It’s long been clear to me that there’s really no enforcement that the open-borders crowd supports. An illustration from today’s WaPo:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Monday that they had arrested more than 3,100 criminals and others living in the country illegally, the largest such effort in the agency’s history, adding fuel to the national debate over the Obama administration’s stepped-up deportation policies. …
Advocates for the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants expressed concern about Monday’s raids, saying that while they supported the premise of targeting criminal aliens, large roundups tend to sweep in less serious offenders who may have committed only minor violations.
In addition to the convicted criminals, 698 of those arrested were what authorities call “immigration fugitives,” which means that they were previously ordered to leave the country but failed to depart. Others had committed misdemeanor offenses.
“The concern is, are we doing this with a scalpel or a sledgehammer?” said Laura Lichter, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a group of lawyers who practice immigration law. “Just because someone had an encounter with the criminal justice system — that could have been just for driving without a license.”
#more#So, these guys don’t think that we should be arresting any of the hundreds of thousands of illegals who have ignored their deportation orders. They also believe that being arrested for assaulting a police officer isn’t reason enough to be deported. Heck, despite the pious protestations of their press spokesmen, they don’t actually want any criminals to be deported.
And here’s the reductio ad absurdum of the “Hispanic vote” argument:
But Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, an immigration reform advocacy group, said the continuing raids will hurt Obama with Hispanic voters.
“This is a personal issue, particularly for Latino immigrant voters who made a huge difference for Obama in 2008 and will play a huge factor this year if they turn out in swing states,” Sharry said.
Really? Americans of Latin background don’t want armed robbers and child molesters to be deported? Sure, racial chauvinst groups like the National Council of La Raza think that, but not actual voters.