Napolitano's shaky logic

dallasnews.com
By
Gabriel Escobar / Editorial Writer
12:13 PM on Mon., Aug. 22, 2011

Here's the official explanation for the change subtle but important change in deportations announced last week by the Obama Administration: Prosecutors will be able to go after illegal immigrants who are serious criminals and not waste time on those who are not a threat to public safety.

For this to be true most of the time, you would have one court system dealing with both serious felons and immigration transgressors. Prosecutors would be dealing with crowded court dockets, limited jail space, etc. But that's not the case. Serious felons go mostly through the local courts. Immigration violators, the majority of those now identified for deportation, go through federal immigration court.

Keep in mind that most illegal immigrants are not serious felons as currently defined by the law. Serious felons--those accused of murder, rape, robbery, serious assault and other similar crimes--are mostly prosecuted in local courts. They go through a different legal pipeline, one that ends in conviction, sentence, time served and, eventually, release. Once that process is completed, these felons are handed over to immigration for deportation. At that point, removing the individual should be a formality since he or she is now a convicted felon.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who announced the change in enforcement last week, was at the very least disingenuous in articulating the main benefit of the change. I cannot see how prosecutors would now be free to go after the really bad guys. This is not that kind of enforcement.

The federal program at the center of this, called Secure Communities, identifies illegal immigrants by running the names of people arrested through several databases. It is a passive system in the sense that the individual has to do something to attract the attention of law enforcement.

Once a match is made, immigration and customs enforcement in effect opens up a file. Agents get the perp if the crime is a violation of immigration law. If it involves a serious felony, well, agents have to wait for local authorities. Remember that the program, as defined by Obama himself, is aimed at removing the "worst of the worst."

Napolitano's explanation fits only if there are a lot of serious criminals who are going straight from the streets to the federal immigration system. That would indeed clog both jails and immigration court. Under this scenario, deportations of serious criminals would be handled by a court overwhelmed by the non-criminal immigration violators. You would think there would be a big difference between deporting someone already found guilty by local courts--a slamdunk--and having to in effect prove a criminal case in immigration court.

If Napolitano is right, then local prosecutors are giving these serious felons a pass, in great numbers. Is that really happening?

I certainly hope not.

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnew ... s-sha.html