Thread: Sheriff: We cannot give up fight against illegal immigratio

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Guest commentary: We cannot give up fight against illegal immigration

Don Hunter - Sheriff, Collier County

Monday, May 22, 2006

I believe that domestic security is bound up in the immigration discussions and as a task force chair for the regional domestic security task force some comment seems prudent.

As a practicing criminologist, I recognize and subscribe to the concept of swift and certain punishment yielding deterrence. Failure to enforce existing law results in patterned evasion and flaunting of the law. We certainly see evidence that this has occurred with the existing Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA). Estimates are that we have accumulated at least between 12 million and 20 million illegal alien foreign nationals in this country.

Legislation has been posited on the proposition that we cannot deport such a large number of people. As a law-enforcement officer and elected official, I believe that this position is flawed. First and foremost, no one has relieved local, state and federal law enforcement of the responsibility to enforce all laws.

In 2004, the estimated 800,000 sworn officers of this nation were charged with the responsibility for approximately 25 million crimes in the U.S. and we made over 14 million arrests. We do not catch every violator of law. Yet, we have not at any time conceded defeat and therefore we should not grant amnesty to the remainder. Another 12 million people violating federal immigration law is significant. However, what crimes shall we begin to ignore the enforcement of? Trespassing, arson, child exploitation or embezzlement; which shall we select? Control of immigration is directly related to national security.

Though local and state law enforcement does not enjoy unbridled authority to enforce federal law, we substantially assist our federal counterparts. Task forces and special operations demonstrate success in our joint ventures for the enforcement of federal narcotics/controlled substances law, bank robbery, abduction/kidnapping and child exploitation.

We work daily with the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Bureau of the Department of Homeland Security. Enforcement authority to assist our ICE counterparts has been granted in Florida for domestic security purposes only. This makes sense. Our ICE investigators number only 5,500 members, about the size of the Broward County Sheriff's Office (not including fire and emergency medical service members). This force alone is insufficient to properly document and monitor 12 million illegal foreign nationals if legal status is granted.

We also must significantly increase the number of Customs and Border Patrol officers patrolling our borders. Today this group numbers less than 12,500 members. This number is less than the number of police officers patrolling Chicago or New York City.

The Border Patrol is responsible for 1,900 miles of Mexican border, 5,000 miles of Canadian border, 95,000 miles of exposed coastline and navigable waters, 429 commercial airports and 300 seaports. This is an impossible task. Federal law permits local and state law enforcement to be authorized to assist our federal counterparts and we would be a significant force multiplier if so authorized.

To support the idea that people may violate our laws if the cause is right is to subscribe to the proposition that the ends justify the means. In law enforcement this is known as "noble cause corruption." This is unacceptable to us.

Our fundamental problem is that we do not know who is here (the illegals are undocumented) nor what they may represent as a threat to security. We have no access to databases upon which we may search identities or criminal status in Third World or emerging countries and no access to data from industrialized and unfriendly nations due to law and policy that protects citizens of those countries from outside scrutiny.

We must insist on access to administrative and criminal records in countries of most recent origin and birth or visitor status should be denied to aliens of those countries. Foreign countries must be required to accept back their deported nationals. The violation of law by those entering and remaining in the U.S. illegally includes identity theft, fraudulent application for identity documents, possession of forged documents, failure to register as a foreign national, failure to pay taxes on wages earned and perhaps many more crimes.

The argument that the illegal alien has committed only the crime of illegal entry is simply wrong. The question then posed is what is the threshold of crime tolerance for the illegal alien in this country? What level of threat are we willing to accept to our safety?

If this problem is to be solved, let's first define it.

For more on this issue please go to our Web site at www.colliersheriff.org.

www.naplesnews.com guest commentary by Sheriff Don Hunter

Look everyone! Some good news out of Florida. I am so Proud.

veri,
Welcome and great post. I put the text of the story in your post. This should be front page news.