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Al Arabiya
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Border Patrol hiring spree offers lessons as another Immigration agency embarks on massive growth
In 2006, top US Border Patrol officials were asked how long it would take to hire 6,000 agents–a roughly 50 percent increase at the time. Michael Fisher, then deputy chief in San Diego, says the officials concluded they would need five years. 'You have 2 1/2 years,' Fisher recalls being told. With Immigration and Customs Enforcement now preparing to add 10,000 employees within five years to assist with President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts, the Border Patrol's torrid expansion in the early 2000s serves as a cautionary tale. Hiring and training standards were changed, and arrests for employee misconduct rose. Pressure to turbo-charge growth can also lead to attrition. 'If they don't uphold pretty rigorous standards and background checks, you can end up hiring the wrong people, and then you pay a huge price in how the public perceives them,' said Gil Kerlikowske, who was commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol's parent agency, from 2014 to 2017. ICE, the main agency responsible for arresting and deporting people within the US, is set to get 76.5 billion, nearly 10 times its annual budget, under a bill Trump signed on July 4. Most of that money is for detention, but some is for hiring and other uses. The White House says ICE will grow from 20,000 employees to about 30,000. 'To do it today is an effort that needs to start years ago,' said Matthew Hudak, former Border Patrol deputy chief. 'The funding is there, but it is nearly impossible to bring in that many people that quickly because you hit challenges.' The Border Patrol nearly doubled its workforce from 11,264 agents in October 2005 to 21,444 agents six years later. To recruit officers, the agency sponsored a NASCAR race car and bull riding contests. It aired ads during Dallas Cowboys football games. It advertised at military bases. Billboards and job fairs hundreds of miles from the border promised fulfilling careers, resulting in thousands of applications a week. The agency also loosened some hiring guidelines and training requirements. The age limit for new hires was raised to 40 years old from 37. Spanish language training was cut by up to 30 days, some training was moved online, and other instruction was shifted to the field to lessen time at a training academy that the agency opened in Artesia, New Mexico, during the hiring surge, according to a Government Accountability Office report. Arrests for illegal crossings fell to their lowest levels in decades–a sign for some that the strategy succeeded. But other measurements were more troubling. In 2008, the Border Patrol struggled to keep new agents, with about 20 percent failing to graduate from the academy and more leaving after returning to their stations. Arrests of CBP employees for misconduct increased to 336 in the 2012 fiscal year from 190 seven years earlier. The agency saw a spate of high-profile corruption cases, including agents accused of smuggling people across the border or working with drug cartels to bring illegal drugs into the US. The polygraph pass rate for new applicants tumbled to 33 percent in 2012 from 58 percent four years earlier. While the accuracy of the tests came under scrutiny, one applicant admitted that his brother-in-law, a known Mexican drug smuggler, asked him to use his employment to facilitate cocaine trafficking. Another admitted to using marijuana 9,000 times, including the night before the exam. A 2015 Homeland Security report found that the number of investigators assigned to internal wrongdoing was woefully inadequate for the agency's growth. 'Any time you have massive political pressure to beef up overnight, it never turns out well,' said T.J. Bonner, the former president of the Border Patrol agents union, who retired in 2011. 'Too many corners have to be cut. Then when things go wrong, the fingers get pointed.' ICE and Homeland Security did not respond to questions about lessons that the Border Patrol's hiring spree or detailed plans for hiring at ICE. 'The unprecedented funding for ICE will enable my hard-working officers and agents to continue making America safe again by identifying, arresting, and removing criminal aliens from our communities,' Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, said after Trump signed the bill. Critics say the administration's policy to target anyone in the country illegally, not just those with criminal records, could lead to abuses. Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff and lead architect of his immigration policies, had set an aggressive target of at least 3,000 arrests a day, even before any additional hiring. 'When there are no priorities, everybody's a priority,' said Nayna Gupta, policy director of the American Immigration Council. 'You're very likely to see confusion, delay, wrongful arrest, more mistakes when law enforcement agencies, especially large ones, don't have clear direction and guidance for prioritization.' Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said competition for qualified law enforcement is tough, with departments now offering signing bonuses of 10,000 to 100,000. Border Patrol staffing has yet to return to its peaks of the early 2010s. Trump tried to increase staffing in his first term. A contract with consulting firm Accenture PLC cost 13.6 million to set up in 2018 and resulted in only two hires over 10 months. Trump's bill allocates about 170 billion for border and immigration enforcement, with 4.1 billion for CBP hiring that includes 3,000 more Border Patrol agents. It comes at a time of historically low crossings after they reached a record high in December 2023.
New York Times
08-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
The Businessman Grateful for Trump's Tariffs
Jorge H. Martínez, the owner of a small Mexican company near the U.S. border, has seen how President Trump's threats of steep tariffs have upended markets, bent geopolitics and thrown businesses into uncertainty. He's thrilled about it. As much of Mexico's business world worried over the nightmare outcomes that tariffs could cause, Mr. Martínez saw an opportunity. 'In a crisis, if you're prepared, you win,' Mr. Martínez, 40, said as he sat in his office above the hum and clank of machines spitting out tiny plastic parts by the dozen. 'Truth is, this whole thing benefited us.' He is the chief executive of Micro Partes, which has about 50 employees in the industrial city of Monterrey. They create a tiny universe of straps, plugs, fasteners, grommets, zip ties and clamps — objects that are critical to many production lines but that most people don't give a second thought to, if they notice them at all. The products include a hollow ring to protect cables as they pass through walls, a lid to cover the heads of the washing-machine screws, and buttons to hold advertisements on shopping carts. Mr. Martínez has long faced steep competition from China, where many of these parts are made cheaply. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Artistic Milliners' new facility in Mexico commences production
This development is a key step in the company's strategy to innovate and expand within the Western Hemisphere. AM Mexico, which occupies a 10-acre site with a 150,000ft2 production area, is focused on the manufacture and laundering of jeans for both current and new international clients. The plant is equipped with advanced automation in various stages of production, including cutting, sewing, finishing, and laundry processes for high efficiency, accuracy, and uniform quality. Among others, the facility employs advanced equipment and technology from Lectra, Jeanologia, Tonello, C Tex, IMA, Morgan, Tajima, Hashima, Sip-Italy, Smart MRT, and Triveneta. Artistic Milliners' chief executive officer Murtaza Ahmed said: "The opening of AM Mexico is the culmination of years of investments and commitments to Artistic Milliners' customers, who from day one supported our vision to offer them multi- country / multi-category products. They now have a denim factory in this hemisphere that meets and exceeds their expectation for product creation and automation." The company acquired the site from VF Corp., previously known as Dickies de Parras S. de RL de CV, last year and has since made significant enhancements. AM Mexico is strategically located near the US border, thereby minimising shipping times and costs. It also benefits from proximity to key transport centres like Torreon and Saltillo. Artistic Milliners managing director Omer Ahmed said: "By tapping into Artistic Milliners' Western Hemisphere network, our brand partners can accelerate their development and production timelines. AM Mexico will shave up to 13 weeks off delivery timelines - and it also unlocks the benefits of reduced risk and supply chain resilience.' The facility joins Artistic Milliners' global network and its expanding presence in the Western Hemisphere which includes Star Fades International (SFI) and Star Fades Studios in the US and partnerships with entities like Cone Denim. In 2023, SFI, owned by Artistic Milliners signed a deal to expand denim nearshoring opportunities across the Western Hemisphere with Guatemala-based garment manufacturer Denimville. Earlier this year, AM Mexico announced a collaboration with The LYCRA Company alongside Star Fades International (SFI) based in Los Angeles to introduce LYCRA FitSense denim technology in North America for the first time. "Artistic Milliners' new facility in Mexico commences production" was originally created and published by Just Style, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Daily Mail
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
All I wanted was to visit my friends in the US... but I was detained for 12 hours and sent back to Australia
An Australian writer has claimed he was turned away from the US border after being grilled on his views on the Gaza conflict and articles he wrote about pro-Palestinian protests. Alistair Kitchen, 33, boarded a flight from Melbourne to New York to visit friends on June 12 when he was pulled to one side by a Customs and Border Protection officer during a layover in Los Angeles. He was detained for 12 hours at Los Angeles International Airport before being put on a flight back to Melbourne. Mr Kitchen said he was refused entry to the US because of his political beliefs, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has since said this is 'unequivocally false'. The writer lived in the US for six years before moving back home to Castlemaine, in regional Victoria, last year, and between 2022 and 2024 he studied at Columbia University. Mr Kitchen claimed a customs officer told him he was being detained because of his views on the pro-Palestinian rallies that took place on campus at the New York university last year. 'I was interrogated about my beliefs on the crisis in Gaza. I told him what I believe: that the war is a tragedy in which all parties have blood on their hands, but which can and must come to an immediate end,' he wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald. 'One party is dominant, and that party can end the death and destruction today.' Mr Kitchen recalled being asked to provide the officer with his phone passcode, which he did, and later admitted he regrets. The content of his phone is said to have been downloaded by border agents, who subsequently found evidence of prior drug use. He was told he had not declared drug use on his Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) form, was taken to immigration detention and put on a flight home. Mr Kitchen said he told the agents he had consumed drugs before in New York, where marijuana is legal, and that he had bought weed at dispensaries in the US. His phone was not returned to him until he landed back on Australian soil. 'The individual in question was denied entry because he gave false information on his [Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) application] regarding drug use,' a DHS spokesperson told ABC News. DHS did not specifically deny Mr Kitchen was asked about the Israel-Gaza conflict, but said the US, under President Donald Trump, had the 'most secure border' in American history. The spokesperson said lawful travellers 'have nothing to fear' from measures intended to protect the US's security. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) warned Australian travellers that entry requirements into the US were 'strict'. 'US authorities have broad powers to decide if you're eligible to enter and may determine that you are inadmissible for any reason under US law,' DFAT's Smarttraveller website reads. 'Officials may ask to inspect your electronic devices, emails, text messages or social media accounts. If you refuse, they can deny your entry. 'You can be refused entry if you provide false information or can't satisfy the officials you're visiting for a valid reason.'
CNN
30-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Dreams cut short, Chinese students anxious and angry over ‘aggressive' US visa ban plans
Kiwi Zhang, a computer science student from China, was full of hope for his academic future in the United States – until his visa was revoked at the US border last week. The first-year PhD student at a university in central US had just presented his research at a conference in Asia. He was returning to the US after a brief visit home when his American dream was abruptly cut short. According to Zhang, he was detained at the border for 48 hours by US officials, who confiscated his phone and laptop, and searched his belongings. He said they questioned him about his ties to the Chinese Communist Party and meetings with friends while in China. At the end of the interrogation, Zhang said he was deported and barred from the US for five years, on suspicion of having shared his research with the Chinese government – an allegation he denies. He is now back in China and mulling his next steps. 'I never imagined this could happen to me,' said Zhang, who – like everyone CNN spoke to for this story – asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation. 'I didn't know things would get this extreme after Donald Trump returned to office. His administration is jeopardizing my academic future, and I feel powerless to defend my rights.' Now, many Chinese students studying in the US fear they could meet the same fate, after President Trump's administration vowed on Wednesday to 'aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.' The announcement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio was brief and vaguely worded, but it sent shock waves through China, triggering widespread confusion, anxiety and fear among current and prospective students and their families, as well as strong opposition from Beijing. Student chat groups lit up with messages of disbelief. Education consultants were flooded with panicked phone calls. Many students aired their frustration and anger on social media. At a regular news conference Thursday, China's foreign ministry accused the Trump administration of using ideology and national security as a 'pretext' for the 'politically motivated and discriminatory' move. Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of young Chinese minds, drawn by the prestige of a world-class education and the allure of the American dream, found themselves facing a stark reality: the future they had worked so hard for now hangs in the balance, held hostage by the whims of a US administration that increasingly views them – and their homeland – as a threat. 'What strikes me is how tiny individuals are in the tide of history – career plans can collapse overnight,' said Joyce, who received an offer from her dream school, Harvard, to pursue a master's degree in architecture. Her visa from her undergraduate program in the US is still valid for another year, but she did not dare to return to China for the summer, worrying that she might be denied reentry at the US border. 'I can't help wishing I'd grown up in a golden age of US-China relations,' she said. For decades, China's brightest minds have flocked to America, as their home country played catch-up with the world's leading superpower. Until last year, Chinese students made up the largest group of international students in the US, contributing significantly to the economy and helping America maintain its competitive edge in scientific research and technological innovation. But as strategic rivalry between the two nations intensifies, mistrust has deepened. Both sides have ramped up national security measures and grown more protective of their advanced technologies – particularly in sensitive sectors with military implications. During his first term in 2020, Trump introduced a ban that effectively denied US visas to graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields from Chinese universities believed to be linked to the military. Within just three months, more than 1,000 Chinese nationals had their visas revoked, and the order remained in place under former President Joe Biden. It's unclear how quickly or widely the new revocations will be carried out. But the fear is palpable in CNN's interviews with Chinese students. Studying in a country that has long held itself up as a beacon of freedom, many were too afraid to speak openly under their real names – a fear all too familiar to those back in China. They include David Yang, whose heart sank when he saw Rubio's announcement. 'This is just too surreal,' said the second-year PhD student in theoretical chemistry at a top university in the Midwestern US. 'When the news broke, some classmates said they were working on their final assignments but completely lost the motivation to continue. I felt the same way,' he said. In recent weeks, Yang has found it nearly impossible to focus on his research, simulating how molecules interact with each other in the human body. Instead, he's been glued to the news, anxiously tracking Trump's escalating war on elite universities and international students, trying to gauge whether he might land in the crossfire. Last week, the Trump administration barred Harvard University from enrolling international students, accusing the prestigious institution of 'coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party,' among other allegations. Although a federal court has since blocked the move, the State Department soon followed with a diplomatic cable instructing US embassies and consulates worldwide to halt new student visa appointments. As Yang scrolled through the headlines, periods of anxiety would suddenly hit, and he found himself compulsively refreshing news sites over and over. 'I felt sad, lost and helpless. It's been incredibly stressful,' he said. 'The constant policy changes bring so much uncertainty into our lives. It really impacts productivity and, over time, takes a toll on your mental health – and for me, it already has.' Worried about his visa, Yang is planning on canceling his trip home this winter. His major could well fall under what Rubio called 'critical fields' and – like millions of Chinese students – he's a member of the Communist Youth League, a youth branch of the 99-million-strong Communist Party for those aged between 14 and 28. In China, most students are Youth League members by the time they finish high school, or have party members among family and friends – thanks to the party's ubiquity across government and business, as well as cultural and social sectors. 'The vast majority of people in China have some connection to the Communist Party – so this is essentially the same as condemning all Chinese students with a single stroke,' Yang said. Zhang, the student whose visa was revoked at the border, said US officials asked whether anyone in his family was a member of the Communist Party. He told them both of his parents were. They then questioned him about his own affiliation with the Communist Youth League, he said. 'I said I've never had any connection with them. The Communist Youth League charges us seven or eight yuan (about $1) a year, but there are no activities at all. But the officials said: 'You are lying.' I honestly didn't know what to say. I could only sit there, stunned,' Zhang said. Facing potential deportation in the middle of their hard-won education, some Chinese students are considering other options. Ella Liu, a math undergraduate at the University of Michigan, is visiting family in the southern city of Guangzhou before her summer research project in the US starts next month. 'Me and my parents are all praying that I won't be banned from entering the country in June,' she said. Liu was drawn to the US by its academic freedom and resources. But if the hardline visa policy continues, she might consider transferring to another university in Europe or Hong Kong. 'I am very determined to study mathematics and there are also many excellent math resources in other countries, such as in France,' she said. Like many Chinese students, Liu comes from a middle-class family. Her parents saved for years for her to attend college in the US, where tuition and living costs can run to more than $80,000 – much more than getting a degree in Europe or Asia. Some Chinese students are already looking elsewhere. In recent years, the number of Chinese students in the US has steadily declined from a peak in the 2019-2020 school year – a drop that coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic but also increasing friction between the two governments. Nelson Urena Jr., co-founder and director of college counseling at an education management firm in Shanghai, said that for years many Chinese families saw American universities as the 'gold standard' for college education. Since around 2018, however, he has noticed more interest from students and parents alike in universities in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, as well as the semi-autonomous Chinese city of Hong Kong. 'A lot of families were concerned legitimately about their children's safety, and then also just the rhetoric of, you know, whether they're welcome in the US,' he said, citing issues such as gun violence and racist hostility or even violence against Asian people. 'More recently, I think people are starting to see the growing disconnect between the US and China, and feeling like maybe things are going to be more difficult for them – from getting the visa to making payments for tuitions.' Rubio's announcement Wednesday also vowed to 'revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications' from China, including Hong Kong. Since then, Urena has been inundated by phone calls from anxious students preparing to start their college education in the US. But he didn't have a ready response for them. 'It's just a lot of uncertainty right now. The students are trying to figure out what to do…The options are very limited at this point – Do they do a gap year? Do they go to university elsewhere? Do they have to go back to the application process?' he said. Nevertheless, for some Chinese parents, the allure of American higher education has not worn off. Arno Huang, a 56-year-old businessman from China's coastal Fujian province, still wants to send his kids to the US for graduate schools after they finish undergraduate studies in Hong Kong. 'The US represents one of the most civilized, developed, and open places for humanity. Although US-China relations are currently strained, smart people still recognize this fact,' said Huang. Having kids studying in the US gives a family 'face,' he said, using a common Chinese phrase to refer to good reputation or social standing. 'Once their child is in the US, they can proudly tell others, 'Look how successful my son is!'' Zichen Wang, a research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, a non-government think tank in Beijing, lamented a seemingly bygone era, when Chinese officials, entrepreneurs and scientists alike were trained in the US – especially those who played key roles during China's reform and opening-up era that began in 1978. 'When they returned to China, they brought back not only professional knowledge and credentials, but also a deep respect and admiration for America as an open and inclusive society,' he said. 'I believe many Chinese people see what makes America great not merely as its economic or military strength, but its openness – its world-class universities, its confidence in the marketplace of ideas, and its ability to attract top global talent,' Wang added. 'That, at least in my view, is what many people around the world truly admire about the United States.'
