In Other News Tonight...

[Aught Six]

Thompson proposes immigration crackdown

***

Does this help or hurt his chances of receiving the nomination? He certainly gets a preliminary thumbs up from me. I especially like his proposal toenforceexisting laws before passing anything additional.

[Fieldmouse]

This board has more power than I thought. He must have read my thread on this.

[kevin1]

In turn, Giuliani's campaign accused Thompson of being weak on the issue. At a news conference Tuesday in Boston, Giuliani said: "I'm the one who can bring about immigration reform."

Yeah, right Rudy, you've done so well with that in New York...

It sounds like Thompson is just playing to the crowd with this one, immigration reform is a hot button issue with most voters.

[ipscshooter]

ORIGINAL: kevin1

Yeah, right Rudy, you've done so well with that in New York...

It sounds like Thompson is just playing to the crowd with this one, immigration reform is a hot button issue with most voters.

Immigration reform didn't really become a "hot button issue" until the last couple of years. To be fair to Rudy, and trust me, I'm not a fan of his, he hasn't been the Mayor of NYC during that time frame.

Regarding Thompson's plan to enforce existing laws, and defund areas that won't, sounds like a great plan. It has been working quite well in the Del Rio area, where the local sheriff is enforcing a zero tolerance program regarding illegal aliens.

Zero Tolerance in Del Rio
CNN ^ | July 14, 2007 | Michael Kraft

Posted on 07/15/2007 1:01:12 AM PDT by yorkie



In Texas someone realized that if you are caught breaking a US law, you should then go to jail. This seems like common sense, but not in the PC world of catching criminal aliens crossing our border.


Standing in a cramped federal courtroom last month, illegal immigrant Walter Oscar Portillo-Machado pleaded with a judge for mercy. But he came to the wrong place for that.


The Salvadoran man was caught along a 210-mile stretch of the Texas-Mexico border that has been set up as zero-tolerance zone for illegal immigration. Instead of merely getting sent back home, immigrants here are arrested, prosecuted, and sometimes sentenced to prison before they are formally kicked out of the country.


The effort began late last year along a border area that includes the Rio Grande border towns of Del Rio and Eagle Pass. It has been hailed by federal officials as a creative use of local and federal resources to tighten the border.
While other border sectors avoided strict enforcement because they did not have enough jail space or prosecutors, authorities in the Del Rio area found bed space elsewhere in the region, assigned federal agents to help prosecute cases and began running illegal immigrants through a courtroom at a rate of one case per minute.


Immigration advocates have criticized the practice, saying it only moves the problem elsewhere along the border and may sacrifice civil liberties for the sake of efficiency.


"œThere"™s nothing we"™re doing that wasn"™t already on the books,"� said Hilario Leal Jr., a supervisory Border Patrol agent in the Del Rio sector. "œIt"™s nothing new. We just started enforcing the law."�


The Del Rio sector also ended the widespread practice of "œcatch-and-release"� that freed most non-Mexican immigrants with a piece of paper ordering them to show up in federal immigration court a month later - and almost no one did.
Most Mexican citizens with no criminal record who cross outside the Del Rio sector are still escorted back shortly after their arrest. Those from other countries are held in a detention center - not as criminals serving time - while the paperwork is being completed to return them to their home countries.
But in the Del Rio sector, every adult illegal immigrant, regardless of their home country, is criminally prosecuted and removed from the country after they have served his sentence.


"œThey know if they come (to Del Rio) they arent going home, they are going to jail,"� Leal said.


Before the effort began, illegal immigrants came across the river near Del Rio in droves, with Central and South American citizens often surrendering to agents because they knew they would be let go - after receiving food, water, medical care and sometimes a ride to a bus station, along with their notice to appear in court.


In recent years, the situation had become so hectic that Del Rio sector agents were lucky if they patrolled the border for two hours during an eight or 10-hour shift, Agent Cynthia Bilyk said. The rest of their time was spent processing the immigrants.


Agents in the sector were averaging about 500 arrests a day, Leal said. Now there are fewer than 100 daily arrests, and the reforms are credited with reducing arrests by about 29 percent so far this fiscal year.

[kevin1]

Somehow I doubt that involuntarily housing and feeding them for awhile will dissuade them from returning once they're kicked out, although it sounds good on paper it's just a bandaid on a sucking chest wound. The real answer is and always has been to dry up what attracts them from their home countries, get rid of the illicit jobs and welfare tit and they won't have any incentive to come here. I don't know why this isn't already rigidly enforced.

[kdvollmer]

I think that we need to put them in Prison for breaking the law. Though not the nice concrete, jail cells in conventional prisons. We need to take a stance like the sherrif in AZ, or TX I think. You have all heard of the guy, that runs his prisoners in a Tent city in the desert. You put up 20 Ft high fences with Razor wire on top, 2 or 3 fences actually, so that if they get passed 1, they still have to get over a couple more. Then electrify them as well. Something like that would cost a hell of a lot less than puttng them in some nice "traditional" jail or prison. Then, make them work the chain gang for a couple years while they serve. You don't pay them, they are workng for pennies on the hour to pay for their stay. No AC in the tents. Zero, zilch zip, nothing, nada.... no TV, no phones, novisitors. A cot to sleep on, basic food, and nothing but water to drink. No need for t to be cold water, just what ever the current temperature is, is how hot or cold the water gets. Then, after a few years of living like that for breaking the law, you send them back across the border. You think that they would want to do that again. Give them just enough ot survive, but make it worse than it was back across the border. Let them know, f you catch them again, it will be twice the length of the sentence. 1st offense 5 years, 2nd offense 10 years...etc

[burniegoeasily]

I agree with him. Why give a city money for harboring illegals.

[burniegoeasily]

We all know the cause and the cure, but few will take the steps to solve the problem.