Ex-Sheriff Mack: Crime, Joblessness Rise With Illegal Immigration

Thursday, 11 Dec 2014 08:17 PM
By Sean Piccoli

Two dozen sheriffs from several states went to Washington this week to tell President Barack Obama that his executive decision on illegal immigration is inflicting real damage on local communities, a former Graham County, Ariz., sheriff told Newsmax TV on Thursday.

Ex-sheriff Richard Mack, told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner that he and other current and veteran law enforcement professionals delivered their message on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as guests of two U.S. senators.

"We've actually met with a lot of congressmen, and some senators yesterday, who do get it, and they do understand — and even some Democrats who do understand — that what the president is doing is illegal," said Mack, founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.

Mack criticized the Obama administration on both constitutional and policy grounds. He said that the president exceeded his legal authority when he acted in defiance of Congress last month and shielded millions of immigrants here illegally from deportation.

Mack said the president's actions also violate Section 4, Article 4 of the Constitution, which guarantees states protection "against invasion."

He said the federal government's approach, more generally, has been to throw billions at problems caused by illegal immigration after they've already become entrenched inside of the country "instead of stopping them at the border."

"And then these problems come into our communities and in our counties, and they don't pay any attention to the problems that we suffer … as far as crime rates and the problems with infrastructure," said Mack.

He said that the economic impact is also visible.

"We've heard from lots of minority groups as well that what the president is doing is hurting the middle classes — the minority groups who are seeking jobs desperately in this time of economic hardship — [by] adding these people to that problem," said Mack. "That's exactly what Obama's doing."

In courting Hispanic voters as well as "people who have come to our country illegally and criminally," the president is also hurting the economic prospects and social well-being of African-Americans, Mack argued.

"We have been in touch with those groups and they are saying … this is making the crime rates go up, this is making the jobless rates go up, and this is making searching for jobs for those people who need them the most almost impossible," said Mack.

"And President Obama is placating and kissing up to people who are here criminally who have broken the law to be here, and he's taking care of them before [taking care of] law-abiding Americans," he said.

Mack assumed the president has tuned him and his fellow sheriffs out, and wouldn't dare meet with them in any case.

"He knows better because he would be exposed as breaking the law," said Mack.

"If he was listening, he would be talking to the sheriffs of this country," he said. "And that's why we came here and we told Congress and the president, 'Why aren't you opening lines of communication with us? We are boots on the ground having to take care of this problem that you have caused.'"

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsmax-Tv/Ri.../11/id/612577/