Hispanic activists urge Congress to turn a blind eye

| September 13, 2007

I guess the immigration issue has reached the point of absurdity. According to  Washington Examiner’s Dan Genz;

Several Hispanic immigrant organizations called on Congress Wednesday to pass a moratorium on the enforcement of key immigration laws, saying the system is broken and families are being ripped apart by deportations. Latino Families United and other groups, speaking at a news conference on Capitol Hill, called for a ban on raids, deportations and no-match letters until new immigration reforms are approved. They asserted that the country’s many legal immigrants would make immigration reform a top priority when choosing who to support in 2008 elections.

“The anxiety that children and families go through when they are raided and split is one of the many reasons why this is going to be a new dimension of the immigration movement,” said Pedro Aviles, director of the National Capital Immigration Coalition.

Well, then why not pass a moratorium on the arrest of all parents since we don’t want to cause anyone’s children any anxiety? I feel sorry for those toddlers whose parents get caught selling drugs, driving recklessly or being generally foolish on those “Cops” programs. Why don’t we cut all criminals’ children a break? For pete’s sake.

But illegal immigration critic Greg Letiecq of the Help Save Manassas group called such a proposal “laughable.”

“To say it would be a better place if we just didn’t enforce our laws is so far beyond ludicrous, I couldn’t imagine anyone taking this tripe seriously,” Letiecq said. “It is not the character of Americans to just give up on something that is important.”

If people are allowed to pick and choose which of our laws they want to obey, and which they can be held accountable for violating, why have laws at all?

But Hispanic activists aren’t the only people demanding that the laws not be enforced. The unions are taking up the fight, too;

Alleging that federal agents violated workers’ rights during raids in December, the workers’ union filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop immigration officials from conducting what the union says are illegal workplace raids.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas, says agents unlawfully detained workers and violated their constitutional rights during raids at six JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plants. The lawsuit also demands that the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pay damages to the workers.

ICE officials investigating identity theft arrested 1,297 workers at the plants, but union officials have said more than 12,000 workers were detained against their will during the operation.

But there is good news for those of us who think that laws are written to be enforced, from the Herndon, VA police;

The Herndon Police Department said it has netted more than a dozen suspected illegal aliens in the first two months since it began participating in a federal immigration enforcement program.

Town police have received Immigration and Customs Enforcement training through the 287(g) program, authorizing selected officers to enforce immigration laws.
 
According to Herndon Police Chief Toussaint Summers, for the months of June and July – reportedly the first full months of 287(g) participation – 13 out of 19 contacts made in accordance with the program resulted in detained individuals being turned over to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. Those suspected illegal aliens will eventually be processed through the federal court system for possible deportation.

Imagine that – police who are trained and allowed to do so, can actually catch illegal immigrants. Who’d have ever thought that?

Category: Illegal Immigrants, Legal

Comments are closed.