This week some are asking whether Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez will become this election cycle’s Willie Horton (a convicted felon who was released on furlough, and re-offended). For those who don’t know, Lopez-Sanchez is the individual who gunned down Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco last week. He was deported five times, but returned to San Francisco, a sanctuary city, and released.
As the LA Times reported earlier this week, “At the root of the tragedy is the uneasy relationship between immigration authorities and local law enforcement in many parts of the country — but most notably in California and perhaps nowhere more so than in the Bay Area.
“Eager to encourage immigrants who are in the country illegally to trust the criminal justice system and report crimes without fear that police will hand them off for deportation, San Francisco honors federal requests that immigrants be held for pickup only if their current crime and earlier conviction meet thresholds spelled out in a 2013 city ordinance.”
The Times writes, “Sanchez didn’t meet those. His past crimes were too old, and the case he was booked on had evaporated.”
In an interview earlier this week on KQED Radio in San Francisco, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, no stranger to scandals as it is, told the radio station, “We’re trying to understand why ICE returned Sanchez to San Francisco on a 20-year-old marijuana possession charge in a city that really doesn’t even prosecute marijuana possession … and knowing that he had been deported and illegally entered the country.”
The question makes a lot of sense except for one major problem, and the answer to that question is baffling – the reason that Mr. Lopez-Sanchez was sent to San Francisco in the first place was that Sheriff Mirkarimi’s office itself asked for him.
The Chronicle this week reports, “The federal Bureau of Prisons alerted the Sheriff’s Department in March that Lopez-Sanchez was going to be released. Mirkarimi’s agency, realizing that Lopez-Sanchez was wanted on a $5,000 bench warrant related to a 1995 marijuana possession-for-sale case, asked prison officials March 23 to hold him and to notify San Francisco authorities ‘when the subject is ready for our pick-up.’”
“Also, please notify us if the hold cannot be placed or the named subject is released to another jurisdiction prior to our receipt,” said the letter, signed by Vic Gaerlan of the sheriff’s warrant bureau.
So Mr. Lopez-Sanchez arrived in San Francisco on March 26, the marijuana case was dismissed on March 27, he was held in custody for three weeks as they sought clarification about the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) hold, and, “In the end, the legal division told deputies they had no basis to hold Lopez-Sanchez, and he was released April 15.”
The case, which has generated tremendous heat about immigration policies and sanctuary cities, may just come down to the sheer incompetence of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office, which has been accused of a number of cases of misconduct – perhaps none more notorious than the gladiator scandal where sheriff’s deputies trained inmates to fight in gladiator-style battles as the guards and deputies bet on them.
This week, we learned that 51 of California’s 58 counties have some sort of law that prohibits them from abiding by ICE detainers. But as Attorney Angela Chan of the Asian Law Caucus said this week, “ICE knows these requests will not be respected and it knows why… But ICE just keeps issuing them.”
In the case of Nan-Hui Jo earlier this year in Yolo County, Yolo County officials refused to adhere to the ICE Detainer. Instead, because ICE officials, through the publicity of the case, knew when Ms. Jo would likely be released from Yolo County Custody, they simply waited for her and took her into custody when she left the jail.
In 2007, Davis became a sanctuary city. This past November, the Davis City Council unanimously reaffirmed its sanctuary status by signing an resolution that I helped to craft.
The resolution noted that “undocumented immigrants are victims of abuses related to work, housing, and access to basic government-provided resources, and are constantly fearful of deportation.”
The resolution further notes, “The City of Davis supports a fair and just reform to the immigration process, where local funds and resources are not used to enforce federal immigration laws, and where the Davis Police Department has actively committed not to seek out and persecute individuals within the city limits because of their documented status.”
The city recognizes “its past commitment both to refugees and undocumented migrants to this country, and provides itself as a safe community until they can return to their homelands or until they receive federally-recognized residency in the United States.”
But for me the need for a “Sanctuary Status” goes well beyond this. It has to do with the heavy-handed tactics of ICE. It has to do with the fact that federal detainers “have been found to violate the 4th Amendment regarding illegal search and seizure.” And ICE is not just a distant threat to “illegals” as some would put it – they are a threat to everyone.
With all of the talk of the militarization of the police, some of the heaviest-handed tactics are used by ICE – dynamic entries, busting down the doors of people who are suspected of being illegal immigrants.
This is not some distant threat either. In April 2011, Davis resident Linda Clark had federal officials raiding her property on Oak Street in Davis – not searching for people, but rather serving a warrant looking for child pornography.
“I don’t think this is the type of thing anyone expects to take place in Davis,” Linda Clark told the Vanguard in a June 2011 interview.
She wrote in her Davis Enterprise Op-Ed, “The incident described above occurred in a quiet, family-oriented neighborhood right here in Davis. Most residents of the house are either visiting international scholars or students, or American citizens who are students. No drug dealers. No ‘illegal immigrants.’”
She continued, “No one offered the slightest resistance, unless cowering in fear or closing a door for protection from an as-yet-unidentified police officer who is presumed to be a robber constitutes ‘resistance.’ No one has been arrested or charged with any crime.”
She had two primary concerns. First, the amount of force, which she found to be excessive, especially in the way that it terrified her tenants. She was also concerned that most never even saw the search warrant before the ICE officials left.
“They terrified some of the tenants, especially ones whose English is not very good,” she said.
She said that many did not even realize it was the “police” who had entered the residence, at first. Many of her tenants were foreign nationals and not primarily English speakers, and they thought the place was being raided by burglars and terrorists.
A sanctuary law does little to prevent this kind of intrusion. In this case, the Davis Police were not even notified of the raid.
In San Francisco, they have had some form of the sanctuary city policy in place since 1989. Mayor Ed Lee signed an ordinance restricting the detention of non-violent criminals.
In the San Francisco case, Mr. Lopez-Sanchez had prior felonies which were drug-related, and one for entering the country illegally following his deportations. However, there was nothing on his record indicated that he had violent tendencies.
Some will argue that this is exactly why we should patrol the border and keep illegal immigrants out, but this could have just as easily happened with a US citizen who had a history of drug offices and probably mental illness, released from custody, who stumbles onto a firearm and tragedy happens.
If people are concerned about communities not cooperating with ICE, perhaps they should look toward ICE and its heavy-handed tactics. Most of the time, the sanctuary laws work to encourage people to cooperate with local police if they are a victim of a crime or witness a crime, so they don’t have to fear deportation.
The problem here was not the sanctuary law, it was the fact that for reasons no one seems to understand, San Francisco requested a man with a 20-year-old warrant be transferred back to their city – and then they released him. No matter what you think of ICE and sanctuary city policies, that action is difficult to fathom.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Sheriff Mirkarimi was convicted of false imprisonment for a domestic violence incident that occurred a couple of years ago. It is really disturbing that the NFL does more to a player (see Ray Rice) than the city/county of San Francisco does to their top cop. I wonder if it is a community philosophy on rule of law issues. Much like their decision to ignore ICE detainers. What kind of outcry would ensue if ICE started ignoring holds placed on individuals in ICE custody by city, county and state law enforcement entities? I guess one could argue that the corruption of values in the San Francisco Sheriff’s office starts at the top. I point this out as I wonder how reference to the gladiator games has any relevance to sanctuary city/county policies.
I am not sure how the raid on Linda Clark’s home has anything to do with sanctuary city issues. The article kind of rambles there. There are many other “federal agencies” other than ICE and that case involved child pornography and not immigration issues. Hopefully Davis has not become a sanctuary city for child pornographers and child abuse. Personally for me the people that sexually victimize children should be taken into a field and shot.
I do not think that sanctuary laws should apply to ICE detainers. I think “detainers” or “holds” are the correct terms to use based on the media coverage. They should rather be used to direct police not to inquire into residency status or seek to enforce immigration laws. Extending the sanctuary status to jail inmates serves no valid purpose. The federal government should withhold federal dollars from counties where the jail has policies like those in Yolo and San Francisco counties. It looks like the courts follow the ICE requests by not ordering defendants released when they know there is a federal hold based on the coverage here in the Ho case.
It is disturbing that this murder and sanctuary city issues have only come to the spotlight due to that idiot Donald Trump. And now the racism card starts getting used on this topic.
My biggest issue with the immigration laws are that the process is so slow that illegal immigrants get released into the community and settle for years while their cases are delayed. The are often well integrated into the community well before there cases are resolved further complicating enforcement of immigration laws. It often appears that delay is the strategy of choice for these individuals if they even show up in immigration court.
“I am not sure how the raid on Linda Clark’s home has anything to do with sanctuary city issues. ”
I thought I explain here that the Sanctuary Laws in part were a response to the heavy-handed approach of ICE
Not only is he a wife beater, he then filed to have his record expunged.
My View: Davis and other cities don’t obey the law
So I guess you would be okay if some municipality decided not to obey the new gay marriage law?
The city attorney reviewed the law when we drafted it and determined we were not breaking the law. So I challenge your premise.
Let’s see… a woman in Oregon is fined $150,000 for refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple and explaining that in her religious views that homosexuality is an “abomination unto the lord.” And entire cities can just ignore immigration laws that result in the deaths of Americans… with no repercussions?
Disgusting.
The first order of governance in this country is to keep citizens safe. Yet where liberals have co-opted the levers of government they apparently think it is more important to punish people only for their words and beliefs causing hurt feelings. “Keeping citizens safe” is all about words and the hurt feelings of “true” victims. Dead people don’t really register as strongly…. unless they are not “true” victims of under-represented groups (i.e.., white).
Disgusting.
Kill someone in cold blood, and unless a certain victim class adopted by the left and left media, it is not that important. And it is Bush’s fault.
Disgusting.
But dare to say something that hurts the feeling of someone belonging to a victim class adopted by the left and left media, and it is a hate crime and the left and left media would execute people for it if given complete control.
Disgusting.
And here is a perfect example of Obama’s efforts to inflame racial tensions. He stands on the podium for every sensational black death at the hands of a white or Latino… he an other left politicians milk it for divisive political and ideological points. Yet, here the White House only comes out to blame Republicans for blocking even MORE spending that Obama and Democrats say would have assisted Federal authorities to effectively prevent this murder of a 32 year old white woman by this illegal immigrant Mexican. Right.
Disgusting.
I hope the that family of the woman murdered sues the crap out of San Francisco.
The illegal immigrants coming to this country these days are not the hard working farm laborers of the past. We will see more and more of these types of incidents. And it is and will be Obama’s fault and the fault of liberal cities ignoring immigration laws. What we need is for a case like this to prevail in court and cost the idiot liberal-run city a boatload of money. In fact, if Davis is doing similar idiocy, I question the financial liability we potentially face.
Frankly: The illegal immigrants coming to this country these days are not the hard working farm laborers of the past.
And you know this from first hand personal knowledge?
That doesn’t mean that
There are millions of illegal immigrants in this country. Most aren’t committing gang or drug-related crimes.
Rant on, McDuff… your overuse of perjorative adjectives completely undermines any real points you make that might have validity. Do you really like playing the ‘fool’? You actually have (often) good points to make, but they get lost in your uber-rhetoric. Get a clue. Meant as a ‘friendly assessment’.
It should be noted that Lopez-Sanchez said that he found the gun wrapped up in a shirt on the pier, and accidently discharged the gun while handling it. He didn’t know the victim, apparently had no intent to injure anyone. Why would he?
Do you mean, if he found a gun, “why would he” handle it? If I found a gun in a shirt on a public pier, I’d be backing off, NOT handling it… trying to get people to notify authorities. If I had questionable immigration status (even in a ‘sanctuary city’), the LAST thing I’d do is handle a gun of questionable origin. This is just getting WEIRD.
Suspect this guy, if the story is true, was never GATE/AIM identified.
Are you serious??? This guy was previously convicted of multiple crimes, came into this country ILLEGALLY ((I.e., against the law) and you think he was just an innocent victim in the wrong place at the wrong time??? I pray you are not on his jury.
David: between this horrendous law and your position on the MRAP, I must say you are turning this democrat into a republican! You want to take away the ability for the police of this community to do their jobs to protect us. Next you will be requesting that Davis Fire not be allowed to use water to put out a fire because of the drought! Ridiculous!
“you think he was just an innocent victim in the wrong place at the wrong time”
I said that?
” I pray you are not on his jury.”
Well I think you’re safe here since I don’t live in San Francisco
tj, you missed the other excuse the liberals in SF may have fed this repeat felon. He said he was trying to shoot a seal. But the problem is, seals don’t congregate there in the city … they hang out around Pier 39 on the docks … they have for years and years.
It was also interesting to hear the local liberal journalist coax some pretend remorse out of the alleged murderer.
And I see marijuana again may be involved with a violent felon.
“And I see marijuana again may be involved with a violent felon.”
Because 20 years ago, he was accused of possessing marijuana for sale?
I believe news reports excuses included “he was high on drugs”. I’ve lost count of the excuses …
Excuse 1*: “He found the gun in a blanket”.
Excuse 2: “It went off accidentally”.
Excuse 3: “He was shooting at a seal.”
Excuse 4: “He was high on drugs at the time.”
*Was this excuse generated because if he stole a gun from a federal officer, or if he is in receipt of a stolen gun, he may never see the light of day?
It seems unlikely he’ll see the light of day anyway. However I still don’t see this as an immigration issue. Anyone released from prison combining mental illness and drugs is a potential threat.
DP, but if a 7-time glue-sniffing felon wasn’t allowed to illegally enter the country the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th time, a young lady with a loving family would still be alive.
tj–Lopez-Sanchez has given two stories; one that he fired accidentally (from news accounts three shots were fired; I suppose each of the three bullets were fired ‘accidentally’); another story was that he was shooting sea lions (also a felony criminal offence, along with discharging a firearm in public); one of these stories was told before and one after he saw his lawyer. Maybe he’ll have a better 3rd story during trial, with proper legal ‘counsel’.
That said, I agree that it does seem puzzling that he would shoot a stranger. Although I suspect he is mentally ill or unstable (perhaps also under the influence of drugs); perhaps he just hates gringos (after all if a white guy randomly shot a hispanic woman, you can bet the media and politicos and pundits would be all over it as a hate crime before any evidence is in); I’ve also heard speculation that perhaps this was a gang initiation–seems unlikely to me given the suspects age; and normally rival gang members are targeted in such gang initiations.
As a middle approach; I guess I could go with a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy with regard to non-federal law enforcement; leaving it to the feds to actively pursue illegals. If an illegal immigrant is taken into custody and determined to have a prior felony or violent misdemeanor conviction, either in the USA or their country of origin, then I think it should be mandatory to notify ICE (though I guess it might be a problem for local law enforcement to have access to ICE databases for felons from other countries; perhaps CA state government can have an agreement with ICE for database sharing, and locals can then access thru CA state). And after arrest if they are then convicted of a violent misdemeanor or felony, ICE should be notified after the conviction (but not if they are judged ‘not guilty’, unless they have a prior record as above), and upon completion of their jail term, for deportation.
Symbols do NOT matter except for hypersensitive nincompoops.
We reach out and embrace British, Spanish, Italians, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese and we don’t demand that they remove their icons and symbols displayed during those wars. We do so for the Swastika but for the millions of Jews that were slaughtered. No, we show respect and we honor our enemies and their ways after the battles are done and the wars are over. We don’t continue to rub salt into old wounds backed by some gleeful and sadistic fit of disconnected intellectual and moral righteousness.
Except if you are an American leftist. In that case you have license to keep hating those that reject your worldviews. You can constantly bring up the past because you cannot admit the profound progress made thereby diminishing your primary stock and trade of progressive politics. You can demonstrate a complete lack of respect as justified by your righteousness and demand to be respected. You can demonstrate absolutely no honor and then demand to be honored.
American leftists don’t collect symbolism other than a historical list of tyrannical collectivism attempted and failed. And I would urge those people to put this list on a flag and fly it as a reminder of all that historical misery that we always seem to return to.
There is a push now to craft a “Kate’s Law”, just like Megan’s Law, for illegal immigrants and mandatory 5-year jail time. Details below.
““Imagine if Kate was your daughter,” O’Reilly told his audience Thursday night on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News.
“There is no question that the uber-liberal sanctuary city policy of San Francisco directly led to the murder Kate Steinle,” O’Reilly said.
Steinle’s murder has put sanctuary cities – those that essentially ignore federal law and don’t prosecute illegal immigrants – at the center of controversy.
“We, the undersigned, respectfully ask Congress to pass Kate’s Law whereby undocumented aliens who are deported and return to the United States would receive a mandatory five year sentence in a federal penitentiary upon conviction,” the petition reads and can be seen here.
Read more: http://www.bizpacreview.com/2015/07/10/kates-law-petition-shames-lawmakers-gains-momentum-imagine-if-kate-was-your-daughter-223004#ixzz3fhIUSgj4
The Sacramento Bee today adds context and their take on the murder of young Kate.
1. The San Francisco sanctuary law apparently requires that an illegal immigrant commit 2 violent felonies within 7 years in order to be deported. So I gather an illegal immigrant can commit 2, 3, 4 violent felonies spread out, and not face deportation.
2. They blame homelessness as a culprit.
3. The alleged murderer claimed he found pills in a dumpster, which he swallowed. He also has a history of sniffing glue.
4. Their article claims that Art Agnos signed the sanctuary city law due to right-wind death squads in Central America.
The sanctuary city movement goes way back further than David’s article here suggests. The Reagan administration refused to grant asylum requests to thousands of people fleeing the civil wars and death squads in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador during the 1980’s (when we were supporting the governments that allowed and supported the death squads to operate).
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-americans-and-asylum-policy-reagan-era
So local churches and community organizations adopted sanctuary policies to shield individuals from arrest and deportation. We sponsored a young man from Guatemala, gave him a job and filled out the paperwork to get him on the path to becoming a citizen, which ultimately he did become.
This was the background that led to the city sanctuary movement.
Good to know. But how does this relate to illegal immigrants who sneak across the border from a place that isn’t 3rd world (Mexico)?
“… from a place that isn’t 3rd world (Mexico)?” Generally speaking, thought Mexico is ‘third world’, but probably more accurately ‘2.5th world’.
Mexico is the 2nd largest economy in Latin America. I was surprised to read that it is the 15th largest economy in the world in nominal terms, and they’ve had a five-fold increase in exports thanks to NAFTA. But there is a wide disparity between rich and poor, north and south, etc.
Yes , and Westwood is the 2nd largest City in Lassen County (pop under 1500). Guess we need to define what is “first world” (maybe ‘earth’?), “second world”, and “third world”. By implication by strength of economy, guess you must define Greece as a fourth or fifth world country. Suspect there are “illegal immigrants” from Greece.
Add Romania, Thailand, Vietnam, etc.
BTW, “Latin America” is telling.. Mexico is North America. Is it that Mexicans don’t have English/French as a ‘native’ language, or is it “color”?
Thought about it a bit more… using the “True Blue” in your nom-de-plume (or, guerre) looks like you are into “color”.
Only 40 years ago, CA contractors hired “illegals” from Mexico, then on payday, after workng them 40 + hours foe the week ,called INS for a ‘raid’ so they didn’t have to pay them. Heard a contractor for a City brag sbout this. First person.
That’s what I have personal knowledge of… may still be happening…
Don’t blame immigrants for crime. “White men born in America are twice as likely to end up in prison as men born abroad, while American-born black men are many times more likely to land in jail than their immigrant counterparts.” The Economist
Illegal immigrants. That is an entirely different demographic than for legal immigrants that have to have the means and capability to apply for and EARN legal immigration status. Let’s not mix the two in our debate.
it really isn’t. there is a small class of people who come over, many of them smugling contraband – human or otherwise – but the broader population are hard working, law abiding and keep to themselves. you’re creating a false dichotomy.
No, you are just wrong.
Mexico today, after NAFTA etc., is not the same as it was. The element that steals away into this country is increasingly lower down the “quality-human” list as Mexico has grown an ability to provide a better living for those that otherwise would have decided to come here. And there are more from Central America which has become a real mess of violence and hopelessness over the last several decades.
More than ever, those that come over illegally are interested in El Norte’ as being ripe for returns from a life of crime.
I agree with Frankly. We have an unhealthy, complex arrangement going here… men / fathers leave their families to come north… they leave their children without a father, and room for “Sancho” to move in… the men here then look for companionship… fatherless children there often join gangs… which we helped to export… plus add in the drugs and Mexican cartels… it is a real mess. But big business gets a large supply of cheap labor.
See below for some of the crime activity our government and press hide from us.
I believe that you and Frankly are stereotyping the millions of illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America based on the criminal activities of a small percentage of them.
I believe you are using a race and victim facade to deflect from the statistical reality.
We stop and force every person that wants to travel on a commercial flight to be scanned and checked for fear that what is a very, very small percentage would be malicious and put the other passengers at risk.
Being in this country is a privilege not a right. If there are a percentage of people coming in to do malice and putting American lives at risk, then we need to shut the damn border and check everyone to make sure all Americans are kept safe. The death of one American at the hands of an illegal immigrant is all the justification we need to end illegal immigration.
And the percentage of criminals has increased.
And there are potential terrorists in that population.
i find it fascinating that you guys are arguing fairly complex points without citing sources. that always raises a flag for more. the other is when the only sources come from right wing blogs. david at least cited the economist, hardly a left-leaning publication.
DP, while many illegal immigrants are hard working, there is also a large criminal element. The press rarely addresses this, but now with Trump and Ann Coulter taking up the issue, more data is coming out. Then add the murder of Kate.
New crime data released today from a Freedom of Information Act.
Washington Examiner: Revealed: 276 ‘sanctuary cities’ let 8,145 illegal offenders free in just 8 months, 17,000 total
“Some 276 “sanctuary cities,” nearly 50 percent more than previously revealed, released over 8,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records or facing charges free despite federal requests that they be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation, according to an explosive new report.
“The Center for Immigration Studies, revealing new numbers it received under the Freedom of Information Act, said that those releases from cities that ignored federal demands came over just eight months and are just part of an even larger release of 17,000 illegals with criminal records.”
“Author Jessica M. Vaughan, director of policy Studies for the center, also reported that many of those illegals have been rearrested after their release and charged with nearly 7,500 new charges, including child sex abuse.”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/revealed-276-sanctuary-cities-let-8145-illegal-offenders-free-in-just-8-months-17000-total/article/2568121
here’s the problem – let us for the sake of argument accept the claims of the washington examiner working in conjunction with an anti-immigration group. you’re talking a small percentage of the millions of illegal immigrants in this country. moreover, you’re citing these numbers do not address the concerns raised in this article and by myself about the nature of the system. people get arrested, the holds are not honored because they have in part been deemed unconstitutional, heavy-handed, and ineffective, some of the people being released are bad people and re-offend.
We don’t have hard numbers, but the anecdotal stories and occurrences are damning. The Federal government isn’t sharing the data, or doesn’t have it.
The government and liberals have taken numerous approaches to hide crime committed by illegals.
1. They hide the impact by grouping legal immigrants with illegal immigrants. Two different groups. One of the reasons we allowed these legal immigrants into our country is that they obey laws, haven’t committed crimes, and plan to stay that way.
2. Law agencies often classify Latinos who commit crimes as “white”, but Latino when they are “victims”. (Who set up that corrupt system?)
3. Texas has arrested 2,000 illegal immigrants on sex crimes each of the past three years. That is one state.
4. I read a Napa County city crime report – I forget which one – has 22 gangs; 21 are Latino.
I’m sure Ann Coulter took a shot a the number in her new book !ADIOS America!
“An FBI crime study also shows heavy illegal alien involvement in criminal activity revealed these statistics:
75 percent of those on the most wanted criminals list in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Albuquerque are illegal aliens.
One quarter of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals, as are more than 40 percent of all inmates in Arizona and 48 percent in New Mexico jails.
Over 53 percent of all investigated burglaries reported in California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas are perpetrated by illegal aliens.
63 percent of cited drivers in Arizona have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that number, 97 percent are illegal aliens. 66 percent of cited drivers in New Mexico have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 66 percent, 98 percent are illegal aliens.[15]”
source: http://www.constitutionparty.com/illegal-alien-crime-and-violence-by-the-numbers-were-all-victims/
“Looking at it another way, illegal aliens constitute 27% of the federal prison population (3). This means that a group which comprises less than 5% of the population nationally is committing 27% percent of the federal crimes. So just by that metric alone, illegal aliens commit over five times more serious crimes on a per capita basis than residents do. ”
Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/trump-is-right-illegal-alien-crime-is-staggering-in-scope-and-savagery?f=must_reads#ixzz3frMH3ubl
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Comprehensive stats on both federal and state crime rates and prisoners are apparently not available, as described below:
“Instead of counting the immigrant stock filling up our prisons, the government issues a series of comical reports claiming to tally immigrant crime. The Department of Justice relies on immigrants’ self-reports of their citizenship. The U.S. census simply guesses the immigration status of inmates. The Government Accounting Office conducts its own analysis of Bureau of Prisons data. In other words, the government hasn’t the first idea how many prisoners are legal immigrants, illegal immigrants or anchor babies.”
source: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/07/is-trump-right/
I would suggest the government refrains from publishing an accurate count since they do not wish the statistics to become known; perhaps from the faint possibility that the numbers may not add support to the pro-illegal immigrant amnesty, minimal border control agenda that the feds, media, and activists are relentlessly pushing.
Really, what is so radical about securing and controlling the southern US border to a level such that only a small trickle of immigrants can manage to squeeze by illegally, and allowing a limited number of immigrants in a controlled and legal manner, screening them for criminal history, disease, etc. as has been done historically at Ellis Island, notably during the periods of the great migrations of circa 100 years + ago?
If it were so easy, it would have been done already.
It is very easy. Enforce the laws that make it illegal to hire someone that is here illegally. Also, do not provide services to those here illegally. With no money and no support they would leave rather quickly.
The problem is that those who control the laws don’t want to lose votes and a cheap labor source that they can exploit, so why fix the problem.
I don’t think it’s that simple either. I don’t think we have enough enforcement to do that.
My preference is the opposite. Amnesty for those living here already as it is impractical to try to remove them. Then a work visa program where people can get their jobs at the border and then get a visa to come to the country. That would likely take most of the steam out of the black market human trafficking.
Sam makes some interesting points. We have shut down illegal immigration in the past, and millions returned home to Mexico and elsewhere, but that’s when we had the will to do it.
Some are arguing that a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for amnesty, and the only way we have any chance of controlling our border is to elect a conservative. But even that is no guarantee.
Sam: “The problem is that those who control the laws don’t want to lose votes and a cheap labor source that they can exploit, so why fix the problem.”
Correct. One wants the votes, the other wants cheap labor, and the right is always worried about being called racist. The problem is we are importing millions of low-skilled workers who receive more benefits than they pay in taxes, and this is on top of our unfunded pensions, roads, health care, and more.
The sad irony is that these new workers hurt native born Mexican-Americans and African-Americans the most, as well as other illegal immigrants. I have spoken with Latino day laborers who have moved here from Los Angeles primarily because the wages in southern California are quite low due to an over abundance of workers. I’ve also been told that Mexican-Americans are quite willing to grind these workers for bottom-of-the-barrel wages.
How have the holds been deemed unconstitutional? They are held when they do not have the proper paperwork indicating that they are here legally. It is an administrative function. Then the delaying begins on the part of the illegal immigrant and many years later when there case is finally being heard they have married and had children that are now US citizens further complicating the situation. Many just fail to show up in immigration court when they are released. It is all part of a grand strategy. The delays allow this to happen. Quickly deporting them when caught would prevent many of the problems that we now have.
It appears from this, that some courts have held ICE holds to be unconstitutional: https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-mn-warns-minnesota-county-sheriffs-immigration-detainers-are-unconstitutional
Family Security Matters (a site I have never read before) had some illustrative facts.
Non-Americans commit over five times more serious crimes per capita than Americans.
“It is estimated that there are some 133,741 foreign criminals in prisons and jails in the USA (1). They are not there for spitting on the sidewalk or jaywalking, and very few are there for immigration violations, as those illegal alien criminals are typically deported in fairly short order or simply let go as we have seen time and time again. They are there in large part for molesting, raping, killing, maiming and murdering people in America, as you will see below.
“Add in the 168,680 convicted criminal immigrants who have final orders of removal but who remain at large in the U.S., and another 179,018 convicted criminal aliens with deportation cases pending but who are also at large (2), and we have a total non-American felon population of 481,439…a number the size of our 35th largest city, Sacramento, California, and larger than the entire populations each of Atlanta, Kansas City, Omaha, Miami, Minneapolis – and more. ”
Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/trump-is-right-illegal-alien-crime-is-staggering-in-scope-and-savagery?f=must_reads#ixzz3frHOHPd5
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Which directly contradicts the Economist’s data, a publication I have heard.
From the Economist article cited by David,
“It’s worth pointing out, as immigration opponents are quick to do, that incarceration rates jump considerably for the American-born children and grandchildren of immigrants. Thus, the incarceration rate of the American children and grandchildren of Mexican immigrants is about twice that of native-born non-Hispanic whites, and about half that of native-born blacks.”
Which suggests that the problem is not the character of the people coming over the border, but the conditions that they find once they are hear. And even then, it is still half of that of native-born blacks.
I think that summary is close minded, anti-intellectual, and wrong. It is a complex problem which you basically blame on America. But then why don’t Vietnamese, Poles, and Ethiopians have these problems?
Here are some factors you pass by.
1. Gangs are a massive problem in the Latino community, and they were even a problem 40 years ago when the numbers were far fewer.
2. Illegitimacy rates are rising sharply; educational achievements face numerous obstacles.
3. I read last night that the Mexican cartels now import 90% of the heroin into the United States. That has to be problematic for our Latino brothers here legally or illegally.
4. Illegal immigration has hurt families on both sides of the border as men that move here often father children or start families, yet have wives or children back in Mexico.
There are admirable qualities about many of our Mexican-American brothers, but we shouldn’t ignore the real problems that exist just because the issues are sensitive or not “PC”.
you are throwing a lot of sauce on the table.
“why don’t Vietnamese, Poles, and Ethiopians have these problems?”
they do.
first, gangs are a problem in many communities. one of the largest growing group of gangs, are asian gangs.
illegitimacy rates is an archaic term. i think we need to separate out unmarried couples from single-parent households.
but then so what? here’s an interesting article from two years ago showing a lack of statistical connection between murder rates which were at historic lows and illegitimacy rates which were at historic highs: http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/11/single-moms-cant-be-scapegoated-for-the-murder-rate-anymore/265576/
so what does that mean? maybe it means it’s not as important as you suggest
” I read last night that the Mexican cartels now import 90% of the heroin into the United States. That has to be problematic for our Latino brothers here legally or illegally.”
and yet we refuse to do things as simple as legalize marijuana which would cut the gut out of the cartels.
“Illegal immigration has hurt families on both sides of the border as men that move here often father children or start families, yet have wives or children back in Mexico.”
actually what tends to happen is the fathers come here, work in the fields, live in barracks on almost nothing and send most of the food back to their families in mexico. you say that hurts families on both sides – but obviously they didn’t have much choice. if you want care about this, you might consider some sort of work visa program.
I’m actually throwing a lot of facts onto the table.
Yes, I asked a friend in LA about “Asian gangs”. He is close with the Cambodian community, and said at first there were no gangs. The Cambodia kids were seen as ‘easy marks’ by the black and Latino gangs, so they formed their own gangs for protection. That’s his claim.
Most other ethnic gangs are a blip on the radar outside of a few select cases… Russian gangs are infamous.
How does marijuana sales effect the heroin trade? Huh? And given the rising problems with marijuana, I see no need to rush to further its deleterious effects, especially given what effects it has on teenagers.
DP wrote: “actually what tends to happen is the fathers come here, work in the fields, live in barracks on almost nothing and send most of the food back to their families in mexico. you say that hurts families on both sides – but obviously they didn’t have much choice. if you want care about this, you might consider some sort of work visa program.”
We don’t have 30-40 million people working in the fields. What often happens is they migrate into labor jobs, landscaping, and the stronger and / or smarter ones move towards construction / the trades. Some with basic English skills move into fast food, restaurants, pink collar or various service jobs… maintenance, tree trimming, etc.
A UC Davis professor once detailed how illegal immigrants have driven African American women out of the hotel / motel industry, driven wages down, and caused employers to remove benefits. This is how the middle and lower classes are getting hammered.
Most of these fine comments don’t address the topic, rather make a case for your point of view.
Fact: There are laws being violated.
Fact: Cities or the Justice Department (i.e. White House) are selectively enforcing laws.
Fact: Passing an ordinance to not enforce a federal Law is a violation of their oath of office, and borderline vigilantism. What if they passed an ordinance more restrictive? Arizona tried to pass a State Law that was struck down even though they tried to copy word for word the Federal Law.
Why not change the law to be what they want? Until then Law Enforcement has the obligation (and took an oath) to uphold it. By not following the law they swore to uphold, they abdicate their authority, IMO. They have been bought off.