Improvised Immigration Control

Immigration is not just a major feature of the British elections taking place today, it's also a hot topic in the States, where the Republican administration seems to be doing its level best to avoid doing what it's supporters want- controlling the porous borders and securing the country. This isn't about being racist- typically the term applied to anyone in the UK who wonders if vast numbers of unchecked immigrants into the country is a good thing- it's a security issue, above all else. There are estimated to be somewhere in the region of 10 million illegal immigrants in the US- and among that number could be any amount of enemies of the USA.

As well as the noted failure of Bush to do something about the issue, there is the stunning inefficiency of the Immigration Service, which is highlighted in this article about a police chief taking immigration control into his own hands. Nine illegals from Ecuador and eleven from Mexico were handed over to immigration control who refused to do anything about them. Seems like a number of people are not doing their job and need to be summarily sacked. I'd like to see how many other jobs you'd get to keep if you were handed some work to do and just said, "no".

Anyway, a police chief in New Hampshire came across a guy stopped by the side of the road who turned out to be in the US illegally. Immigration officials refused to take him into custody and so the police took the only action left to them- they charged the man with trespass, defined as a person, "knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place." Amazingly a spokesperson for Immigration Control accused the police chief of grandstanding, adding that they do arrest illegal immigrants that are violent or who pose a threat to public safety.

Perhaps they have some special telepathic powers which enables them to know which illegal immigrants might at some time in the future break another US law. Perhaps the current staff should be sacked and the Minutemen hired to replace them?