Environmental groups contend that Border Patrol off-road vehicles used to catch illegal immigrants and drug smugglers are damaging the landscapes of two ecologically sensitive areas of southern Arizona. They are calling on the agency to update its environmental training.... Read more»
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A Texas Democrat is taking his GOP colleagues to task on sequestration. In a letter, freshman congressman Pete Gallego tells border hawks they can’t be for the continued sequester and for increased border security at the same time.... Read more»
Democrats and activists called on Gov. Brewer to drop an executive order she issued in August denying driver’s licenses to deferred action participants at a press conference in Phoenix Tuesday night.... Read more»1
Those opposed to comprehensive immigration reform still point to deficiencies in border security as a reason to stall new immigration policy, but they are ignoring the facts.... Read more»1
Security initiatives recently announced by the Mexican government suggest that the country may move to reaffirm its sovereignty and focus less on the interests of the U.S. and other foreign countries. Last month President Peña Nieto utlined a strategy to fight crime that would create a 10,000-member force to focus on crimes like murder, kidnapping and extortion. It emphasized a shift from the previous administration’s focus on top cartel leaders.... Read more»1
While most states allow parents to opt out of vaccinations for medical or religious reasons, Arizona is among a minority allowing exemptions for philosophical or personal reasons. A Cronkite News Special Report looks at how exemptions are prompting fears of disease outbreaks.... Read more»
An Arizona law requiring businesses to check every new hire’s citizenship is often disregarded and rarely enforced, five years after it took effect and a year after courts upheld it. Many new hires in 2011 were not checked against E-Verify and few employers have been cited.... Read more»
Getting the agencies responsible for national security to communicate better was one of the main reasons Homeland Security was created. DHS has spent $430 million over the past nine years to provide radios tuned to a common, secure channel. Problem is, no one seems to know how to use them.... Read more»
Politicians are reconsidering immigration reform, Homeland Security is investigating the Border Patrol after complaints of excessive force, plus: what happens to U.S. veterans deported to Mexico... Read more»
Two people in Arizona received tainted pain shots with medicine from the Massachusetts facility linked to 25 deaths from fungal meningitis, according to the state’s top health officer. Nationwide, more than 300 people in 18 states received the contaminated injections that have caused fungal meningitis.... Read more»
The Transportation Security Administration has been quietly removing its X-ray body scanners from major airports over the last few weeks and replacing them with machines that radiation experts believe are safer.... Read more»1
For all the political rhetoric and chest pounding about border security in recent years, the United States has done very little, and politicians have said almost nothing about cutting off massive amounts of funds flowing illegally across the Southwest border and feeding the drug cartels.... Read more»
Arizona women had fewer babies in 2011 for the fifth straight year, due in large part to tighter wallets, social changes, lower teen pregnancy rates and departures among the Hispanic population.... Read more»
The shooting death of Border Patrol agent Nicholas Ivie cast a somber cloud over an annual dinner in Washington that honors Border Patrol officers, families and supporters. Despite enhanced border resources, there have been 27 line-of-duty agent deaths since 2002, nine in Arizona.... Read more»
Arizona police agencies were among those singled out in a two-year Senate committee investigation that found “widespread deficiencies” in a Homeland Security Department program that officials have touted for years as a centerpiece in U.S. counterterrorism efforts.... Read more»
The challenge is by no means simple and the solution will take far more determination than has been applied so far. What will definitely not work are the simplistic one-dimensional answers that sound good on the evening news, but do little or nothing to stop the threat.... Read more»1
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