October 05, 2005

Hutchison Talks Sense On Illegal Immigration

Kay Bailey Hutchison wants local police to be able to arrest border jumpers on immigration charges.

Hutchison, R-Texas, planned to propose legislation Wednesday that would allow local officials to arrest and detain illegal immigrants for immigration violations. She also planned to propose a Border Patrol marshals program that allows states to license police officers, marshals and FBI agents who want to volunteer to patrol the border.

Using local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws has been a divisive issue among police and other law enforcement officers. Some want the authority to enforce immigration laws, but others say they don't have the resources to do so and that doing so hurts their ability to investigate other crimes involving the immigrant community or that may have been witnessed by immigrants.

It is about time someone has taken action to try to get immigration criminals arrested, deorted and securely place on the right side of the border.

Posted by: Greg at 01:12 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 So how does this effort tie in with the situation where Houston, along with a lot of other cities, are 'sanctuary' cities, where local law enforcement is explicitly prohibited from ascertaining the immigration or citizenship status of those they arrest?

Personally, I think 'sanctuary' rules are illegal, as they are overridden by the federal laws on immigration, which is controlled at the federal level, not at the state level.

So, I suspect that states have no authority to pass laws or policies that explicitly violate federal law AND that pertain to matters where the states have no constitutional authority.

Posted by: Claire at Thu Oct 6 05:17:12 2005 (fRt6P)

2 I would be inclined to agree with you in a general sense -- though as a practical matter, there would have to be some hook to secure cooperation.

Personally, I'd like to see something similar introduced that would require that schools and school districts report illegal alien children and parents as a condition of receiving federal funding. It would change the face of education as we know it.

Posted by: RHymes With Right at Thu Oct 6 10:11:36 2005 (PFrnI)

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