Facts are Stubborn Things...Long Gun Reporting Requirements

Setting the Record Straight on the Justice Department Oversight Hearing

“Facts are STUBBORN Things”

“…and whatever our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams, December 1770

Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder, Nov. 8, 2011

Long Gun Reporting Requirement

Attorney General Holder: “[E]arlier this year, the House of Representatives actually voted to keep law enforcement in the dark when individuals purchase semiautomatic rifles and shotguns in southwest border gun shops.  Providing law enforcement with the tools to detect and to disrupt illegal gun trafficking is entirely consistent with the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.”

FACT
In Operation Fast and Furious, law enforcement was not in the dark when individuals purchased these weapons.  Rather, they were receiving real-time—and sometimes advance—notice from cooperating gun dealers when suspected straw buyers would purchase pistols or long guns.  The information for both pistols and long guns was placed onto what is called a “4473” form, which gun dealers then faxed to the ATF.

However, rather than using that information to question the suspected straw buyers and eventually make arrests, ATF chose to allow them to continue to traffic guns.  There were about 93 multiple handgun purchases by Fast and Furious suspects averaging nearly five handguns per purchase. These were already required to be reported under existing regulations.  There were about 148 multiple long gun purchases by Fast and Furious suspects, averaging over 9 long guns per purchase.  Most of the purchases were made by just a few buyers.  Cooperating dealers reported them even without a regulatory requirement because they were suspicious and involved known straw buyers.

For instance, within three days of Jaime Avila’s January 16, 2010, purchase of the two weapons that were later recovered at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder, ATF had entered the purchase into their Suspect Gun Database.  Beginning 7 weeks prior to that date, ATF had already entered 13 weapons purchased by Avila into their Suspect Gun Database, including 8 long guns.  The problem was not a lack of information.  It was a failure to act on the information the government already had.

Supporting Documents of the FACTS

ATF Mexico Gun Statistics Flawed

Statement of Ranking Member Chuck Grassley of Iowa
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism
Hearing on “The Fix Gun Checks Act: Better State and Federal Compliance, Smarter Enforcement”

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Mr. Chairman, thank you.  Before I go into my statement, I’d like to ask consent that a number of documents I’ll discuss be made a part of the record.  The debate surrounding updating federal gun laws gained national attention following the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech in April of 2007.  

Following that terrible tragedy, Congress passed the NICS Improvement Act which updated the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, known as NICS.  This bill passed both the House and the Senate by unanimous consent and was signed into law by President Bush.
  
Despite the strong bi-partisan support, the NICS Improvement Act was not a perfect bill, and is a good example of why we need to be careful when we legislate to avoid unintended consequences.  For example, the NICS bill has stripped thousands of veterans, and their beneficiaries, of their Second Amendment rights simply because they have a fiduciary appointed on their behalf.  Often times, a fiduciary is appointed simply for managing disability compensation, pensions, or survivor benefits.

Under an interpretation by the Department of Veterans Administration, veterans who have a fiduciary appointed are deemed “mentally defective”, are reported to the FBI’s NICS system, and prohibited from purchasing a firearm.

Under the NICS Improvement Act, a bi-partisan bill, around 114,000 veterans and their beneficiaries have been automatically denied their Second Amendment rights.  It is a terrible irony that veterans, who have served their country on a battlefield, have been entrusted with our national security, and have been provided firearms by their government, are the same people the NICS Improvement Act harmed by taking away their Second Amendment rights, all without a hearing or formal adjudication.

We just honored and celebrated Veterans Day last Friday.  Yet, we are here debating new legislation to restrict the Second Amendment rights of citizens, without fixing the unintended consequences of our last major gun law.

While the horrific events in Tucson are still fresh in our memories, as we discuss new gun control laws, we also need to move forward on bi-partisan legislation such as the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act, introduced by Senators Burr and Webb.  This bill would fix the unintended consequences to thousands of veterans caused by the NICS Improvement Act.

Today’s hearing offers us another opportunity to discuss illegal firearms trafficking and the government’s efforts to stop it.  At the forefront of this is the Department of Justice’s failed operation Fast & Furious, where the ATF knowingly allowed illegal purchasers to buy guns.

The more we learn about Fast & Furious, the more we have discovered that senior Justice Department officials knew or should have known about the nearly 2,000 guns ending up in the hands of criminals, including the drug cartels in Mexico.  At the first House Oversight hearing on Operation Fast and Furious, multiple ATF agents testified that fear spread through the Phoenix Field Division every time there was news of a major shooting incident.

Specifically with regard to Congresswoman Giffords’ shooting, one agent said, “[T]here was a state of panic, like, … let’s hope this is not a weapon from that case.”

The Fast & Furious operation was failed in concept, design, and execution.  As the Attorney General said last week, it should never have happened.  And the Justice Department officials who knew about this program, including those who allowed false statements to Congress need to be held accountable.

I thought it was fitting that late last week Attorney General Holder finally wrote to the family of Agent Terry.  In his letter, he stated he was sorry for their loss, although he refused to take responsibility for the department’s role in Agent Terry’s death.

At the root of Fast & Furious, and a lot of rhetoric surrounding gun control legislation, has been the gun trafficking statistics provided by ATF.  These unclear statistics have fueled the debate, and contributed to undertaking such a reckless operation as Fast & Furious.

For example, in 2009 both President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton stated that 90 percent of guns in Mexico were from the United States.  But that statistic later changed to: 90 percent of guns that Mexico submitted for tracing to ATF were from the U.S.  And now, this year, that number has become 70 percent of guns submitted by the Mexican government for tracing were from the U.S.  What are the real numbers?

Articles discussing the 70 percent number misrepresent the facts, as I pointed out in a letter to then-ATF Acting Director Melson in June 2011.  First, there are tens of thousands of guns confiscated at crime scenes annually in Mexico.  The Associated Press stated in 2009 that over 305,424 confiscated weapons are locked in vaults in Mexico.  However, the ATF has acknowledged to my staff in a briefing on July 29, 2011, that ATF does not have access to the vault in Mexico described in the story.

ATF also acknowledges that only a portion of guns recovered in Mexico are actually submitted to the U.S. for tracing.  In a November 8, 2011, court filing, the Chief of ATF’s Firearms Operations Division made a declaration, saying: “It is important to note, however, that ATF’s eTrace data is based only on gun trace requests actually submitted to ATF by law enforcement officials in Mexico, and not on all of the guns seized in Mexico.”

That court filing further states that “in 2008, of the approximately 30,000 firearms that the Mexican Attorney General’s Office informed ATF that it had seized, only 7,200, or one quarter of those firearms, were submitted to ATF for tracing.”  So, if Mexico submits only 25 percent of guns for tracing, then the statistics could be grossly inaccurate one way or the other.

The discrepancies in the numbers do not stop there.  ATF also informed my staff that the eTrace-based statistics could vary drastically by a single word’s definition.  For example, the 70 percent number was generated using a definition of U.S.-sourced firearms -- that includes guns manufactured in the U.S. or imported through the U.S.  Thus, the 70 percent number does not mean that all guns were purchased at a U.S. gun dealer and then smuggled across the border.  It could simply mean the firearm was manufactured in the U.S.

So, when my staff asked ATF, how many guns traced in 2009 and 2010 were traced to a U.S. gun dealer, the numbers were quite shocking in comparison to the statistics we’ve previously heard.

For 2009, of the 21,313 guns recovered in Mexico and submitted for tracing, only 5,444 were sourced to a U.S. gun dealer.  That’s around 25 percent.

For 2010, of the 7,971 guns recovered in Mexico submitted for tracing, only 2,945 were sourced to a U.S. gun dealer.  That’s 37 percent.

Either way, both are a far cry from 70 percent.  Not to mention that guns in 2009 and 2010 from gun dealers could include some of the nearly 2,000 firearms walked as part of the Justice Department’s Operation Fast & Furious.

We need clearer data from ATF and from Mexico.  Mexico needs to open up the gun vaults and allow more guns to be traced, not just the ones they select.  We need to know if military arsenals are being pilfered as a source — as media articles have claimed the State Department points to in diplomatic cables.

To that end, I sent a letter today to Secretary of State Clinton seeking all diplomatic cables discussing the sources of arms from Mexico, Central and South America.  I believe this information is relevant to Congress, given I discovered a July 2010 cable as part of my Fast & Furious investigation.  That cable, titled “Mexico Weapons Trafficking – The Blame Game” seeks to dispel myths about weapons trafficking.  Among other things, the State Department authors discuss what they perceive as, “Myth: An Iron Highway of Weapons Flows from the U.S.”

These cables are vitally important to Congress’ understanding of the problem.  Further, given they appear in documents the ATF submitted to Congress as part of Fast & Furious, there should be no reason for the State Department to withhold them as part of our legitimate oversight—even if they are classified.

There is a lot more to be said about the specific problems with the legislation that we are discussing today.  I plan to ask some questions to flush out those serious problems, and to make sure that we are not creating more unintended consequences and legislating away the Second Amendment rights of our citizens.

Thank you.

Rep. Gosar Leads Charge In Call for Accountability for ATF Fast and Furious

Written by  Hannah Loy 

House Members Call for Accountability and Transparency for ATF Fast and Furious Operation

WASHINGTON, DC – Tuesday, over a dozen members gathered to demand accountability and transparency from Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice for the failed and flawed gun running operation “Fast and Furious”. After months of evasive answers by this administration and those in charge of this program nearly 40 members of the U.S. House, some of whom are participating today, have called for Attorney General Holder’s resignation.
The firearms Attorney General Holder allowed to walk during this unprecedented operation have been linked to dozens of crime scenes, including the murder of a U.S. border patrol officer and hundreds of deaths in Mexico.
Congressman Paul Gosar (AZ-01) “Attorney General Holder’s refusal to take responsibility for the actions of his department is inexcusable. The American people need answers to how this operation was authorized and assurances that nothing like this can or will ever happen again.”



Congressman Raul Labrador (ID-01): “After reviewing Attorney General Holder’s conflicting testimonies, uncovered evidence and recently released documents on ‘Fast and Furious,’ it is clear that he is either lying or grossly incompetent. Either way, he is unfit to serve the American people as the highest law enforcement officer in the land. Mr. Holder can no longer refuse responsibility for the actions of departments under his purview that cost the life of decorated U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and that have put the lives of thousands of American citizens at risk. Eric Holder must resign, and responsible lawmakers and public servants should insist he do so.”

Congressman Blake Farenthold (TX-27): “The Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been trying to work with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Department of Justice and other federal departments and agencies but we have been stonewalled. There must be accountability and responsibility within the federal government to make sure nothing like Operation Fast and Furious happens again. American taxpayers have a right to know what happened, who knew about it, and who is ultimately responsible for Operation Fast and Furious going so wrong.”

Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02): "To consciously allow these guns to be bought and transferred illegally displayed an utter lack of regard for human safety, protocol, or common sense. Since the tragic death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, at least eleven more violent crimes have been committed; all involving weapons carelessly gifted to dangerous criminals by ATF. When Attorney General Holder testified before Congress this May, he claimed he had only learned about Fast and Furious a matter of weeks before the hearing. Official e-mail exchanges now confirm he received regular briefings on the operation, with e-mails dating as far back as July of 2010 -- nearly a YEAR before his testimony. If this isn't outrageous enough to justify Mr. Holder's resignation, I wonder what would be."

Congressman Tim Huelskamp (KS-01): “There are two options: either Mr. Holder is not telling the truth, or he is inept. In either case, he should resign.”

Congresswoman Diane Black (TN-06): “As I have said before: it’s time for Attorney General Holder to come clean with what he knew and when, and then he has to go. I am incensed that the Attorney General of the United States may have come before a Congressional Committee, held up his hand to take an oath, and then failed to tell the whole truth about what he knew about Fast and Furious and when. It is also deeply troubling that the Attorney General of the United States seems at best blasé about the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose murder is linked to Operation Fast and Furious guns. The American people deserve answers about this, but first and foremost, the Terry family deserves answers.”

Congressman Allen West (FL-22): “Attorney General Holder has proved time and again that he is not capable of being America’s top cop. President Obama needs to realize that Eric Holder needs to be removed from the Department of Justice as soon as possible. If the President does not push Holder out, the President would be complicit in the Justice Department’s attempts to thwart a Congressional investigation of Fast and Furious. This is just another sad chapter in the Eric Holder book of incompetence.”

Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18): "The Fast and Furious gunwalking scheme carried out by the Department of Justice at the direction of Attorney General Eric Holder has resulted not only in numerous violent crimes against American citizens but even the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Beyond the inconsistencies in Mr. Holder’s testimony before Congress about what he knew and when he knew it, this investigation raises troubling questions about his judgment and ability to remain at the helm of our nation's top law enforcement agency. The appropriate and necessary action is for Holder to voluntarily resign. And if he doesn't do so voluntarily, I call on the President to remove him."

Congressman Joe Walsh (IL-08): “The American people deserve to know the truth regarding Attorney General Eric Holder’s knowledge and role in the Fast and Furious operation. Holder is either trying to cover-up when he knew of this disastrous operation or is too incompetent to serve as the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. Either way, he must step down immediately.”

Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle (NY-25): “Today, I stand with over 40 other Members of the United States Congress in calling for the resignation of United States Attorney General Eric Holder. He has failed to uphold the duties of the Office of United States Attorney General and has lost public confidence. The botched Operation Fast and Furious has harmed U.S. and Mexico cross-border relations. The administration’s failure to coordinate its efforts in combating weapons trafficking has been a glaring omission in one of our country’s greatest national security interests. It is likely to lead to a rift in the bilateral relationship with one of our closest trading partners. Moreover, Attorney General Holder’s actions have illustrated disregard to the United States Constitution. The 2nd amendment is a sacred right of individuals and, unfortunately, its integrity has been undermined by the Attorney General. The Office of the U.S. Attorney General is tasked with upholding and protecting our Constitution. The U.S. government is responsible to the American people to hold Eric Holder accountable for his failure to properly carry out the duties of this office.”

Congressman Connie Mack (FL-14): "Eric Holder should resign Fast and Furiously!"

Congressman Walter Jones (NC-03): “Since the Attorney General seems unable to be honest with the American people, it is time for him to go,” said Jones. “Mr. Holder’s tenure has been marked by troubling decisions, b ut in the case of ‘Fast and Furious’, it appears that under his watch the lack of judgment at the Justice Department may have cost people their lives.”

Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (KS-02): “Fast and Furious was an inherently flawed and arguably criminal program, which appears to have been created by this Administration to validate their misguided theory on U.S. gun dealers. Given the horrendous nature and terrible failure of the Fast and Furious operation under his watch and the lack of complete transparency from the Justice Department in the aftermath, the only prudent path forward for Attorney General Holder would be to step down effective immediately.”

Congressman Michael G. Grimm (NY-13): “As a former federal law enforcement agent, I take the rule of law very seriously, especially when it concerns the death of a federal agent. I find it unbelievable that Attorney General Eric Holder was unaware of the details of the operation, and even more incomprehensible that the straw purchases continued on his watch without notifying our counterparts in U.S. embassy in Mexico of the details. Attorney General Holder has a repeated pattern of misleading members of Congress under oath, and Fast and Furious appears to be no exception. As a consequence, I believe he has lost all credibility with Congress and the American people, which is why I am calling for his resignation.”

Congressman Duncan Hunter (CA-52): “Fast & Furious isn’t the only problem facing the Attorney General. At the same time he refuses taking any responsibility for a bungled operation that put weapons in the hands of drug runners, the Justice Department has gone ahead and prosecuted another Border Patrol Agent. Several weeks ago, Agent Jesus Diaz was sentenced to two years in prison for lifting the arms of a drug smuggler while handcuffed. The Justice Department asserts the smuggler’s constitutional right against unreasonable force was violated, even though Agent Diaz was cleared of any wrongdoing in two investigations. The Department of Justice went as far as to seek out the smuggler and give him full immunity and other benefits in exchange for his testimony against Agent Diaz. This prosecution is just another example of the misplaced priorities and poor leadership of this Attorney General. America needs an Attorney General who’s committed to upholding the law instead of creating controversy. And the Border Patrol needs an Attorney General who recognizes the danger on the Southwest Border instead of making things more difficult and dangerous for those doing the job.”

Congressman Steve Pearce (NM-02): “Attorney General Eric Holder was not forthright in his previous testimony before Congress, and continues to raise far more questions than he answers,” said Pearce. “He provided contradicting statements on what he knew and when he knew it, regarding ‘Operation Fast and Furious.’ This is not what the American people deserve. Government officials should be held accountable for their actions, and must show respect for the people as well as their position. Mr. Holder’s actions are unacceptable, and he should resign.”


Prescott News

Members of Congress to Hold Presser on Calls for Holder's Resignation

Holder pushes back against GOP lawmakers over Fast and Furious

By Jordy Yager

 

Attorney General Eric Holder is trying to get in front of the Fast and Furious controversy that has led to calls from conservatives for his resignation.

Holder has shed the low-key persona that sought to quietly deflect a torrent of mounting congressional criticism over his role in a botched gun tracking operation.

In its place, President Obama’s top law enforcement official has embraced a new strategy, actively confronting and rebuffing the serious concerns and disparaging remarks emanating from Capitol Hill while admitting mistakes made by his department, promising to hold officials accountable, and vehemently seeking to tell his side of the story. 

For months Obama and his attorney general pointed to the ongoing inspector general (IG) investigation that Holder requested, saying that the unfolding information about Operation Fast and Furious was troubling, but keeping their comments to a minimum after top-ranking Republicans launched a congressional investigation into the quagmire at the beginning of the year.

But amid dozens of calls for his resignation and a series of heated comments —one Republican implied that he’s an accessory to murder — Holder has stepped up his approach.

“I'd like to correct some of the inaccurate, and frankly, irresponsible accusations surrounding Fast and Furious,” Holder announced at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week.

The hearing was Holder’s first before the committee since internal DOJ memos raised questions about whether he misled the House Judiciary Committee in May when he testified that he had first learned about Fast and Furious “over the last few weeks.”

The memos launched a spate of Republican calls for his resignation as lawmakers debated whether Holder lied to Congress under oath and questioned whether he was fit to hold office.

At Tuesday’s hearing Holder immediately clarified his remarks from his House testimony in May, saying that he first learned about Fast and Furious and its gun-walking tactics after news reports emerged based on the concerns of whistleblowers. He said he immediately asked for an IG investigation.

“In my testimony before the House committee, I did say ‘a few weeks,’” said Holder. “I probably could have said ‘a couple of months.’ I don’t think that what I said in terms of using the term ‘a few weeks’ was inaccurate, based on what happened.”

In a push to get out ahead of the news coverage that would follow the Senate hearing, DOJ officials released excerpts of Holder’s testimony the night before. In his remarks Holder admitted that Fast and Furious “was flawed in concept, as well as in execution…and it must never happen again.”

Holder’s remorseful sentiment, combined with his promise — under oath — that he would hold accountable those involved in Fast and Furious’ poor decision making once the IG investigation is completed, dominated much of the news coverage.

One sticking point emerged when Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) pressed Holder on a letter that assistant attorney general for legislative affairs Ronald Weich had written earlier that year, telling Grassley that the ATF made every effort to intercept guns traveling to Mexico.

Holder directly sought to assuage Grassley’s concern, telling him that he regrets that the DOJ officials who wrote that letter to Grassley used inaccurate information. But the attorney general stressed that officials believed the information to be true at the time, saying they did not intentionally mislead Congress.

Under Operation Fast and Furious, the ATF oversaw the sale of thousands of guns to known and suspected straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels. Many of those firearms are believed to be in Mexico. Two of the guns were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Brian Terry last December.

Republicans were left unsatisfied with Holder’s testimony, however. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, immediately fired off a letter to Weich questioning whether he lied to Congress in his letter to Grassley. 

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told Fox that Holder failed to “acquit himself” and criticized the attorney general for not holding anyone accountable.

Tuesday’s Senate hearing was the first instance of Holder publicly promising to hold officials responsible. But in August Holder quietly reassigned the head of the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Kenneth Melson and his deputy William Hoover, who oversaw the Arizona-based group in charge of Fast and Furious.

Holder offered no public statements at the time linking their reassignment to the roles they played in the operation.

Shortly after the internal shifts, Republicans stepped up the heat on Holder, with the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee asking Obama to appoint a special prosecutor to look into Holder’s role in Fast and Furious.

The growing chorus spurred Holder’s shift from passive to proactive, which was evidenced by his testimony this week. Last month he blasted the heightening attacks on himself and the DOJ in a letter to the chairman and ranking members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

“The public discourse concerning these issues has become so base and so harmful to interests that I hope we all share that I must now address these issues notwithstanding the Inspector General’s ongoing review,” wrote Holder. 

“I cannot sit idly by as a majority member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform suggests, as happened this week, that law enforcement and government employees who devote their lives to protecting our citizens be considered ‘accessories to murder.’ Such irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric must be repudiated in the strongest possible terms.”

Holder is scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee next month and will face a barrage of questions from Issa and other Republicans closely tracking the issue. But with only one Democrat from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sitting on the panel, the attorney general will largely have to fend for himself – a role he has embraced with vigor.


The Hill

Labor Department criticized for abandoning citizenship checks

By Charles S. Clark cclark@govexec.com


A year-old decision by the Labor Department to discontinue certain citizenship checks on employees of federal contractors is drawing fire from immigration reform groups, who view it as government "shirking" its responsibility to curb hiring of illegal workers.

At issue is whether the Labor office that monitors contractor compliance with anti-discrimination laws can leave it to the Homeland Security Department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau to verify workers' immigration status.

In November 2010, Patricia Shiu, director of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, issued a directive overturning George W. Bush administration guidance requiring OFCCP investigators in specified cases to examine I-9 immigration status forms or to use Homeland Security's electronic e-Verify program to identify illegal workers.

Under the new directive, OFCCP is focused less on immigration status and more on racial and gender discrimination. Its previous practice of examining I-9 forms was limited to routine on-site evaluations of contractor compliance and was not used during investigations prompted by specific complaints -- for fear of discouraging undocumented workers from reporting perceived discrimination.

On Oct. 20, the office announced a settlement it had reached with Texas-based Caviness Beef Packers, which has a $20 million contract to supply meat products for the federal school lunch program. The resulting conciliation agreement resolves findings that the company discriminated against job applicants on the basis of race and gender by rejecting them for positions at its two meat processing facilities. Caviness agreed to pay $600,000 to 746 applicants (plus pay back wages and interest), rehire at least 81 of those workers and revise its hiring process.

"The law is clear," Shiu said at the time. "Discrimination will not be tolerated by employers who profit from lucrative government contracts. We are committed to protecting workers from discrimination, including the hundreds of qualified white, black, Asian and female job seekers involved in this case."

The announcement prompted an inquiry to OFCCP from Monique Miles, an attorney with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a Washington group that seeks to protect legal rights and property of U.S. citizens from "damages caused by unlawful immigration."

According to institute documents provided to Government Executive, the attorney phoned OFCCP staff member Parag Mehta for clarification on the origins of the Caviness case and asked him whether Labor knew how many of the meat company's employees were "illegal aliens."

When told of Labor's November directive discontinuing citizenship checks on contractor employees, the institute attorney said she informed the OFCCP official that federal contractors are required to use the e-Verify program.

In her institute memo summarizing the incident, Miles cited as authority a 2009 U.S. district court ruling in a case brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. (Homeland Security's website states that e-Verify, while voluntary for most businesses, "is mandatory for some employers, such as those employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation e-Verify clause and employers in certain states.")

The OFCCP official said, according to the institute attorney, Labor is no longer coordinating or referring cases to ICE.

Miles concluded in her memo that Labor "is shirking its responsibility to protect U.S. workers by turning a blind eye to the presence of unlawful workers at contractors' worksites."

That view was echoed by Ira Mehlman, media spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which pursues stricter enforcement of immigration laws. "It is odd, to say the least, that the department charged with enforcing labor laws would adopt a policy that precludes them from determining if illegal aliens are being employed," he told Government Executive. "It is additionally disturbing that DOL is both ignoring an executive order designed to ensure that companies that benefit from lucrative government contracts employ legally eligible workers and withholding information from ICE, which is responsible for enforcing immigration laws."

A Labor Department spokesman in an email cited the aforementioned 2008 executive order that said, "federal contractors must verify the employment eligibility of their employees by using an electronic verification system designated by the secretary of Homeland Security, commonly known as e-Verify. DHS enforces this requirement and administers the e-Verify system. In light of this method of employment verification, it is no longer efficient or effective for OFCCP investigators to inspect I-9s during their on-site compliance reviews. Rather than continuing this practice, we decided to concentrate our resources on enforcing the non-discrimination provisions that OFCCP enforces."

A DHS spokeswoman, Gillian Christensen, said, "while ICE enjoys a strong working relationship with the Department of Labor, we are not in a position to comment on any of their internal policies or directives." She also declined to discuss whether ICE receives referrals from Labor. "ICE receives tips, intelligence and referrals from a variety of sources," she said. "The nature of these sources is law enforcement-sensitive and, as a matter of policy, is not something we discuss publicly."

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who has long favored a crackdown on illegal immigration, said in an email to Government Executive, "The Obama administration's actions continue to show that they are putting illegal immigrants ahead of the interests of American workers. It's unfortunate that the Department of Labor is not doing everything it can to help put unemployed Americans back to work. While it is true the Department of Homeland Security administers the federal e-Verify program, the Department of Labor has a responsibility to team up with other agencies to ensure jobs are protected for legal workers."


Government Executive

Govt urges justices to say out of immigration case

Josh Molina - email

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - 

The Justice Department is urging the Supreme Court to stay out of a dispute over Arizona's immigration law, saying that lower courts properly blocked tough provisions targeting illegal immigrants.

The Justice Department says that the state law is a challenge to federal policy and is designed to establish Arizona's own immigration policy. The state of Arizona says the law is an effort to cooperate with the federal government.

One provision requires that police, while enforcing other laws, question people's immigration status if officers suspect they are in the country illegally.

In April, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge's ruling blocking key provisions of the Arizona law.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.