Publicado por Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, defensor del pueblo y asesor principal, Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement o ICE)

Es un honor para mí haber sido nombrado hoy el primer defensor del pueblo del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE). A medida que el ICE continúa implementando reformas respecto a detenciones y otros programas relacionados con la aplicación de la ley, mi equipo y yo nos desempeñaremos como punto de contacto para las personas, incluidos quienes son parte de procesos de inmigración, entidades no gubernamentales y otros grupos comunitarios y de propugnación que tienen inquietudes, preguntas, recomendaciones o asuntos importantes que deseen plantear.

Aunque este nuevo cargo será un desafío, considero que producirá beneficios significativos tanto para el ICE como las partes interesadas. Mientras nos esforzamos por producir significativos cambios de política en la asignación de recursos para el cumplimiento de las leyes de inmigración y destinarlos a prioridades sensatas, la implementación de procesos y medidas de política que le dan prioridad a la salud y seguridad de los detenidos bajo nuestra custodia y a la vez aumentar la supervisión federal, además de la mejora de las condiciones de confinamiento en nuestro sistema de detención, me esforzaré por aumentar y mejorar el diálogo con la comunidad interesada.

He dedicado la mayor parte de mi vida al servicio público. Comencé a trabajar para el ICE en el 2008, primero como asesor y analista de política relacionada a la aplicación de las leyes de inmigración, detención y menores de edad, y recientemente como asesor principal de la división de administración de detenciones de Operativos de Control y Deportación (Enforcement and Removal Operations o ERO). Previamente, ejercí como abogado y fui homenajeado como Abogado del Año de Maryland por servicios pro bono por mi trabajo con Community Legal Services del condado Prince George.

En mi nuevo cargo, tendré cuatro responsabilidades principales:

• Ayudar a las personas y partes interesadas en la comunidad a presentar sus quejas e inquietudes de acuerdo a la política y forma de operar de la agencia, en particular, las inquietudes relacionadas con las medidas del ICE para velar por el cumplimiento de la ley que afectan a ciudadanos estadounidenses;
• Informar a las partes interesadas sobre la política, programas y proyectos de ERO, además de propiciar un mejor entendimiento sobre la misión y valores fundamentales de ERO;
• Fomentar la participación de las partes interesadas y encontrar socios para facilitar la comunicación, promover la colaboración y solicitar comentarios sobre proyectos y operativos para velar por el cumplimiento de las leyes de inmigración, y
• Asesorar a los líderes del ICE sobre las conclusiones, inquietudes, recomendaciones y prioridades de las partes interesadas, con relación a mejoras a los esfuerzos y actividades para velar por el cumplimiento de las leyes de inmigración.

Asumo este nuevo cargo con gran entusiasmo y me siento orgulloso de esta agencia por valorar los comentarios de la comunidad y poner énfasis en la transparencia y la facilidad de acceso, a la vez que el ICE continúa concentrándose en medidas de aplicación de sentido común y reformas sensatas de política. Espero que me comuniquen sus preguntas, comentarios e inquietudes. Estoy aquí para ayudarlos.

Posted by Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, Public Advocate & Senior Advisor, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Today, I am honored to be named U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s first-ever public advocate. As ICE continues to implement detention reforms and other enforcement-related initiatives, my staff and I will serve as a point of contact for individuals, including those in immigration proceedings, NGOs, and other community and advocacy groups, who have concerns, questions, recommendations or important issues they would like to raise.

While this new role will be challenging, I believe it will reap significant rewards for ICE as well as for stakeholders. As we work to enact significant policy changes to focus the agency’s immigration enforcement resources on sensible priorities, implement policies and processes that prioritize the health and safety of detainees in our custody while increasing federal oversight, and improve the conditions of confinement within the detention system, I will strive to expand and enhance our dialogue with the stakeholder community.

I have committed the greater part of my life to public service. Since 2008, I have served with ICE, first as an advisor and analyst on policies related to immigration enforcement, detention and juveniles, and most recently as the senior advisor for Enforcement and Removal Operation’s (ERO) detention management division. Prior to that, I served as an attorney and was recognized as the Maryland Attorney of the Year for Pro Bono Service working with Community Legal Services of Prince George’s County.

In my new position, I will have four main duties:

• Assist individuals and community stakeholders in addressing complaints and concerns in accordance with agency policies and operations, particularly concerns related to ICE enforcement actions that affect U.S. citizens;
• Inform stakeholders on ERO policies, programs and initiatives, and enhance understanding of ERO’s mission and core values;
• Engage stakeholders and build partnerships to facilitate communication, foster collaboration and solicit input on immigration enforcement initiatives and operations; and
• Advise ICE leadership on stakeholder findings, concerns, recommendations and priorities as they relate to improving immigration enforcement efforts and activities.

I am thrilled to assume this new role and proud of this agency for valuing community input and emphasizing transparency and accessibility as ICE continues to pursue common sense enforcement priorities and sound policy reforms. I hope you’ll reach out to me with your questions, comments and concerns. I am here to assist you.

Posted by Alejandro Mayorkas, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Each September, Constitution Day and Citizenship Day and the weeklong celebration of Constitution Week offer an important opportunity to reflect on the meaning and importance of U.S. citizenship.  It’s a special time for me and the entire workforce of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).  As the federal agency responsible for naturalization and citizenship, USCIS has the privilege of welcoming America’s newest citizens.

As part of this annual commemoration celebrating citizenship, we highlight naturalization ceremonies across the country and recognize the significantcontributions of immigrants who have chosen to become Americans.

In addition, we are proud to announce grants totaling $9 million for 42 organizations charged with expanding citizenship preparation services for permanent residents.

This funding will support immigrant-serving organizations across 27 states and the District of Columbia.  The program fosters civic integration and helps permanent residents prepare for successful citizenship.  More than 19,000 permanent residents have received assistance through this grant program since it began in October 2009.  The full list of this year’s recipients, along with a description of their programs, is available on our website.
Citizenship is important because it unites Americans – all races, ethnicities, beliefs, or countries of birth – under shared civic principles based on the rights and freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution.  Please join me in this opportunity to cherish the important rights and responsibilities we share together, as citizens of this great nation. 

Yesterday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas spoke at a University of Southern California conference in Los Angeles entitled “Which Way America? Reframing, Regrouping, and Realigning for Immigrant Integration.” Stressing the fundamental values of our nation, Mayorkas emphasized the important contributions immigrants have made to this country.

Mayorkas reminded us of courageous individuals like Gerda Weissmann Klein –a humanitarian, author, human rights activist, Holocaust survivor, and a proud naturalized citizen. Mrs. Weissmann-Klein was a recipient of the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and was also honored by USCIS as an Outstanding American by Choice – an honor bestowed upon naturalized U.S. citizens who have demonstrated exemplary commitment to this country.

As the federal agency that administers naturalization and ensures the integrity and efficiency of the citizenship process, USCIS is proud to have provided tens of thousands of people nationwide with information on eligibility, testing, and citizenship rights and responsibilities. Last year, USCIS’s Citizenship and Integration Grant Program provided nearly $8.1 million to 78 community organizations in 27 states to support citizenship education programs and naturalization application services for lawful permanent residents.

And earlier this year, Mayorkas and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa partnered to debut a first-of-its-kind Immigrant Integration pilot program aimed at strengthening citizenship efforts in L.A., a city that is home to an estimated 2.3 million lawful permanent residents eligible for citizenship. Through proactive citizenship awareness, education, and outreach activities, Mayorkas hopes to replicate this first-of-its-kind collaborative effort in other cities across the country.

“As a nation grounded in the fundamental value that all people are created equal, our unifying promise of citizenship has allowed people of all backgrounds, whether native or foreign-born, to have an equal stake in the future of this nation, “said Mayorkas. “Citizenship solidifies the inclusive vision of what America stands for: a nation united by the common ideals of freedom, equality, and democracy.“

The Secretary is delivering remarks on the Obama administration’s efforts to reform the U.S. immigration system. You can check it out at the following link:

http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2009/11/Napolitano.html/streaming.html

Secretary Napolitano was at the White House yesterday with the President and members of Congress working on identifying a way forward on comprehensive immigration reform. From the White House blog:

While Congressional leaders are working to tackle the complexities of immigration reform, the Administration has already taken steps to improve the system. The FBI has cleared much of the backlog of immigration background checks, the Department of Homeland Security is speeding up citizenship petitions and in conjunction with the Department of Labor, they are working to crack down on employers who are exploiting illegal workers. The President also announced a new collaborative effort that will utilize technology to improve legal immigration:

"Today I'm pleased to announce a new collaboration between my Chief Information Officer, my Chief Performance Officer, my Chief Technologies Officer and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Office to make the agency much more efficient, much more transparent, much more user-friendly than it has been in the past.

In the next 90 days, USCIS will launch a vastly improved Web site that will, for the first time ever, allow applicants to get updates on their status of their applications via e-mail and text message and online. And anybody who's dealt with families who are trying to deal with -- navigate the immigration system, this is going to save them huge amounts of time standing in line, waiting around, making phone calls, being put on hold. It's an example of some things that we can do administratively even as we're working through difficult issues surrounding comprehensive immigration.

And the idea is very simple here: We're going to leverage cutting-edge technology to reduce the unnecessary paperwork, backlogs, and the lack of transparency that's caused so many people so much heartache." --More on the White House Blog.

At the President’s direction, Secretary Napolitano will convene a group of leaders from the White House and Congress to begin identifying the way forward on comprehensive immigration reform.

When President-elect Obama nominated me to become our country’s third Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, I was warned that the vast Department was too cumbersome to lead; that the 225,000-strong workforce was too big to manage; that the 22 agencies with 22 corresponding missions that were brought together in 2003 were too disparate to meld into a coherent structure with a clear vision.

Yet, nearly five months into my tenure, the purpose of our Department is unambiguous: we must guard against terrorism; we must secure our borders; we must enforce our immigration laws; we must improve our readiness for, response to, and recovery from disasters; and we must unify the Department so that we can even more effectively carry out our mission.

On each of the five fronts, we have already made important strides.

Protecting the American people from terrorist threats is the founding principle of the Department and our highest priority. This is an effort where everyone--families and communities, first responders, the private sector, state and local governments, as well as the Department--must contribute. My approach is simple: direct every resource available towards prevention and preparedness, and ask Americans to live in a constant state of readiness, not a constant state of fear.

Since January, we have forged new partnerships with our international allies to provide more tools in the fight against terrorism. We have dedicated new resources to detect threats at our transportation hubs and protect our critical infrastructure. And, we are strengthening information-sharing efforts, working hand-in-hand with state, local and tribal law enforcement.

Fulfilling our mission also means securing our borders—our Southern border, our Northern border, and our air and sea ports. Every year, we apprehend and deport more than one million illegal immigrants, no doubt deterring countless more from trying to cross the border. Recently, we announced a new initiative to strengthen security on the Southwest border to disrupt the drug, cash and weapon smuggling that is helping to fuel cartel violence in Mexico.

When it comes to immigration, we need to facilitate legal immigration while we crack down on those who violate our nation’s laws. A few weeks ago, we issued new guidance to our agents in the field to focus our efforts on apprehending criminal illegal aliens and prosecuting employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. At the same time, we are committed to providing employers with the most up-to-date and effective resources to maintain a legal workforce. This new focus is drawing widespread praise--from law enforcement to the business community--because it addresses the root cause of illegal immigration.

As a nation, we must develop a more urgent sense of readiness. Hurricanes happen. Tornadoes happen. Floods happen. And as we recently experienced, so do health outbreaks like the H1N1 flu. The Department plays a critical role in helping communities in all stages of a disaster--preparation, response and long term recovery. Since January, we have worked in close coordination with state and local authorities to respond to severe storms in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Missouri and flooding in North Dakota and Minnesota. We have taken bold new steps to accelerate recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast region, streamlining decision making and consolidating offices to eliminate redundancies.

And we took immediate and aggressive steps to lead the federal government’s efforts to confront the H1N1 flu outbreak.

Finally, we must unify and mature our Department. Our goal is simple: one DHS, one enterprise, a shared vision, with integrated results-based operations. Through a consolidated headquarters, we are bringing 35 locations together. We have launched an expansive efficiency initiative that is leveraging the economies of scale in our Department in order to recover hundreds of millions of dollars and create a culture of responsibility and fiscal discipline.

Throughout these five priority areas, we are applying a series of cross-cutting approaches. We are bolstering cooperation with our partners at the local, tribal, state, federal and international levels; we are expanding our capabilities through the deployment of science and technology while developing and maturing new technologies for tomorrow; and we are maximizing efficiency to ensure every security dollar is spent in the most effective way.

We cannot afford to relent on any of these five fronts because together, they amount to our one overarching mission—a mission whose scope is massive, challenging, and humbling, but also a mission so straightforward and clear that it is contained in our name: securing the homeland.

Janet Napolitano

We’ve met another benchmark in our efforts to eliminate the FBI Name Check backlog.

As of mid-February, USCIS and the FBI had completed all name checks that were pending for more than six months. In doing so, we beat our publicly stated goal by almost two full weeks. With the milestone’s completion, the FBI and USCIS have met or exceeded the first six milestones outlined last summer.

And that might not be the most exciting news. We’re on track to meet our May 31 milestone of completing name check requests pending longer than 90 days. By the end of June, the FBI will complete 98-percent of USCIS name check requests within 30 days and process the remaining two percent within 90 days.

Let me put that into perspective. At the beginning of November 2007, there were nearly 350,000 pending name check requests. Of that total, more than 54,000 had been pending for more than two years. Another 55,000 had been pending for at least a year. Today, there’s a grand total of 6,756 pending name check requests. And of that number, not one has been pending for more than six months. In fact as of that February 17 snapshot, the FBI was completing 99.2 percent of all requests in less than 30 days.

The results speak for themselves. The effective elimination of the name check backlog means that USCIS can make more timely decisions about immigration applications and petitions. That includes cases with derogatory information and those that are otherwise approvable. In both the present and the future, USCIS and the FBI will continue to focus on sustaining the rigorous and efficient screening of each name check request. Our joint attention to eliminating the name check backlog will ensure we reward deserving, eligible applicants with benefits like U.S. citizenship and permanent residency in a more timely manner.

Mike Aytes Acting Deputy Director
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Thank you for your comments to my first post. I appreciate the encouraging words of welcome.

As expected, my first full week has been busy.

I’ve continued to meet with directors of all seven of the Department’s operating components, visit their headquarters locations, and receive briefings on their activities.

I’ve been impressed by what I’ve seen so far – the caliber of the people who work at this Department, their professionalism, and their commitment to our mission.

As Secretary, I want to ensure that our Department continues to uphold the highest ethical standards. For this reason, I’ve ordered that every incoming DHS employee receive ethics training.

This week, I also sent recommendations to President Obama regarding the winter storms that impacted most of our nation’s Midwest and Northeast. He acted on those recommendations, issuing emergency declarations for Arkansas and Kentucky. This will ensure that federal aid flows to these areas. FEMA has been deeply engaged in this process. It began mobilizing assets and resources well ahead of the storm to ensure timely aid and assistance.

Of course, I’ve been intently focused on preparations for Super Bowl 43, and not just because my home team is in the game.

I spoke directly with our head of security in Tampa and received briefings on the Department’s activities related to the Super Bowl, which are extensive.

Finally, I’ve continued to issue action directives to assess the Department's critical functions and set priorities. We rolled out the final action directive today on immigration – to assess our progress to secure the border, remove criminal aliens from the United States, and improve our legal immigration procedures.

I’m eager to get the results of these assessments in the coming days and weeks, and I look forward to sharing these results with you.