Friday, February 10, 2017

Enforce the Laws

Like Lazarus, immigration law has come back to life.  It has been said for years, perhaps decades, that we have plenty of laws on the books to resolve our immigration problems.  There has not been a need for comprehensive immigration reform to fix a broken system.  All that is needed is to enforce the existing laws.  Less than a month into the Trump Presidency and we see existing laws employed.  Threats to cut federal funding have already convinced many 'sanctuary' cities and counties to dump the policy.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has started rounding up some criminal aliens in California.  In Arizona, an illegal immigrant convicted of identity theft in 2008 and ordered deported in 2013 was allowed to remain thanks to lax enforcement under the Obama Administration.  Now, felons get deported.  Had this sort of enforcement been happening for the last 25 years, Trump's wall would have been a loser issue.  With the law now being enforced, can the wall be abandoned?  Nope.  The next president might be as lax as several presidents - from both parties - who preceded Trump.  While administrations can choose to ignore laws, walls remain in force.  It is tragic that trust in the government to enforce the laws has fallen so far that a wall looks like a safer bet.

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