Hillary Clinton made headlines a few weeks ago with her macho
talk about national security. Watch her lips move:
"Our people remain vulnerable," she complained at a Manhattan
conference on homeland defense, "nearly as vulnerable as we were before" the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Clinton -- just call her "Border Hawk
Hillary" -- further asserted that "our approach to securing our nation is
haphazard at best . . . Somewhere along the line, we lost our edge. We let
our guard down."
While her lips moved, her hands were busy helping Sen. Jon
Corzine, D-N.J., craft an amendment to subvert federal immigration laws.
It's buried in the Congressional Record of Jan. 21 and was passed
successfully as part of the Senate omnibus appropriations bill. Senate
Amendment 233 forbids any federal funds appropriated under the act from
being used to remove, deport or detain illegal aliens who happen to be
related to victims of Sept. 11.
The amendment does not apply to illegal alien family members who
have felony records or are terrorists (how thoughtful). But it's the laundry
list of illegal alien categories that Clinton and Corzine protect from
deportation that is most revealing.
The Hillary amendment will prevent the Department of Homeland
Security from taking any action to deport spouses or children of Sept. 11
victims who: crossed the border illegally; overstayed visas illegally;
evaded prior deportation orders illegally; stowed away on a ship illegally;
smuggled other illegal aliens; used fraudulent documents; falsely claimed
U.S. citizenship; voted illegally; have a communicable disease or who failed
to present documentation of having received vaccination against
vaccine-preventable diseases; have a physical or mental disorder and
behavior associated with the disorder that may pose, or has posed, a threat
to the property, safety, or welfare of the alien or others; or are likely at
any time to become a public charge.
The illegal alien relatives of Sept. 11 victims certainly
deserve sympathy. (Both political parties have shown plenty in allowing them
to collect government benefits under the USA Patriot Act signed into law by
President Bush.) But how will we ever be able to restore order in the broken
deportation system when any politician can handcuff federal immigration
authorities from enforcing the law with a stroke of a pen? Compassion is one
thing. A free pass is quite another.
Alas, the Hillary amendment is the tip of the iceberg. Democrats
and Republicans alike are supporting dozens of "private relief" bills
seeking to sabotage deportation efforts and award legal permanent residence
to illegal alien "constituents." Every time a private relief bill passes,
the number of available visas for that year is reduced by the number of
illegal alien recipients granted legal status through the special
legislation.
Federal lawmakers pressure immigration officials into releasing
illegal aliens while their private bills work slowly through Capitol Hill.
If the legislation is turned down (which is rare), it doesn't matter. The
intended beneficiaries are on the loose, adding to the more than 300,000
fugitives from deportation that the federal government has yet to track
down. Just last week, Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., introduced H.R. 393, which
would exempt from deportation a Mexican national caught trying to smuggle
her illegal alien boyfriend (a gang member convicted of felony firearms
possession and deported to Mexico after serving his sentence) back into the
U.S.
Federal immigration law expressly forbids Pastor's special
relief recipient, Alejandra Arias Garcia, from being released from
detention. But the INS district in Phoenix ignored the law at Rep. Pastor's
behest and set her free -- to the cheers of the illegal alien lobby -- last
week.
How can we crack down on terrorist-linked aliens and deportation
fugitives with fake papers and expired visas if our elected leaders go
running to the feds every time some other politically connected constituency
demands special treatment and new immigration-law loopholes for their alien
population?
Selective and haphazard enforcement has, of course, been the
hallmark of the Clinton (both of them) legacy. As Terry Jeffrey of the
newsweekly Human Events reported last week, former Clinton INS commissioner
Doris Meissner authored a last-minute directive that gives immigration
officials carte blanche to ignore any part of the immigration law they
desire under the guise of "prosecutorial discretion." The memo has yet to be
rescinded.
"Our vigilance has faded at the top, in the corridors of power
in Washington . . . where leaders are supposed to lead," Sen. Clinton
inveighed last month. For once, Mrs. Clinton, we agree.
