DHS to check for criminal aliens at all local jails by 2012; possible 10x increase in such deportations; prelude to amnesty?

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post offers "U.S. to Expand Immigration Checks to All Local Jails/Obama Administration's Enforcement Push Could Lead to Sharp Increase in Deportation Cases" (link). The Department of Homeland Security's ICE currently checks state and federal inmates to determine whether they're illegal aliens (or perhaps legal immigrants) who are deportable. The Obama administration intends to extend that to all local jails by 2012:

Based on the pilot program, the agency estimates that if fingerprints from all 14 million bookings in local jails each year were screened, about 1.4 million "criminal aliens" would be found, Venturella said. That would be about 10 times the 117,000 criminal illegal immigrants ICE deported last year. There are more than 3,100 local jails nationwide, compared with about 1,200 federal and state prisons... [David J. Venturella, program director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] said ICE will give priority to deporting the most dangerous offenders: national security risks or those convicted of violent crimes. Based on initial projections, the agency estimates that 100,000 of these are "Level 1 offenders" and that deporting them would cost $1.1 billion over four years. Removing all criminal illegal immigrants would cost $3 billion, ICE estimated last year.

There are other caveats about the program itself. And, the program may be an attempt to show that the Obama administration is willing to do something about illegal immigration in order to make getting comprehensive immigration reform (aka amnesty) easier. "Deport the criminals first" sounds good, until you're forced to ask what comes afterwards. While this latest move is definitely very good news in and of itself, comprehensive "reform" requires a comprehensive opposition that takes into account the overall strategy of the "reformers". Those who don't have an overall opposition plan may find themselves useful idiots for those who do.

For instance, consider this:

"We mean this, we're serious about it, and we believe we need to put in an all-out effort to get this done," said Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee for homeland security. He has led calls to remove illegal immigrants convicted of crimes after their sentences are served.

Now see Rep. David Price: deport criminals, but leave the illegal workers alone (cut enforcement funds to support illegal immigration)

Tue, 05/19/2009 - 10:19 · · Importance: 4