Ted Robbins

Bill Would Put Immigration Verification System To The Test

Ted Robbins — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:35:00 +0000

Some employers around the nation have been using E-Verify to check the immigration status of employees for years. Operated by the Department of Homeland Security, the online system is designed to make it harder to hire unauthorized workers — and harder for those workers to find jobs.

While participation in the program has been voluntary since 1996, the immigration bill now in the Senate would make E-Verify mandatory.

In Arizona, the Tucson-based social services organization PPEP employs more than 500 workers.

U.S. Aims To Track Foreigners Who Arrive, But Never Leave

Ted Robbins — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:23:00 +0000

Nearly half the people now in the U.S. illegally didn't climb walls, wade across the Rio Grande or trek through the desert to get here. They arrived legally, with tourist or student visas. And when those visas expired, they just never left.

Like the rest of the 11 million undocumented people in the United States, they are part of the underground economy and the government doesn't know where they are.

With Budget Cuts For Ports, Produce May Perish

Ted Robbins — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:02:00 +0000

Budget-cutting from the government sequester that began March 1 could affect U.S. exports and imports, including what we eat.

Customs and Border Protection officers regulate trade at the nation's 329 ports of entry, in harbors, airports and on land.

One by one, drivers approach booths with Customs and Border Protection officers at the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz. More winter produce enters here than at any other place in the U.S.

Sequester Cuts Free Some Immigration Detainees

Ted Robbins — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:13:00 +0000

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency has released hundreds of immigration detainees ahead of Friday's sequester deadline. The decision was made to help bring down the agency's budget, in light of the automatic spending cuts. ICE officials are getting both praise and a lot of heat for the unusual move. NPR's Ted Robbins has the story.

TED ROBBINS, BYLINE: ICE has released people from some of the nation's 250 immigration detention centers. Immigrant rights advocates have qualified praise for what the release means to families.

The 'Line' For Legal Immigration Is Already About 4 Million People Long

Ted Robbins — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:51:00 +0000

In the back and forth between Congress and the White House over immigration, both sides seem to agree that people now in the U.S. illegally should wait at "the back of the line" for legal residency — meaning no green card until all other immigrants get theirs.

But that presents a problem, because the wait for a green card can take decades.

Maria has been waiting in line with her husband for 16 years and counting for what the government calls a priority date for legal residency. Because she is in the U.S.

Fla. Tomato Growers Think Trade Deal With Mexico Is Rotten

Ted Robbins — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:04:00 +0000

Half of all tomatoes eaten in the U.S. come from Mexico, and tomato growers in Florida aren't happy about that. In fact, they're willing to risk a trade war to reverse the trend.

At JC Distributing In Nogales, Ariz., one misstep and you're likely to get knocked over by a pallet full of produce. Forklifts crisscross each other carrying peppers, squash and especially tomatoes from trucks backed into the warehouse loading dock.

"This is a Mexican truck being unloaded," says JC President Jaime Chamberlain.

How A Community Created A Garden From Sadness

Ted Robbins — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 11:15:00 +0000

Brad Holland had big plans for the empty lot he owns in midtown Tucson, Ariz.

"This was going to be my dream house before the economy collapsed," Holland says. "I had a big empty lot and said, 'Wow, a lot of good can come out of this.' "

He and the neighborhood decided to turn it into a community garden. There are 21 plots and about 50 gardeners. They were about to till the soil for planting two years ago when a gunman opened fire in another part of town, killing six and wounding 13.

Immigration Reform Before Border Control, Experts Say

Ted Robbins — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 22:53:00 +0000

Since the mid-1980s, the U.S. Border Patrol has quintupled in size — growing from about 4,000 to more than 20,000 agents.

The government has constructed some 700 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers. It has placed thousands of ground sensors, lights, radar towers and cameras along the border. And Customs and Border Protection is now flying drones and helicopters to locate smuggles and rescue stranded immigrants.

Manhattan Project Sites Part Of Proposed Park

Ted Robbins — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:11:00 +0000

Congress is considering whether to turn three top-secret sites involved with creating the atomic bomb into one of the country's most unusual national parks.

The Manhattan Project — the U.S. program to design and build the first atomic bomb during World War II — largely took place at three sites: Los Alamos, N.M.; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and Hanford, Wash. On July 16, 1945, the first test of an atomic bomb took place at a site in the southern New Mexico desert.

Border Killings Prompt Scrutiny Over Use Of Force

Ted Robbins — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 21:13:00 +0000

The Department of Homeland Security is examining its policy on deadly force along the U.S.-Mexico border. In less than two years, U.S. Border Patrol agents have killed 18 Mexican citizens there — including eight people who were throwing rocks.

Last month, Border Patrol agents responded to a report of two drug smugglers jumping the fence between the twin cities of Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales in the Mexican state of Sonora. As the agents approached, a group of people on the Mexican side began throwing rocks. The Border Patrol says the agents told the people to stop.