Feds Suddenly Decide to Enforce the Law

U.S. to give Border Patrol new powers to deport illegal aliens.

In a shocking move, the federal government has decided to actually allow agents to kick illegals out on their ass, instead of giving them a year to team up with the ACLU and demand Social Security and prescription drugs.

The move, which will take effect this month, represents a broad expansion of the authority of the thousands of law enforcement agents who currently patrol the nation's borders. Until now, border patrol agents typically delivered undocumented immigrants to the custody of the immigration courts, where judges determined whether they should be deported or remain in the United States.

Homeland Security officials described the immigration courts — which hear pleas for asylum and other appeals to remain in the country — as sluggish and cumbersome, saying illegal immigrants often wait more than a year before being deported, straining the capacity of detention centers and draining critical resources. Under the new system, immigrants will typically be deported within eight days of their apprehension, officials said.

Despite the fact that these illegals already know how to game the system (thanks to the ACLU's helpful U.S. court tutorials) before they ever cross the border, this might actually mean that we might be able to kick at least a few of them out once we catch them. There is a dark side, however:

The border agents will focus on deporting third-country nationals, rather than Mexicans or Canadians, and they are expected to begin exercising their new powers on Aug. 24 in Tucson and Laredo, Tex.

Why the hell are we going to be cherry-picking illegals? Is it because Mexican President Vicente Fox and our own President Junior are still in the throes of a passionate love affair? Is it because third-country nationals are slower, and therefore easier to catch in a foot-race? Is it because third-country nationals are seen as "cooler" and more "hip" than their Mexican and Canadian counterparts?

"There is a concern that as we tighten the security of our ports of entry through our biometric checks that there will be more opportunity or more effort made by terrorists to enter our country through our vast land borders," Asa Hutchinson, the undersecretary for border security at the Department of Homeland Security, said at a news conference.

"We recognize that we have to secure those and that's the president's first principle of immigration reform," Mr. Hutchinson said. "America must secure its borders and this is a part of that effort."

The decision was hailed by officials who have long complained that the nation's porous borders represent a serious threat to national security. But it prompted a flurry of criticism from advocates for immigrants who warned that the new system lacked adequate safeguards to ensure that people fleeing persecution, American citizens lacking paperwork or other travelers with legitimate grounds would not be improperly deported.

Mr. Hutchinson said that border agents would be trained on asylum law and that immigrants who demonstrated a credible fear of persecution would be sent to see immigrant judges, not returned to hostile governments. "That right," he said of the right to apply for asylum, "is very important."

You would think that the left would love this idea. They were so threatened by 10-year old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez, that they rallied the entire B.A.T.F. to go and round him up for deportation. Or perhaps Janet Reno was just hoping to be able to bulldoze and burn down another building where she knew children might be getting homeschooled.