Friday, November 20, 2009

Enforcement of immigration laws decline under Obama

Washington Times:


Arrests of illegal immigrant workers have dropped precipitously under President Obama, according to figures released Wednesday.

Criminal arrests, administrative arrests, indictments and convictions of illegal immigrants at work sites all fell by more than 50 percent from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009.

The figures show that Mr. Obama has made good on his pledge to shift enforcement away from going after illegal immigrant workers themselves - but at the expense of Americans' jobs, said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican who compiled the numbers from the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).

Mr. Smith, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said a period of economic turmoil is the wrong time to be cutting enforcement and letting illegal immigrants take jobs that Americans otherwise would hold.


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Replacement workers at plants which had enforcement action were US citizens, so they have a point on the jobs front. More importantly, the lack of enforcement action means there are few consequences to coming here illegally, which means that it will encourage more illegal immigration.

I am pro immigration, but it must be legal immigration. We need to uphold the rule of law and control our borders.

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