At a Cinco De Mayo Celebration at the White House President Barack Obama called for the passage of the DREAM Act. In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Maritime and Border Security Gene Garza, the director of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said that the border has never been safer. Six protestors of Alabama infamous immigration law have been detained indefinitely.

Obama Pushes for Dream Act At a Cinco De Mayo Celebration at the White House President Barack Obama called for the passage of the DREAM Act.”Speaking at the White House’s Cinco de Mayo reception, President Barack Obama called on Congress to pass the Dream Act –a measure that would give undocumented students brought to the country illegally as minors a chance to obtain permanent U.S. residency if they attend college or serve in the military, and eventually apply for citizenship if they desire. Calling the measure a “common-sense” reform, Obama blamed the failure of the Dream Act on a few Republicans in Congress. He says he will keep pushing for it, along with other fixes to what he called the nation’s “broken” immigration system. The Democrat-driven version of the DREAM Act passed the House in 2010 but was defeated in the Senate by a 55-to-41 vote. In the Senate, three Republicans supported the measure, five Democrats voted no.”

CBP Director: U.S.-Mexican Border Areas Are Among the Safest in U.S. In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Maritime and Border Security Gene Garza, the director of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said that the border has never been safer. “Areas on the U.S. side of the southwest U.S.-Mexican border are “some of the safest communities in America,” says Gene Garza, the director of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — an extension of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — in Laredo, Texas. The Laredo Field Office maintains the largest amount of commercial traffic throughout the entire U.S.-Mexican border, processing more than $104 billion in merchandise in 2010 alone. Testifying before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security Tuesday, during a hearing entitled, “Using Technology to Facilitate Trade and Enhance Security at Our Ports of Entry,” Garza said his analysis stems from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), which document crime statistics in the U.S. In fiscal year 2011, CBP seized 5 million pounds of narcotics, including nearly 370,000 pounds seized at the ports of entry. These numbers demonstrate the effectiveness of our layered approach to security,” Garza testified. “Violent crime in border communities has remained flat or fallen in the past decade, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Report, and some of the safest communities in America are at the border. In fact, violent crimes in Southwest border counties overall have dropped by more than 40 percent and are currently among the lowest in the Nation per capita, even as drug-related violence has significantly increased in Mexico.”

Immigration law protesters detained outside Alabama Senate  Six protestors of Alabama infamous immigration law have been detained indefinitely. “Six people protesting the state’s controversial immigration law were led away and detained Thursday morning after a sit-down protest near the Alabama Senate chamber. The protesters prayed and sang “Amazing Grace” and “This Light of Mine,” and called for the repeal of the controversial law before being led to a separate room in the Alabama State House. Two senators knelt and prayed with the protesters, but were not detained. The six were released later in the day.”