I.C.E. Bows to Political Pressure

http://lonestartimes.com/2007/11/21/ice ... -pressure/


Every time you think that the federal government is getting a grip on the magnitude of the problem that illegal immigration presents, they do something to undermine their own efforts.

As we noted here and here, the Irving Police Department is cooperating with I.C.E. in a program called the Criminal Alien Program (CAP). They have seen a reduction in crime and have referred 1,700 illegal aliens to I.C.E. for deportation.

Obviously, this hasn’t set well with those people that want our borders to remain porous, allowing men and women to die in desperate attempts to enter our country. It appears that their continued protests and political pressure has won the day:

Officials with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement have notified North Texas cities that they want to target for deportation suspected illegal immigrants charged with more serious crimes and will no longer detain most of those arrested for Class C misdemeanors.

Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for ICE, said Tuesday there had been a recent spike in the number of referrals to the agency because of increased awareness of the Criminal Alien Program.

In other words, the cooperation between the City of Irving and I.C.E. worked so well that they are going to back off. What kind of nonsense is this? But, Bigjolly, you say, it’s only Class C misdemeanors!

Class C misdemeanors include speeding, assault, public intoxication and hot checks.

So, in addition to their being here illegally in the first place, it’s no big thing to attack someone, get drunk and put others lives in their hands or to defraud businesses? Dare I say you gotta be kidding me?

Irving officials estimate that of the 1,700 referred for deportation, 60% of them would not have been deported under the new I.C.E. guidelines. That would be 1,020 of these criminals still walking the streets of the U.S., assaulting people, getting drunk and carousing around or defrauding honest businessmen. Unreal.

Hispanic leaders and activists were pleased with the ICE decision.

“We said to the Irving authorities that the way they were proceeding was wrong because they were not affecting criminals but families for totally unjustified reasons,â€