Fire the ICE Man for Not Doing His Duty

In probably the most outrageous statement a federal official could ever make, John Morton, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (pictured above), said that his agency would “not necessarily” process illegal aliens captured by Arizona law enforcement. Isn’t that his job? Morton, backed up by his boss, Secretary Janet Napolitano, said that ICE has the discretion to not process illegal aliens they encounter. He agrees with the president when he said that Arizona’s recently passed immigration law was “misguided,” and he recently said that the solution to the illegal immigration problem was through a comprehensive federal approach, and not patchwork by the various states. Translation: Amnesty to all illegal aliens. He also said that ICE will instead concentrate its efforts in other states to go after employers who knowingly hire illegals. Has Mr. Morton even read the Arizona legislation? Why should he if members of the administration including Sec. Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder haven’t either? Ignorance is bliss. I read it, and if those most critical of the law did the same, they would see the template for a model federal law. They would read that the new Arizona law compels law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of persons they feel may be here illegally. The state law differs from federal law in that it compels its officers to do something about the illegal alien problem while the feds get a pass because of “discretion.” There’s the problem. Federal agents should be compelled to enforce all federal laws being broken in their presence, especially immigration laws. Instead of criticizing Arizona’s common sense immigration law, AG Holder should embrace it and lobby for an identical federal law that will go a long way in reversing illegal immigration. The Arizona law has tough penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegals, or whose sub-contractors do. One of the penalties is the loss of their business and professional licenses. The Arizona law also forbids public officials and state entities from restricting the exchange of information between state and local police and ICE to determine if someone is in the country illegally. In contrast, cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco declare themselves “sanctuary cities” and forbid their officers from enforcing the law. An administration that ignores a state’s plight of being overrun by illegals that are killing its residents and have already made its capital city the kidnapping capital of the country, is simply siding with the opposition instead of its own citizens. It’s the epitome of dereliction of duty to protect U.S. citizens. Instead, President Calderon of Mexico is invited to the White House to politely tell Arizonians to get screwed. When compared to Mexico’s immigration policies, Arizona’s law is wimpy. A prudent administration would immediately fire Morton and Napolitano, and dispatch every available ICE agent to Arizona, along with hundreds of FBI, DEA and ATF agents, on a temporary duty basis, to get the situation under control. It would lobby Congress to immediately pass a federal law granting the authority for all local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law and require them, during a lawful police encounter, to check the legal status of all suspected illegal immigrants. If the person is clearly in the country illegally, local law enforcement officers would be compelled to arrest them and turn them over to ICE or the Border Patrol for deportation. Instead, this administration prefers hugs to arrests, and sees illegals as a means to add numbers to its political party in order to retain power. A prudent administration would scrap any notion of “reforming” immigration law and instead enforce existing law. Until that is done, reforms can wait. It would lobby Congress to pass legislation compelling all public schools to check the legal status of existing and future students. This way the first lady won’t be embarrassed again when she visits a classroom and a little girl tells her that her mother “doesn’t have papers,” like what happened a week ago. A law compelling public housing agencies to determine the legal status of prospective residents would have prevented the president’s illegal alien aunt from getting rent-free accommodations for as many years as she did before she was finally caught and then given a free pass by an immigration judge. If illegal aliens knew the first time a cop stopped them for a traffic violation in the morning they would be on a bus back to Tijuana that night, they might not come here illegally in the first place. Arizona has shown the courage and leadership this country badly needs. That’s why 70 percent of the nation supports the new law.