Immigration Officials Arrest 300 in California

A little late now that California has been bankrupted by millions of criminal illegals. 300 is not even a drop in a very large swimming pool but I guess you can’t drain it until someone starts bailing.

RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD, 12 Dec 09, Star News
LOS ANGELES — Nearly 300 illegal immigrants who had committed serious crimes were deported or detained this week by federal agents in a demonstration of what immigration officials pledged was a new resolve to zero in on the most egregious lawbreakers.
-The amnesty crowd would rather you not know how many millions of professional criminals illegally enter the US each year plying their trade. These supposed immigration rights groups doom many illegals to a life filled with abuse and danger. By not addressing the criminal element they passively support it and passive support is still support.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials called the three-day sweep in California their largest operation ever aimed at illegal immigrants with criminal records.
-The next time some idiot tosses out the tried old “they do jobs American’s will not do” remind them that include, stealing, rape, murder, gang warfare and human trafficking of illegal children. If that life is so great prove it to me, let a gang raise your child.

More than 80 percent had convictions for serious or violent crimes and at least 100 have been removed from the country, with the others awaiting deportation proceedings.

John Morton, an assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security who is in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Friday that focusing on serious criminals helped improve public safety.

“These are not people who we want walking our streets,” Mr. Morton said at a news conference here, a day after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made much the same point at a Congressional hearing.

The Department of Homeland Security has been criticized by immigrant advocates and civil libertarians in recent years for rounding up hundreds of people whose only offense was being in the country without proper documents, sometimes at the cost of breaking up families.

President Obama had campaigned on a promise of a more compassionate approach to immigration enforcement that would focus on ridding the country of felons and cracking down on employers who deliberately hire illegal workers.

Mr. Morton, citing limited resources, said, “We are going to focus on those people who choose to pursue a life of crime in the United States rather than pursue the American dream of education, hard work and success.”
-If the vast majority of illegals were here to pursue the American dream many people would welcome our new arrivals but sadly the majority are not willing to assimilate they are predators.

Last year, 136,126 illegal immigrants with criminal records were deported, a record number, officials said. While department officials trumpeted the mass arrests this week, they could not say how many serious criminal offenders who are in the country illegally remain on the streets.
-It is in the millions, they do not want those numbers released because they are ashamed.

The Immigrants’ Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union reacted skeptically to the announcement, noting that despite assurances that serious criminals were the target, previous sweeps have turned out to capture large numbers of people with no such records.
-That really does not matter; all illegal’s are criminals some just commit worse crimes than others do.

“We would welcome more effective targeting than in the past but it is not yet clear that is the case here,” said Caroline Cincotta, a fellow at the project, who also questioned whether the swift deportations had allowed people to have full due process.
-Due process is for citizens, not a criminal illegal, they have no rights and should be imprisoned not deported. We only deport them because it is cheaper than prison.

ICE officials said just six of those arrested had no record at all, and they sought to play up the serious nature of the offenses of those who were apprehended.

Those arrested included a Guatemalan man with ties to a Los Angeles gang who had committed first-degree robbery, a Mexican man convicted of lewd acts with a child and a Mexican man with a rape conviction.

Of the 286 people arrested, 63 had previously been deported. At least 17 face prosecution for re-entering the country without proper documents.
-Only 63, that seems a little low.

The agents and officers tracked down most of those arrested through tips and a review of immigration files, court and public records. Many people arrested this week were never deported after serving prison time for their offenses because they fell through the cracks.
-If that was true then why not arrest the officials that committed the error? Hold ICE and prison officials responsible and watch how many more illegals get caught and deported.

Mr. Morton said the immigration agency was improving cooperation with local and state jailers, and is rolling out a “Secure Communities” program that by 2012 is expected to permit all local jails nationwide to check the immigration status of inmates.
-not soon enough, do it now.

The deportees represented 31 countries, though the majority, 207, were from Mexico.

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