ICE is supposed to deport, or at least process, illegals aliens apprehended by Arizona law enforcement—OR, MAYBE NOT.
A top Obama official, John Morton, assistant secretary of homeland security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement government, told the Chicago Tribune that the Arizona immigration-enforcement law, SB 1070, is not “good government.”
The best way to reduce illegal immigration is through a comprehensive federal approach, he said, and not a patchwork of state laws.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano backed the bastard up: “ICE,” she said, “is not obligated to process illegal immigrants referred to them by Arizona authorities.
ICE has the legal discretion to accept or not to accept persons delivered to it by non-federal personnel … It also has the discretion to deport or not to deport persons delivered to it by any government agents, even its own.”
FoxNews’ Megyn Kelly called this government by fiat.
This is how it rolls in the US. I’ve long contended that commentators who constantly hail America’s unique freedoms are willfully misleading their followers. States’ rights? Those died a long time ago.
The federal government no longer fulfills its most basic negative duty, and that is to protect its citizens. But this is not new.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
Hot Air tracks the issue too.
Update (May 23): Ann Coulter is at her best when she gets legal. She dredges up the “UNITED STATES v. BRIGNONI-PONCE” (1975), in which the SCOTUS unanimously, including every liberal on the Court, decided that “border police could take into account the Mexican appearance of a car’s occupants. They could not do random stops based on nothing but that ‘appearance.'” The Arizona law does not go as far as the SCOTUS’ ruling.
Another interesting point made by AC: “Iconic labor leader, and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, along with Ralph Abernathy, successor to Martin Luther King, marched against illegal immigration.”