Thread: Immigration is a federal issue

EDITORIAL: Immigration is a federal issue

Home News Tribune Online 08/26/07
http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic ... 60348/1079.

State and local officials have been put through the wringer since it became known that the prime suspect in the horrific gang-style killings in Newark several weeks ago is an illegal alien already charged with a string of crimes but nevertheless out on bail. The call for some sort of reform became so intense that last week Attorney General Anne Milgram decreed that local police must ask the immigration status of suspects they arrest for indictable offenses or drunken driving, a necessary order that is nevertheless replete with controversy and risk.


State and local officials are taking the heat undeservedly. The real culprit is an untenable federal immigration law. When a large and growing percentage of any nation's population is living illegally, there are no laws, no orders and no decrees that can adequately protect everyone.

It is clear to everyone that the current law is inadequate, both for the people who want and need to come here to better their circumstances, and for the businesses that depend on their cheap labor. However sympathetic the plight of illegal aliens might be, the fact remains that they are breaking the law simply by being here, and their basic transgression affects all other aspects of their lives, including society's attempts to police and to protect them.

We are a nation of laws; we cannot function if one of the most basic tenets of residency is ignored.

A caller to a radio show last week noted that, as a legal alien, the parameters of his residency are very clear, as is the punishment for transgressing them. It seems unlikely, therefore, that a legal alien would come before a judge, accused of rape, and not have his immigration status be a point of knowledge and debate — and therefore a factor in the setting of his bail.

An illegal immigrant, however, is a different matter. Since his very presence is a crime, there are no parameters; if his crime is discovered, he cannot stay. Federal officials say, in retrospect, that they probably would have deported the suspect had they known he was illegal, but a former Essex County assistant prosecutor, speaking on the same radio show, said the federal government simply does not have the resources to track down the status of all the illegal aliens who are reported to them.

And so the system fails.

If there is blame to apportion for the Newark killings — apart from that meted out to the individuals who committed the crime — it should not go to Newark Mayor Cory Booker or Milgram or an entire class of immigrants. Look toward a federal government that has neither the inclination nor the wherewithal to enforce a fundamental law nor the courage to change it to something better.

Immigration is a NATIONAL ISSUE.


Nobody can pass the buck anymore!

W

State and local officials are taking the heat undeservedly.

Who wrote this idiotic nonsense? The SpinDoctors for the incompetent and useless New Jersey bureaucrats?? This is ourtageous.

However sympathetic the plight of illegal aliens might be

... Bleeding Heart Alert!!! Since when has there been "a sympathetic plight for illegal aliens" except in the MSM and the illegals handlers?

If there is blame to apportion for the Newark killings — apart from that meted out to the individuals who committed the crime — it should not go to Newark Mayor Cory Booker

...this is the second time this moron has tried to get mayor Booker off the hook. Three words...ain't gonna happen.