By George H. Wittman on 6.19.09 @ 6:07AM
The Obama Administration has found a new way to handle the
problem of illegal immigration -- ignore it.
The Obama Administration has found a new way to handle the
problem of illegal immigration. It is ignoring the entire
matter politically. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet
Napolitano has decided that the best way to deal with the
negative aspects of this sensitive issue is to leave the subject
in the hands of local officials, city, state and federal. Out of
sight, out of the media, out of mind, she seems to think.
There is a continuing fear expressed by various Latino groups,
among others, that illegal immigrants are harassed by local law
enforcement personnel. In the mind of these associations, the
fact that these individuals are suspected of being here in the
United States illegally is not adequate reason to abridge their
"civil rights" by seeking to determine if they are.
Harassment, by the way, means that often immigrants are stopped
by police for apparently minor infractions, and are held on that
charge while being checked through ICE (acronym for the
Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs
Enforcement arm). This is not a uniform circumstance. Border
states such as California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas have
towns and cities that differ widely on local laws in regard to
informing ICE of their police contact with possible "illegals."
Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security stays as far away as
possible from becoming involved in these discontinuities.
Within local law enforcement, depending on the judgment of the
officer, there is also often a wide range of application of the
same local laws. The Latino community in California, the
Southwest, Florida, and elsewhere with large Hispanic immigrant
populations has the ability to apply considerable local political
pressure to protect "immigrant rights" of those who are
documented or undocumented. Local law enforcement responds
accordingly.
Secretary Napolitano's logic appears to be that the more local
officials are tasked with the major portion of the burden of
dealing with the presence of illegals in their communities, the
less negative political fallout will occur on the Washington
scene. Her entire approach to illegal immigration is to do
everything possible to nullify the broader political effects of
the legal and security aspects of ultimately millions of people
pouring into the United States.
What is particularly curious is that Napolitano went to great
trouble when she first took on her new assignment to de-emphasize
countering the foreign-sponsored terrorist aspects of her job
while making a priority of the economic and social impact of the
growing problem of the "undocumented." Apparently that approach
now has been relegated to local domestic concern.
Placing the weight of enforcement of the first phase of illegal
immigration laws on local police is theoretically not
inappropriate -- although it does conspicuously add to their
workload. Local cops are the ones best acquainted with their
communities. A relatively quick assessment of non-English
speakers by local law enforcement can differentiate between those
with community ties and those without.
The legally ticklish problem of "profiling" is a matter in which
Sec. Napolitano does not want to become involved. Better leave
that hot button issue to the people on the local level. She knows
full well that cops "profile" suspects in many ways during their
everyday assignments. Of course they are going to be attracted
first by people of Mexican or Central American background. It's
perhaps unfortunate, but these nationals make up the core of
illegal entrants.
The pro-immigrant groups believe that asking non-English speakers
to prove they are in the U.S. legally is discrimination – an
infringement of their civil rights. In reality there is an ethnic
based effort to encourage immigration, legal or illegal,
from Mexico and more modestly from Central America. And this fact
is what Janet Napolitano wants to avoid commenting on, to say
nothing of acting on.
It is fallacious to argue that today's massive influx of
Spanish-speaking immigrants is comparable to various European
migration waves of the past. The time element and discrepancy in
numbers, actual or relative, is overwhelming. The fact is that
today's Hispanic immigrants actually seek to shift their
socio-cultural heritage north to the U.S. rather than assume the
language and socio-cultural environment that already exists here
and on which this nation was built.
This was not a problem with the same Latino immigrants several
decades ago. The difference is the current carefully organized
sense of entitlement that encourages the view among primarily
Mexican immigrants of their historically justified political
right -- rather than a perception of privilege resulting from the
generosity of American spirit.
Assimilation has been the bedrock of immigration to the United
States for generations. Giving local law enforcement the
responsibility of first line control of determining illegal entry
has serious operational advantages. However, allowing federal
responsibility to be diminished in order to avoid political blame
is self-serving to the point of obstruction of the intent of
homeland security.
topics:
Janet Napolitano, Illegal Immigration
