants in 2008

Bishop Thomas Olmsted Does Little for His Hispanic Flock, and Joe's Protected by an Army of Louts.

Arizona Woman Gets Prison Sentence for Hiring Illegal Immigrants

The office manager of a Sierra Vista drywall firm was sentenced to jail today for hiring illegal immigrants in the case of the first worksite enforcement bust in Arizona by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to this news release by the U.S. Attorney's office in ... More >>

Smuggling Syndicate Crushed in "Operation En Fuego," AG's Office Says

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard will reveal details tomorrow of the break-up of a large smuggling syndicate thanks to the work of several law enforcement agencies (but not the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office). While Sheriff Joe Arpaio was rousting corn vendors and trying to one-up Mesa ... More >>

Janet Napolitano Confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary; Jan Brewer to Take Oath as New Governor on Wednesday

Janet Napolitano was confirmed today as the third chief of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The department was created in 2003 as a reaction to the 9/11 attacks, and oversees the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies. I ... More >>

Janet Napolitano Less Than Photogenic on Homeland Security Web Site Mug Shot

Janet, we thought we knew ya!At least, we've certainly seen better pictures of the former Arizona governor than this goofy mug shot placed recently on the Homeland Security Web site about her, the department's new boss.It almost appears that once she landed in Washington D.C., she must have been re ... More >>

Janet Napolitano's Final Solution for Undocumented Hispanics: More 287(g) Men

photo by Eduardo Barraza of Barriozona.com To borrow a line from Alfredo Gutierrez's La Frontera Times, this woman is not your friend.Ever since Janet Napolitano's nomination to be director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, some liberals and immigrant rights activists have held out hope ... More >>

Minor Violations? Sheriff Joe Arpaio's 287(g)-Trained Deputies Sometimes Bust Mexicans Who Commit No Violations

The Government Accountability Office's report on a program that gives local cops federal immigration powers tells Valley residents something they already knew: Some local law enforcement departments are using their 287(g) powers to bust illegal immigrants suspected of minor infractions instead ... More >>

ICE Agent and Customs Officer Charged With Fraud in Alleged Government Credit Card Scam

An agent with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a Customs officer were arrested this morning after being indicted on suspicion of stealing government money. Agent Michael J. Kittson, 34, and U.S. Customs Patrol Officer Douglas R. Bothof are named in a 47-count indictment th ... More >>

DPS Stops Refrigerated Truck With Produce and 97 Illegal Immigrants Chilling in 34 Degrees

Image: Wikimedia Commons​ When we read the headline to the latest news release from the Department of Public Safety, "Officer makes a traffic stop and discovers 97 undocumented aliens inside of a refrigerated commercial trailer," our first thought was -- good thing it was refrigerated, cause i ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Latest Sweep Begins in Surprise, According to ABC15

ABC15 is reporting that the MCSO will be conducting its latest Hispanic-hunting sweep in Surprise today. Apparently, Joe will be holding a press conference at 5 p.m. at his command post at the sheriff's substation at Dysart and Bell Roads. The operation begins at noon, with the usual 200 d ... More >>

Hot Links: Pot Bust, H1N1 Death, and a Two-Headed Baby

​A Douglas man was arrested at the U.S. port of entry with almost 700 pounds of marijuana Sunday night. The unnamed man, 20, was driving an F-150 truck loaded with pot, and was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement...An English teacher at Higley and Williams Field high schools has ... More >>

Most Immigrants Arrested in "Operation Return to Sender" Had No Criminal Record

​When U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement conducted an immigration sweep in northern Arizona in November, 2008, as a part of "Operation Return to Sender," they touted it as a program designed to target and deport dangerous criminals. As it turns out, most of the people arrested didn ... More >>

Nearly $7.6 Million Worth of Weed Found in Truck Carrying Squash Near Nogales

www.demotivateus.com​Federal agents, acting on a tip, searched a semi-trailer delivering squash at a Rio Rico warehouse Tuesday night and guess what they found -- a whole-lotta weed. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement received a tip that the trailer looked out of place at the warehouse. Afte ... More >>

Hot Links: Elderly Woman Busted, Mesa Sued, and Food Tax

​A 94-year-old Mexican woman was arrested at the border near Nogales for allegedly trying to smuggle almost 11 pounds of marijuana into Arizona. According to authorities, the woman said she was crossing the border for a day of shopping, but agents became suspicious and found bundles of pot taped f ... More >>

More Than $700,000 Worth of Marijuana Found Stuffed in Matress at Border

www.uppermichiganssource.com​U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped a furniture truck at the Arizona/ Mexico border and, as luck should have it, the rig was hauling more than just furniture.Officers found about 330 pounds of weed stashed in a mattress in the back of the truck as ... More >>

ICE on Track to Remove Fewer Illegal Immigrants From Arizona This Year; Past Two Years Set Records for Removals

Image: ICE​ The Phoenix office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is on track to remove fewer illegal immigrants from Arizona in 2010, following what it says are two record-setting years for removals. As of July 19, the agency says it has removed 55,699 peop ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Not the Only Arizona Cop Enforcing Immigration Law

This disturbing video comes to us from Pan Left Productions, and purports to show a woman being turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol after a traffic stop by the Tucson Police Department. I've put in a call to the TPD, but have yet to receive a call back. On its face, the video shows that what happ ... More >>

Jan Brewer's Chuck Coughlin, CCA, KPHO, and the Nearly $14K Canceled Ad Buy

KPHO.com Coughlin: Squealin' like a stuck javelina Last night's report from KPHO's Morgan Loew on the ties between private prison behemoth Corrections Corporation of America and Governor Jan Brewer has drawn some serious plasma from Brewer's camp. Specifically, the hemorrhage i ... More >>

ICE Rescues 9-Year-Old Ecuadorian Boy After He Was Held Hostage in Mesa for More Than Four Months

​A suspected human smuggler is behind bars after allegedly holding a 9-year-old Ecuadorian boy hostage for more than four months and demanding $4,000 from his family for his release.Ecuadorian nationals, the family was unable to pay the ransom, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement agen ... More >>

More Than a Ton of Weed Seized and Three Alleged Drug Dealers Arrested in ICE's Latest Big Bust

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement​Do yourself a favor: if you own a white conversion van, don't drive it near Nogales -- especially if you're carting around more than a ton of marijuana.According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, last week, ICE agents saw a white conversion van s ... More >>

ICE Punks Out To DREAM Act Students

In the light of day, while they're being watched, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ain't so tough.The above video with footage by Bill Pierce and editing by Dennis Gilman documents a November 19 demonstration outside the Phoenix offices of ICE by undocumented Arizona DREAM Act student ... More >>

Two Charged After 53 Illegal Immigrants Found in Phoenix Drop House

ICEICE agents found 50 illegal immigrants in a west Phoenix drop house on Friday.​Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents found 53 people in a Phoenix drop house on Friday, and two Mexican nationals now face human smuggling charges.  Edgar Meza-Bustamante, 23, and Cruz Gerardo Meza-Tira ... More >>

Steve Smith, Wingnutty Hater, Wants To Turn Hospital Employees into ICE Agents

azleg.govState Senator Steve Smith: He wants emergency room staff to ask for your papersFreshman Republinut state Senator Steve Smith, the guy who knocked off Democrat Rebecca Rios in District 23 last year, longs to make a name for himself on the backs of impoverished and ill undocumented immigrants ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Defends Separating Parents from Children in Worksite Raids

Videographer Dennis Gilman covered Sheriff Joe Arpaio's recent worksite raid at the Phoenix company Great Western Erectors, and challenged Joe on separating mothers and fathers from their children during these immigration-enforcement stunts of his.Arpaio tries to slough it off, claiming he's just en ... More >>

Under Mark Spencer's Leadership, the Phoenix Police Union Has Become an Anti-Immigrant Juggernaut, to the Detriment of Its Members

Videographer Dennis Gilman covered Sheriff Joe Arpaio's recent worksite raid at the Phoenix company Great Western Erectors, and challenged Joe on separating mothers and fathers from their children during these immigration-enforcement stunts of his.Arpaio tries to slough it off, claiming he's just en ... More >>

Janet Napolitano's "Secure Communities" Program Secure in Arizona, Elsewhere Not So Much

Three states have opted out of a federal immigration program that helps identify and deport illegal immigrants.​Massachusetts is now the third state to opt out of a federal immigration program that helps identify illegal immigrants and turn them over to federal officials.Governor Deval Patrick cal ... More >>

Undocumented Youth Blocked from Entering the U.S. Workforce Are Starting Their Own Businesses to Survive

Three states have opted out of a federal immigration program that helps identify and deport illegal immigrants.​Massachusetts is now the third state to opt out of a federal immigration program that helps identify illegal immigrants and turn them over to federal officials.Governor Deval Patrick cal ... More >>

ICE Honcho John Morton Blasted by Critics of Secure Communities

Critics think ICE director Morton's policy reforms are a feel-good PR stunt.Pro-immigrant lawyers and activists are slamming the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for recently announced policy "changes" that they say will do nothing to improve the way illegal immigrants are b ... More >>

Phoenix Cross-Country Coach Miguel Aparicio Deported

Miguel Aparicio, 37, deported on Monday, despite ICE director John Morton's empty "changes" to ICE deportation policiesLast week United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement honcho John Morton announced a series of  "improvements" meant to keep ICE's focus on deporting aliens with serious ... More >>

Immigrants Who Fight Deportation Are Packed Into Federal Gulags for Months or Years Before Their Cases Are Heard

Miguel Aparicio, 37, deported on Monday, despite ICE director John Morton's empty "changes" to ICE deportation policiesLast week United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement honcho John Morton announced a series of  "improvements" meant to keep ICE's focus on deporting aliens with serious ... More >>

ACLU Report on Immigrant Detention Released; ICE Responds With Promise to Investigate "Significant Acts of Abuse" Alleged by ACLU

New Times Detention: not much different than incarceration. ​The Arizona ACLU released a report on conditions in Arizona immigrant-detention facilities today alleging serious abuses of detainees in the custody of private prisons and the Pinal County Jail.   It is titled, "In Their Own ... More >>

Phoenix DREAM Activist Recognized on Capitol Hill

Angelica Hernandez being recognized by U.S. Senator from Illinois Dick DurbinOn Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held its first DREAM Act hearing since the legislation was first proposed a decade ago. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, announced the hearing last week. Durbin ... More >>

Richard Taylor, Owner of Arizona Trailer Manufacturing, Convicted and Fined for Hiring 10 Undocumented Workers

​ A Buckeye trailer manufacturing firm and its owner were ordered by a federal judge to pay $30,000 in fines and received two years' probation for hiring undocumented workers. Richard Taylor and his company, Arizona Trailer Manufacturing, was convicted in U.S ... More >>

ICE Flies Undocumented Immigrants Back to Mexico on U.S. Dime

Signs like this one along the U.S.-Mexico border warn migrants not to cross​The United States government is revamping a program that will fly  undocumented Mexican immigrants back to Mexico City, after they've been caught entering the country illegally.The feds claim this prevents deaths from ... More >>

Nogales Smuggling Tunnel Pictures Released; Shaft Ran 70 Feet South From a Home

Image: ICE, HSIThe smuggling tunnel found in Nogales yesterday had internal support structures to guard against cave-in.​ Border authorities shut down a tunnel Tuesday that ran 70 feet from a U.S. home in Nogales, Arizona to Mexico. Pictures just released show the builders of this tunnel, wh ... More >>

Mexican Smugglers Exploit the Corrupt Reputation of U.S. Border Officers

Image: ICE, HSIThe smuggling tunnel found in Nogales yesterday had internal support structures to guard against cave-in.​ Border authorities shut down a tunnel Tuesday that ran 70 feet from a U.S. home in Nogales, Arizona to Mexico. Pictures just released show the builders of this tunnel, wh ... More >>

Feds Pull 287(g) Authority From Maricopa County Jails Due to Civil Rights Violations

Janet Napolitano, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, announced today that she's yanking the 287(g) program, which helps identify illegal immigrants, from Maricopa County jails.​ U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano yanked the 287(g) program from Maricopa County jails today due to ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Jails Off Limits to Federal Immigration Detainees, John Morton Tells Bill Montgomery

ICE honcho John Morton, back when the two guys to the left were still in office...In case Sheriff Joe Arpaio missed the gist of the fiat handed down Thursday by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ending Arpaio's 287(g) jails agreement, John Morton, Director of U.S. Immigrati ... More >>

Where was ICE? Feds Supervised 287(g) Program in Jails, Touted Numerous "Success Stories" This Year

John Morton, director of ICE.​ The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau isn't ready to comment this morning on the impact of severing ties with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.Which is a shame, because we have some good questions for them. Like, why was ICE supervising operatio ... More >>

ICE Dedicates 50 Officers to Maricopa Jails Following Canceled Agreement with Sheriff Arpaio; "No Gap" in Enforcement Expected

Nelson Peacock, DHS assistant secretary for legislative affairs​ Federal authorities promised today to take up the slack in Maricopa County jails following the severing of ties with the sheriff's office over allegations of widespread racial profiling. In a letter today to&n ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Expectant Mom-Shackling Earns Him Another Lawsuit

Miriam Mendiola-Martinez, and her son angel, born Christmas week, 2009. Living in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Maricopa County is like living in a medieval version of the movie Groundhog Day, where each morning one awakens with further reminders that we do not live in the civilized world.Two years ago, I fi ... More >>

Arpaio's Boys in Beige Say Sayonara to ICE Authority in Overly Dramatic Badge-Piling Ceremony

James KingMaricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio looks on as his detention officers kiss their ICE authority goodbye.​It's official: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office detention officers no longer have the authority to act as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in MCSO jails -- as was announced d ... More >>

Arpaio Corruption: The Feds Have Spoken, But Justice Won't Be Served Until the Sheriff's Indicted

James KingMaricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio looks on as his detention officers kiss their ICE authority goodbye.​It's official: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office detention officers no longer have the authority to act as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in MCSO jails -- as was announced d ... More >>

Sheriff Arpaio's Office, in Seeming Defiance of Judge, Arrests Five Suspected Illegal Immigrants on Human-Smuggling Charges

Image: MCSO Two of the five men arrested yesterday on suspicion of human smuggling and conspiracy.​   The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office arrested five men last night on suspicion of human smuggling and conspiracy, days after a federal judge's ruling on such investigations. ... More >>

Coddling Joe: How Do You Collaborate With a Felon?

Image: MCSO Two of the five men arrested yesterday on suspicion of human smuggling and conspiracy.​   The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office arrested five men last night on suspicion of human smuggling and conspiracy, days after a federal judge's ruling on such investigations. ... More >>