November 30, 2006

The Latest on ICE’s Efforts

As part of its multi-year “Secure Border Initiative (“SBI”), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE“) is still aggressively pursuing criminal charges against employees who egregiously violate U.S. immigration laws by either working or residing illegally within the United States. It also continues to investigate employers in various sensitive areas, such as airports, power plants, oil refineries and military bases. During fiscal year 2006 (FY 2006), ICE agents arrested more than 718 individuals on criminal charges in various worksite investigations and apprehended another 3,667 workers on the basis of immigration violations. In fact, between FY 2005 and FY 2006, ICE improved its successful removal of illegal aliens by almost 20%. In furtherance of these efforts, on November 29, 2006, ICE special agents arrested six illegal aliens who possessed security badges which would allow them access to restricted areas in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

As part of SBI, ICE continues to work with local and regional authorities to train and certify their personnel to perform certain federal immigration enforcement. For instance, together with the Mecklenberg (North Carolina) County Sheriff’s Department, ICE recently announced that nearly 1,000 criminal aliens in the County had been identified and charged with immigration violations. 128 of those aliens have already been deported. While Mecklenberg County is the only fully operational local-ICE partnership in North Carolina, the federal agency has established similar cooperative programs with other local law enforcement agencies in Alabama, Florida, Arizona and California.

GT continues to monitor such developments and will keep you posted as additional information becomes available.