Debbie Schlussel: WHY?: Immigration Agency Alerts Illegals on New Plans for Capture
We understand ICE's (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) need for positive press when it comes to capturing illegal alien fugitives in our midst. (There are approximately 536,000 of them.)
To date, ICE's effort to capture illegals has been a disaster. We detailed, here, ICE's inability to round-up more than 671 visa violators and deport more than of them in 2004. (That's ludicrous, considering, there are between 10 and 13 million illegals currently among us.) The agency's Detention and Removal Operations (which does a lot of good work) doesn't get the press that the ICE Special Agent In Charge offices get. Plus, the agency's new queen, Julie L. Myers, is eager for positive press amidst a barrage of deservedly negative press about her back-door, unworthy recess appointment.
But does that mean that ICE needs to alert illegals that the agency is about to get serious--and where it will concentrate its extra Detention and Removal Operations personnel? Gee, why not just tell illegals: Heads up! We're coming for you, so it's time to get lost. Check out this map, below, published in today's USA Today print edition and provided to the paper by ICE (accompanying article is here).
Was disclosure of this map necessary? If we were fugitive illegal aliens, and we saw this map, we'd immediately head to states where there are no black dots.
In the past year, there's been a lot of bloviating by DHS and ICE "leaders" that they were finally going to get tough on illegals. We hope that's the case. And we hope the increase in ICE personnel dedicated to this, as detailed in this article, means that--though given past performance, we're not holding our breath. We're also not bracing to hear that those who fit the description of 9/11 terrorists--Muslims and Arabs--will finally be rounded up with the same gusto as illegal alien Latinos and Chinese. Given what we've seen in the heart of Islamic America, we're not enthused.
Still, is it really necessary to give out details about how many new fugitive round-up teams there will be, where they will be concentrated (as provided in today's USA Today), or even that this is happening at all? We don't think so. In fact, we'd be happier if we got the news after the fact--like an announcement of all the fugitives newly rounded-up and deported.
This tells us we may never see such good news, and thus, the necessity to announce plans and tip off illegals. It tells us the Bush Administration and Mr. Burns (DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff) are still NOT serious about capturing illegals within our borders. Ditto for their incompetent ingenue, Julie Myers, newly-crowned ICE Princess.
Instead of giving alerts to illegals to run and hide, we'd all be better off if ICE spokespeople did a better job of defending their just actions in rounding up and deporting illegals, instead of passing the back. Consider this sympathetic-to-illegals story in today's Detroit Free Press. In it, Detroit's ICE spokesman, Greg Palmore, had the opportunity to put forth the agency's position. But, instead, his office passed the buck back and forth with the Immigration Court:
A spokesperson for the Detroit office of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that made the decision to deport Marieta Liti, referred questions about the case to the Board of Immigration Appeals in Virginia.A spokesman there, Greg Gagne, said it is up to the local office to decide how and when to deport immigrants.
Posted by Debbie on January 11, 2006 02:01 PM to Debbie Schlussel