Illegal Immigrant Catch And Release

by John Hawkins | March 3, 2005 11:59 pm

Oh, yeah, we’re REAL serious about enforcing immigration law in this country. So serious that we catch illegal aliens and then just let them go[1]…

“State police at Somerset released a vanload of 15 illegal aliens after federal immigration officials didn’t want to go out in bad weather this week.
Cpl. Robert F. Johnson said in a news release that he stopped a van carrying the aliens at about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday on a section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Stony Creek Township, Somerset County. He then couldn’t get U.S. immigration officials to travel to the Somerset barracks of the turnpike, he said.

“They declined to take the aliens into custody, citing poor weather conditions,” Johnson’s report stated.

He couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

Sgt. Anthony DeLuca, the commander of the turnpike station, said police were forced to release the 13 Mexicans and two Guatemalans when the federal officials didn’t come.

“We can’t detain them unless they commit a crime,” he said.

Ernestine Fobbs, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau, confirmed that the decision not to go was made because of snowfall and heavy winds. It also followed a background check on the aliens.

“We didn’t want to risk the lives of our employees or the aliens,” she said. “We didn’t think that they were a threat.”

Fobbs explained that because of the number of aliens and the weather, it would have taken immigration personnel about three hours to get a needed vehicle and reach the state police station.

The incident wasn’t the first of its kind in the area.

In May, immigration officials didn’t want to get involved after Greensburg police had stopped seven Mexican men and women who admitted being illegal aliens. The immigration officials were only interested in getting involved if any of the Mexicans had a criminal background or an outstanding warrant, police said.

Subsequently, an immigration spokesman conceded that his agency handled the situation and communications with police poorly.”

The whole idea that the police shouldn’t “detain (illegals) unless they commit a crime” is ludicrous. If there are illegal aliens in the United States, then their very presence here means they’ve broken the law.

Once illegals are captured by the police, they should not be freed for any reason until they’re shipped back to wherever they came from. Letting these illegals go is an insult to our border patrol and the private citizens[2] who are risking their lives to keep these people out of our country.

You know, you always hear these ridiculous claims that the United States — the world’s only Super Power, a country with satellites, Predators, radar stations, and enormous amounts of manpower and money — can’t safeguard our own borders. Yet, when you look into it, you always find that this sort of incident is the rule, not the exception. Everybody involved in keeping illegals out of this country from top to bottom is either dramatically underfunded and undermanned or treats the issue like a joke. If we want to get rid of illegal aliens — and polls show that overwhelmingly the American people do — then we have to start getting serious…