ICE drops deportation program quotas
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. immigration agents who round up people who evade deportation orders will no longer operate under a quota system, officials said Monday.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security John Morton, who runs Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told reporters he has dropped the quota system and plans further changes in the program, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Morton said the program should emphasize its original mission of finding absconders whose cases have already been decided in court, the newspaper said.
"The fugitive operations program needs to focus first and foremost on people who have knowingly flouted an immigration removal order and within that category obviously we will focus first on criminals," Morton said.
ICE agents have been rounding up and deporting immigrants with criminal records and outstanding deportation orders since 2003 -- sometimes employing high profile sweeps. The operation has netted tens of thousands of arrests but immigration rights advocates have found fault with some of its tactics and its effectiveness.
The Migration Policy Institute reported this year that almost three-fourths of the estimated 97,000 people arrested by the ICE teams had no criminal records or deportation orders, the Times said.
Indictment in huge U.S. ID theft case
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- A Miami man was indicted Monday for his alleged role in the hacking theft of data relating to millions of credit and debit cards, the Justice Department said.
Albert Gonzalez, 28, who used online aliases such as "soupnazi," was charged with two counts of conspiracy in what the agency said is likely the largest breach of card data ever prosecuted in the United States.
The Justice Department said in a written statement that more than 130 million accounts were compromised, with the allegedly stolen data shipped off to servers in California, Illinois and Europe.
Among the companies allegedly victimized were 7-Eleven, Hannaford Brothers supermarkets and Heartland Payment Systems, a credit card processor based in New Jersey.
Prosecutors and Secret Service investigators in New Jersey said Gonzales, who has been in jail since last year in two other hacking cases, allegedly schemed with two unnamed co-conspirators to use a sophisticated hacking technique known as an "SQL injection attack" to evade firewalls and anti-virus software.
U.S. brief defends DOMA, but urges repeal
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department filed a brief in a suit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, with the administration going on record as favoring repeal.
The Justice Department brief, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, rejected arguments by conservative groups on the importance of marriage for child-rearing as a justification for the act's ban on federal recognition of same-sex unions, Politico reported.
"Today, the Department of Justice has filed a response to a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, as it traditionally does when acts of Congress are challenged," President Barack Obama said in a statement. "This brief makes clear, however, that my administration believes that the act is discriminatory and should be repealed by Congress. I have long held that DOMA prevents (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) couples from being granted equal rights and benefits."
While the administration and Congress work to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, Obama said, his administration would "continue to examine and implement measures that will help extend rights and benefits to LGBT couples under existing law."
The brief said the Obama administration does not support the Defense of Marriage Act "as a matter of policy, believes that it is discriminatory, and supports its repeal," Justice Department attorney Scott Simpson wrote in the brief.
"Consistent with the rule of law, however, the Department of Justice has long followed the practice of defending federal statutes as long as reasonable arguments can be made in support of their constitutionality, even if the department disagrees with a particular statute as a policy matter, as it does here," Simpson wrote.
Medvedev fires Ingushetia head after blast
MOSCOW, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired Ingush Interior Minister Ruslan Meiriyev Monday after a suicide attack in Nazran killed at least 20 people.
The attack on the police headquarters in Ingushetia's largest city was believed to have been caused by a suicide bomber ramming a car into the headquarters' gates, RIA Novosti reported.
"I believe this (attack) was not only a result of problems connected to terrorist activities, but also a result of the unsatisfactory performance of the republic's law enforcement agencies," Medvedev said.
The attack could have been prevented, Medvedev said as he ordered an investigation into the work of the police.
"The vehicle used in the attack had been listed as stolen," Medvedev said. "Police had been warned about an attack being planned. This is totally unacceptable."
RIA Novosti said at least 138 people, including 10 children, were injured in the explosion. The blast damaged the police building, cars in the vicinity and nearby blocks of apartment buildings.
Ingushetia's deputy interior minister said police knew of the planned attack.
"Information on a planned terrorist attack using a yellow Gazelle (automobile) came to light on Saturday," Zyaudin Daurbekov said. "Efforts had been made to track the vehicle."
