I wouldn’t have a problem if we did the same here. At the rate we’re collecting biometrics on aliens, it’ll be a matter of time before we can confidently start deporting aliens with no legimate form of US ID.

La Shawn gave a great answer to actus. I am an immigrant myself, a legal immigrant. I cam here from Africa 8 years ago. Most immigrants come to this country because of the opportunity that abounds in this country, most of us favor legal immigration.

There is process for those who desire to come here. The process is long and could be impossible to get a visa sometimes. When some of these people do get a visa to come here, they do not want to go back home since they are afraid they might not be able to return.

What we ought to do is find a way to make it a little easier for immigrants who want to come here to do so. We should not encourage them to break the law by allowing them come here illegaly.

It is true a lot immigrants come here to work, but some also come here for criminal intent. How would you know who is here for what unless you enforce the laws and keep track of those here?

Tranferring illegal aliens to federal custody so officials can enforce U…

Allowed on what grounds? Constitutionally it seems like a natural progression from federalism. And i don’t think there’s any federal law that requires cooperation. I don’t even know if such a federal law would survive the current federalism revival of kennedy / rehnquist / thomas / scalia / o’connor.

In fact, we are not empowered to enforce Federal law unless a local or state officer is serving on a Federal task force. What I’m referring to are the laws that some municipalities enacted (none in this state, thank goodness) after the Patriot Act went into effect, which forbids their officers from contacting Immigration authorities with any information about any illegals they may come into contact with in the course of their duties.

To me, it is an absolute travesty that a municipality should even be allowed to have such a law stand. Of course some cities simply went the backdoor route by ordering their officers under threat of punishment not to cooperate with Immigration authorities. Either way it is designed to circumvent Federal law.

Of course, in reality it’s all rather moot, as it is impossible at least in this state (Oklahoma) to get Immigration to respond even when you catch admitted illegals in criminal acts. A couple of weeks ago, a suburban department in this area stopped a vehicle packed with a couple of dozen illegals. Some were charged with state charges, and the rest were let go per Immigration’s direction. even those held on charges were of no interest to the Feds. Quite frustrating!

What gives the cops the power to turn people over to the feds before they know they are illegal? The law says they can take in illegals, but it doesn’t say they can turn over unknowns.

I don’t think its federal law that local police enforce immigration laws.

Police don’t roam around looking for illegal immigrants. That’s not something they can do until such time as they all develop psychic powers.

They find illegal immigrants though incidents similar to the one noted in the article. They encounter a group of people and in the process of identifying them to write the paperwork they need to write (be it a ticket or a warning or a civil citation), they find that some people don’t have identifications and have no way of officially verifying who they are. So they whistle up the immigration people and turn those folks over to that authority. That can happen with a group or on an individual traffic stop.

LaShawn – Thank you for the link. You made my day.

I count it all joy!

I might do that, SCSIwuzzy. I’ve posted portions of e-mail before. I just don’t want them to feel more significant than they are.