New Curbs Set on Arrests of Illegal Immigrants – WSJ.com
It isn’t enough that Obama is allowing our borders to become even more porous to allow more illegal aliens and most assuredly more terrorist into our country, now his incompetent stooge Nancy Napolatino is at it again and putting curbs on the one program that has worked to catch and export illegal aliens. They say the older program allows for “racial profiling” and more arrest for minor things like a “broken tail light”.
The new guidelines sharply reduce the ability of local law enforcement to arrest and screen suspected illegal immigrants. They are intended to prevent sheriff and police departments from arresting people “for minor offenses as a guise to initiate removal proceedings,” according to Homeland Security. The program will instead focus on more serious criminals.
The excuse for only focusing on “more serious crimes” is because of our “limited resources” our local police and sheriffs should focus on “on people committing crimes in our community who should not be here,” said John Morton, Assistant Secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” The he went on to say, “his agency would sign new contracts with local law enforcement that would bolster federal oversight.” Like Big Brother will be watching to make sure you don’t harass anyone who is already breaking a very serious law of the land by stopping and arresting them for some fiddlin’ little old everyday crime.
In the past two years, more than 120,000 suspected illegal immigrants were identified through the program, and most ended up in deportation proceedings. By comparison, ICE removed 356,739 illegal immigrants from the U.S. during the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2008 — a 23.5% increase over the 2007 total.
One five term sheriff is sending a defiant message to Washington:
The most active local enforcer has been Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County. He said Friday he would continue pursuing illegal immigrants, arguing that state laws allow neighborhood crime sweeps and work site raids.
“If I’m told not to enforce immigration law except if the alien is a violent criminal, my answer to that is we are still going to do the same thing, 287g or not,” said Mr. Arpaio. His deputies have identified in jail or picked up on the streets more than 30,000 illegal immigrants in the Phoenix area. “We have been very successful,” said the five-term sheriff.
The Department of Justice is investigating whether Mr. Arpaio’s deputies have used skin color as a pretense to stop Latinos suspected of being illegal immigrants.
The illegal immigrant population is growing by leaps and bounds and simply has to be curbed. The fiscal problems California is in right now is in part due to the huge illegal immigrant population. The most 287g certified police officers are in Southern California.
Since January 2006, more than 1,000 state and local law-enforcement officials have been certified. Many jurisdictions used those officers in jails, where they could sort through many inmates in a single shift.
Southern states account for more than 40 of the 66 existing participants (police and sheriff’s departments certified to train special officers in the program) . There are 42 applications pending, most of them in the South. Both Virginia and North Carolina, where the Latino immigrant population has grown, each have nine 287g agreements, more than other states.
The provision was created by Congress in 1996 and designed to train local police to help federal immigration authorities locate criminal aliens.
But not enforced with any real force by states or local governments until after 9/11. In 2006 after a what I thought was a good immigration bill was introduced by failed in Congress mainly because congressmen (and I) felt the borders must be better secured first. Now President Obama is planning to introduce and outrageous immigration bill so a little softening up of the current system needs done. See:
Video: Lou Dobbs on Why Obama’s Plan for Illegal Alien Amnesty is a Bad Idea
The Federal Government’s motto: If it works, break it! BB
