Illegal Entry From Mexico to U.S. Soaring

This is a very long article, so I only posted part of it.

The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave

Heather Mac Donald

Some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet in cities where the crime these aliens commit is highest, the police cannot use the most obvious tool to apprehend them: their immigration status. In Los Angeles, for example, dozens of members of a ruthless Salvadoran prison gang have sneaked back into town after having been deported for such crimes as murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and drug trafficking. Police officers know who they are and know that their mere presence in the country is a felony. Yet should a cop arrest an illegal gangbanger for felonious reentry, it is he who will be treated as a criminal, for violating the LAPD's rule against enforcing immigration law.

The LAPD's ban on immigration enforcement mirrors bans in immigrant-saturated cities around the country, from New York and Chicago to San Diego, Austin, and Houston. These "sanctuary policies" generally prohibit city employees, including the cops, from reporting immigration violations to federal authorities.

Such laws testify to the sheer political power of immigrant lobbies, a power so irresistible that police officials shrink from even mentioning the illegal-alien crime wave. "We can't even talk about it," says a frustrated LAPD captain. "People are afraid of a backlash from Hispanics." Another LAPD commander in a predominantly Hispanic, gang-infested district sighs: "I would get a firestorm of criticism if I talked about [enforcing the immigration law against illegals]." Neither captain would speak for attribution.

But however pernicious in themselves, sanctuary rules are a symptom of a much broader disease: the nation's near-total loss of control over immigration policy. Fifty years ago, immigration policy might have driven immigration numbers, but today the numbers drive policy. The nonstop increase of immigration is reshaping the language and the law to dissolve any distinction between legal and illegal aliens and, ultimately, the very idea of national borders.

It is a measure of how topsy-turvy the immigration environment has become that to ask police officials about the illegal-alien crime problem feels like a gross faux pas, not done in polite company. And a police official asked to violate this powerful taboo will give a strangled response?-or, as in the case of a New York deputy commissioner, break off communication altogether. Meanwhile, millions of illegal aliens work, shop, travel, and commit crimes in plain view, utterly secure in their de facto immunity from the immigration law.

I asked the Miami Police Department's spokesman, Detective Delrish Moss, about his employer's policy on lawbreaking illegals. In September, the force arrested a Honduran visa violator for seven vicious rapes. The previous year, Miami cops had had the suspect in custody for lewd and lascivious molestation, without checking his immigration status. Had they done so, they would have discovered his visa overstay, a deportable offense, and so could have forestalled the rapes. "We have shied away from unnecessary involvement dealing with immigration issues," explains Moss, choosing his words carefully, "because of our large immigrant population."

Police commanders may not want to discuss, much less respond to, the illegal-alien crisis, but its magnitude for law enforcement is startling. Some examples:

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

• A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the 20,000-strong 18th Street Gang in southern California is illegal; police officers say the proportion is actually much greater. The bloody gang collaborates with the Mexican Mafia, the dominant force in California prisons, on complex drug-distribution schemes, extortion, and drive-by assassinations, and commits an assault or robbery every day in L.A. County. The gang has grown dramatically over the last two decades by recruiting recently arrived youngsters, most of them illegal, from Central America and Mexico.

• The leadership of the Columbia Lil' Cycos gang, which uses murder and racketeering to control the drug market around L.A.'s MacArthur Park, was about 60 percent illegal in 2002, says former assistant U.S. attorney Luis Li. Francisco Martinez, a Mexican Mafia member and an illegal alien, controlled the gang from prison, while serving time for felonious reentry following deportation.

Good luck finding any reference to such facts in official crime analysis. The LAPD and the L.A. city attorney recently requested an injunction against drug trafficking in Hollywood, targeting the 18th Street Gang and the "non-gang members" who sell drugs in Hollywood for the gang. Those non-gang members are virtually all illegal Mexicans, smuggled into the country by a ring organized by 18th Street bigs. The Mexicans pay off their transportation debts to the gang by selling drugs; many soon realize how lucrative that line of work is and stay in the business.

Link

I can't speak up for any view but my own.

Crime Statistics - USDOJ

Those are very interesting statistics Joanne.

Now, to address the thread, it's nice to see that liberals and conservatives can agree on one thing: chuck out the illegal immigrants for a safer, gentler nation. Let's look at things this way: Okay, statistics might indicate that illegal immigrants are more prone to gang-related crime. So what. Buy into the culture of fear that is parylizing the country if you want. Let's say you kick them all out. Well, you'll be left with a bunch of white guys, who are overwhelmingly more likely to be serial killers and pedophiles. The point is, none of these scenarios are mutually exclusive to race, and statistics are only an indicator of certain trends, not gospel truth.

How is it that a city can enforce a rule that contradicts federal law? This is amazing.

While I have no problem with work Visas being issued, Tarantulas does raise another issue that I think must be addressed:

The vast majority of the Mexican nationals in New Mexico are decent, hard working people that I admire. But it is indisputable that a disproportionate number of burglaries, street crime, unlicensed and uninsured drivers, etc. are also committed by illegals and there seems to be little we can do about it. I think the laws do need to be tightened to make it more difficult and less attractive to come to the USA without the proper documentation.

I wonder if any other industrialized countries have as liberal immigration policies as we do?

Sure, Canada. Isn't that how all the terrorists got into your country, foxfyre?

Does Canada have a high population of illegal residents Cav? Or are undocumented, non citizens in Canada considered illegal?

Hard to say foxfyre...we do seem to give out a lot of 'student visas'. Undocumented, non-citizens often fall under the radar, I think. My wife had a very frightening experience with a taxi driver once, and she made a formal complaint. It turned out that the driver was not the licenced driver, but a cousin of the proper driver, here illegally, and he needed to make some cash, so said cousin just said, sure, take my cab for the night.

I'm still not convinced about the kneejerk reactions posted here, mostly because you will always have problems in any industrialized democratic society, with immigrants or locals. Some folks are just troublemakers, regardless of where they hail from.

Here in the UK, we have a huge problem with illegals trying to enter the country, and often succeeding. They have created enormous financial burdens on the National Healthcare system, and in areas with large alien populations, crime is epidemic.

Unlike America's INS, which seems quite impotent and wishy-washy in their mission, our Home Office aggressively rejects illegals at Heathrow and Portsmouth, sending them back upon arrival. The Chunnel tunnel is monitored as well with armed guards.

Apparently, such a strong stand on the enforcement of immigration law sits badly with many in America. But since nearly 50 million of your citizens go about without heathcare, I am left wondering why providing heath services to the hordes arriving from Mexico is of a higher priority than insuring your own?

That 50 million of our citizens go without healthcare is not exactly accurate. That some go without healthcare insurance would be accurate. That's not the same thing. All federally subsidized medical facilities are not allowed to turn away emergency room patients regardless of whether they have health insurance.

It is also true here that laws that require American tax payers to essentially support illegals with free healthcare, free education, welfare, social security, workers compensation etc. are severely straining our resources, and no matter how much we have concern for the illegals, this will sooner or later have to be addressed.

The Defense Department which uses 80% of the federal budget, the deficit, and the debt are straining our budget. Our government cannot borrow all the money it needs to support the war from the Social Security Trust Funds.

Soo how much do we owe China, Japan, and the Euro, lots and lots. The intereste alone is killing us.

CBO Budget Projections In Billions of Dollars

Remember all figures on these charts are in billions of dollars

Foxfyre, your last post was especially ridiculous.

The fact that you won't be turned away at an emergency room for a critical emergency is not the same thing as having insurance. To make this comparison is ludicrous.

Undocumented immigrants do not recieve welfare or social security. Workers compensation is provided to employees- if an employer is gaining the benifit of a worker it has the obligation of providing this-- there is no strain on resources.

And, would you really turn away a dying person from emergency room because they don't have the proper docuements?

Upon reading "up" this series of posts, what I glean is Craven is unaware that 50% of the illegals crossing into the USA from Mexico aren't Mexican nationals.

It's been widely reported in our papers, following Bush's sweep of the magic worker permit wand, word went out to Brazil, Equador, Guatamala, El Salvador, Belize and others, that the USA was legalizing immigration and the march is on -- northward bound.

Frankly, I don't care how you folks deal with your immigration problems, but I will pass on the example of the UK's failures and achievements regarding the issue.

In brief, if you fail to enforce the existing immigration laws in the USA, you are destined to have a huge, costly, third world style nation, and in 25 years, Americans will awaken and ask, "what the hell happened?"

Mexican or Brazilian - I don't really care.

greenumbrella, the reason I am "unaware" of this is because it is not true.



This is a very absurd statement that you can't support.

ebrown, I did not say that emergency room care was the same as having insurance. I said that not having insurance is not the same thing as not having health care.

Can you explain what you mean by this statement...



You are right about free education, but I don't think the rest are factual. That we should provide people who are living here with an education seems like a easy call.

.... and you didn't answer my question.

Would you turn people with a critical illness away from an emergency room?

To end the percentage discussion, some data about "unauthorized resident population" in the USA, by national origin, according to the INS:
Mexico: 68.7%
El Salvador: 8.5%
China: 2.5%
Guatemala: 2.0%
Honduras: 2.0%
Colombia: 2.0%
(Brazil is there, with 1.1%, right behind Ecuador and Phillipines; just above India and Canada).


As for the other argument, I'm with ebrown_p.