As I've reported before, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are not capable of checking up on student visas or arresting illegal immigrants until they have been put in jail by another law enforcement agency. Over the weekend, it was difficult for CNN's Candy Crowley to wrap her head around these facts as she interviewed pro-amnesty Senator Dick Durbin about the Boston bombings. Two of the men who served as accomplices to the Boston bombing suspects were here illegally and had overstayed their student visas.
"Effective immediately, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents will have real-time updates to the student visa status of every foreign student entering the U.S," Crowley informed. "Authorities allege two of the three people suspected of hiding evidence for the accused bomber were in violation of their student visa requirements."
Citing a broken immigration system, Durbin argued that we need to better track visas and know not only when those on student visas arrive but also when they leave. Crowley remarked that when she first heard this story, she thought, "Isn't that what customs is for?"
“It is incomprehensible, I think, to people, that that information is available, and yet, the very people at the front lines…who say, ‘Yes, come on in’ or ‘Hang on a second and go to that room,’ don’t have the information they need,” Crowley asserted. “And, you know, 9/11 was, you know, more than a decade ago.”
Durbin blamed ICE not being able to check up on student visa holders on a lack of communication between agencies when in reality, the reason the hands of ICE agents have been tied lies with the Obama administration and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who for political reasons are preventing agents from doing their jobs.
ICE Council President Chris Crane also explained the erosion of the rule of law thanks to special interest groups representing and advocating on behalf of illegal immigrants while agents are often punished for simply enforcing the law. Crane even went so far as to suggest law enforcement has been turned into a joke.
"For the last four years it has been a roller coaster for ICE officers with regard to who they can or cannot arrest, and which federal laws they will be permitted to enforce," Crane said. "Most Americans would be surprised to know that immigration agents are regularly prohibited from enforcing the two most fundamental sections of the Unites States immigration law. According to ICE policy, in most cases immigration agents can no longer arrest persons solely for entering the United States illegally. Additionally, in most cases immigration agents cannot arrest persons solely because they have entered the United State s with a visa and then overstayed that visa and failed to return to their country.""My confidence level with the administration right now is zero that we're going to be able to do out jobs now or in the future."
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