dcourier.com
opinions
1/7/2012 9:55:00 PM

With regard to the Courier's Dec. 23 editorial, "Feds shrug off gatekeeper role," I'd like to add a couple of comments.

The Denver Post's comments on states encroaching on the federal government's mandate to set immigration policy is correct. Our law, SB1070, is in conflict with the feds' "policy" of amnesty for illegal immigrants. But it is the feds who are in conflict with the actual law. The Justice Department's refusal to enforce the law should result in the impeachment of Eric Holder, as well as his predecessors, and Obama and former presidents who have failed in their duty.

The U.S. Constitution does not provide for the president, the chief law enforcement officer, to selectively enforce our laws. It states he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, meaning all the laws.

It is incomprehensible that, once an illegal immigrant is in custody, federal policy is to release him if he has not committed a "serious" crime. It is a slap in the face to law enforcement officers to see their hard work ignored.

In reality, I don't see why the states should need laws such as SB1070, since all state officials, including law enforcement officers, take an oath not only to uphold the laws of their state, but the U.S. Constitution itself. In other words, they are required to enforce federal immigration laws, whether the Justice Department does or doesn't.

Your side note indicated that Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies were stripped of their ICE certification because of the accusations of bias against his office. In fact, that is not the case. That was just a convenient excuse for Janet Napolitano's Homeland Security Office to stop Joe's office from documenting the number of illegal immigrants ICE was releasing. Checking the immigration status of every inmate was clearly not biased but was embarrassing to Homeland Security and the administration.

Jim Barber

Camp Verde

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