Alicia A. Caldwell Posts

The government said Monday it will soon close three emergency shelters it established at U.S. military bases to temporarily house children caught crossing the Mexican border alone. It said fewer children were being caught and other shelters will be adequate. Since Oct. 1 more than 57,000 unaccompanied children, mostly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, have been caught crossing the Mexican border illegally.

Thousands of immigrant children fleeing poverty and violence in Central America to cross alone into the United States can live in American cities, attend public schools and possibly work here for years without consequences. The chief reasons are an overburdened, deeply flawed system of immigration courts and a 2002 law intended to protect children's welfare, an Associated Press investigation finds. Driving the dramatic increases in these immigrants is the recognition throughout Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that children who make the dangerous trip can effectively remain in the U.S. for years before facing even a moderate risk of deportation.

The Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday broadened its national crackdown on synthetic drug manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers as federal agents served hundreds of search and arrest warrants in at least 25 states. Agents served warrants at homes, warehouses and smoke shops beginning early morning, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said. The largest single operation was a statewide effort in Alabama. Agents also were active in 28 other states.

The new Homeland Security secretary says an earned path to citizenship for the roughly 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally is a matter of national security. The Defense Department's former top lawyer said offering a path to citizenship would encourage such immigrants "to come out of the shadow, to be accountable, to participate in the American experience."

For the second time in less than two years, scandal rocked the secret service. Agent Ignacio Zamora, Jr., left a bullet in a hotel room in the upscale Hayes-Adams in Washington, DC. A subsequent investigation found breaches in security between Zamora and his superior.

Employees from six Homeland Security Department offices have abused an overtime program and cost the government about $8.7 million a year, according an Office of Special Counsel letter and report sent Thursday to the president and Congress.

Months after gun control efforts crumbled in Congress, Vice President Joe Biden stood shoulder to shoulder Thursday with the attorney general and the top U.S. firearms official and declared the Obama administration would take two new steps to curb American gun violence.

Amid online "chatter" about terror threats, U.S. diplomatic posts in 19 cities in the Muslim world will be closed at least through the end of this week, the State Department said. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the decision to keep the embassies and consulates shuttered is a sign of an "abundance of caution" and is "not an indication of a new threat."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the FBI wants to speak with two men seen in at least one video from the Boston Marathon, but she says she isn't calling them suspects.

Without providing details of the men's appearance or what the video shows, Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee on Thursda