The immigration laws that so many politicians and members of the administration are unwilling to enforce are at the bedrock of national security and the other issues and challenges that confront our nation today.
For far too long our citizens demonstrated apathy which emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups.
It is therefore understandable that the politicians of both parties, are greatly concerned about the demonstrations currently sweeping our nation just as did the creation of the Tea Party. Clearly more and more of our fellow Americans are demonstrating that they are not as dumb as the politicians from both parties had expected us to be!
I am encouraged that more and more of us, We the People, are not willing to simply sit on the sidelines anymore!
If our government’s failures to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce our immigration laws concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!
All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!
We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.
This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!
You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!
Democracy is not a spectator sport!
Lead, follow or get out of the way!
USA Talk Radio
The call-in number for a live show is 310-982-4145
ICE News Release: TOP STORY: French officers look to ICE HSI for guidance on gang enforcement
Often
a review of the news releases on the ICE (Immigration and Customs
Enforcement) website can provide important insight into the immigration
crisis that confronts the United States. On December 27, 2011 ICE sent out a news release
that focused on how they were helping the residents of Dallas, Texas to
combat transnational gangs–a problem that is being confronted by many
countries around the world.
The news release made note of the fact that members of French law
enforcement traveled to the United States to get an “Up close and in
person” view of how ICE and local police working together can benefit by
the synergy that is created by this multi-agency approach.
I spent roughly half of my 30 year career with the INS working in
close cooperation with a diverse conglomeration of law enforcement
agencies on the local, state and federal level as well as with foreign
law enforcement agencies and can attest to the many ways in which such
cooperation among diverse law enforcement agencies can yield important
successes in combating transnational criminal organizations, drug
smuggling organizations and international terrorist organizations.
It should be obvious that when aliens move across international
borders in order to achieve their criminal or terrorist objectives that
the federal agency that has primary responsibility to secure borders and
enforce immigration laws from within the interior of the United States
should have a significant responsibility to participate in
investigations that are focuses on such individuals and the criminal or
terrorist organizations that they are affiliated with.
Adding the immigration component to the investigation of aliens who
are involved in criminal activities provides important benefits to such
investigations. There are specific criminal statutes that relate to
aliens who violate our borders and our laws. To provide an examples
there are specific federal criminal statutes that address aliens who had
been previously deported and then reenter the United States without the
authority of the government, laws that deem false statements on visa
applications or applications for lawful immigrant status and United
States citizenship to all be felonies while yet another law deems the
possession of a firearm or ammunition by an illegal alien to be a
felony. These are crimes that can only be prosecuted when immigration
laws are brought to bear.
Additionally, when any criminal suspect is arrested, the first issue
is to properly identify that suspect to determine all possible names he
(she) has used and to determine if any criminal or administrative
warrants are outstanding. Once the suspect is fingerprinted and
photographed the next order of business is to bring the defendant before
a judge or magistrate to set bail. Bail determinations focus on two
major factors, risk of flight and danger to the community. The issue of
danger to the community is generally addressed by providing evidence
about any force used by the defendant in the commission of a crime
and/or any weapons he may have had in his possession. Possession of
narcotics may also indicate a danger to the safety of the community.
Risk of flight can be a more nebulous issue to address. When the
defendant is an illegal alien especially one who had been previously
deported and then reentered the United States without authority to do so
provides a clear image of an individual who disregards lawful orders
issued by appropriate authorities. When a defendant has failed to show
up for hearings, for example, deportation hearings and has used numerous
false names and has provided law enforcement officers in prior
encounters with law enforcement agencies with false or nonexistent
addresses, the picture painted becomes even clearer where the issue of
risk of flight and the setting of an appropriate and commensurate bail
is concerned. This is not a hypothetical issue, as an INS Special
Agent, I have provided testimony at many bail hearings and in each case,
the evidence I was able to furnish that was gleaned by reviewing the
immigration file of an alien defendant in a criminal case resulted in
either an extremely high bail being set or in having the federal
magistrate or state court judge remanding that defendant without bail
because it was clear that the defendant an extreme flight risk.
Incredibly the administration has attempted to tout the successes of
such cooperative investigations on the one hand, but then make all sorts
of assertions about how community policing suffers when local police
officers enforce immigration laws. Simply stated, they cannot have it
both ways!
The administration is not alone in attempting to justify not
enforcing immigration laws. A number of cities have declared themselves
to be “Sanctuary Cities” where police will not seek to determine if
criminal suspects are citizens, lawful immigrants or aliens who are
illegally present in the United States. In some cases, mayors of some
cities, and governors of several states, have made it clear that they
will not even honor detainers lodged by ICE when individuals who are
being held in city or state jails are to be released, preventing ICE
from being able to arrest these aliens whose mere presence in the United
States represents a violation of our nation’s immigration laws that are
intended to protect our nation and our citizens from aliens whose
presence in the United States represents a threat to our safety or
wellbeing!
There is an extreme lack of resources at ICE and CBP (Customs and
Border Protection) to secure our nation’s borders and then enforce the
immigration laws from within the interior of the United States when
aliens violate our nation’s borders and violate our nation’s immigration
laws. The idea that by enforcing immigration laws local police would
lose the confidence of the members of the immigrant communities around
the country is a false argument. Many members of the various immigrant
communities from around the world come to the United States with an
abject fear of law enforcement officials because of their experiences
with law enforcement in their home countries. In many countries
corruption within the ranks of law enforcement agencies is the rule
rather than the exception. The lessons that these immigrants learn
early in life remain with them long after they immigrate to the United
States.
In reviewing the ICE News Release it is important to pay attention to
the references made to how the ICE agents work with confidential
informants. There can be no better example of community policing than
the cultivation of informants and cooperators. When I worked with other
law enforcement agencies, whether it was local or state police or other
federal agencies, one of my areas of responsibility was to help to
cultivate informants. Most law enforcement agencies can only offer
individuals who cooperate in ongoing investigations is money or the
potential for having criminal charges reduced in cases where an
informant is a defendant in an investigation. Special Agents of ICE
have the additional capability of providing cooperating aliens with
authorization to remain in the United States for a temporary period and
be granted employment authorization. In some cases, such alien
cooperators can become eligible for permanent residency and even have
their immediate family members join them in the United States as lawful
immigrants.
The immigration laws can and do provide invaluable opportunities for
local police to hammer some of the most pernicious criminals that they
are apt to encounter–criminalswho create nightmares for the members of
the various ethnic an immigrant communities. When the members of these
communities come to realize how effective these police agencies are at
removing some of the most violent thugs imaginable from their midst,
rather than fear the police, they invariably come to feel indebted to
them and consequently become more motivated to cooperate with these
police officers.
The cooperation of local and state police with ICE represents community policing at its best!