CATCH AND RELEASE UNDERMINES BORDER SECURITY
November 23, 2009
Exclusive: ‘Catch & Release’ Program Undermines Border SecurityMichael Cutler
If, as the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” check out news report posted by the NBC affiliate station in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Catch & Release” is the program by which ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the United States Border Patrol, an agency that operates under the aegis of CBP (Customs and Border Protection) arrests illegal aliens and then releases them with the expectation (wink, wink) that these illegal aliens will show up voluntarily for hearings conducted by immigration judges to determine if these illegal aliens should be removed (deported) from our country.
Under this program these agencies that operate under the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) get to create the illusion that they are earning their keep, arresting illegal aliens just as the citizens of our nation expect they will do, while it is all but a foregone conclusion that illegal aliens who are released after being arrested will simply vanish into communities around our country and hide out, waiting for amnesty under “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”
I absolutely loved what Davidson County Sheriff Darron Hall had to say:
“It tells me that we’re picking sand up with a fork.â€
Clearly the goal of ICE is to create the illusion that the job is getting done and, in a way, it is. For the folks at DHS, what I call the Department of Homeland Surrender, the job is creating the illusion that illegal aliens are being arrested and being ordered to go before immigration hearings. The problem is what happens (or doesn’t happen): nothing.
This is reminiscent of the game “Hide and Seek” we all played as kids, but with a twist: the illegal aliens hide and ICE doesn’t seek. In fact, where ICE is concerned, they are still counting and still covering their eyes. Perhaps they are waiting to announce “Here I come!” after Comprehensive Immigration Reform is enacted. Then when they get their hands on those millions of illegal aliens they will simply give them a green card that assures them that United States citizenship is sure to follow.
Meanwhile, it is an established fact that terrorists and members of transnational gangs and drug trafficking organizations are able to easily participate in this program that represents nothing less than dereliction of duty by the agencies that are charged with the responsibility of securing our nation’s borders and effectively administering the immigration benefits program.
Also consider that when illegal aliens are able to vanish as did the 1,231 illegal aliens did in the story linked above, they are being provided with the opportunity to engage in a marriage of convenience in which they don’t live with their new spouses but are able to have petitions filed by those spouses to provide those alien absconders with a green card without having to wait for the administration’s planned amnesty program.
I can assure you that there are far more than just 1,231 hiding as they wait for the ultimate sellout of our nation by our “leaders” in Washington that is called “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”
The illegal aliens who engage in marriage fraud actually help DHS with its campaign of deception. When an illegal alien is ordered deported and then enters into a marriage with either a United States citizen or a resident alien who then files an application for that illegal alien to acquire residency based on that marriage, he is likely to show up for his immigration hearing with his spouse in tow to advise the judge that he is now married and wants to become a resident alien. These aliens are likely to be granted residency and by showing up in court reduces the number of aliens who fail to show up. Everyone wins – except for We the People!
You can be certain that the administration is gearing up for Comprehensive Immigration Reform even as you read this commentary.
The open borders advocates, including the President, his administration and some members of our Congress, believe the phrase “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” is accurate because it would provide virtually every illegal alien in our country and even millions of additional illegal aliens who have yet to arrive, with resident alien status and a pathway to United States citizenship.
My view is a bit different. “Comprehensive” should not relate to millions of illegal aliens whose true identities, backgrounds, citizenship, affiliations and intentions are unknown and unknowable. “Comprehensive†should relate to the laws and procedures that are being ignored, violated and trampled in the headlong dash to generate a massive labor pool, new voters and massive campaign contributions.
USCIS (Untied States Citizenship and Immigration Services) is the inept and incompetent agency that is run by those who believe the way to clear up the backlog of applications is to simply run the bureaucratic conveyor belt ever faster. I have often compared this with the hilarious episode of “I Love Lucy” in which the hapless Lucy and Ethel work in a candy factory, attempting to wrap bonbons as they hurtle down a conveyor belt that continues to pick up speed. Unable to successfully wrap all of those little morsels of candy, the ladies try eating them and then stuffing them down their clothes in an effort to keep up.
Now consider the plight of the bureaucrats at USCIS, the adjudicators who are supposed to adjudicate millions of applications (even without the onslaught of applications Comprehensive Immigration Reform would cause.) These adjudicators cannot eat the paperwork although, perhaps, they could try to shove the applications down their clothes.
In reality, the easiest way to quickly dispose of these applications is to simply approve them. I suspect that a couple of years ago, when the GAO discovered the outrage that USCIS claimed to have lost 111,000 immigration files relating to a variety of such applications (including 30,000 that related to aliens who applied to become United States citizens via the naturalization process), that the files were never lost. Believe it or not, all of those applications were adjudicated without the relating file.
I challenge anyone at DHS to tell me I am wrong, however, I won’t hold my breath waiting for an answer.
If the system was on the level, USCIS in conjunction with ICE would go after as many fraud-filled applications as possible and make the folks understand that immigration fraud will be investigated, discovered and pursued. I am confident that if this were done, far fewer applications for immigration benefits would be filed because many aliens and their United States citizen petitioners would be intimidated at the prospect of being arrested and prosecuted.
With fewer applications to process, the waiting time for the honest aliens would be reduced greatly and there would be far more integrity to the entire system, thereby enhancing national security and sending a clear message to people around the world that our country is, indeed, a nation of laws!
This way of doing business, however, flies in the face of the way that our government has come to do business. Since when did integrity, decency and fairness have a place in the government of our nation? How many decades back would we have to go to find it?
Comprehensive Immigration Reform is a classic example of the cure being far worse than the disease, and any politician who supports Comprehensive Immigration Reform is working against the security of our nation and the well being of our citizens.
Family Security Matters Contributing Editor Mike Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a recognized authority who addresses the implications of immigration on national security and criminal justice.
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