A Search for Operation Endgame

A colleague who specializes in Immigration research recently told me about a DHS project called Operation Endgame. O.E. has involved the establishment of ICE - which is in effect a national police force - with a long term goal of deporting all undocumented immigrants by 2012.

DHS previously had a good deal of information posted on the web regarding O.P., but since has been deleted. Although I am told that a number of individuals and/or groups were able to save the information before it was taken down.
Below is a small bit of information from a private law firm. There is no date given.

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“Operation Endgame” Adopted to Prevent Immigrants from Evading Deportation

According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is adopting stricter detention policies. In an effort to stop immigrants from evading deportation, the first step of “Operation Endgame” is to detain immigrants as soon as judges deny their cases and order the immigrants removed from the United States. Presently, deportable immigrants without a criminal record remain free as they pursue appeals or dissolve their households. Officials report that every year tens of thousands of deportable immigrants go underground instead of complying with final deportation verdicts.

Another step in the strategy of Operation Endgame is to release many of the immigrants and track them with an intensive supervision program that could include ankle-bracelet monitors. A participant in this current pilot program, Orfa Salazar, says she feels much freer than she did during her 10 months in detention and hopes for more flexible supervision under the new program.

Critics of this plan say that these measures are far from efficient and excessively harsh. Immigration lawyers note that the stress of an asylum hearing has been multiplied by the fear of possible immediate detention after judgment. This fear has led to an increase in the number of petitioners who skip their final immigration hearings.

ICE officials stated that they did not know when these policies would be enforced on a national level, or how the steps of the plan would fit together.