Hydrablog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/18/AR2009061804108.html
Nation Digest
Friday, June 19, 2009
DRUG CRIME
ICE Given More Investigative Power
[Obama white house] [bush administration residual] [DHS], DoJ] [comprehensive immigration reform] [bureaucratic] [dates back at least to 9/11 Final Report’s recommendations] [followup] [long, hard slog ahead] [long an issue in the US and globally (recall the rescue of north African iimigrants we witnessed in Turkey in 2006 and the international incident created] [while problematic well before 9/11, the attacks created a new a renewed impetus to change] [and yet, here we are approaching 8 years hence, and still scratching our heads?] [use psci350, 355, 390-5] [**]
The Obama administration ended a years-long turf war between the Justice and Homeland Security departments yesterday, giving more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents authority to investigate drug crimes. [use psci355] [**]

Leaders of ICE and the Drug Enforcement Administration replaced a 1994 agreement that capped the number of customs agents who could investigate federal drug crimes and limited it to those who make seizures at border crossings.

When the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003, ICE's size and national presence were expanded. However, DEA and the Justice Department refused to lift the cap, set at 1,475 agents, citing the potential for poor coordination. ICE has about 5,000 agents overall, and the DEA has about 4,800.

John Morton, DHS assistant secretary for ICE, and Michele M. Leonhart, DEA acting administrator, yesterday signed a new pact that permits ICE to name an unlimited number of agents anywhere in the country to investigate federal drug crimes linked to U.S. borders.

ICE committed to share information with the DEA.

Morton did not say how many more ICE agents he would designate, but he said the agreement would be reviewed in one year and every two years after that.
-- Spencer S. Hsu
SECRETARY OF STATE
Clinton to Have Surgery on Elbow
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expects to have surgery soon to repair a broken elbow she suffered in a fall in the State Department garage.

Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Clinton was working from home Thursday and had made no decision about whether to go ahead with planned overseas travel, including a trip next week to Italy and Greece. Crowley said Clinton was walking toward her official vehicle when she fell about 5 p.m. Wednesday. She was examined in her office and then taken to George Washington University Hospital, Crowley said.
-- Associated Press
Midwest Storms Spawn Possible Tornadoes: Powerful storms that rolled across the Midwest brought heavy rain and strong winds and spawned several apparent tornadoes, damaging homes and businesses, tossing rail cars off their tracks and knocking out power to thousands in Minnesota, Illinois and Nebraska.

California Students Cleared From Quarantine: A group of Carlsbad, Calif., students and teachers was released Thursday after being quarantined for a week in China because some of their classmates tested positive for swine flu, a school spokeswoman said. The group will leave Saturday.

Mississippi Civil Rights Slayings to Get Historical Marker: Mississippi officials say a historical marker can be placed on Mississippi 19, the state highway near where civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were murdered in 1964.
-- From News Services
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