Posted on 09/03/2002 9:43:03 PM PDT by Sabertooth
Criminal aliens and their lawyers are rooting mightily for the Senate's version of the Homeland Security bill now being debated in Washington. That's because buried in the legislation is a very dangerous proposal to grant unprecedented power to a secretive, soft-on-immigration crime bureaucracy that oversees deportation appeals.
Under Title XIII of S. 2452, dubbed the "Immigration Reform, Accountability and Security Enhancement Act of 2002," political appointees on the Board of Immigration Appeals would be elevated to the level of statutory appellate judges. They could formally reopen any final order of deportation and reopen the factual findings of trial courts at their discretion.
Such procedures trample over bedrock principles of appellate review within our judicial system. No other appellate body in the country has the same power to retry the facts of cases on appeal, including the federal court system. This means that criminal aliens get "two bites at the apple" -- two opportunities to present their facts. It's a legal advantage that American citizens themselves do not enjoy when pursuing matters in the federal courts.
Once the board determines that illegal aliens, asylum seekers and criminal aliens convicted of violent felonies can stay in this country, these decisions would be the final word.
Here is why you should be afraid: The bill would completely strip the attorney general of his longstanding ability to administratively overrule the board
-- as he did recently in the outrageous case of Melanie Beaucejour Jean. She was a Haitian nanny convicted of second-degree manslaughter in the beating death of a 19-month-old boy from upstate New York in 1995. In May, Ashcroft reversed a bleeding-heart ruling by three Janet Reno-appointed members of the board who had argued that Jean should be allowed to stay in the United States because the brutal killing of a defenseless child did "not constitute a crime of violence."
We don't know just how rampant such unconscionable legal reasoning by the board really is because the majority of its decisions are unpublished. But among the criminal alien appellants who have prevailed in published board decisions are repeat drunk drivers, sexual abusers, burglars, drug offenders and other aggravated felons who escaped deportation on convoluted technicalities.
The unaccountable appeals board has been a major obstacle in immigration law enforcement, and by extension, the War on Terror. Ashcroft highlighted the panel's abominable record earlier this year when he unveiled a package of reforms to streamline its decision-making process. The board receives more than 270,000 cases a year, and recently had a massive backlog of more than 56,000 pending cases. It is a sham deportation system that has spawned more than 314,000 fugitive alien deportees, with an unknown number of potential terrorists and violent criminals among them.
Among us.
As Ashcroft noted: "The backlog gives unscrupulous lawyers an incentive to file frivolous appeals in which the immigrant has no valid argument. Even though they cannot win, they are able, using the system, to guarantee the client additional years within the border of the United States. By exploiting this bottleneck in the system, such lawyers allow individuals who are here in violation of our laws to remain here even longer . . . we cannot and we will not allow an administrative bottleneck to threaten our national security."
Creating bottlenecks is the bread and butter of the immigration lawyers' lobby. That is why they and their friends in high places (such as the legislative staffs of Sens. Joe Lieberman and Teddy Kennedy) are livid at Ashcroft's attempts to rein in the board. Their poison pill -- secretly snuck into the Homeland Security bill with no public debate -- is perilously petulant payback disguised as "reform" and "accountability." Isn't it time to stop putting profits and politics ahead of national security?
Contact Michelle Malkin | Read her biography
©2002 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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Michelle |
Post here to the thread if you'd like to be on the Michelle Malkin list.
she is a cutie :-)
Well, she's sunk her teeth into an issue that I think is rather important.
Besides, other conservobabes like Peggy Noonan and Ann Coulter have their own regular ping lists on FR, so the more the merrier!
Mrs. Malkin ain't just a cutie, she's a Freeper.
I caught that on the radio today, I forget the context. As you said, we'll see.
This buried legislation, secretive dealings, and darkness is standard operating procedure. Towards a One World Government.DARKNESS BY DESIGN FOR AMNESTY MOVE
"At the precise directions of Mr. Bush — the House sneaked through a bill directly related to the student visa fiasco."
But deliberately cloaked in the bill — the first attempted passage was, in fact, to be by unrecorded vote — was the highly controversial Section 245(i) amendment to the immigration law, which allows "undocumented" immigrants (who, to employ plainer talk, are really illegal aliens) to immediately get permanent residency. All they need to do is pay the federal government $1,000 and have a close relative or employer sponsor them.
This decision gives people who come here illegally the ability to skirt American law, to move to the front of the line because they have skirted that law, and to avoid any real check on their past. Without it, they would have to return to their own countries, apply legally, probably wait up to 10 years and go through at least the minimal check of experienced visa and consular officers in the American Embassies.
The fact that this entire scenario was cloaked in the secrecy and deception of a spy novel — it was included in the day's "suspension calendar," which is generally reserved for noncontroversial matters — demonstrates the degree to which the administration is trying to advance its idea of amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens in America, perhaps up to 9 million."
Will Homeland Security Turn Into Homeland Spying? - Phyllis Schlafly
U.S. government doesn't trust Americans - Homeland Security or KGB? - Joseph Farah
Department of Homeland Security- Who Needs It? - Ron Paul
"The solution now being proposed is a giant new federal department, and it is the only solution we are being offered, and one which I am certain will lead to tens of billions of dollars of new spending."
It's time to make a concerted effort to get rid of the 3rd world, illegal aliens that are electing the ultra-liberal, socialist/leftists to Congress and local government office.
Wait'll you see what this latest swarm of illegal aliens, that George Bush has allowed in, votes for.
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