In California, they're deporting criminal aliens
In a “massive” two-week operation, ICE has nabbed more than 1,300 illegal aliens, “most of whom either have criminal records or have failed to abide by deportation orders — part of an intensifying but controversial effort across the nation to remove such violators:”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement … called the sweep the largest of its kind in the U.S. Nearly 600 of those arrested at homes, workplaces and in jails have already been deported.
“Where these laws may not have been enforced in the past, that has changed,” said Jim Hayes, Los Angeles field office director for ICE. [Emphasis added.]
Predictably, the critics are caterwauling:
The arrests break up families and create an unfair and inaccurate impression of the immigrant community, which is by and large law-abiding, said Reshma Shamasunder, director of the California Immigrant Policy Center. Enforcement actions also cause fear in immigrant neighborhoods and families that may include U.S. citizens.
• All arrests have the potential to break up families. That’s not an argument — not a persuasive one, anyway — for letting criminals go free.
• Enforcement of the law often creates fear among those who are violating it. So what?
“It directs public attention away from the real need to reform the immigration system overall,” she said. “This is not going to solve our problems …
• It doesn’t direct attention away from anything. As the cliche has it, people can walk and chew gum at the same time. And at least in part, this does solve the problem of criminal aliens lose on the streets. We don’t have to fix everything to fix something.