August 22, 2005

Coming from California: An Immigration Reform Tsunami?

VDARE.COM comment: Juan Mann here is so eager to get on with the new battle that he only briefly mentions an important positive development in the “Other than Mexican” scandal, for which he deserves great credit. His essay on this site was the first publicity given to the outrageous policy of releasing detained border violators from other countries. We followed up with items contrasting Europe’s sturdier response, the MSM began covering it, and now there is a report that, at least in South Texas, the policy has been changed. Juan has taught us to be skeptical of any governmental policy in this area until the implementation details are available. But it appears he has struck a heavy blow in defense of his country. VDARE.COM is proud to carry his work.

[Also by Juan Mann:

06/17/03 - Arrest, Yes—But Don’t Forget The EOIR

08/23/04 - DHS Detention Centers–Ellis Islands for the "New America"?

01/04/05 - Deportation System Broke—Treason Lobby Against Fixing It.

07/04/05 - A Second Independence Day: Summary Deportation Now (Or Counter-Insurgency Later?)]

In the wake of the hugely-successful Minuteman Project, the California Border Police Initiative currently gathering signatures in the Golden State is shaping up to be yet another shot-heard-round-the-world, 9.9 magnitude earthquake against illegal immigration, the likes of which America has never seen.

But without enacting comprehensive summary removal of illegal aliens and criminal aliens at the federal level, these heroic state efforts will be largely for naught.

The bottom line: any increased boots-on-the-ground immigration enforcement by police officers, immigration agents, the U.S. Border Patrol—or even a citizen Border Protection Corps—also desperately needs companion immigration legislation from Congress to see to it that the aliens arrested for immigration violations are actually deported!

For immigration law enforcement to work, America needs summary deportation, not perpetual immigration litigation in the federal courts.

While the battle rages in California over whether an immigration-specific police force wearing state uniforms should be given free reign to arrest illegal aliens and criminal alien residents, the Treason Lobby and its open borders sympathizers still have an ace in the hole. Arresting more deportable aliens may be a setback - but the Treason Lobby can still relax and smile.

The Treason Lobby and its minions in the immigration bar know that as long as the current litigation-based system for deporting aliens remains in place, the system will remain rigged in favor of allowing aliens to stay, regardless of who arrests them.

The culprit here is and always has been the disaster that is the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the behind-closed-doors Immigration Court hearing system of U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).

So far the only journalist in America to pick up the story and call for the EOIR to be abolished has been Michelle Malkin. She wrote in her 2002 book, Invasion (pages 232-33):

"End deportation delays: Abolish the EOIR and BIA—The most under-recognized obstacle to deporting illegal aliens is the shadowy immigration court system and it unaccountable appellate body, which routinely puts aliens’ rights over citizens’ safety. Attorney General John Ashcroft should abolish the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Board of Immigration Appeals and transfer their functions to existing law enforcement officers within the immigration bureaucracy."

Under current federal law, all illegal aliens and criminal alien residents have the "right" to a hearing before an EOIR immigration judge, as well as the "right" to appeal their case to the EOIR’s appellate body—the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)—and then on to the federal courts . . . and back-and-forth almost indefinitely. Even existing expedited removal provisions can be defeated so long as aliens are coached properly by their handlers.

The idea of a state border police is the brainchild of California Assemblyman Ray Haynes who introduced a resolution in the state legislature (ACA 20) in May, 2005. The idea gained traction immediately at the grassroots level, and the language was converted into a voter initiative.

It’s not that anything in the language of the initiative is wrong. But there is a definite "smoking gun" of sorts that illustrates the EOIR immigration litigation bottleneck to come.

Section 3(d) of the initiative [PDF] amending Article XXXVI of the California Constitution, states:

"The California Border Police shall assist the federal government in enforcing the immigration laws of the United States by arresting persons suspected of violating such laws pursuant to the authority provided by state law. After taking a person into custody, the California Border Police shall notify the federal immigration authority and transfer the person to the federal immigration authority within the time prescribed by federal law."

The problem begins with the transfer to federal immigration authority . . . and then it’s off to the immigration litigation briar patch of the EOIR Immigration Court.

Always remember that just because the California Border Police arrests an illegal alien, it doesn’t mean that the alien is going to be deported anytime soon . . . unless, of course the alien is actually willing to leave the United States.

But all is not lost. It may seem unlikely right now that Congress will ever get its act together to scrap the EOIR immigration litigation nightmare and implement summary deportation instead. But stranger things have happened.

Just think, summary removal would be no problem if Minutemen start getting elected to Congress, or if Congressman Tom Tancredo (or some other like-minded individual) wins the White House someday.

So for not-so-distant future reference, here’s what needs to happen with federal immigration law so increased law enforcement efforts like that California Border Police will not be in vain — summary removal of illegal aliens and criminal alien residents.

Here’s a how-to guide for summary removal:

Abolish the EOIR Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) within the Department of Justice and close down the candy store of relief from removal that is the current Immigration Act.

Implement a system of expedited removal — similar to Immigration Act Section 235(b) –for all illegal aliens and criminal alien residents. It’s time to give summary removal a chance. It works! The folks in South Texas found out for themselves when Section 235(b) expedited removals recently stopped the illegal flood tide of Brazilians and Central Americans passing through. [See "Brazilian immigrants now subject to expedited removal," Sergio Chapa, The Brownsville Herald, August 17, 2005]

In order to stop fraudulent asylum applications from hijacking the Section 235(b) expedited removal process, it is imperative to end the credible fear rubber-stamp charade of turn-‘em-loose asylum screening by the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) division.

	Eliminate the criminal alien "free crime amnesty" of Immigration Act Section 240A (a) and deport convicted criminal alien residents through summary removal based on their crimes. Period. A green card is not sacred. And who needs criminals anyhow, especially if there are supposedly so many "good-hearted people" willing to take their place?
	Expand mandatory detention under Immigration Act Section 236(c) for all criminal aliens under all circumstances, including "arriving aliens" detained at ports of entry. End the travesty of "paroling" illegal aliens and criminal alien drug smugglers and alien smugglers into the country . . . so they can simply disappear.

Allow officers from the all three Department of Homeland Security branches to actually do their jobs . . . to deny applications for relief and to summarily deport illegal aliens and criminal alien residents. And speaking of asylum fraud, all refugee status and asylum determinations should be moved overseas to American consulates abroad under the direction of the Department of State to stop the massive immigration benefit fraud at the DHS’ CIS division asylum offices.

End visa-jumping and adjustments of status for aliens currently in the U.S. legally or illegally, including for all illegal alien Immigration Act Section 245(i) adjustment applicants. If there is still no system in place for identifying aliens who have their immigration benefit applications ultimately denied, why take the chance of keeping them in the country?

No more amnesty. Never again. Immediately abolish the ridiculous rolling amnesty of Immigration Act Section 240A (b) for illegal aliens called "cancellation of removal for certain non-permanent residents."

Restore the hijacked administrative removal provisions for previously-deported aliens by the DHS, as intended by Congress to apply throughout the United States, even in the jurisdiction of the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Just imagine. If Congress and the executive branch were to put these long-overdue immigration law changes into effect, the only thing that deportable aliens would have to look forward to after being arrested would be a "Terry Anderson deportation pack."

And what’s that?—According to Anderson, it’s "a bottle of water and a bologna sandwich" before being sent out of the country on "the next thing smokin’”

The California Border Police Initiative could be the illegal immigration earthquake to make it all happen—that is, making the dream of both street-level immigration law enforcement and summary deportation a reality. But to actually deport aliens, it is imperative that Congress does its part.

Juan Mann [send him email] is a lawyer and the proprietor of DeportAliens.com.