First let me thank The Huffington Post for pointing me to this New York Times story. I would have missed it otherwise.
Town Uses Trespass Law to Fight Illegal Immigrants
JAFFREY, N.H., July 12 – One day in April, Jorge Mora RamÃrez stopped his car on the side of a road in the small southern New Hampshire town of New Ipswich and was making a cellphone call when a police officer approached him.
The officer questioned Mr. RamÃrez, a 21-year-old Mexican who acknowledged that he was in the country illegally, and the New Ipswich police tried to get federal immigration authorities to arrest him. But when immigration officials demurred, not considering him a priority given scarce enforcement resources, the police acted on their own. They took the highly unusual step of charging Mr. RamÃrez with criminal trespassing, and held him overnight.
[snip]
At a minimum, Chief Chamberlain has succeeded in creating controversy, as well as interest in his idea. Not far away, the police chief in Hudson, N.H., has charged 10 illegal immigrants with criminal trespassing in recent weeks. Other police departments, in states that include California, Florida and Georgia, have called Chief Chamberlain, and immigration experts say that if the New Hampshire charges are upheld, some local law enforcement officials around the country will most likely copy the approach.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Stupid.
I understand enforcing the law. I advocate that. I like living in a society where I can enjoy the protection those laws give me. But let’s get real people, immigrants are not destroying this country. And to treat them like they are the enemy of the state is stupid.
Are you under the impression that the US economy could survive purging it of immigrant labor? Do you really think that things are going to improve if you demonize entire sections of the community? Are so short-sighted that you cannot see two or three years into the future, to see the hellhole that will be created if the current trends continue?
Yes, I am just one generation away from being an immigrant myself. I learned hard work from my father and good manners from my mother. (Though, I should point out that my father’s manners are faultless and my mother is as hardworking as any domestic engineer would will find anywhere.) 🙂 So I guess I’m not objective on this topic, but then neither is anyone else.
It’s hard to watch everything that was achieved just a few decades ago be erased, chiseled away, among claps and shouts of joy… while politicians keep telling me they need my vote because they care about what happens to me.
And people wonder why cynicism and sarcasm are common language aids for me.
ha crime is crime, be it murder or stilling or coming to this country illegally.
Or do you think that if it benafets me its “OK”. Like its ok for you to say still from me but it is not ok for me to still from you.
You’re right, crime is crime. However, you can’t refute the fact that police and politicians tend to give some crimes more attention than others.. and by the same rule, they then give police more resources or more leeway on those crimes as well.
Right now immigrants are front and center in the media, and in poilitics and in law enforcement (because, guess who approves their funding?). What, this is an issue that popped out of nowhere? To hear current political rhethoric, and law enforcement theories, we would have to assume that all crime in the US is in some way tracked back to immigrants and if we only got rid of them, then, well, everything would get resolved. Oh yeah, and by the way, it’s anti-american to be supporting the rights of illegal immigrants (as if rights in the US didn’t apply to everyone).
Tell me that the US is working harder to keep better track of child molesters and known rapists, that law enforcement is going after every drug dealer with the same fervor that they’re going after illegal immigrants, that they’re prosecuting white collar crime with the attention it deserves (since it costs jobs and hurts the economy further), and then tell me that combating illegal immigration is a top priority and I’ll sit back and say “OK.”