Video: Mayors taking immigration policy into their own hands

posted at 1:20 pm on July 17, 2007 by Bryan
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There’s a word for the state of immigration law in the US: anarchy.

New Haven, Conn. – At a time when a rising number of states and cities are cracking down on illegal immigrants, New Haven, Conn., is reaching out to them with a unique perk: an ID card.

Besides serving as identification for bank services and if police ask for ID, the card can be used at municipal locations such as libraries, beaches, and parks – and as a debit card for city parking meters and at 15 downtown shops.http://michellemalkin.cachefly.net/hotair.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/cresitello.png

Cities – and critics – across the country are watching closely as New Haven prepares to hand out its first batch of cards July 24. The idea: integrate illegal immigrants into the community, protect them from crime that can happen because of a lack of documentation, and encourage them to be more willing to report crimes to police. Reaction to the first-of-a-kind program has been swift and sharp, illustrating the wide divide in US public opinion over the issue.

All of that is behind the rationale for sanctuary cities, and all it does is act as a magnet to attract more illegals. Sen. Dick Durbin’s stealth DREAM maneuvers would result in the same thing: more illegal immigration.

Donald Cresitello, the mayor of Morristown, NJ has two ideas for dealing with illegal immigration, one bad and one good. First, the bad: Grant them visas.

The mayor says that illegals are violating federal and state law, then offers a way to wave a wand and make them legal. How is that not amnesty?

Here’s his good idea: Deputize local police so they can enforce federal immigration law.

Take the two ideas together, and you have incoherence and selective law enforcement. You often catch big criminals by being vigilant in enforcing little crimes, like violating immigration law. The mayor would first make legal immigrants out of illegal ones (assuming they’ll pay the fines that he wants them to pay, which is not entirely a reasonable assumption), and only then use local police to enforce immigration law against criminal illegals and, presumably, illegals who didn’t pay the fines in order to get the visa he wants offered them. That’s not vigilance, it’s just adding a layer of patchwork over existing and mostly unenforced immigration law already on the books. If we had been vigilant on immigration law prior to 9-11, 9-11 probably wouldn’t have happened because nearly all of the hijackers were here in violation of immigration laws and used the falsified ID industry that thrives on illegal immigration to obtain the IDs they needed to board and hijack the aircraft they turned into missiles. Enforce the little laws, prevent the big crime.

Again, enforcement first. Fix the border. Fix the visa system. Then, and only then, will it be reasonable to talk about what to do about the millions of illegals who are already here.

Last thought: Watch both clips and pay attention to which of the proposals the MSNBC reporter predicts might be controversial.

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