Like Putting a Gun in the Hands of Children?

Source: Chicago Tribune (H/T Bad-Ass Ev)

The furor over illegal immigration in Carpentersville has now moved to the Police Department, with village leaders seeking to join an increasingly popular federal program that lets local officers act as de facto immigration agents.

Selected officers would be empowered to question people they arrest about their immigration status, check their documents and, if warranted, begin the deportation process.

*SNIP*

"Our village with [the federal training] is like putting a gun in the hands of children," said Carpentersville Trustee Linda Ramirez Sliwinski, the only official to vote against applying for the program. "I'm afraid that some of our police officers will use it to do more racial profiling."

Like putting a gun in the hands of children? Nice way to talk about your own police department, Trustee RPW Sliwinski.

Of course, the program is being used quite effectively in other parts of the country.

In the last eight months, the jail in Charlotte, N.C., has referred almost 1,200 people arrested for other crimes for deportation, a policy some believe has encouraged the undocumented to go elsewhere.

*SNIP*

In Riverside County, Calif., one of four Southern California counties to receive 287(g) authority, almost 700 inmates have been marked for deportation hearings since August.

Could it be that Sliwinski is afraid that if the police department starts draining the city of its worst illegal alien criminals, she might not have enough votes come the next election?

Then there are the crybabies...

Angeles Ortega-Moore, executive director of the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte, said she supports the idea of deporting criminals but the program has led undocumented residents to become even more wary about law enforcement."It creates chaos in our community," she said. "People are fearful that someone may come knocking on our door."

I've got a common sense, practical solution to the fear that "someone may come knocking" on your door: don't break the freakin' law.

Juan Silva of the Mexican Civic and Cultural Organization of Elgin, which helped lead a 3,000-person demonstration against the ordinance, said he feared that bright line would become blurry.

"They say they will only use it against criminals, but if they eventually get it, it could become an abusive power and they could go after ordinary people," he said.

What ordinary people? Ordinary people have nothing to worry about. But, as to the extraordinary number who are in the country illegally? They should have something to worry about.

Technorati Tags
Illegal Immigration * Illegal Aliens * Carpentersville * 287(g) * Deportation * Law Enforcement