I’m not necessarily opposed to the idea of checking the immigration status of people held in local jails as this article says that the Obama Administration will do more of:
Under the new program, the immigration checks will be automatic: Fingerprints currently being run through the FBI’s criminal history database also will be matched against immigration databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. The effort would not catch people who have never been fingerprinted by U.S. authorities.
Based on the pilot program, the agency estimates that if fingerprints from all 14 million bookings in local jails each year were screened, about 1.4 million “criminal aliens” would be found, Venturella said. That would be about 10 times the 117,000 criminal illegal immigrants ICE deported last year. There are more than 3,100 local jails nationwide, compared with about 1,200 federal and state prisons.
However, I think they might want to be concerned about unforeseen secondary effects. For example, I wouldn’t be surprised if politicians in communities with large immigrant populations came under substantial political pressure to have their police departments avoid using the FBI’s database. That doesn’t sound like a good thing to me. Additionally, if there’s a cost associated with a local police department’s use of the database, it may be the case that wealthier jurisdictions are more likely to use the database than poorer ones. That could mean that there could be a tendency for “criminal aliens” to cluster in some communities more than others.
I’m honestly shocked that they’re not doing this already. It seems like a no-brainer.
In any case, what the Feds need to do is make a very public issue of this (since even most pro-immigrant supporters probably can’t publicly go against the idea of deporting criminally-active illegal immigrants), and offer funding for it. That might tamp down on local pressure to lay off.
However, I think they might want to be concerned about unforeseen secondary effects. For example, I wouldn’t be surprised if politicians in communities with large immigrant populations came under substantial political pressure to have their police departments avoid using the FBI’s database. That doesn’t sound like a good thing to me.
It’s a very good thing, if one is in favor of amnesty for all illegal aliens. If communities stop using the FBI database the Federal government will simply HAVE to legalize everyone to alleviate the strain. After all, we know how much the Obama Administration HATES overstepping strictly defined Constitutional limits….
After all, we know how much the Obama Administration HATES overstepping strictly defined Constitutional limits….
Or the Bush Administration, for that matter.
I imagine that at some point in the future, long after I’m dead, historians will look back at Bill Clinton as the last non-radical president in US history.