A post by Pat
Thought you might like to see a snippet of one of our heroes at work, this time defending another one of our heroes, Sheriff Arpaio. The discussion is about
Section 287 g of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
[...] This authorizes the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, permitting designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions, pursuant to a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), provided that the local law enforcement officers receive appropriate training and function under the supervision of sworn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
David Harris, Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh testified against 287 g and the law enforcement practices of Sheriff Arpaio. (Written testimony pages 4,5,6,7). The Professor said under the Bush administration local law enforcement agencies were pressured into enforcing immigration laws even though they did not want that authority. He also claimed the NCIC (National Crime Information Center) database was inappropriately used to force local police to make arrests of illegals. In his oral opening remarks the professor stated local law enforcement officials would be “pushed into racial profiling” because the immigration laws are too complex and the local law enforcement agents are untrained. He said it takes years and years of study to properly understand the immigration laws. This was a major point in his argument that 287 g is a profound mistake.
He also testified specifically against Sheriff Arpaio (page 12) citing the Goldwater Institute independent study of Sheriff Arpaio’s actions. It was a negative assessment.
His conclusion:
For public safety and civil rights, the implications of immigration enforcement by state and local police departments could not be clearer, or more negative. Immigration enforcement by these non-federal law enforcement agencies will lead to a decrease in public safety and an increase in crime, because vital relationships between police and the communities they serve will break down, corroding under the fear generated by immigration enforcement.
Kris Kobach, Professor of Law from the University of Missouri (KC) testified in support of 287 g.
Here is Rep. Chaffetz’s questioning of Professor Harris.
Nice job, Jason! Professor Harris on the complexity of immigration law:
One might liken the extreme complexity of U.S. immigration law to the tax code – except that the tax code is easy to understand and changes less often by comparison. For this reason if no other, the task of immigration enforcement demands high specialized knowledge, training, and experience.
Just like the tax code, the immigration laws are complex on purpose and that purpose isn’t to help ordinary citizens. It’s to make sure government has the ultimate power over our lives by making us fearful of an arcane system that can step all over us depending on how the system chooses to interpret the law.
How difficult can it be to identify someone as being in the country illegally and then arrest him? The lawyers can hash out the complexities of the law later. Do local law enforcement officers have years and years of training in the intricacies of the criminal code? Prof. Harris suggested these hopelessly ignorant law enforcement agents could wind up being sued. Just like Sheriff Arpaio who is in the bullseye of the pro-amnesty forces, not because he doesn’t understand the complexities of immigration law, because he shows everyone his part in it isn’t difficult at all.
E-Verify is simple, free, Web-based system that works by electronically comparing new employee information taken from the Form I-9. It works, and maybe that’s why the open border zealots have amassed against the application ? Opponents of E-Verify have resorted to charges that it is full of errors, when in truth it has an average a 99.5 success rate. More than 425 million records in the Social Security Administration’s database and more than 60 million records in the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration data base can then be verified.
In March E-verify was further enhanced by using a picture tool that helps patriotic businesses to identify illegal foreign workers. It allows an employer to compare identical photos – the worker’s photograph on the EAD or green card against the image stored in USCIS’ databases, which contains nearly 15 million images of individual documents. The tool is designed to help an employer determine whether the document presented reasonably relates to the individual presenting it and contains a valid photo.
Typos and similar problems are cured on line, so legal workers usually only have problem only if they changed their names or citizenship status–but failed to inform Social Security of the change. Others have to do something more to establish that they are lawfully authorized to work by approaching the SSA. While certain individuals do nothing–disappearing into the woodwork. It works! So–THE PEOPLE–should make it a permanent addition to our arsenal against illegal aliens stealing jobs of Americans. If a business hires illegal labor and have not used E-verify, they should be subject to severe penalties. Two legislators have remained instrumental in trying to dismantle E-Verify, the REAL ID act, police enforcement (247(g) and ICE raids. Sen. Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Remind your Senators and Congressman–who they work for? Washington switchboard. 202-224-3121 Reid’s Carson Office: 775-882-7343/ Vegas: 702-388-5020
House Speaker Pelosi: 202-225-0100 / San Francisco: 415 556-4862