On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 01:16:59 -0500, gringo wrote:

The ground along the border has been seeded with electronic detection
devices for quite some time, with little effect. Oh, technology
works--but REpublicans beginning with REagan handicapped the Border
Patrol and all other enforcement efforts. Before Reagan, Border Patrol
agents all over the nation regularly raided those who employed illegal
aliens, and loaded the illegals onto buses headed for the border; before
Reagan, illegals skulked around in the shadows, or hid within the legal
Latino communities. Reagan opened his arms and our borders to them.
Nowadays, the Border Patrol are essentially mute witnesses to the flood
of humanity crossing the southern border.

Odd..I notice you missed the 8 yrs of the Clinton Administration in
your little propaganda rant.

Was there some reason you failed to mention the overwhelming and
sudden increase of illegals coming Norte duing those 8 yrs?

The new fence down in the Diego area is working. Incontrovertably.
But its a short one..so they simply go around..by some 20 or so miles.

ICE and the Border Patrol are hardly Mute Witnesses. But there are not
enough of them and are laboring under oppressive ROE.

LA's Special Order 40 doesnt help either..Democrat law that forbids
police from arresting an illegal simply because he/she is an illegal,
and in fact, FORBIDS any police officer from working with or assisting
Immigration.

Special Order 40 btw..was instituted and is maintained by Democrats.
Only Democrats.

One Reporter's Opinion: Special Order 40: A Revolving Door

George Putnam
Friday, Jan. 23, 2004

It is this reporter's opinion that we instituted a revolving-door
policy for illegal alien criminals 25 years ago when the Los Angeles
City Council passed Special Order 40, a city ordinance prohibiting law
enforcement from cooperating with the INS and enforcing federal
immigration law.

In other words, the City Council told Los Angeles police to lay off
illegal aliens who had committed crimes.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca says that when he receives inmates
who are illegal, who have committed crimes and have served time in the
county jail or even the state prison, he turns them over to the
immigration services and they are deported.

Appallingly, 70 percent of these illegal criminals are re- arrested in
Los Angeles County within five years. These are convicted criminals
who have been deported and then come back to commit more crimes. It's
a revolving door.

We are now to conclude peace officers are not permitted to make an
arrest for a misdemeanor offense unless the misdemeanor crime is
committed in the officer's presence.

One officer says: "I see a deportee from a recognized gang crossing
the street. I know I can't touch him. Only if the deported felon has
given me some other reason to stop him, such as an observed narcotics
sale, only then can I accost him -- but not for the immigration
felony. He's broken the law. He's here illegally. He's in violation of
our sovereignty. He's committed a felony. But I can't touch him."

In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicides
(which total 1,200-1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of
the fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.

A California Department of Justice study reports that 60 percent of
the 20,000-strong 18th Street gang in Southern California are illegal.
The bloody gang collaboration with the Mexican Mafia (the dominant
force in California prisons), which deals in complex drug distribution
schemes, extortion and assassinations, grows by the day, recruiting
recently arrived youngsters \u2013 illegals from Central America and
Mexico.

And amidst all the topsy-turvy immigration turmoil, millions of
illegals are working, shopping, traveling and committing crimes in
plain view, utterly secure in their de facto immunity from the
immigration law because police and sheriffs are as much as told to
"lay off; they are the untouchables."

In 1992, then-California Attorney General Dan Lundgren issued a legal
opinion that held Special Order 40 to be unconstitutional under the
supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution. Recent federal court
decisions have ruled that nothing in federal law prohibits local
police officers from making arrests for violations of federal laws,
including federal immigration laws.

It only makes sense that no state or city could prohibit its employees
from sending information about the status of an illegal immigrant to
the federal government.

As this is being written, a new CBS poll finds plummeting support for
the president. His job approval rating has dropped from 60 percent to
50 percent. His disapproval rating following the announcement of his
amnesty/guest worker plan is now at the highest ever \u2013 45
percent. And the nation is basically evenly split on the exploration
of Mars.

Add this to the public's negative opinions on jobs, taxes and
immigration and one can only conclude that our Karl Rove-driven
president is in trouble.

The mayor, City Council and chief of police of Los Angeles have the
perfect tools to appreciably reduce gang crime in this city but refuse
to use them. The citizenry now calls upon these officials to revoke
Special Order 40, which forbids LAPD officers from even asking the
legal status of those violating laws.

The INS must deport those who are here illegally and must implement
Section 133 of our 1996 immigration law, which authorizes local law
enforcement personnel to refer those illegally in this country to the
INS for processing in accordance with federal law.

It is clear that Special Order 40 is unlawful and unconstitutional and
should be repealed. There is no logical reason for the city of Los
Angeles to prevent its law enforcement agencies and personnel from
actively cooperating with the INS and all other federal law
enforcement agencies.

Those who have violated federal law by remaining in the United States
ILLEGALLY should be identified, arrested, prosecuted and, if found
guilty, deported as quickly as due process allows. Such action should
begin with the mayor and City Council. It can only lead to a better
quality of life for all.

Special Order 40 and similar shams have got to go!