A sheriff's courage on deportations
Published: 9/20/2008 10:19 PM

No matter what your ideological point of view may be, it's hard to argue with the statistics Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran trotted out last week.

As he reiterated his calls for deporting illegal immigrants who commit crimes, Curran said a recent audit by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) found that 122 of the county jail's 637 inmates had questionable or illegal entry status.

That amounts to 21.5 percent of the jail population, and if that number were constant throughout the year, the annual dollar cost to house and keep those inmates would amount to as much as $4 million.

To be sure, there is some danger in Curran's campaign.

It is possible for some to wrongly draw the conclusion from his remarks that the community of illegal immigrants is one marked by crime and lawlessness. That's a scurrilous stereotype that simply isn't true.

The vast majority of undocumented immigrants have come to America to make a better life for themselves and their families just as immigrants have done in the United States for generations.

But as with virtually any community, there also is a criminal element, and we see nothing illogical about pursuing deportation proceedings against those who come to this country illegally and then commit a crime.

While there is a danger of racial and ethnic profiling in Curran's campaign that must be guarded against, there is perhaps an even greater danger in a hands-off attitude that seems so fashionable on the other side of the debate over illegal immigration.

In his remarks last week, Curran criticized politicians in Chicago and the state of Illinois who "have shown little interest in cooperating with ICE, choosing instead to ignore the problem or pander to special interest groups or their sympathizers."

It took no small amount of political courage for Curran to raise that charge, and he immediately received a return volley from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley who told the Chicago Tribune, "Many of the people who come here, when they arrive here, they're all working.

"I hope Congress and the federal government really protects them in some capacity," Daley said. "That is not the role of the Chicago Police Department, your legal status. I mean, their role is to serve and protect."

As much as we admire Daley on many scores, on this one, he is tragically off base. His remarks illustrate clearly the accuracy of Curran's criticism.

It is no affront to the hard-work ethic of the majority of illegal immigrants to deport those who commit crimes. It's not even central to the debate over illegal immigration. It's clear logic.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=236330