MICHAEL CUTLER: ON EFFECTIVE LAWS AND BORDER CONTROL
Hi Gang:
Back when I was a high school student, there was a rock n’ roll radio station that played all of the latest songs. Often the station played a recording of one of the deejays exclaiming, “And the hits just keep on coming!”
Today one of the guys who regularly sends me e-mails sent me the article I have, in turn, provided to you.
http://www.themonitor.com/news/immigrants-47141-agents-three.html
As I read the article I was reminded of that saying- “The hits just keep on coming!”
The three individuals noted in the news report were all illegal aliens and were apprehended by the United States Border Patrol. All three were involved with homicides and were found in close proximity to the US / Mexican border.
Certainly the arrest of these individuals who were illegally present in our country made the communities safer.
I will focus on the arrest of one of the three individuals because his initial arrest was made by a local police officer who encountered him in the course of performing routine patrol. The police officer observed the illegal alien who was identified as being a citizen of Mexico committing a violation of traffic law. It would appear that the police officer called for assistance and a Border Patrol agent responded and apparently made a determination that the motorist was likely an illegal alien. Once back at the Harlingen Border Patrol Station, a records check found that this illegal alien had been previously convicted of driving while intoxicated and for felony manslaughter. Furthermore, as it turned out, this person was also the subject of an arrest warrant. All of these criminal arrests and the warrant originated in Florida.
What I want you to consider is how a simple traffic stop carried out by a police officer, who was carrying out routine patrol duties identified an illegal alien with a serious criminal background. This is the way that the 287(g) program is designed to function- although I don’t know if the assistant that the Border Patrol agent rendered to the local cop was the result of a 287(g) arrangement or just plain old ad hoc “cop helping cop.”
In the past three or four weeks I have provided testimony to a Congressional hearing conducted by the House Subcommittee on Immigration Enforcement and Policy and legislative hearings conducted by the state legislatures of Indiana and Maryland.
The Congressional hearing focused on the ongoing failures of ICE to adequately address the issue of the employment of illegal aliens by employers who knowingly did so- while the state hearings addressed the role that state law enforcement officers should play in taking immigration law violations into account as they carry out their official duties.
You would think that the enforcement of the immigration laws by police officers would be considered a commonsense way of backing up the beleaguered Border Patrol and special agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). However, when politics rears its ugly head in matters pertaining to law enforcement and, in fact, in nearly every other facet of our country- commonsense and reasoning are removed from the equation!
The arguments against local police taking immigration laws and immigration status into account that are posed by the opponents of secure borders and the creation of an immigration system that has real integrity are without merit or logical basis, but nevertheless, there is a seemingly endless supply of politicians who are willing to play politics with national security and the lives of the constituents that they are supposed to represent. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to sit at a hearing and have to listen to arguments that twist and distort reality.
If the police officer who arrested the illegal alien had failed to consider that individual’s immigration status, if the Border Patrol agent had failed to respond, a convicted felon would still be “out there” posing a threat to the safety of the residents of the town in which he was residing.
If the Border Patrol agents had not arrested the other two illegal aliens who had been involved in homicides, the safety of the communities in which they had been residing would have suffered.
The job of law enforcement is to protect the residents of the communities and the nation that they serve. The immigration laws, when properly enforced, can provide an extremely powerful tool to enable the law enforcement officers of our nation to carry out their duties.
The immigration laws of the United States treat all people equally. There is no distinction to be found in those laws that differentiate individuals according to race, religion or ethnicity. The only distinction our nation’s immigration laws take into account is one simple issue- whether or not a person is a citizen of the United States or is an alien. In this perilous era, the time has long since passed for these critically important laws to be enforced to protect our nation and our citizens.
Nothing less than the survival of our nation and our citizens hang in the balance!
A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!
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