Politicians who advocate deporting the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now living in the United States should spend a day in their nearest immigration court.
A recent investigation by Washington Post reporters discovered a system that is dysfunctional and thoroughly overwhelmed. Even detainees who are pleading with officials to be deported spend up to 10 months in local jails at taxpayer expense because government prosecutors can't keep up with their caseloads.
Post reporters found that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency could not produce necessary files or had even lost track of the detainees themselves in more than half of all cases heard in a court in Arlington, causing delays and longer jail stays.
It's no surprise that ICE routinely misplaces people. Most detainees participate in court hearings via video conferencing, but not all jails have the equipment. People being held in Arlington's jail are shuffled off to the Richmond area or even Hampton Roads, where they peer into cameras at a judge who's back in Arlington.
Other detainees go where there's an empty cell. In one instance, a woman who had been moved from Northern Virginia to a Hampton Roads jail, and then back again, sat in the Arlington courtroom wearing an electronic ankle bracelet while court officials stared at a blank video monitor and debated her whereabouts.
ICE officials note that they have reduced the wait times for detainees in Virginia and Washington, D.C., to 62 days on average, but they accomplished that goal in part by moving people to out-of-state jails.
There is no question that illegal immigrants who have committed crimes should be deported. However, if ICE cannot handle its 338,000 deportations and voluntary departures from October 2007 to August, who honestly believes the agency is capable of managing the orderly removal of 12 million people from this country?
ICE is understaffed and underfunded, and that's not going to change in the middle of a $700 billion bailout of the financial system. What must change is the rhetoric of political leaders and the expectations of the public. Realistic reforms must include expanded temporary worker programs and amnesty for immigrants who have peacefully lived and worked in the U.S.
Can ICE capably manage a reform of this magnitude? Probably not.
Based on the current budget realities, the agency will barely muddle through no matter what assignment it is given. But that's no excuse for allowing it to continue wasting taxpayer dollars on a mission that is both flawed and unreachable.
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RE: THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT OCT. 10, 2008 ARTICLE:
The writer has NOT been listening. We don't need to deport the 38 to 60 million illegals (as quoted by two very reliable organizations: also, every time they have given an amnesty and quoted a figure, they have always found that there were at least 3 times that figure!). You simply take their jobs away (and give it to the Americans who had it and wanted their jobs! Or to the 9 million unemployed Americans who want to work and always have wanted to work. So many of these raids around the country have shown, that right after the raids there are hundreds of Americans waiting on line to try to get that job!). The experiment was done on January 1, of this year when Rep. Russ Pearce's bill passed in the state of AZ. Thousands of illegals left: some went home, some escaped to other U.S. states but without a job, they will not stay. If we can make sure only Americans and legal immigrants work (which is the law!), th
Gertz...
You mean we agree on something..LOL. Now that is a hoot.
deport them all
This country cannot afford to support 12 million illegals. Send them all back where they came from, close the borders, and the effort will stop the freebies at the tune of multiple millions of dollars that we cannot afford.
If you think they are...
If you think the vast majority of illegals are paying taxes, I have some swamp land to sell. They are mostly paid under the table and they mostly send the money to Mexico or wherever they came from. They only buy the bare necessities, are housed ten fold in illegal alien boarding houses and know full well that anything they need from our society, we will give to them for FREE. That is why they keep coming. It is obvious that city and state governments are using illegal alien labor as well. Just drive by any capital project including your schools during the workday. I even asked for help from an employee while in Walmart and was told "NO SPEAKA ENGLISH". How insane is that?
...
"What is more of a waste of taxpayer money, doing the right thing and deporting the illegal aliens or allowing them to stay and leech off of our system."
At least the illegal aliens WORK and PAY TAXES (even if it is under fake SSN's). There are plenty of people around Hampton Roads leaching off the system who do NOTHING all day but sit around, complain and have more kids that we all have to house, feed and cloth. Pure laziness. The reason there are illegals comming into the country is because there is a demand for the labor. The reason there is a demand for the labor is that the above individuals are too LAZY to do the hard work the migrants do.
All we have to do is issue temporary work visas based on industry need. This is already being done in the high tech industries because US schools can't provide enough engineers and science majors to meet the need.
What is more?
What is more of a waste of taxpayer money, doing the right thing and deporting the illegal aliens or allowing them to stay and leech off of our system. By far, the latter would be. Liberals coddling criminals actively involved in illegal activity. What a crock. What I really see is a liberal movement to garner more liberal/democratic voters to turn the US into a socialist country. Felons and illegals for the democratic vote. Who is next, Iranians and the Taliban?
well......
Illegal is Illegal..............***PERIOD***
If I, personally, do something...ANYTHING that is deemed "illegal" I am detained and taken before a court. Same thing. If you come here illegally then you are taking the chance of facing a system, while flawed, does eventually work. YOU made the choice....end of discussion!!!!