If only the mean old federal government would quit treating illegal aliens like they've broken the law or something!

It was still dark the morning of Sept. 27 when armed federal immigration agents, guided by local police officers, swept into this village on the East End of Long Island. Within hours, as the team rousted sleeping families, 11 men were added to a running government tally of arrests made in Operation Community Shield, a two-year-old national program singling out violent gang members for deportation.

“Violent foreign-born gang members and their associates have more than worn out their welcome,” Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said at an October news conference announcing the arrests of 1,313 people in the operation over the summer and fall nationwide. “And to them I have one message: Good riddance.”

But, to the dismay of many of GreenportÂ’s 2,500 residents, the raid here did not match her words.

Only one of the 11 men taken away that morning was suspected of a gang affiliation, according to the Southold Town police, who patrol Greenport and played the crucial role of identifying targets for the operation.

The 10 others, while accused of immigration violations, were not gang associates and had no criminal records.

Instead, they were known as good workers and family men. When they suddenly vanished into the far-flung immigration detention system, six of their employers hired lawyers to try to find and free them. Some went further, like Dan and Tina Finne, who agreed to take care of the 3-year-old American-born daughter of a Guatemalan carpenter who was swept up in the raid, if her mother was detained, too.

“This is un-American,” said Ms. Finne, 41, a Greenport native, echoing other citizens who condemned the home raids in public meetings and letters to The Suffolk Times, a weekly newspaper. “We need to do something about immigration, but not this.”

No, what is un-American is the fact that folks like Mr. Finne and the New York Times are willing to allow our nation's immigration laws go unenforced. What is un-American is that we have no control over our border and any solution such folks offer is nothing less than a de facto amnesty which will, as history has taught us, lead to more illegals streaming across the border because they know they won't be stopped and will get lots of freebies unavailable back home. And what is un-American is the demonization of those of us who want to see a secure border and enforced immigration laws.

Please remember -- the only right these folks have is the right to be deported.

Round 'em up! Ship 'em back! Rawhide!

Posted by: Greg at 07:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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