Sen. Sessions hosted a press conference today with top officials from two unions that represent U.S. immigration law enforcement agencies.
ICE agent Chris Crane is President of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, the union representing America's more than 7,000 ICE agents and personnel. Border Patrol agent George McCubbin, III is President of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing America's more than 17,000 border agents and personnel.
From Sen. Sessions' remarks (forthcoming in a video tomorrow):
"The Administration claims it has diligently enforced immigration law and that the border is 'more secure than ever.' But those on the front lines know this to be untrue. They see the violence, chaos and lawlessness. They have lost confidence in the leadership of their agencies...
As you will hear today, this administration has engaged in a sustained, relentless effort to undermine America's immigration laws. They have handcuffed and muffled those charged with protecting the public safety and the integrity of our borders. Such action has not only weakened our security but our democracy...
What are we to do when the chief executive officer -- the very one who is supposed to enforce the laws of this country to protect the citizens of this country -- decides that "dreamers" are more deserving of the protection of our laws than are our citizens -- even laws that have NOT been passed? It is quite disturbing to hear the union officer say this:
It's impossible to understand the full scope of the administration's changes but what we are seeing so far concerns us greatly. As one example, prosecutorial discretion for dreamers is solely based on the individual's claims. Our orders are: If an alien says they went to high school, then let them go. If they say they have a GED, then let them go. Officers have been told that there is no burden for the alien to prove anything. Even with the greatly relaxed new policy the alien is not even required to prove that they meet any of the new criteria. At this point we don't understand why DHS even has criteria at all as there's no criteria or burden to prove anything on the part of the alien. We believe that significant numbers of people who are not dreamers are taking advantage of this practice to avoid arrest.The officer goes on to describe an incident in El Paso last week where an alien was arrested for assaulting a family member and then charged also with preventing the family member from calling 911. The criminal then tried to escape from the ICE officer who arrested him - a 3rd criminal offense. The alien intentionally injured an officer during the escape attempt - a 4th criminal offense. Says the union officer, "Without any questioning, without any investigation, the alien was released as a dreamer; no criminal charges, no immigration charges, no nothing. 'He's a dreamer, release him.' Incidents like this happening around the nation lead us to believe that the new policies will be ineffective in terms of providing for public safety." (You can find a transcript of the You Tube video below the video -- very poorly done, but it may help to follow along.)
This is scary stuff, folks. A second official reports that Janet Napolitano's assertions that all is well in immigration are made without any input at all from the men and women on the front lines and the actual battlefield -- our border protection officers. Instead, as he says, she gets reports and statistics from individuals "who have an interest in them reflecting whatever position the administration wants to reflect."
Just because they are nice people does not mean undocumented persons should be able to avoid the pathway that already exists to citizenship.
November will be our chance to rid ourselves of Obama's grin -- once and for all! Then we can finally get someone back in the Oval Office who will do his job -- enforce the laws of this country rather than selectively choosing the ones that fit his agenda.
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