INTERVIEW — DAN STEIN – president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)

• BACKGROUND: Dan Stein is an attorney who has worked for nearly 35 years in the field of immigration law and law reform. He has been in his present position as President since January 2003. Prior to leading FAIR, Mr. Stein was the Executive Director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest litigation group that has represented a variety of organizations in immigration and administrative law matters.
• TOPIC: MD Illegal immigration news:
• Montgomery says it made mistake releasing suspect wanted by ICE.  A 19-year-old Salvadoran national — arrested in Maryland last week on charges that he brought an AR-15 assault-style rifle into a high school parking lot — was released from the Montgomery County jail despite a request that he be held for possible deportation proceedings, officials said Monday. The suspect — Mario Granados Alvarado, a high school student also believed to have been driving a stolen car — was found the day after his release from the county jail and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, authorities said. The process created needless risk, federal officials said.
• New York Times Surprised to Learn Legal Immigrants Oppose Sanctuary Laws. The New York Times reported Monday that a sanctuary bill in a liberal Maryland county faced “surprise” opposition from the county’s legal immigrant communities. “Sanctuary Bills in Maryland Faced a Surprise Foe: Legal Immigrants,” the Monday headline read. The Times‘ Sabrina Tavernise reported on a sanctuary bill that was shot down in Howard County, where one in five residents were born outside the country and Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one. The legislation would have made Howard County a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, requiring the jurisdiction to not fully cooperate with federal immigration officials. It turns out the county’s legal immigrants were not too keen on having an influx of illegal immigrants, arguing that “offering sanctuary to people who came to the country illegally devalued their own past struggles to gain citizenship.” The Times spoke to four legal residents who explained why they were opposed to the measure.
• Md. attorney general: Federal immigration detainers involve legal risks. Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh this week advised state and local law-enforcement agencies not to hold undocumented immigrants past their release dates on behalf of federal authorities unless they have a judicial warrant or probable cause. He said in a memo Thursday that following his guidance would allow agencies to “comply with federal law in a manner that respects the constitutional rights of individuals, protects local agencies and officials from potential legal liability, and allows them to remain faithful to their mission of promoting public safety.” Frosh (D) warned that state and local jails could be subject to legal challenges regarding unconstitutional detention if they hold individuals suspected of immigration violations past their release dates without a judicial warrant or probable cause. “As an overriding principle, the government bears the burden of proving that the detention of someone beyond the person’s State-law release date does not violate the Fourth Amendment and its Maryland counterpart,” the memo said.
• ILLEGAL CROSSINGS DROP EVEN MORE: (Washington Times) –  Illegal immigration across the southwest border dropped yet again in April, with the number of illegal immigrant children fallen below 1,000 for the first time in recent records, Homeland Security announced Tuesday. The numbers are part of a stunning drop since the beginning of the Trump administration. Border Patrol apprehensions alone are down a shocking 70 percent compared to last year under President Obama.