Behind the corinthian columns of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s premiere corporate advocacy association, talk of a crackdown on immigrants takes a clinical tone, far different from the bombastic rhetoric found on talk radio or at a Donald Trump campaign rally.
Lora Ries, speaking at a Chamber conference in 2011 on national security and immigration, spoke calmly about the need for a vast expansion of immigration enforcement. And rather than simply securing the borders, the government should “focus on interior enforcement so that there are those routine consequences,” she said. The government should integrate databases and step up the criminal penalties for those in the country without documentation. After all, she noted, we must “remove the hay to expose the needles.”
Ries, a longtime lobbyist for a variety of homeland security contractors, is one of the latest hires by the Trump transition to remake the Department of Homeland Security.
Her selection is the latest evidence that Trump is preparing to fulfill his pledge to step up deportations.
Ries began her career in government, serving as an official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and as a Republican counsel to the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. But for much of the last decade, Ries has moved through the revolving door as a lobbyist for the contractors profiting from harsh immigration policies.
Her current employer is CSRA International, a massive federal information technology contractor that, among other things, sells the GangNet software that underpins gang databases maintained by 13 states, ICE, the FBI and ATF.
Disclosure documents show that in 2008, Ries lobbied on behalf of USIS, a company that provided background checks for the federal government, on its work for the controversial Secure Communities program. Secure Communities, developed in 2008 under President George Bush as a partnership between federal and local law enforcement, compelled local police to share arrestees’ fingerprints with federal immigration officials, a move designed to initiative deportation proceedings.
The program was criticized for its role in deputizing local police as immigration officials, and for driving undocumented communities underground for fear that even reporting a crime to the police could lead to being turned over to ICE. In 2014, President Obama replaced Secure Communities with the Priority Enforcement Program, an effective rebranding strategy that kept many of the same enforcement priorities regarding undocumented migrants with criminal records. The measure was announced alongside the intended carrot of immigration relief in the form of executive action to allow the parents of permanent residents, as well as minors who entered the country, an opportunity to apply for deferred action in order to prevent deportation. The program for parents was blocked this year by a federal court.
The role of private contractors such as USIS in spearheading the program has received little scrutiny. LinkedIn pages for several former analysts for the firm working on the program provide some clues. One analyst employed by USIS to work on Secure Communities said he “analyzed the immigration status and criminal history of all non-US citizens arrested in the jurisdictions that participated in this program” and “helped prioritize the removal of those individuals who posed the greatest risk to public safety.”
USIS, notably, lost a lucrative contract with the federal government last year after it was revealed that firm frequently submitted fraudulent background investigative work to its government clients, including the Office of Personnel Management, that was the victim of a massive hack involving millions of government personnel records in June 2015. The firm was also the same company that performed the background check on National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. Last year, after losing its contract, Altegrity, the USIS parent company, filed for bankruptcy protection.
Ries, from 2007 to 2010, lobbied Congress and the federal agencies on a broad range of homeland security issues on behalf of private contractors, including Boeing, General Dynamics, CA Technologies, EADS North America, Implant Sciences Corp., L1 Identity Solutions, and TASC Inc.
She went on to work for Computer Sciences Corporation, helping to lead the firm’s immigration and security work with the government. CSC, known widely for its work on behalf of the military, also provides contract solutions to immigration-related government agencies. In 2011, the firm landed a $67 million contract to maintain the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ system for E-Verify, the program to allow businesses to verify the eligibility of new employees.
“Criminals and terrorists hide by blending in with ordinary people engaged in everyday, lawful activities,” claims a CSC document published on of the “Business Challenge” of immigration. “For front-line officers, confidence in border-crossing identities and the ability to accurately assess the risks each individual poses, is more difficult and more important than ever,” it further adds, listing Ries as the CSC official to contact.
The selection of Ries as a senior official overseeing the transition at DHS, the agency that includes ICE and border enforcement, means privatized deportation interest groups will have a direct line to the new administration.
Already, major government contractors are viewing Trump’s promised immigration policies as a potential goldmine. CACI International, a defense contractor, told investors in November that they stand poised to benefit from increased immigration enforcement. Palantir, the intelligence firm backed by Trump adviser Peter Thiel, maintains a significant contract to analyze troves of data used by ICE for deportation proceedings.
Top photo: Lora L. Ries speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on “The State of Homeland Security Since 9/11: Looking Back, Looking Forward” on Aug. 17, 2011.
DHS Contractors have found a gold mine.
X Agency scum perform GangStalking and RF Harassment out of Fusion Centers.
They murder, over time, anyone suspected of dissent .
Military DEW’s, maim, torture and slow-kill.
See: Iraqi Poppers .
Contractors, such an easy way to make profit, get kickbacks and do shitty work. All you need is a politician friend. Way faster than hiring and giving someone actual responsabilites over their work.
http://technoloman.com/easiest-cybersecurity-flaw-trust-call-center-contractors/
Deporting all law abiding citizens, so that only the criminals are left, sounds good in theory. After all, criminals hide by blending into the general population. Once there is no general population, that strategy will be defeated.
But it’s logistically difficult, although Ms. Ries would probably see that as a profit opportunity for companies providing logistical support to this effort. However, the average American, who has done nothing wrong, is probably going to object to being deported. So I suspect it will be difficult to muster political support for this plan. Although accusing anyone opposing the plan of being a Russian sympathizer might work.
In her capacity as the Director of Immigration Reform Strategy for Computer Sciences Corporation, Lora Ries co-authored a white paper entitled “Modernizing the Global Visa Environment: An Operating Model for the 21st Century.” It is well worth a read if one wants to understand the intended direction that Ms. Rees wants to take Americans in.
http://assets1.csc.com/innovation/downloads/Visa_Modernization.pdf
Yeah not really sure how physically or legally future Pres. Trump is going to be able to deport more human beings, or faster, than Pres. Obama has.
I mean the deportation system is already bursting at the seams trying to process the human beings it has in the deportation pipeline now.
But hey I could easily be wrong. We are in somewhat uncharted territory with the POTUS elect’s policies and the prospective actions of his appointees and the departments and agencies they will head.
Be interesting to see how they deal with the professional civil service and legal system bureaucracies when push comes to shove, because neither are beholden to Trump or his appointees in any way.
Most of my fellow Americans, unfortunately, don’t hold my view that every non-citizen human being here presently in America without proper legal documentation, and who also isn’t a felon or other serious misdemeanant, should be given a fairly quick and easy path to citizenship. And then the whole immigration system reformed to be easy–but with immigration being strictly regulated so as not depress wages employing exploitable human beings without the full rights of citizenship.
But like I said, that isn’t likely to happen because it appears at least a significant minority of my fellow citizens don’t want that to happen.
So I think, by and large, stopping the acceleration of deportations of undocumented residents of the US is going to be a touch political and practical battle and one the left is going to struggle with advancing. And as a practical matter to the actual degree a Trump administration can accelerate beyond the rate and present capacity of the Obama administration, the only effective tools are going to be non-cooperation by states, cities and municipalities and the work of legal organizations and lawyers, which are somewhat limited tools in this arena.
I mean that’s pretty much the sad reality of the situation for all those human beings who will be negatively effected as a function of their undocumented immigration status in this country assuming the incoming Trump administration attempts to do what he has indicated he will, and appears to be auguring toward with his appointments. Guess we’re about to find out.
Hmmm, well, if they don’t come here, they won’t be “exploited”.
Problem solved.
It’s funny how there’s not a word in this article about how Obama has deported more than two million people. Go figure.
hi chris i went and figured and
what i came up with is that
lee fang presumes the readers
here don’t need to be retold
the same facts already
again
&
again
Privatized prisons. Now, privatized deportation firms. They make money off the misery and misfortune of mostly poor people; then justify it and make themselves credible to the rest of the population by telling them they are making them safe.
I’m glad someone else sees it.
Likewise. Damn internet, you scary.
The immiseration of others has always been a great source of profit for the unscrupulous and the downright sociopathic.
That is it in a nutshell.
I hear a deafening whoosh! as public funds – tax-payers money, is vacuumed up into the private sector so huge profits can be made by a few at the cost of the many. Ironically, it’s welfare for the rich paid for by the poor. A feudal model, where the workers are bound by law to pay for the lifestyles of the rich and powerful even as it leaves them starving, illiterate and abused.
I know the Government sector needs a massive overhaul but I am chilled that there is no attempt to deal with it. Instead, the money is diverted into private pockets by powerful lobbyists.
Some things are just not-for-enrichment-enterprises, especially not in a democratic society that once prided itself on striving for the best for all humanity. The profit comes from investing in the future: a better educated people, a more compassionate society, a more just society, respect, the right to a dignified life, striving for and making progress on ideals. Ideals that were once thought of as a shining hallmark of America have been/are being melted down; gold ingots to be squirreled away by covetous and greedy power-brokers.
Lee you have been exposed as a total fake. Obama has deported more people than any president in history. Courts have found him in violation of basic human rights for holding immigrants. He has argued before the courts for the right to indefinitely detain immigrants and refuse them hearings that even terrorists are entitled to.
You don’t care about immigrants because you down play these material abuses of the Obama administration; and instead engage in per-crime accusations against Trump, whom you hate. You only use immigrants as pawns to either parade around when it suits your politics, or to sweep quietly under the rug when you Dear Leader Obama abuses them.
Obama was mentioned once in this article, and not in a positive light. His immigration policies are attacked all the time at The Intercept, with good reason. And this is one area where he and Trump share common ground, because if anything, Trump has promised to be even more aggressive when it comes to illegal immigrants.
What are you smoking?
Jamie, nonsense. Lee Fang has not protected Obama, now or ever.
Fang’s description of Obama’s approach as “a rebranding strategy” in this article is what a thoughtful reader might call an indictment.
What a load of hysterical baloney, Jamie!
Obama has NOT deported more than anyone… Coulter exposes this lie in her book … the “count” has been corrupted by numbers of migrants “turned back” at the border…. calling those DEPORTATIONS.,
We must be vigilant as the left will bombard us with 3 hankie narratives for each deported sob story.
We cannot offer Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and schooling to 600 million Peasants to the south,
That is the grim reality of the leftist mentality. They want everything for everybody … paid for by those who have succeeded in taking care of themselves.
Take away the food stamps, welfare checks, schooling and healthcare… and the peasants stay home…
Who else read the first line and scrolled down?
I know I did.