Keep in mind that being here is NOT a felony. It is the legal equivalent of spitting on the sidewalk back when spitting on the sidewalk was a misdemeanor. If you want being here without proper documentation to be a felony then insist that it be mad a felony.
Police officers use their district coffee shop to work on paperwork. Would you prefer that they leave the district and return to the station for this necessary task?
An officer could probably write five or ten speeding tickets in the time it would take to process the arrest of an undocumented alien. Which task would make a greater contribution to citizen safety?
Now, if the proposal was to install speed cameras and red light cameras on the freeways and main roads to free up some traffic officers for neighborhood patrol . . . that I support.
Why is it that I can never stir up any support for traffic control and safer freeways? Alternatively, it might be fun to post all freeway entrances, "enter at your own risk." Let the insurance companies sort out the carnage. You all so love insurance companies that you trust your health to them in other areas.
Generally speaking, the officers are not specifically going after illegal aliens. But, when a traffic stop or in the course of their other duties an illegal alien is identified or suspected, it ought to be within the scope of their duties to apprehend and secure until identity can be established, particularly if this occurs as a part of other charges.
I know a guy who was stalking a pastor 30 miles from his residence. He had interrupted church services once and was viisiting the church grounds and talking with the membership as they arrived or left church to leave.... engaging in debate and trying to insinuate that the pastor who is his neighbor was unscriptural... a false charge. He trys to manipulate others into thinking he was going to church to worship. However, there are churches closer to home and I and others have invited him to go with us and he refuses. (I would refuse to let his behavior or dress intimidate me if he would go with me..... but I would not allow him to disrupt the services without gettin help to escort him out. He may sense that determination in me.) A 'no tresspass' order was arranged with LEO for the protection of the church, its pastor and the membership.
This guy disregarded it and visited the church grounds once more on a Sunday... on his motocycle, dressed like a bum with holey jeans, dirty fannel shirt, long and dirty hari and beard and smoking and tossing his cigarette butts on church grounds and engaging church attendees in conversation which was harassing and causing them concern. The law was called and he was sent to jail and remains there after failing to cooperate with the authorities regarding plea determination or hiring his own lawyer or accepting a state appointed attorney. He's charged with a misdemenor. He's my brother, the pastor is my brother-in-law and we are all neighbors. His bail at $1000 is small and the $100 it would cost me to bail him out would be cheaper than the gas for the weekly visits to jail or my paying his light bill so his refrigerator isn't cut off or his pipes don't freeze. He has enough funds to get an attorney, pay his bail, purchase decent clothes, keep his hair and beard trimmed and even hire a housekeeper...... but he doesn't. His trash piles up in the corner and he keeps a pet in a cage he doesn't clean nor give attention to except to water and feed. He is not balanced in his thinking so i love him and visit him but I support the decision of my family and will not enable him in thinking he's in the right, whether he can reason or not; his behavior is odd to others and does provoke the perception of unknown intent with possibility of presenting a serious threat to others..... as well as perhaps a demonic intention to thwart the ministry and calling of God upon another.
He's been held since Sept 20th and will have another court date in January..... on the misdemenor charge. When he settles with the court and the county, I suspect that his charges will include reimbursement for his jailed time as well. We are all in hopes....... and I would appreciate the prayers of those who see thiis... that God's will will be done and that this will work to help us get him some help and/or a safe placement. Though this doesnot belong in this thread...... except as an example that even a misdemenor charge may incur jail time when there's mitigating circumstances surrounding the original charge.
In the case of holding illegal aliens in a county jail, the effectiveness of this probably requires a practical cooperation with the immigration services, perhaps a willingness to cover some or all expenses, and a willingness to assist in the investigation and prosecution. A misdemenor may not be as serious as a felony, but where the law is not upheld by boundaries and consequences it is an encouragement for a repeat and gives courage to others to assume they can get the same privileges by being a non citizen OR representing themselves as a non-citizen so that the misdemenors normally charged to those here legally, get dropped for them out of convenience and economics.... and lack of cooperation with immigration and the state dept.
