by Joseph Klein
The danger the Left's attack on ICE poses to communities.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) focuses its law enforcement efforts against illegal immigrants toward criminals and public safety threats. They helped to make over 4,800 gang related arrests in FY2017. Through the first half of FY2018, more than two-thirds of all persons arrested by ICE are convicted criminals. For example, according to federal officials cited by the Los Angeles Daily News, a three-day federal immigration sweep targeting convicted criminals in the U.S. illegally resulted in 162 arrests across Southern California last June. These included a Mexican national arrested who had been convicted of rape, a previously deported El Salvadorian who had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter, and sex offenders against children. In a separate action last June, ICE removed an El Salvadoran illegal immigrant who was the subject of an active arrest warrant in El Salvador for affiliation with a criminal organization (MS-13). ICE also removed an Irish national who was a member of the organized crime syndicate “Cock-Wall Gang” and had served time for manslaughter in Ireland. He had entered the U.S. through the Visa Waiver Program that President Trump has so strongly criticized and overstayed his visa. These are just a few examples of ICE successes in helping to keep Americans safe from illegal immigrant predators.
“Every day the brave men and women of ICE are liberating communities and towns from savage gangs like MS-13 that are occupying our country like another nation would,” President Trump said at a rally in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday. “We want maximum border security and respect for our heroes ICE, border patrol, and law enforcement." Most Americans would agree with the president. However, many Leftists want to shut down ICE.
“My read is that ‘Abolish ICE’ is the demand, and defunding ICE is the mechanism to do that,” said Sean McElwee, co-founder of Data for Progress, who came up with “Abolish ICE” as a hashtag in February 2017. He is the co-founder of Abolishice.org whose stated goal is “to abolish ICE and create an immigration system divorced from white supremacy.” He believes, in his own words, “that every Democrat running in the 2020 Presidential Election will have to articulate a vision of a world without ICE." Left-wing advocacy groups such as Moveon.org and Justice Democrats are helping to lead the charge. The latter group labeled ICE as “a state-funded terrorist group.”
Democrat senators considering a run for the presidency in 2020, Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have hopped on the Abolish ICE bandwagon. So have other politicians. New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon said ICE is a “terrorist organization” and called for its abolition. Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who defeated her primary opponent Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), the fourth-ranking House Democrat, made the abolishment of ICE a major part of her campaign. “It’s time to abolish ICE, clear the path to citizenship, and protect the rights of families to remain together,” her website says.
Moreover, sanctuary cities refuse to cooperate with ICE agents. Instead of honoring immigration detainers, they release serious criminal offenders onto the streets in an act of defiance that is tantamount to pre-Civil War nullification. Because of such state and local government obstruction, ICE must expend resources to find and arrest these criminals who have been freed to prey on the communities they infiltrate. “When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders onto the streets, it undermines ICE’s ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission,” ICE spokeswoman Lori K. Haley said. In a recent example – and there are many such examples – ICE arrested an unlawfully present Mexican national last week who is a registered sex offender in Orange County, North Carolina. The county had refused to honor an ICE detainer and instead released him from local custody in June without any notification to ICE.
Those who advocate abolishing ICE, or who sabotage its efforts to detain and deport illegal immigrants with violent criminal records, are giving dangerous illegal immigrants an open invitation to kill, rape or assault American citizens and others lawfully living in this country. These illegal immigration advocates are hiding behind the emotional issue of family reunification to obscure their real objective – open borders and a path to citizenship for all who seek to enter the United States. They oppose a border wall and other effective security measures to keep would-be migrants from entering our country illegally in the first place. For those illegal immigrants who do manage to cross the border into our country, their advocates favor a catch and release program that lets the illegal immigrants out to reside in communities across the country with little prospect of being detected. Even after the Trump administration successfully completed the reunifications of more than 1800 illegal migrant families that had been separated under President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, their advocates went to court to block the deportations of the intact families. It did not matter whether the parents had signed a form waiving their children’s right to asylum and agreeing to immediate deportation.
Most Americans want secure borders. According to a June Harvard-Harris poll, as summarized by a Slate article, sixty-nine percent of voters, including half of Hispanic voters, currently oppose disbanding ICE. Seventy percent of voters polled want tighter immigration laws. Moreover, the Slate article states, “64 percent of voters, including a 52 percent majority of Hispanics, say border-crossers should be sent home rather than allowed to stay.” Most Americans favor immigration priority based on a person's ability to contribute to America as measured by their education and skills rather than based on a person having relatives in the U.S.
In short, most Americans believe that a fair and even generous immigration policy can only work if it is implemented under the rule of law with safeguards to protect the personal and economic security of Americans citizens and others residing legally in this country. Illegal immigration advocates, on the other hand, believe that immigration is an inherent universal human right rather than a privilege. Many Leftists demand the abolishment of ICE. These Leftists, along with some libertarian allies, including at the Cato Institute, want to open our borders to all who wish to reside here. If these fanatics ever get their way, the sovereign constitutional republic of the United States of America as we know it will come to an end.
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270914/saboteurs-immigration-law-enforcement-joseph-klein
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