I just saw this report in the Washington Post indicating that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has put the brakes on some pending ICE raids, as part of a new policy that will supposedly target employers more than workers. The Post cites the pressure being put on the Obama administration by Hispanic activists, civil rights leaders and bigwigs such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Chicago Cardinal Francis George, who last week called for an end to ICE raids.
"Raids that break up families in that way, just kick in the door in the middle of the night, taking [a] father, a parent away, that's just not the American way. It must stop," Pelosi is quoted as stating in the piece.
It's as I've always said, Napolitano never acts of her own accord, only when she receives fierce pressure to act. And if the Napster's going to move away from worksite raids by ICE, then she should, logically, begin to roll back the 287(g) program as well. Certainly, she could immediately end the 287(g) agreements with the rottenest of apples in her barrel, including our own corrupt law enforcement kingfish, Sheriff Joe.
Joe has persistently abrogated the Memorandum of Agreement he has with ICE over the program, which is supposed to focus on serious lawbreakers, not traffic scofflaws and housemoms. He is the subject of intense federal scrutiny and investigation because of his pattern of civil rights violations, and yet he continues to misuse this already flawed program for his own self-aggrandizement.
In other words, Arpaio needs to be stripped of his 287(g) powers now.Ultimately, the 287(g) program allowing local gendarmes to enforce immigration law needs to end, but Joe needs to be the first thrown overboard. And this will not happen till Nappy feels the heat.
