Posted on 01/12/2007 8:26:29 AM PST by PajamaTruthMafia
Gov: Staties won’t nab illegal aliens
Conservative critics are lambasting Gov. Deval Patrick over his decision to repeal plans to use state police to arrest illegal aliens, charging that it will make the Bay State a sanctuary for people willing to ignore the nation’s immigration laws.
“It’s the type of mentality that says, ’Don’t worry if you’re here illegally, you won’t have a problem with state authorities,” said Jack Martin of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “What has been lost by this decision is a deterrent against a fast-growing illegal immigrant community in Massachusetts.”
Patrick, in one of his first key policy moves yesterday, plunged into the fiery arena of immigration policy by rescinding an agreement signed by former Gov. Mitt Romney to empower state police to detain illegal immigrants.
Patrick said he intends to replace the pact with a more limited arrangement with that will allow state correction officers to start deportation proceedings after an illegal immigrant has already been convicted of another crime. Currently, only federal officials are empowered to initiate such proceedings.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with encouraging people to continue to break the law,” Patrick said of his decision to kill Romney’s plan. “It has to do with focusing the energies of our own agencies on their core missions.”
State police Col. Mark Delaney said he agrees that Romney’s plans to use state police to detain illegal immigrants would have conflicted with goals to fight urban gang and gun violence because it could cause minority populations to avoid police altogether.
“(Patrick’s plan) puts us more in sync with major city police departments and their missions,” Delaney said.
Patrick said he will seek an agreement with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that enforces immigration law, to train 12 correction officers to initiate deportation proceedings against illegal immigrants. The officers would be split between prisons in Concord and Framingham, the two facilities that process nearly all convicts held in state custody.
Steve Kenneway, a union leader for state correction officers, said droves of illegal immigrants are living in state prisons despite significant overcrowding. State officials put the number of illegal immigrants in state custody at 700 yesterday, which translates to annual bill for taxpayers of $ 28 million.
Patrick’s public safety secretary, Kevin Burke, said courts, along with state and federal authorities, sometimes fail to identify illegal immigrants housed in state jails, meaning the actual number could be much higher. Whatever that number is, Kenneway said, it needs to be reduced much quicker than it has been in recent years.
“It’s amazing how many illegal aliens are doing time in Massachusetts prisons right now,” he said. “The process to remove them moves extraordinarily slow or it doesn’t happen at all.”
During a press conference, Patrick said yesterday he will consider expanding the plan to country jails, but hasn’t fully explored the implications of such a move.
“I want to see how this works and I want to think through those other issues before we broaden it,” he said.
The arrangement to empower correction officers reverses the course Romney set out by preventing the state from enforcing immigration laws unless a person is first convicted of another crime. Romney’s pact would have allowed state troopers working in gang and drug units to detain illegal immigrants in the field and immediately start deportation proceedings.
Immigrant advocates said Patrick’s plan recognizes a critical distinction and helps guard against profiling that could cause minority communities to shun law enforcement.
“Communities are safer when everyone can trust the police,” said Ali Noorani of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. He added that Romney’s pact had already generated significant concerns among immigrant communities before it was repealed. “It had a chilling effect. People had serious reservations about calling the police.”
Republican lawmakers said, however, that Patrick’s move sends a dangerous signal and will only cause more taxpayer dollars to be spent to detain, house and care for illegal immigrants.
“It’s much more cost effective to initiate deportation proceedings at the beginning of the court process rather than after we’ve already housed them for a number of years,” said state Sen. Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester). “This is a step backward.”
When Patrick was in the Clinton justice department he embarked on a racist, extortion campaign against banks and other regulated corporations to mulct them for money and below market rate loans for blacks as well as high paid jobs for the incompetent but racially correct.
If you think Massachusetts is bad now, wait four years; you won't recognize the place.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.Did he swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States? Can his state judges ignore violations of the Laws of the United States? Is the Commonwealth not bound by the supreme Law of the Land?
Which he didn't sign until just weeks before his term ended. Romney never have a hoot about it until he saw it might buy him a few votes for his campaign.
The whole State Legislature willfully violated the State Constitution a few months ago by not allowing a Constitution amendment to ban gay marriage on the ballot. They didn't even try to spin or hide it. When the Legislature will do something like that, and give the people of the state the finger while doing it, you can understand how they can ignore the Federal Constitution without a bit of hesitation.
No doubt, the illegal aliens will be free to continue
to practice "medicine" and "surgery" as well in Mass. under Deval
since no laws need apply to them.
Maybe you can take back some of the ones that are up here in New Hampshire. I have an idea they all came from Massive2sh!tts anyway. And you guys are supposedly losing population, so that would help solve 2 problems since the place is just about hopeless.
ping
The whole program was a joke in any case. The training for the SP oficers wasn't scheduled for Sept. of 2007. As if they need special training to spot illegal aliens! And yes, it was a cheap pandering stunt by Mitt.
Yet there's this big push depicting Mit as THE conservative candidate...with whispers of Tancredo as VP.
Romney has blown too many ways in the wind to be regarded as a viable candidate - candidates are defined by solidified standings on issues. Perhaps someone should clue politicians in that Americans respect people who stand for specific principles far more than those who try to appease everyone all time. Weasels who automatically resort to that subscribe to P.T. Barnum's quote about suckers and therefore consider their constituents to be just that.
I haven't trusted the Magic Underwear crowd since Hatch went off the map of sanity. Not that there's anything wrong with believing in magic underwear...
Mitt Romney had YEARS to implement this policy. If he did it earlier the policy would be firmly established. Yet he waited for the last moment.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Exactly! Politicians are only slightly ahead of the curve than entertainers: they haven't learned the power of the 'net... that whatthey say and do is reported, recorded, and available for research by your average Joe Six-Pack with just a few taps on a keyboard. And these flip-flops stand out like a red light on a misty evening. Kerry found that out, and it still hasn't fully registered with him. And Romney hasn't learned the lesson yet either.
There's no surprise here. Deval Patrick said that he would do this.
Patrick wants to deal with this after the fact, after the illegal has committed a serious offense. It's the same mentality that Dems want more money to fund fire and rescue services so they'll be ready -- AFTER terrorists strike.
That's such an irresponsible policy that anyone promoting it should be removed from office by any means required. Not only does it perpetuates the lie that invaders have rights (beyond human), it needlessly imperils innocent citizens while placing "political correctness" over the rule of law.
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