Along Part of the Border, A Zero-Tolerance Zone (Demonstrating The Border CAN Be Secured)

Washington Post ^ | Sylvia Moreno

[nj26]

On June 1, the three Ordaz-Valtierra brothers from Mexico illegally crossed the Rio Grande with the same dream that so many other Latin American immigrants have: head north from the border, get jobs and start sending money home.

Their journey, instead, ended in a federal courthouse here, where, dressed in orange prison jumpsuits, each was charged with the federal misdemeanor crime of entry without inspection. Each pleaded guilty and was sentenced by a U.S. magistrate judge to 15 days. Under guard of U.S. marshals, they were put in shackles and bused to a West Texas jail to serve their time and await deportation home.

"I'm sorry," Juan Carlos Ordaz-Valtierra, 27, said through an interpreter as he stood before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis G. Green. "I didn't think it was this difficult to cross into your country."

It wasn't. But this year, a 190-mile stretch of riverbank that includes the small border cities of Eagle Pass and Del Rio became a "zero-tolerance zone." If apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol, illegal immigrants are prosecuted by federal authorities for a misdemeanor, sent to jail for 15 to 180 days and then deported. If they are caught illegally entering the country a second time, they are eligible for a felony charge of illegal entry and as much as two years in federal prison.

"Catch and release" -- in which Mexican citizens are returned promptly to Mexico, but citizens of other countries are given a notice to appear in immigration court at a later date, set free and never tracked down by authorities -- would end here. "Catch and remove" would start.

....This federal experiment, called Operation Streamline II, has shown what it takes to stop the flow of illegal immigrants: aggressive enforcement of the laws on the books.

[rottndog]

However, they bring their values (lack of) with them and we're going to end up exactly like Mexico.

Of all the bad effects of illegal immigration, this one is the one that pisses me off the most. All things considered, if people coming here, even illegally, were seeking to become Americans, much of the outrage (mine included) about Bush's current policy of non-enforcement of immigration laws would be somewhat muted.

The problem is that the vast majority of illegals coming here now not only don't want to be Americans, they want to bring their home cultures and ways of life here, and most outrageously they are demanding that we change our way of life to accommodate them.

Not only is this completely bass ackwards and utterly wrong, it is unprecedented in history and not allowed anywhere else on the planet.

This has to be stopped!

[sheana]

The point was....since when is enforcing the laws an "experiment"?
Just more stupid BS.

[TheLion]

Bump!