Saturday, June 1, 2019

Cooperation Between ICE and Police Essential to Combat MS-13 - Michael Cutler


by Michael Cutler

Immigration law enforcement provides heavy artillery to fight transnational crime.

On May 26, 2019 the local radio station in New York, 1010 WINS reported, Nassau police union: Dozens more detectives needed to combat MS-13.  

That report began with this excerpt:
 
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Two days after the body of a suspected MS-13 victim was discovered at Massapequa Preserve, Nassau PBA president James McDermott says gang units in the county are understaffed and ill-equipped to deal with the violent gang.
 
“Our gang unit is undermanned and not provided with the necessary resources to deal with this threat,” he said Sunday, speaking near the location where the body was discovered Friday.
 
The remains are believed to be from one of a number of people murdered by MS-13 several years ago.
 
In any battle, more “boots on the ground” can help to insure victory.  Where the battle is against transnational criminals, it would be most helpful if those “boots” were worn by ICE agents.
 
What was not discussed in this article is how ICE agents can be of a huge assistance in effectively combatting MS-13 and other transnational gangs and how sanctuary policies have the exact opposite impact.
 
Indeed, effective immigration law enforcement can support law and assist enforcement efforts to combat gangs, human trafficking, prostitution drug trafficking and other serious crimes.
 
Years ago INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) agents worked in close cooperation with the NYPD.  Back then I frequently participated in joint operations with the NYPD to shut down houses of prostitution.  Many of the clients and prostitutes of these brothels were illegal aliens. 
 
The police would arrest the prostitutes and their clients and we would lodge detainers or simply take them into custody.  The word on the street was that illegal aliens might find themselves being deported by the INS agents.  Business dropped and many of these locations were permanently shuttered.
 
Additionally, many times the prostitutes would cooperate with our efforts to identify human traffickers so that we could target the pernicious traffickers and ultimately dismantle their operations and bring them to justice.
 
It is obvious that ICE agents are empowered to arrest illegal aliens on administrative charges that result in the deportation of illegal aliens from the United States.
 
To this point, immigration anarchists frequently refer to immigration laws as “civil laws” minimizing the true importance of our nation’s immigration laws and the actual authority that ICE agents have.
 
What is seldom, if ever discussed, is that there are also criminal laws that are a part of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and violations of these laws carry serious prison sentences.
 
In fact, on May 13, 2019 The Washington Examiner published an opinion piece, Feds: Immigration top US crime, one-third of all sentencings that was based on the official report of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Fiscal Year 2018 Annual Report and Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics that reported that immigration law violations accounted for 34.4% of all federal prosecutions and that 94.7% of immigration prosecutions resulted in prison sentences.
 
The 9/11 Commission determined that visa fraud and immigration fraud figured prominently in the ability of international terrorists to enter the United States and embed themselves as they went about their deadly preparation, and not only with the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 were concerned.
 
Visa fraud 18 U.S. Code § 1546 is an extremely serious crime and when it is committed in conjunction with terrorism exposes the alien who perpetrates that crime to a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
 
Visa fraud committed in conjunction with drug trafficking carries a maximum of 20 years in  prison.  
 
Human Trafficking/Alien Smuggling 8 U.S. Code § 1324 addresses crimes that relate to illegally bringing aliens into the and/or harboring, concealing, aiding, abetting, inducing and encouraging aliens to enter the United States illegally or to remain in the United States illegally and these crimes carry hefty jail sentences.  In fact, if such activities lead to the death of any individual, the punishment, upon conviction, can be life in prison.
 
Re-entry After Deportation, 8 U.S. Code § 1326 carries a maximum of 20 years in prison if the alien in question meets the definition of an “aggravated felon.”  (On a personal note, I worked with then-New York Senator Al D’Amato to first convince him of the need to change the law that had previously made no distinction about the criminal history of deported aliens who reentered the United States after being deported.  Previously the maximum penalty was two years in prison.  The twenty year maximum is intended to deter aliens from returning illegally to the United States.)  Given the nature of this particular crime, it is all but impossible for an alien who has been deported and subsequently reentered illegally to deny that the charges are true.
 
While it may take years to put many criminal cases together and involve many agents and resources, the crime of unlawful reentry can be investigated and completed in just a few days.  It is cost-effective and provides a huge hammer to combat criminal aliens who make a mockery of our borders and immigration laws.
 
Illegal aliens who are found in possession of ammunition or a firearm in interstate or foreign commerce, 18 U.S. Code § 922(g)(5) face up to ten years in prison.  Again, this is a simple case to investigate and the jail sentence is significant.
 
Where all of these federal criminal charges are concerned, they will all ultimately also result in the deportation of the criminal aliens after they complete their prisons sentences.
 
The goal of law enforcement is to protect the property and lives of those who would fall prey to criminals.  Prison sentences are established to accomplish a few commonsense objectives.  First, to punish those who violate our laws, second to deter those who might contemplate violating our laws and finally to get dangerous criminals off of the streets of our towns and cities to separate them from those who would otherwise fall victim to their criminal behavior.
 
One of the challenges for law enforcement is the challenge presented by recidivists, that is, criminals who repeatedly commit crimes, get arrested and convicted, serve prison sentences only to return to the street to commit more crimes and hurt/kill more victims.
 
Prisons are often optimistically referred to as “Correctional Institutions” where the inmates are hopefully rehabilitated by addressing their sociopathic conduct through training, counseling and other such measures.  Unfortunately, all too frequently these efforts fail.
 
Where criminal aliens are concerned, deporting such criminals provides a means of removing them permanently from the streets of American towns and cities.  The severe penalty for unlawful reentry of such criminal aliens was intended to deter such aliens from returning to the United States.  This deterrent factor would be far more effective if there were more ICE agents who could arrest such aliens so that more would be prosecuted.
 
Sanctuary cities have the precise opposite affect, encouraging aliens to run our borders and thus endanger the lives of innocent victims.  It most be noted the most frequently those at greatest risk are the members of the immigrant communities where these criminal aliens live and ply their sociopathic “trades.”
 
Sanctuary policies shield and embolden the gangs and imperil innocent victims, often teenage immigrant children.
 
With “friends” like the politicians who create “Sanctuary” policies, or want to end ICE altogether, immigrants don’t need enemies!

Michael Cutler

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273872/cooperation-between-ice-and-police-essential-michael-cutler

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