Jeralyn Merritt On Immigration: So What If Some Americans Die

Jeralyn Merritt from TalkLeft links to an Op Ed she penned for The Examiner today and, perhaps taking a page from Barack Obama, displays her own brand of political audacity by accusing the Right of playing politics with illegal immigration. But she ignores the Left's political pandering in the form of their fighting against prudent legislation which would call for illegal immigrants caught violating the law to be dealt with effectively for a change.

We have effective laws for the removal of noncitizens who are convicted of crime. Since 1996, the list of “aggravated felonies” mandating deportation has steadily grown. When a person subject to deportation is charged with a crime, the law allows for the placing of a detainer on that person so that when released from state or federal custody, whether on bail or following conviction, he or she is transported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for continued detention or to face deportation proceedings, rather than be released into the community.

Sometimes, people fall through the cracks. It may have happened in Newark and Oregon. That doesn’t mean we need different laws. It means we need to enforce the ones we have. We don’t need a “one strike, you’re out” or a no-bail policy for immigrants.

Even if you concede Merritt's point, why does an obvious crime problem associated with illegal immigration - a violation of our law and sovereignty in and of itself - need to rise to the level of an epidemic before we can do something about it without being labeled racists and fear mongers? Isn't it just possible many good people simply believe in the genuine enforcement of the law?

Between several recent drunk driving deaths, violent crimes such as the ones in Newark and Seattle Merritt mentions, and far too many others she conveniently ignores, how many innocent American lives have to be snuffed out before it's a real problem in Merritt's view? Factually, as she is forced to concede, some number of illegal immigrants who by definition don't abide by America's system of justice on at least two levels (their status and their subsequent criminal behavior), take innocent American lives.

So, aside from the potential for various immigrant communities to provide votes for a Democrat fueled liberal agenda, just what is it that suggests some number of innocent American lives just aren't worth protecting with sound legislation? For Merritt to believe as she does, one either has to have no regard at all for American Law and sovereignty, or there's another agenda involved. As I don't believe it's the first two in her case, just what is her objective?

All one can conclude is that it's purely political and Merritt is engaging in the very same type of empty demagogy which she purports to be criticizing. Perhaps if it fell to her to visit whatever the number of family members whose relatives are now deceased because someone fell through the cracks and tell them, hey no big deal, it happens, Merritt wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the present broken state of immigration law and the need to do something about it.

Comments

[bloodrage bob]

frantically googling to find other op-eds written by liberals as a response to things like - oh ... - the *ONE* instance where a little gay guy got beat up & died in wyoming. or the *ONE* instance where a black guy got dragged behind a truck and died in Texas.

not working out too well. seems liberals weren't shrugging those things off. not seeing any "stuff happens sometimes" op-eds about *them*. yet the many thousands of americans killed/murdered by wetbacks is, well, not so big a deal to liberals. odd, huh?

"double standards"?? liberals?? pshaw! suggesting such things is *clearly* hate speech, and is punishable by 500 year prison terms in federal prison.

[Observer]

You can have all the laws you want allowing deportation, but if you do not enforce them just what are they worth?

Also she obviously is not familiar with all the loopholes in the appeal process and for most of the cases how long it takes to get to a final actual deportation.

The leaky sieve of deportation hearings people walk away from and all the other faults in the system are well documented and conveniently ignored by Ms Merritt and those of her ilk.

[templar knight]

Ok, bb, I give you your illegals from south of the border, but think about the Muslims from Somalia and the Sudan who are being brought over here, and then, rather than attempting to integrate them and their children into the American fabric, the good folks in Ohio set up madrassas in the form of charter schools run by Islamists. Talk about a precription for disaster. And all at the expense of the taxpayer.

And something else. Think of the reaction of the liberals and their stooges if a charter school for Christians was set up at the taxpayer's expense.

The HYPOCRISY of liberals knows no bounds.