Burning Atlanta

AJC.com

Federal immigration law severely restricts what local police agencies can and can't do regarding illegal immigrants, and rightfully so. The courts have ruled that enforcing immigration laws is the federal government's responsibility.

That's not exactly right. Congress has passed and reiterated that police departments do have some rights along those lines. Problem seems to be where those lines are drawn. I'm not going to take the time to look it up right now. Also, bank robbery is a federal crime but how often do you hear the local cops use that as an excuse? "Ahh, that's a federal issue and we don't want to get involved."

Local police agencies shouldn't be wasting time and money checking the paperwork on day laborers. Trouble is, Congress prefers to concentrate its efforts on catching potential landscapers and busboys crossing the border than spend what it will take to track down the drug runners, methamphetamine sales agents and human traffickers who are the real threats to communities that have been hard hit by illegal immigration.

Well, tell me something. How many of those day laborers are wanted for serious crimes? Even if they're only wanted on lesser charges, how many go on to commit serious crimes? Remind me to look up that poor illegal that was working as a dishwasher or such in Denver.  I don't remember what occupation that illegal alien had who murdered a Doraville officer.

****Note: 4-21-2007 Somehow I had misquoted, actually repeated part of the quote, in the below when I dragged and dropped. I think it's correct, now, but I don't pay for access to their archives.

Many incidents don't even make the police blotter. But every arrest is felt in county jails, where those charged with the crimes eventually wind up and are processed through the state judicial system. (Last year, voters in Cobb County approved spending $130 million to expand the jail, which has become overcrowded, in part, by the number of illegal immigrants there awaiting trial.)

That's why getting the sheriff's deputies trained is important. Cobb jail officials will know, immediately, which of their inmates are already facing deportation orders for previous crimes. More importantly, they will be in a position to start that complicated process for others convicted of crimes locally — rather than having to wait on an unresponsive federal bureaucracy to do it.

The simple truth is that illegal aliens are everyone's problem. And that red herring argument that we hear so often from some police departments is bogus as hell. "We don't want to frighten off people in the immigrant community because they might not report crimes or come forward as witnesses to crimes." The truth is that the issue is political, as are police departments. And many departments have an attitude of "We've got enough problems without taking this one on, too."