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Sunday, June 25, 2006

U.S. immigration 'policy’ is gigantic train wreck

If you ever doubted that U.S. immigration ‘‘policy’’ is a gigantic train wreck, information released last week ought to make up your mind: The United States is home to about 500,000 ‘‘fugitive aliens.’’ They are illegal immigrants who at one point were apprehended, then ordered by judges to be deported — but who either never left the country or did so only to slip back into the United States.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials revealed the number during a much-publicized sweep to capture some of the illegal aliens who have been involved in criminal activities in this country. ICE agents have arrested about 2,100 illegal immigrants during Operation Return to Sender. Special emphasis has been placed on violent criminals such as child molesters and on members of criminal gangs such as the infamous Mara Salvatrucha.

Many of those caught in Operation Return to Sender already had been deported, according to ICE officials. But so lax is security at America’s borders that they found ways to come back here to resume their criminal activities.

How many of those arrested and deported in Operation Return to Sender will wait a few days, then sneak back across the border between the United States and Mexico? To judge by their past successes, hundreds of them will do so.

There has been much discussion in Washington of ‘‘amnesty’’ for millions of illegal immigrants. Frankly, it appears to us that there has been too much of that already.

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