Thread: Operation Cross Check moves U.S. immigration approach in right direction

Operation Cross Check moves U.S. immigration approach in right direction

Published: Friday, April 06, 2012, 7:06 AM
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

Being in the United States without proper documentation is not a crime. It is a civil wrong, but not a criminal offense. If those words sound familiar, it's because Chris Christie uttered them in 2008, at a church forum in Dover when he was U.S. attorney. Don't expect the governor, however, to repeat those remarks anytime soon. Not when his party has tilted so radically to the right.

That’s why Operation Cross Check is important. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, started the program last May. It puts into practice the Obama administration policy of directing ICE agents to focus on criminals who are here illegally. Not the hardworking families who have been in the country for years, living in the shadows because of an unjust system.

Obama is also heading in the right direction by having ICE prosecute employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. Raids that round up workers are fruitless exercises if employers continue to hire them.

Check mate
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began Cross Check last May to focus on convicted criminal aliens. The latest Cross Check operation occurred nationwide over six days in March and led to the arrest of 3,168 people. By the numbers:

2,843 males
325 females
116 nationalities
2,834 criminals
698 immigration fugitives
559 illegal re-entrants
149 sexual predators
50 gang members
1,063 individuals with more than one conviction

Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement


These are small but necessary policy tweaks that will have to do until we get comprehensive immigration reform. Without bipartisan support, that reform remains out of reach.

Even small steps that once drew Republican support, such as the DREAM Act, have been shot down. That legislation would have given young people brought here illegally as children a chance to earn citizenship through education or military service. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), long spoken of as a highly desirable running mate for Mitt Romney, has come up with his own version of the DREAM Act — with legalization, not citizenship as the reward. But this is just a halfway measure that creates yet another status class without solving the larger problem.

Meanwhile, Cross Check re-orients enforcement that previously separated children from families and left others without a breadwinner. It’s the kind of program one would expect a President Christie to put into practice, if he meant what he said five years ago in a Dover church.

Operation Cross Check moves U.S. immigration approach in right direction | NJ.com

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http://www.alipac.us/f12/ice-arrests...onwide-254161/

"Obama is also heading in the right direction by having ICE prosecute employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers."

Exept for the liquor store that his Illegal Alien uncle works at.