Thursday, January 3, 2013
Welcome Illegal Aliens--You're Safe Here
The Obama
administration loves to pass unpopular legislation—Obamacare—and release news
of unpopular policies on Christmas Eve. The assumption is that people are too
distracted to pay attention and, anyway, there’s nothing they can do about it.
Illegal
aliens received a Christmas gift when the chief of the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), John Morton, released new guidelines for local police who might think it
was their job to cooperate with ICE by detaining illegal aliens stopped for
probably cause. Previously ICE had a “287 (g) program” that facilitated the
process, but no more.
As ICE
explained this change, the administration’s goal is to limit the role of local
cops with regard to the detention of illegal aliens arrested for misdemeanors
(offices punishable by jail sentences of between 30-days and one year) or
violations (offenses punishable by jail sentences of 30-days or less).
Apparently there are just so many of these arrests that ICE doesn’t want to
bother with them anymore. And, after all, it only involves someone here
ILLEGALLY.
According
to ICE, the policy change will “further enhance our ability to focus
enforcement efforts on serious offenders” by “changing who ICE will issue
detainers against.”
Need it be
said that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) pushed hard to get this
policy change, along with a variety of immigrant and refugee advocacy groups,
including the Arab-American Institute.
I was
reading a new book by Brett Braaten, “Homeland Insecurity: Failed Politics,
Policies, and a Nation at Risk”, when the new ICE policy was announced. The
author is a former special agent whose career spans 29 years with both the U.S.
Customs Service and, after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He saw how these agencies operated
from the inside.
In his
book, he warns that “The tangled web of guidelines, each one more convoluted
than the last, stifles every innovative though that might otherwise see the
light of day. The political correctness and cultural sensitivities that abound
in the federal system, shackle law enforcement officers who are simply trying
to do right by the American taxpayer and get everyone home safe at the end of
the day.”
What he
learned along the way is the pecking order of the FBI, the IRS, the Drug
Enforcement Administration, and ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives.) “There had never been, nor would there ever be, a selfless
spirit of cooperation among these agencies.” After 9/11 the creation of the
Department of Homeland Security in 2002 was supposed to create greater
cooperation among its components, but old rivalries die hard. At the bottom of
the pecking order was and remains now the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
“Customs
personnel quickly found that dealing with illegal alien processing and
deportation was unwieldy and mind numbing. Layers of bureaucratic fine print,
immigration laws saturated with loopholes, and exceptions to exceptions, slow
the process to a near halt.” During its first term, it became obvious to anyone
paying attention that deporting illegal aliens had a very low priority.
If you are
here illegally, unless you engage in serious crimes, you are not likely to be
returned to your homeland. Indeed, the U.S. has become your homeland and one
that where you can get a job and have access to multiple social programs which
should be reserved for U.S. citizens.
Under the
aegis of the Homeland Security Department, immigration enforcement has become a
bad joke. The Center for Immigration Studies recently criticized DHS saying
that “the agency responsible for overseeing educational institutions hosting
foreign students rarely exercises its enforcement authority.” There are nearly
1.2 million foreign students and their dependents in the U.S., attending close
to 7,000 educational institutions. We are likely to learn that some of them are
here for purposes of terrorism, but by then it will be too late.
Braaten
warns that “There is no way that law enforcement can be efficient in the
execution of its mission when it is little more than an expression of the
political policies designed to serve the best interests of the current
administration, regardless of affiliation.” The nation’s problem with illegal
aliens has a long history. Occasional amnesties have only served as an
inducement to enter illegally.
To those
Americans who think border control is not a priority or that the presence of
illegal aliens pose no real problem, Braaten says, Whether (they) like it or
not, illegal aliens bring the ills of their respective societies with them.
Lacking any reasonable societal pressure from (native born and naturalized
Americans), there is no impetus to assimilate into American culture. There’s no
pressure to learn English in a society that falls all over itself to
accommodate a vast population that lacks the interest or ability to learn it.”
Large
portions of California and the Southwest have literally been reclaimed by their
illegal populations. “The southwest border,” says Braaten, “has devolved to a
state of near chaos. Communities, overrun with a crippling demand for social
services from a foreign populace, find themselves falling deeper and deeper
into deficient spending with no relief in sight.”
The Obama
administration has managed to cover up the “Fast and Furious” scandal in which
the ATF allowed nearly 2,000 guns to get into the hands of the Mexican drug
cartels. It cost the life of a border patrol officer and is currently protected
against further Congressional investigation by an executive order. In the
course of the investigations, however, Eric Holder became the first Attorney
General to be held in contempt of Congress.
While
Braaten focused on revelations about customs and immigration enforcement, he
also took note of Department of Homeland Security failures that we know about,
the uselessness of the Transportation Safety Administration that makes air
travel a nightmare, and, in effect, the widespread belief that the U.S. is
adequately and actually being protected by the alphabet soup of DHS agencies,
and others charged with protecting the nation.
© Alan
Caruba, 2013
**********************
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens
of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 2 million page views.
If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional
skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go!
You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment