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JF

Jon Feere

Series

Parsing Immigration Policy8 episodes

Recent Episodes

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Alternatives to Detention or Alternatives to Enforcement?

Summary Federal law requires that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain illegal border-crossers pending the completion of their cases. Despite this detention mandate, the Biden administration has been releasing hundreds of thousands of aliens on “Alternatives to Detention” (ATD), where they are monitored via ankle bracelets, GPS tracking, or the SmartLINK app. ATD effectiveness is poor, in part because the monitoring stops years before proceedings are complete, allowing illegal border-crossers to live and often work illegally in the United States for years and to be no-shows at their asylum hearings. In 2004, ICE permitted a limited and narrowly defined group of aliens who were subject to detention to be released and monitored under ATD – those with a high chance of succeeding in their asylum cases and considered to be at low risk of flight or of threatening public safety. Under the Biden administration, the number being released on ATD has grown from hundreds to hundreds of thousands, and the low-risk standard has been abandoned.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

February 2023

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

U Visas for Illegal-Alien Crime Victims: Yet Another Amnesty Ploy

Summary This week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy highlights a visa program rife with fraud – the U visa program. Designed to assist law enforcement agencies in prosecuting criminals, the U visa is granted to victims of crime who lack immigration status and allows them to stay in the country (and work legally), and eventually get a green card and citizenship, ostensibly to aid in the prosecution of the crimes. Is the U visa still serving its purpose? Jessica Vaughan, the Center’s Director of Policy Studies, and Jon Feere, the Center’s Director of Investigations and a former ICE Chief of Staff, share their knowledge of the program and its misuse. Applicant numbers started growing in 2011 as more illegal aliens (and their attorneys) came to see the visa's usefulness as a pathway to remain legally in the United States. Plus, just filing an application protects illegal aliens from deportation and leads to a work permit, whether or not it is later approved.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

December 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

2022 Recap: The Impact of Biden’s Policies Two Years In

Summary In this year-end episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Center for Immigration Studies experts discuss key Biden administration immigration policies and their impacts. The roundtable discussion includes Jessica Vaughan, Andrew Arthur, and Jon Feere, moderated by the Center’s executive director (and podcast host) Mark Krikorian. The group looks at 2022 developments in border security, interior enforcement, and legal immigration, including DACA, detention, the decline in deportations, human trafficking, and the unlawful abuse of parole. The participants also draw attention to the topics the public should be following in 2023. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Guests Andrew Arthur is Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies. Jon Feere is Director of Investigations at the Center for Immigration Studies. Jessica Vaughan is Director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies
Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Rep. Tiffany on Withholding Visas from Countries

Summary Recalcitrant countries, those which fail to accept the return of their nationals who are under removal orders from the United States, are back in the news. In the wake of Speaker Pelosi's trip to Taiwan, Communist China announced it was “suspending China-U.S. cooperation on the repatriation of illegal immigrants”. In addition, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisc.) has introduced the Alien Criminal Expulsion Act ( “ACE Act”), that mandates and strengthens the sanctions used by the United States to encourage foreign governments to comply with their international obligation to accept the return of their citizens. China is one of the worst offenders, but there is a lengthy list of recalcitrant countries, including Laos, Sierra Leone, Cuba, Vietnam, and Iran. The refusal to issue travel documents and accept a deportable citizen’s return results in detention costs and, most importantly, reduced public safety – a 2001 Supreme Court decision prohibits the government from detaining a deportable foreigner for more than six months in most cases.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

June 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Fraud in the U.S. Student Visa Program?

View Podcast Archive Summary Allegations in a recent whistleblower lawsuit raise serious questions about the extent of fraud in the foreign student program and the ability of the federal government to provide proper oversight. More than 15,000 school campuses in the United States host more than 1.2 million foreign students. All of these schools are certified by a division within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) called the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). Each school names a staff liaison, called a Designated School Official (DSO), to maintain records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a national security database created after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The New York Post recently reported that a DSO at Columbia University filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming to have been fired for refusing to enter false information about some foreign students into SEVIS the school’s request.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

March 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Biden Administration Hides Immigration Enforcement Report

View Podcast Archive Summary This week’s episode of the Center for Immigration Studies’ weekly podcast covers the Biden administration’s decision to not publish the 2021 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “Enforcement and Removal Operations Report”. This detailed annual report, which allows policymakers, law enforcement officers and the public to compare enforcement metrics over time, has been published by December 31 for at least the last decade. Jon Feere, the Center’s director of investigations and a former ICE chief of staff, discusses how last week, under pressure from congressional offices, ICE finally published a narrative report, with a spin, lacking data needed to assess accurately the impact of recent policy changes. “The Biden administration is hiding the impact of their immigration enforcement policies at a time when thousands of illegal border crossers are being apprehended daily at the southern border and then released into the country, “ said Feere. “The numbers have been cooked.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

October 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

OPT: Guestworkers Masquerading as Students

Summary Hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals, primarily from India and China, are working in the United States via the controversial Optical Practical Training program (OPT). This program allows individuals who entered on student visas to obtain work authorization for up to three years after graduation. OPT was not enacted by Congress – the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) developed the program at the request of Silicon Valley tech moguls who sought a means to overcome annual caps in the H-1B foreign worker program. In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Jon Feere, the Center’s Director of Investigations and former ICE Chief of Staff, discusses the national security and labor issues stemming from the size and lack of sufficient oversight of the OPT program. He describes the fraud and lack of transparency in the program, including the large number of fake companies listed as OPT employers.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

June 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

We Are All Less Safe: Biden Targets ICE Law Enforcement Program

Summary The 287(g) program, created by Congress to enable trained local officers to work in partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), serves as a force multiplier by taking illegal aliens who have been arrested for state or local crimes off the street. Lacking the personnel to address the large population of deportable criminal aliens in the country, ICE has developed 287(g) agreements with 146 law enforcement agencies across 25 states. Former ICE Chief of Staff Jon Feere, now Director of Investigations at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and Mark Krikorian, the CIS executive director and host of Parsing Immigration Policy, discuss the Biden administration’s hostility towards 287(g) and its problematic decision to cancel a 287(g) partnership between ICE and the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office in Massachusetts. In his Closing Commentary, Krikorian addresses the latest 287(g) agreement cancellation.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies