Kent Lundgren

Chairman National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers
nafbpo.org

This editorial is part two of National Security and Public Safety. The National Security portion appeared in the April 6, 2009 edition of the M3 Report. Today's editorial deals with Public Safety.

Our Leaders Betray Us - Public Safety Part 2

Good immigration laws and vigorous execution of them protect the American public. Immigrants, legal or illegal, are not choirboys or girls; there are bad, even evil people among them, just as there are among Americans. The difference is this: we are stuck with our domestic criminals, but that not need be so with respect to foreign criminals and bad actors.

Then, we can eject from our midst, and we should prosecute them vigorously if they return bother us again. Our immigration laws must be used at every opportunity to rid us of foreign criminals or would-be criminals. For our leaders to do otherwise is to invite harm to hundreds of thousands of us who live here legally and peacefully - in their failure to do so, they betray us once more.
We must demand answers from our leaders why we should, even for a moment, consider keeping among us those who have shown that they cannot follow the rules that regulate a free and orderly society. This is particularly true of our local and state leaders, those who declare sanctuary cities, and whose states decline to help our immigration officers enforce the law, or who do not use the help that immigration officers can provide in ridding us of criminals. San Francisco is the prime example, and we note that it is from there that Ms. Pelosi, Speaker of the House, brings her despicable ideas. San Francisco is known across Latin America for being a haven for illegal aliens; they throng there. The city's people suffer for it, and Ms Pelosi and her ilk are the guilty enablers of that suffering.

Immigration laws provide a unique legal tool to use against criminals. Take, for instance, violent gang task force operations. The FBI estimates that there may be as many as a million gang members in this country. Some of the most violent of them, particularly MS13, are made up predominantly of illegal aliens. Yet in sanctuary cities, such as Los Angeles, which has the largest gang problem in the world, law enforcement is not allowed to question the immigration status of gang members. If local officers could do so, or if there were an immigration officer on the task force, then gang members who do not belong here could be sent home even if they have never been convicted of a crime. They committed their crime when they crossed the border illegally, and they can be sent home expeditiously for it. If they return after that they can be arrested on sight and charged with a federal felony. As late as the 1990s the approach was recognized for its value and used extensively across the country.

That tool has the same value in combating drug gangs, and that is a fight we must gird our loins for, because the cartels are coming, and they know no rules. We must use every tool at our disposal to fight them now, and hard, or we will wind up in a public struggle such as is going on in Mexico, with murder, mayhem, and graft being the orders of the day. It CAN happen here. Domestic safety and tranquility flow only from good decisions made in timely fashion. This administration and Congress, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Napolitano and others, show no signs of making good decisions to protect public safety. There is lip service. There are hollow gestures. But there is no concerted effort to rid this country of criminal aliens, much less the group as a whole that threatens our jobs, our national security, our public health and social institutions.

We must demand that our leaders answer, "Why not?" They must answer up about why they have a soft spot in their hearts for the alien criminals and bad actors they protect with their attitudes about immigration laws. Their foolishness even goes so far as to allow gang members to benefit from the amnesty being discussed now in the halls of Congress. What manner of fool dares call himself a representative of the people when he is willing to sacrifice their safety on the altar of "Immigration Reform?"

Demand of your politicians that they faithfully execute the laws, and that they look farther still for solutions to these problems. If you don't, they think they are doing just fine.


Schedule of Editorials - these will appear on our website, http://www.nafbpo.org, and our daily Foreign Media Report.

March 24 - Introductory Editorial
March 30 - American jobs for American workers
April 6 - National security and public safety (1st half)
April 7 - National security and public safety (2nd half)
April 13 - Public health and social impact

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