ACLU accuses probation officials of violating immigrants' rights

Source: Boston.com

NEW HAVEN, Conn. --Immigrant rights advocates are accusing state probation officials of breaking the law by working with federal authorities to arrest illegal immigrants. The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut and other advocacy groups call the practice a "shameful subversion" of the purpose of probation to rehabilitate. They say it makes it less likely that people who are not citizens will comply with or accept plea deals involving probation. "We think that it's inhumane," said Renee Redman, legal director of the ACLU of Connecticut. The ACLU and the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic of Yale Law School sent a letter to state judicial officials Wednesday demanding that probation officers stop interrogating defendants on probation about their immigration status and facilitating arrests for immigration violations. They contend probation officers lack the authority to gather such information and that the practice violates due process rights and a state privacy law.

Two questions leap to mind as I read this foolishness.

1.) Who exactly may ask about immigration status oh mighty ACLU? If cops, probation officers, ICE agents, Librarians and Border Patrol agents should not ask then by my rough calculations that leaves my great Aunt Matilda. And one assumes you'd have a problem with that as well. So the question remains, who exactly is allowed to ask about immigration status, it certainly appears the preffered answer for the ACLU, not to mention MALDEF, LULAC et al, the answer would be no one.

2.) Why are we "probating" illegal aliens? I don't care if a citizen of a foreign nation is rehabilitated on our dime. I do however care deeply that A.) They are removed forthwith from this country and B.) after being removed from this country they are not able to wander back in easier than greasy grits through Bubba's intestinal tract.

Of course, if the illegal alien is being deported for committing a crime on our soil, perhaps the appropriate method of deportation should be overflying Mexico city at about 35,000 feet and tossing them out with a non-functional parachute. This would have several salutory benefits. The alien would not be recrossing the border to continue their mayhem and just might act as a cautionary tale to future miscreants who appear to view this country as a neat place to practice their predations.

Just a thought!

And of course there's always the old tried and true! Which is enhanced delightfully by a stout wall on the border.

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