Thread: 'Deport Them All'? NYT immigration-derangement syndrome

National Review Online
the corner

Monday, February 23, 2009

'Deport Them All'? [Mark Krikorian]

Some of the more enthusiastic among restrictionists think the recent effusion of immigration-expansionist editorials by the New York Times is due to the fact that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim bailed it out last month. I don't think the Times's editorial board needs that kind of encouragement, at least not on immigration. In any case, they had another episode of immigration-derangement syndrome Sunday, with a piece entitled "Enforcement Gone Bad." The most unhinged line was "Since the early 1990s, you could write the federal government’s immigration strategy on a cardboard sign: Deport Them All"

Right. In 2007, DHS deported the equivalent of about 2 percent of the illegal-alien population (see the stats in pdf here). That should probably be increased to 5 percent, and it would increase further as the population base decreased, but "deport them all" is absurd under any circumstances.

Even the Pew Hispanic Center report they use as a news peg isn't quite what they think it is. The disproportionate number of Hispanics convicted of federal crimes is because immigration's one of the few areas of almost exclusive federal jurisdiction (and 80 percent of illegals are from Latin America). What's more, as the report notes and the Times ignores, Hispanics have the shortest average stays in federal custody, in large part because of Operation Streamline, which convicts illegals caught at certain parts of the border of entry without inspection (which is a crime, contrary to the Times's claim), locks them up for a few weeks or a month, then sends them back, as a deterrent to illegal crossing — a successful deterrent, thanks for asking. (Here's a story on this from a real newspaper.) Others among those convicted are people who've re-entered after deportation, which is a felony and needs to be prosecuted if the writ of immigration courts is to be taken seriously.

But details like these don't matter to the Times's editorial writers, because they don't want the writ of immigration courts, or immigration law in general, to be taken seriously.

02/23 01:42 PM

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/? ... lkMjdhYWQ=

"Deport them all" works for me. The reason why would-be legal immigrants are kept waiting so long is that illegal aliens have been jumping in front of the line for so long.

Cut off all the goodies and they will have no choice but to self-deport. US citizen kids? Raising and supporting kids is the parents responsibility, NOT mine!