Tuesday
July 26 2005
CATCH AND RELEASE: Mind boggling report from the Christian
Science Monitor today on the upsurge in non-Mexican illegals
crossing our southern border:
Because
OTMs, or "Other Than Mexicans" as the Border Patrol
classifies them, must be returned to their country of origin,
they cannot be simply sent back across the southern border,
as most Mexicans are. Under US law, they must be detained (in
the US) pending a deportation hearing. The problem is, immigration
detention centers are packed, so most OTMs are given a court
summons and told to return in three months. A full 85 percent
don't.
According
to the Border Patrol, some 465,000 OTMs have taken advantage
of this "catch and release" policy to settle here
in the US. "It's an insane policy which encourages OTMs
to come into the country illegally, and we shouldn't be shocked
that they are coming in record numbers," says T.J. Bonner,
president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents
more than 9,000 agents.
In
fact, he says, after crossing the border, many OTMs flag down
agents or walk up to them and surrender, knowing they will be
released. "The word is out," says Mr. Bonner. "They
know that as soon as they are caught, they will be free to roam
at will."
Like most
Americans, I'm a huge believer in the value of legal immigration.
It is, after all, the foundation upon which this great nation
was built. I also recognize that it's simply not possible - nor
is it necessarily desirable from an economic standpoint - to try
and identify and deport the 10-12 million people currently estimated
to be in the United States illegally.
All that
being said, we must enforce our immigration laws as a matter of
principle and protect our borders as a matter of national security.
Nearly four years after September 11, we've made some progress
enhancing border security through investments in technology and
manpower. But much more needs to be done. And neither Congress
nor the Bush administration have addressed the fundamental issue
of immigration reform.
For those
who missed it, over the weekend we ran op-eds from Senators John
Cornyn and Jon
Kyl who have introduced an immigration bill to compete with
the version offered earlier this year by Senators Ted Kennedy
and John McCain (Press
release | Detailed
analysis of bill (pdf)).
Neither of
these bills is perfect, but at least they offer a start at putting
in place an immigration policy that is 1) rational, 2) balances
national security against the needs of business and, 3) most importantly,
is actually enforced by properly staffed government agencies.
THINGS
TO LIKE - 2005: Tony Blair, Red Stripe beer, and RealClearPolitics.
Sounds like a
great list to me. - T. Bevan 8:55 am Link
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