DHS hires incense immigration supporters
BY RAFAEL BERNAL - 04/12/17 05:08 PM EDT
Two prominent opponents of illegal immigration with connections to far-right groups have landed high-level advisory jobs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), prompting heavy criticism from immigrant rights supporters.
Jon Feere, formerly a legal policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), has been hired as a special adviser to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Thomas D. Homan, according to CNN.
And the former executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Julie Kirchner, was hired as an adviser to Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a longtime supporter of immigration reform, said the moves show the Trump administration's anti-immigrant slant.
"Opponents of legal immigration are front and center in the Trump anti-immigration Dream Team of Attorney General Sessions, and Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon in the White House," Gutierrez said in an email.
Both FAIR and CIS are listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as anti-immigrant hate groups.
“These groups have spent 20 years looking for ways that they could hurt immigrants and now they've been given the keys to the kingdom," Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America's Voice, told CNN.
ICE and the CBP are the top two immigration law enforcement agencies, tasked with border control and interior enforcement.
The increased influence granted to prominent immigration reductionists has stoked the fears of pro-immigrant activists, who see it as a sign that the Trump administration is pursuing a policy of racially motivated mass deportation.
"The advocates for eliminating legal immigration have always been a vocal minority within the Republican Party, but now nativists are in charge of civil rights, law-enforcement, national policy and immigration," Gutierrez said.
Groups such as CIS and FAIR have traditionally been fringe voices in the immigration debate, even among conservatives. They are part of a network of organizations founded by John Tanton, a Michigan ophthalmologist who's espoused opposition to immigration on the grounds of population reduction and protection of an ethnic white majority.
"People who shill for groups that are intertwined with eugenicists, population control environmentalists, and who have alt-right extremists on staff, and whose core beliefs about humanity spit in the face of basic conservative principles should have no place in a Republican administration," said Mario H. Lopez, president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, a conservative advocacy organization.
Lopez pointed out that Feere and Kirchner were given advisory roles, "which means someone is well aware they cannot survive the vetting process that comes from a position requiring Senate confirmation."
In their previous roles, Feere and Kirchner both campaigned against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which allowed immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children to obtain work permits and deferred them from potential deportation action.
Although Trump promised to end DACA while on the campaign trail, he softened his tone somewhat after his election, and the program remains part of DHS policy.
DACA recipients are especially vulnerable to government action because they had to submit personal information and admission of their illegal status to the government in order to apply to the program.
DHS Secretary John Kelly told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) last week that ICE was not currently using DACA application information to pursue recipients, but added that policy could change. Kelly promised CHC members he would let them know before enacting such a change.
The upcoming budget battle has also become an important factor in the debate over Increased immigration enforcement, as lawmakers weigh the popularity of measures demanded by groups like CIS and FAIR.
Democrats will oppose Trump's request for a $2.6 billion increase in the DHS budget, and are hopeful that what they consider heavy-handed immigration enforcement will convince enough Republicans to follow suit.
"They are overplaying their hand because mass deportation, the border wall, and spending billions to break up families all remain immensely unpopular, even among Republican voters," Gutierrez said. "But I won’t be surprised if Trump and his nativist Dream Team push the anti-immigration agenda all the way towards a government shut-down."
http://thehill.com/latino/328571-dhs...ion-supporters
Immigration Hawks Ascend to Senior DHS Positions
by JOHN BINDER
14 Apr 2017
Washington, D.C.
883 comments
Two leading advocates for reforming illegal and legal immigration enforcement were appointed by President Donald Trump to serve as senior advisors for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Jon Feere, the former legal analyst for the Center for Immigration Studies, and Julie Kirchner, the previous executive director for the Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), have both been appointed to senior positions.
Feere, who work with the Trump campaign and transition team on immigration policy, will serve as the senior adviser to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency Director Thomas Homan.
Kirchner, a campaign alum as well, will serve as the senior adviser to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan.
Center for Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian told Breitbart Texas that the Trump Administration appointed a person who “knows the ins and outs” of immigration when they chose Feere to serve.
“ICE needs somebody like Jon because he’s worked on immigration policy for many years,” Krikorian said. “After eight years of Obama, there were civil servants and people at ICE who weren’t as quite up to date on immigration enforcement.”
FAIR spokesperson Ira Mehlman told Breitbart Texas that Kirchner’s appointment is welcome news.
“They’re both people with long experience and deep knowledge and they’re highly qualified for their positions,” Mehlman said.
Both the Center for Immigration Studies and FAIR have long been advocates for increased border security, a wall, reforming foreign guest worker visas and lower levels of legal immigration to help American wages to rise.
The appointments have come with the usual media backlash that the Trump Administration has grown accustomed to.
CNN, for instance, has written that Feere and Kirchner’s appointments have “alarmed” the open borders lobby. The network propped up opposition to the appointments through the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, with Director Heidi Beirich claiming that that the Center for Immigration Studies and FAIR publish “racist” and “xenophobic” reports.
Krikorian, though, said the open borders lobby is only outraged because they know how effective both nominees could be.
“This isn’t a complaint about qualification,” Krikorian told Breitbart Texas. “Jon and these others know what they’re doing and that’s what the anti-borders groups are afraid of.”
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...dhs-positions/
New DHS Hires Signal End To Era Of Officials Cozy With The Open Borders Lobby
osted By Alex Pfeiffer On 11:06 PM 04/19/2017 In | No Comments
The Department of Homeland Security announced last week the appointment of two former employees of think tanks that advocate for reduced immigration.
This comes as a departure for a department that was staffed in the Obama era by several officials close involved with organizations which advocate for amnesty.
Jon Feere and Julie Kirchner joined Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection as advisers, respectively.
Feere is a former policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for reduced immigration, and is now an adviser to Thomas D. Homan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
While Julie Kirchner, the former director of another anti-illegal immigration group the Federation for American Immigration Reform, is advising Customs and Border Protection acting commissioner Kevin McAleenan.
The response to these hires was outrage from liberal advocacy groups. Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, said, “We take these designations very seriously, and CIS and FAIR are far-right fringe groups that regularly publish racist, xenophobic material and spread misinformation about immigrants and immigration.”
Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America’s Voice, said that the groups have worked for 20 years to “hurt immigrants and now they’ve been given the keys to the kingdom.”
Emails obtained by the Immigration Reform Law Institute and provided to The Daily Caller Wednesday, however, reveal the extent to which the open-borders community had the “keys to the kingdom” in the Obama administration.
In one January 2015 email exchange, Marina Torres, the-then counselor to the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told United We Dream that she looks “forward to strengthening our collaboration” and for them to “consider us a resource here at USCIS.”
United We Dream seeks to stop the deportations of illegal immigrant youth and has received funding from liberal mega-donor George Soros.
In another email, former USCIS chief of staff Juliet Choi told Lorella Praeli, the director of United We Dream, “we very much appreciate your partnership, especially during these dynamic times.”
The emails also show that Lucas Guttentag, a former senior counselor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, donated to the National Immigration Forum while in office. The group promotes providing legal status to the millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S.
There are multiple instances in the emails showing Guttentag’s tight relationship with groups averse to immigration enforcement. One organization reached out to him directly for assistance with an illegal immigrant who was denied amnesty, and Guttentag tried to get Randy Capps from the Migration Policy Institute employed with the Department of Justice.
After the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals maintained an injunction against DAPA, one of President’s Obama executive amnesties, Guttentag told Charles Kamasaki, a senior adviser for the National Council of La Raza, that they should grab a “stiff drink.”
Outside of direct contact and assistance with these open borders groups, several appointments to DHS under Obama had a liberal past.
Esther Olvarria served as a senior counselor to Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson from 2014 to 2016. Prior to that, she was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior adviser for the UN Refugee Agency. In one email, she agreed to meet with La Raza’s Kamasaki to discuss a “possible idea” about legal status.
Obama also appointed David Shahoulian to the DHS. Shahoulian was picked to serve as deputy general counsel, after working as the Democratic Party’s chief counsel on the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement.
Another liberal to join DHS was Ur Mendoza Jaddou. She served as chief counsel of USCIS and was previously senior counsel for Democratic California Rep. Zoe Lofgren.
Maria Odom was also part of the Obama administration. She is the former executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, and was DHS’ ombudsman. The Catholic Legal Immigration Network works diligently to protect illegal immigrants from deportation.
DHS did not confirm to TheDC by time of publication whether all of these individuals are still employed by the federal government. A source involved with the immigration movement said that Marc Rosenblum is still with the DHS as a “top career official.”
Rosenblum was previously deputy director of the Migration Policy Institute. There he called for America to become a “nation of nations.”
http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/19/dh...borders-lobby/
