Dancing with ICE

Perhaps by design, there are never enough resources to deal with the illegal alien population. No politician will own up to supporting mass deportation because they have allowed the problem to get so big that it would be impractical to do so.

And the performance level of enforcement agencies tells the whole story. In one area alone (deportation of fugitive absconders) it will take 20 years to clear the backlog at current levels! And that figure assumes no new names will be added to the list!

And it rolls downhill as they say. For example, the new Kane County jail. Despite the fact that the old jail only holds 399 inmates and we have been renting space in other county jails since 1999 (to the tune of $4 MILLION last year), the new jail is going to be too small the day it opens with 640 beds.

Even judges who understand the need to incarcerate don’t have anywhere to send the bad guys.

And local cops really don’t need more tasks on their plate.

But cops and prosecutors are worried that all the loopholes in Homeland Security make arresting illegal aliens and reporting them an exercise in futility.

ICE might actually make matters WORSE if bureaucracy prevails. How so?

Well, let’s say the local cops pick up a guy for DUI. It turns out he is an illegal alien. The reasonable flow would be for him to sit in jail until he is sentenced and serves his time. Then Immigration sends him home.

Problem one: A low bond is set by the judge.
Problem two: ICE agrees to deport him (unlikely in the first place).
Problem three: He gets a free ride home at OUR expense, only to sneak back in the next day.
Problem four: The DUI case cannot proceed without the defendant and a warrant is issued.
Problem five: He’s back in town with a new set of fake IDs and back behind the wheel.

To do it right, we’d need to set a high bond, find a bed for him in a jail somewhere until he goes through the trial process, finance his defense, find a bed for him to serve his sentence, then deport him upon release, AND HE STILL COMES BACK IN WHENEVER HE WANTS!

But the SOP for Immigration is to deport him whenever he is released back out onto the street, be that recognizance, making bail, or end of sentence.

So the police and the prosecutor really have to get out the crystal ball and start analyzing the situation. How severe is the crime? Who is the judge? How full is the jail? How much bail money can the perp come up with? What do the victims expect? Is there a financial restitution amount and what is the likelihood the victims will ever collect? Is electronic monitoring an option? What are the flight risk factors?

At the end of the day, deportation might be the most severe (and most certain) form of punishment. It will slow him down. It will put him on record with Immigration as a repeat violator. It will put him at risk for capture at the border if he tries to come back. And maybe his pals here and back home will start to get the message that living in the United States is no longer a cakewalk.

But we need to give police and prosecutors the leeway to do what they think is best as long as we aren’t being hoodwinked by some sanctuary policy (written or de facto) and as long as they aren’t copping the attitude that, “It’s not my job.”

And we must never lose sight of the fact that this is a huge national problem. We recently passed the 4,000 mark in soldier fatalities in the Iraq war. We saw headlines and protests galore. Why then is there no outcry about the 13 people a day (according to Congressman Steve King) who die at the hands of illegal aliens driving drunk? That’s 4,745 people a year…and those are civilian deaths right here at home.

Deterring illegal aliens may not be politically fashionable, but it IS necessary.