The argument one hears most often for not enforcing illegal immigration laws
is that we can't deport the estimated 12 million people already in this
country. It just isn't physically, tactically or politically possible, say
people who think this way.
Maybe not, but authorities can start with people who not only broke laws to
get here, but are breaking more laws now that they are here.
Virginia's Republican Attorney General, Robert McDonnell, is beginning the
deportation process with a class of people not even the most vehemently
pro-immigrant activist should defend. They are sex offenders and McDonnell,
working in cooperation with the Virginia State Police and U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement officials, has identified 171 people who have been
convicted of sex crimes. Some are illegal aliens, others have legal status,
but their convictions violate the conditional terms of their residency and
make them subject to deportation.
In a telephone interview from Richmond, McDonnell told me that because
federal statutes have pre-empted what states can do on most immigration
issues, Virginia had to look for ways to initiate deportation of criminal
sex offenders while working with the federal government. Asked whether the
targeting of illegal alien sex offenders is the first step toward going
after other criminal aliens, McDonnell said, "We're planning to do all of
them. My position is that criminal illegal aliens or criminal aliens have
forfeited their right to be in the country. There is broad agreement,
regardless of which side people are on in the illegal immigration debate,
that the criminal alien should be detained and deported."
In addition to checking on the immigration status of everyone released from
a Virginia prison, McDonnell says people convicted of crimes will now be
investigated for their residency status before they are locked up, possibly
allowing the federal government to deport them prior to their serving all of
their sentence.
One northern Virginia jurisdiction with a high illegal alien population is
the city of Manassas. In response to intense citizen complaints, the
Manassas City Council has authorized local police to begin checking the
immigration status of people they arrest for any crime. If they find the
suspects are in the country illegally, they are now authorized to begin
deportation proceedings. On March 3, neighboring Prince William County will
begin implementing a similar program to crackdown on illegals. These two
jurisdictions are in sync with what McDonnell is now doing statewide.