As is typical, the media is slyly pushing the “why are we hassling these poor immigrants?” meme, starting with the Washington Post: Frederick’s Uneasy Crackdown – Enforcement Policy For Illegal Immigration Raises Ethics Questions (no, really, that is the headline)
In the six months since the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office began working closely with federal immigration authorities, 183 illegal immigrants have been identified, detained and put on track for deportation, a crackdown that has spooked the area’s Latino community and provoked accusations by rights groups of ethnic profiling.
Well, yeah. The majority of illegals come from Latin America, and most of them are from Mexico. If people who are living in an area where there are criminals are spooked, oh well.
Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, the first law enforcement official in Maryland to sign a cooperative agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that since April, about 9 percent of all people arrested and taken to the county detention center have proven to be illegal immigrants. He called those results a success and said he has been flooded with calls from officials in other counties and states who want to follow suit.
Tell ’em where to go, Chuck!
Jenkins’s opponents, however, said the crackdown has done little but panic the local immigrant population. Hispanic and civil rights groups in Frederick said that county officers have used questionable pretexts to stop cars driven by Latinos and check their identities and that most of those arrested have been working people whose only serious crime was to have entered the United States without permission.
If you lived in a neighborhood, and the cops were suddenly all over it, would you be spooked? Who cares? If you are a law abiding citizen, you probably would want the criminals out of your area.
“Is the sheriff’s mandate to catch illegal immigrants or to make sure the community is safe?” asked Guy Djoken, who heads the county’s NAACP chapter. “The problem of illegal immigration has to be addressed at a national level. We are all against crime, but we cannot stand by while the police are profiling and arresting people who have done nothing.”
The sheriff’s mandate is to enforce the law. And, since illegal immigrants are breaking the law….. Why do we need to keep explaining simple concepts to these illegal alien supporters?
Why does it have to be addressed at a national level? So, let me ask you, Guy. If your child was kidnapped and taken to another state, and the sheriff knew they were hiding in his county, but he said “hey, it’s a federal problem, so, I’m no going to look,” would you be pissed? And the local cops knew where the kidnapper and your child was, but said the same “it’s a federal problem,” would you be annoyed? Because kidnapping is a federal issue, ya know.
Anyhow, Sheriff Jenkins is well within his rights, since he has joined the federal issue, not to mention, but, I’m still going to, that law enforcement officers have a duty to arrest those who are breaking the law.
And in Rhode Island, the “immigrant advocates” are pitching a similar hissy fitagainst Governor Carcieri.
My local paper, the Raleigh News and Observer, has wrapped being nice to illegal aliens within a religious context. Really, really reaching.
