Freedom Folks: Operation Backrub?

Source: sfgate

In an ongoing effort to pretend to be serious the president has been allowing miniscule numbers of illegal aliens to be deported. Those who profit from illegal aliens ain't amused...(illegal immigration profiteers bolded for your reading pleasure)

Leaders of four different religious faiths spoke out Wednesday near Santa Cruz on behalf of families of scores of immigration violators deported last week as controversy continued over federal immigration sweeps that have netted thousands of people since May.

The 107 arrests in near Watsonville, Santa Cruz and Hollister last week were part of a new crackdown on illegal immigration by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In Operation Return to Sender, federal authorities have arrested 24,000 people nationally, 2,000 of them in Northern California, and deported 6,800 people.

So who was being targeted?

The arrests targeted individuals, said Timothy Aitken, deputy director of the agency's detention and removal office in San Francisco. He said the agency doesn't do random sweeps.

About one-third of those arrested nationally -- and one-fifth of those picked up in Northern California last week -- have criminal records. The rest either had ignored deportation orders issued by immigration judges or were "collateral arrests" -- people picked up on immigration charges while agents were seeking specific fugitives.

"We're trying to put integrity back in the immigration process," said Aitken. "You need to comply with the law, or you may find someone knocking at your door and you'll get deported."

Of the people arrested last week, 42 had ignored deportation orders, and the remaining 65 were illegal immigrants the agents happened to encounter. Most were Mexican citizens, but a few came from El Salvador, Guatemala and India. As of Wednesday, 93 had been deported, said Aitken, who leads Northern California's three fugitive operations teams, which are among 45 such teams across the country.

The profiteers make a high whining sound...

The religious leaders who spoke out Wednesday acknowledged that the government has a right to enforce immigration law. But they said enforcement can tear apart families in which some members are illegal and others are U.S. citizens.

"It is clear that we have reached a point where we need legislation that will produce a viable path to citizenship for undocumented persons residing in our nation and one (law) that protects the integrity of families and the safety of children," Roman Catholic Bishop Sylvester Ryan said at a press conference at the Resurrection Catholic Community Church in Aptos.

Yet another class of profiteer dipped their mouth into the trough...

Stacy Tolchin, a San Francisco immigration attorney representing two children whose parents were deported to Mexico, criticized the operation as much more aggressive than in the past.

"Don't deport them the same day," she said. "Give them access to counsel. You're ripping them away from their families. It's really malicious."

Wait! An IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY is suggesting we offer them counsel, whew! For one single second I almost thought they might have had a profit motive, or something. If this were a joke, it woluld be a Sheckey Green joke, it's that bad.

Former immigration agent Mike Cutler rips off the best line in the piece...

Michael Cutler, a former immigration agent in New York now associated with the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank in Florida that supports tighter restrictions on immigration, said a better name for the current effort would be "Operation Backrub."

"The administration has administered warm milk and a backrub to the American people to inspire a false sense of confidence," he said. "The president has an agenda, which appears to be open up the border between the U.S. and Mexico and the U.S. and Canada. ... He's been doing this to be able to sell his package."

Couldn't. Agree. More!

Oh, and as to mass numbers of people being deported summarily?

In Operation Return to Sender, federal authorities have arrested 24,000 people nationally, 2,000 of them in Northern California, and deported 6,800 people.