Homeland Security

When I was an immigration judge in San Francisco, I presided over scores of cases involving immigrants held in prisons, who were deported after months or even years of unnecessary detention because of our flawed immigration laws. Some of them would have been legitimate refugees, and others would have had other legal means to remain in the country. The vast majority were migrant workers, whose only mistake had been living in a house with other aspiring citizens or sharing a meal at a restaurant when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted a sweep of the neighborhood. They posed no danger to the community, and often had no criminal convictions that would mandate their detention. In fact, in the vast majority of the cases that came before me, I saw workers, mothers and fathers who were committed to our country and contributing to our culture.

It takes a certain chutzpah for Congress to pass a law that grants discretion to the executive branch and then complain when the executive branch actually uses that discretion. But that's exactly what happened recently when the Department of Homeland Security freed 2,000 people from immigration detention.
 
When news of the detainee releases broke in late February, Republican lawmakers waxed indignant, calling the move “abhorrent” and claiming, in a flurry of outraged letters to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, that the freed detainees included violent criminals and child molesters.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people suffer from some of the highest rates of discrimination in the workplace, in health care, and in our communities. Undocumented immigrants too face significant employment and economic insecurities that make it difficult to put food on the table, pay the bills, and otherwise make ends meet for themselves and their families.

It stands to reason then that those at the intersection of these two already marginalized populations — those that are both LGBT and undocumented — are among society’s most vulnerable. It also stands to reason then that this population would especially benefit from immigration reform that included a pathway to earned citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States today.

It may not be as sexy as legalization or STEM, but don’t be tempted to dismiss family-based immigration as a quaint, but merely historical tribute to the self-reliance and perseverance that has shaped us as a nation of immigrants. 

Immigrant families are the unsung workhorses of our economy, the engine that fuels newcomers’ successes and community integration. Ever since our union was founded, new Americans have relied on the support of this web of relationships. Families share a deep commitment to one another and our nation. To ignore the unique strength of these ties risks sabotaging our nation’s economic strength, and threatens our very identity as Americans.

Top U.S. spies announced this week that cyber attacks are even more concerning than dangers posed by terrorism. The Obama administration has clearly outlined its concerns about cyber attacks with its cyber security initiative and recently signed an executive order for the improvement of critical infrastructure.

There is a popular misconception that the U.S. government is the main target of cyber attacks. While the Department of Homeland Security is forced to deal with a barrage of attacks on a daily basis, every organization is a target. Approximately 90 percent of IT infrastructure in the U.S. resides in the private sector and the reality is that most organizations skimp on computer security. Many also forget how interconnected organizations are with each other. For example, law firms are vast data warehouses of intellectual property through their involvement in civil litigation but might not be at the forefront of network security.

I’ve always been struck by the metaphor of the frog in a pot of water, where over time as the heat increases, the frog gets used to it until eventually, he’s accepted his own poaching and death. Had the frog been thrown into a pot of boiling water, he would have jumped out and saved himself.
 
This is not dissimilar to what is happening in the debate over the movie “Zero Dark Thirty” and the use of torture by the CIA. Where 15 years ago, few would have supported the use of torture by the United States under any circumstances, today as we fudge the facts and play with the terms, as some of our national leaders including our former president, vice president, and CIA director endorse the use of torture, as the public dialogue treats the use of torture as a public policy debate as opposed to a criminal act, we are accepting torture as an anti-terrorism option and in so doing, poaching our most cherished values.

The national conversation taking place around immigration is at its core about how we define ourselves as Americans, and about our relationships with one another. A critical issue that often escapes the limelight is that of the broken family-based immigration system which keeps loved ones apart, often for decades.

As of November 2012, around 4.3 million people were waiting to obtain visas in order to join their family members who reside in the United States. A significant number – 1.8 million – are seeking to unite with immediate relatives who are Asian Americans. Family members from China, India and the Philippines, for example, have been waiting between 10 and 23 years to receive visas that will enable them to join their U.S. citizen or permanent resident relatives in America.

As experts on law and policy continue to debate the prospective shape of immigration reform, they should not lose sight of the two groups of people who will have to navigate whatever process emerges from these deliberations – the applicants themselves and the U.S. government employees who have to process them. Thinking about how those two groups behave, and what they would need to be successful under a new immigration regime, presents good arguments for leveraging both existing processes and new technology.

The political and economic forces at work both in China and Iran help explain their motives for conducting offensive [and effective] hacking raids on public and private assets in the U.S.

Iran, despite sitting atop the 4th largest proven oil and 2nd largest proven natural gas reserves in the world, has devolved into a pariah nation with a cash-starved population and flailing political economy. According to January’s CRS Report for Congress, that nation saw its crude exports – which supply 70 percent of Iran’s shrinking government revenues - halve from 2011 to 2012.

Mehdi Mahraoui dreams of getting his doctorate in social work because he wants to improve his community and he is passionate about social justice. Like many 22-year-olds, Mehdi has a lot of dreams. Unlike other young people his age, Mehdi may have to put his dreams on hold.

Mehdi was brought to the United States from Morocco at age seven. Until late last year, he was undocumented. His oldest sister and both of his parents, however, remain in deportation proceedings. If they are deported, Mehdi will be the sole care taker of his eight-year-old sister who is a U.S citizen. Read more...