Burning Atlanta

This should be SOP across our nation. This should've been the way the system operated post the One Time amnesty of 1986. This is too little, too late, but every bit helps.

Deport Them

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal officials plan to step up efforts to deport illegal immigrants who have been jailed for committing crimes in Oregon and Washington.

New teams of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are to be based in Portland, Eugene, Seattle and Yakima, joining a Medford office, although officials won't say how many new agents will be added to the focused effort in the two states. Nationally, the number is expected to be in the hundreds.

"Aliens that are criminals will be arrested and convicted, and if they're subject to removal, we're going to get to them before they get back on the street," Neil Clark, field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention and removal operations in Seattle, told The Oregonian newspaper.

"I'm going to accomplish as much as I can," he said. "If I can do the complete workload, I will. If I can't, then I'm going to get to the worst criminals first."

Talk is cheap. Reality is another thing but, at least, his heart is in the right place.

Now for the typical pad responses from the pro-illegal lobby:

"It's too much of a race to get people out," said Kari Hong, who handles immigration cases in Portland and Oakland, Calif. "People see categories, rather than facts of the crime. And when you try to remove people by categories, you're going to catch many who are not a danger to society."

Ahh, excuse me? We're talking about criminals. You want to put them in categories of violent or non-violent? Know the difference between a buglar and a murderer? Depended on whether or not anybody was home.

Others say the agency's campaign might encourage police to go after illegal immigrants or discourage immigrants from reporting crimes such as domestic violence because they fear their own deportations.

Geez, how many times have I heard that one?