Thread: ICE's failure endangers U.S. residents

ICE's failure endangers U.S. residents

Becky Yeh - OneNewsNow California correspondent - 2/17/2011 4:05:00 AMBookmark and Share

Illegal Immigration Road Sign bigA recent report indicated that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to identify almost 900 dangerous illegal convicts eligible for deportation, thus releasing them back into the United States.



According to CNSNews, in 2009 ICE did not identify 890 illegal criminals who were incarcerated in Texas and California. The convicts were guilty of level-one offenses, which include homicide, assault, and sex and drug offenses, among others. Although the criminals were a threat to public safety, they were not deported and were released back into society. The federal agency blamed the failure on a shortage of employees.

William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, tells OneNewsNow that when it comes to illegal immigration, national security should always be a top priority.

"The executive branch under [George W.] Bush and now [Barack] Obama is arguing that only this level of criminals should be removed after people have been killed, raped, or assaulted," Gheen states. "The existing border and immigration laws of the United States should be adequately enforced to prevent these crimes from happening against Americans or on American soil at all."

William Gheen (ALIPAC)Although Gheen believes deportation is a necessary element in enforcement, he explains that illegal convicts will not be stopped by deportation.

"They can walk right back in here," he laments. "The border is woefully unsecured -- I mean, it's not secured at all. There's nobody really being stopped -- there's people who are being delayed in getting into the United States, but they're not really stopping anybody."

As he has argued in the past, the ALIPAC president says the federal government must tighten the country's borders while enforcing existing immigration laws.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Security/Defa ... id=1295842

Related:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-228202.html

"This POTUS knows what is going on here, and refuses to listen to Americans!" And even worse he refuses to do anything about it!

Added to Homepage--

http://www.alipac.us/article-6089--0-0.html

The government state and federal need to be sued each time an illegal commits a crime.

Mexico: Violence hits US with shootings

El Paso Times Editorial Board
Posted: 02/18/2011 12:00:00 AM MST

The shootings of two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Mexico on Tuesday were tragic and heartbreaking. Agent Jaime Zapata, from Laredo, was killed. And El Paso-based Agent Victor Avila was wounded. The shootings hit close to home.

Tragic? Heartbreaking? Yes. But not unexpected.

This country is at war in Mexico, just as surely as the U.S. is at war in Afghanistan. And the tragedy of war is that there will be casualties.

Most Americans know that there is a drug war going on in Mexico, but probably not many realize the depth of American involvement in that war. A number of U.S. law-enforcement agencies have a presence in Mexico, including ICE, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and no doubt others. Of necessity, much or most of their work is covert or at least low-profile.

But make no mistake: We are at war, and that war has now hit home in a way we haven't seen since 1985, when DEA Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena was tortured and killed in Mexico.

U.S. participation in Mexico's drug war isn't limited to throwing money at the problem through the Mérida Initiative. It's not just a matter of training Mexican law-enforcement officers. It's not just diplomatic maneuvering.

The United States has people on the front lines, in the trenches, of this war. Their lives are in danger, as demonstrated by Tuesday's shootings.

Now the question is, how will the shootings of the ICE agents affect American involvement in Mexico? Is this the catalyst for more aggressive efforts by the U.S., the dispatching of more personnel to Mexico? How much more U.S. involvement would Mexico countenance?

Questions swirl, particularly because it appears that drug cartel-related violence is still increasing in Mexico and along the border. Recently, two El Paso teens were gunned down in Juárez; a missionary's wife was shot and killed in northern Mexico; a Border Patrol agent was killed in Arizona; and an Arizona rancher was killed near the border.

Mexican authorities are helpless, either through incompetence, inability or possibly complicity with the criminals.

Meanwhile, American lives are on the line.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_1 ... source=rss