The federal program known as Secure Communities goes into effect in
Massachusetts this week.
Gov. Deval Patrick
resisted it, apparently believing that Insecure communities are
better than Secure Communities, but Sen. Scott Brown fought for its
implementation here.
Secure Communities is a
federal deportation program that encourages partnership among
federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies, and is
administered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the
Department of Homeland Security. Now Massachusetts' law enforcement
must participate, hopefully removing the illegal immigrants they
arrest from the commonwealth and country.
Since Congress seems
incapable of doing anything useful on the immigration issue, Secure
Communities was created administratively by the Bush administration
in 2008. President Barack Obama, apparently deciding that a somewhat
secure country is better than an insecure one, has expanded the
program, albeit while watering it down so it covers only the most
dangerous illegal criminals.
Jessica Vaughan of the
Center for Immigration
Studies was discussing the Massachusetts initiative last Friday
at the monthly Center-Right Coalition meeting; it was nice to see
someone on "my side" of federal issues celebrating a small victory.
However, she warns that "under the administration's policy of
'prosecutorial discretion,' ICE officers are instructed to look for
reasons to release even many of the criminal aliens dropped in their
lap by local law enforcement."
According to Vaughan,
"Earlier this year, ICE officers in Chicago released a man charged
with 42 counts of child molestation, including incestuous rape —
because the man has a U.S. citizen child, one of the key criteria
for using prosecutorial discretion. He was being 'monitored' via an
electronic bracelet, but has disappeared and likely will never face
justice."
Remember the horrible
story from last summer about the illegal immigrant from Ecuador,
allegedly drunk, who hit, then dragged a 23-year-old Milford man to
his death. Gov. Deval Patrick at the time urged us not to blame this
on illegal immigration — as if this particular tragedy could have
happened if the killer hadn't been here.
Same is true of the
illegal immigrant who was charged with vehicular homicide this month
on Cape Cod.
Less horrible, luckily,
was the other local news story about President Obama's uncle,
Onyango Obama, whose license was just restored by the Registry of
Motor Vehicles after he was arrested for drunken driving last
August. The Registry ruled that this illegal immigrant needs a
"hardship license" to drive to the two liquor stores he manages. You
can't make this stuff up.
I'm not making up the
following outrageous item either: Reporting during Tax Month, an
Indiana TV station's Eyewitness News team learned that illegal
immigrants are using the federal Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC)
to receive thousands of dollars in tax refunds. The WTHR-TV exposé
includes an interview with the inspector general of the U.S.
Treasury who says he's notified the IRS, which won't stop the fraud.
The IRS blames Congress
for "establishing rules that force it to distribute the funds" that
are claimed by U.S. resident, low-income illegals: $1,000 per child,
not only for their own illegal resident children, but for relatives
who live in Mexico. The estimated total in taxpayer-funded handouts
is, coincidentally, the same as the amount the IRS could get from
rich Americans if Congress would adopt "the Buffett Rule" — roughly
$4 billion a year.
The tax hike on the
rich is promoted by President Obama, professor Elizabeth Warren and
our own congressman, John Tierney, to reduce the national debt. But
$4.2 billion more has been added to the debt as the IRS loses
revenue from tax refunds to illegal immigrants. Wouldn't it be
better to just ask rich Americans to sponsor some Third World
youngsters directly? They could get a photo and letters from Third
World caseworkers, as I did when I sponsored two African children.
Back to WTHR-TV: It
featured an interview with an illegal in front of his trailer, from
which he claimed 20 children for the $1,000 credit each.
[Watch Eyewitness News exposé video]
He has three children living there. The other 17 are nieces, nephews
and other workers' children who live in Mexico and have never been
to Indiana.
The illegal immigrant
said he is grateful, and one can hardly blame him for taking
advantage of a system supported by our Congress. But millions of
children live in Third World countries, and most of those countries
have a better excuse for being poor than Mexico does. We can't
support them all, with money borrowed from our own grandchildren
through ongoing deficits.
So much wrong, on so
many levels, starting with why ours is the only country in the world
that can't seem to have a rational immigration policy that
encourages immigration of the workers we need. Instead, we support
anyone who can get across our border illegally, then give them U.S.
tax refunds to send back across that border.
A bill has been filed
by Congressman Dan Burton, R-Ind., to require a legitimate Social
Security number, not an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number,
to get the Additional Child Tax Credit. You might want to ask your
congressman if he supports HR 1956.
Also, be grateful that
Patrick was forced to allow your community to be secure.