NEWS: U.S. Might Jail Immigration Case Losers

Did anyone else know that we had 300,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants running around the U.S? That's certainly a number they don't publicize very often.
Chicago Tribune

I picked this one up on Yahoo, then noticed a 30 secong snippet of it on CNN.

"Introduced with little fanfare this month in Atlanta and Denver as a pilot program, Operation Compliance is designed to curb the chronic problem of "absconders" -- an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 scofflaws in the United States in defiance of orders to leave.

Under the pilot program, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are assigned to immigration courts and promptly arrest people who are ordered to leave the country after losing their cases, which are usually civil, not criminal. They are held in immigration detention sites until they exhaust their appeals or post bond."

This is another great example of our government's inability to control the borders. Now we'll see a rise in our taxes to pay for the jailing and all related costs of housing an inmate. By forcing the immigrant into a jail, and then posting a bail amount, you almost guarantee that they won't be able to bail themselves out- they come here' LOOKING for money, they don't come here SPENDING it.

My biggest concern with this is not the rights of the immigrant, or where we house them, but who pays for it- I say stick their home country with the bill.

[Edited on 4-26-2004 by Valhall]

You know, if they made it criminal this could create a ton of new jobs in the prison sector. Sounds like they're on the right track. Maybe they can do manual labor to subside the tax cost. That'll teach them not to come back to the land of the free without a green card.

i think they'd be easy prison jobs, too. you wouldn't need to have maximum security facilities for these people, but the downside is that the guards would have to be multilingual, which could create a problem, and it obviously limits who can get a job.

Bah. Don't put them in jail, where we have to pay for them. Don't send them home, where they'll either stay and be happy, or more likely just infile us again.

Send illegal immigrants to somewhere they really, really would not want to go. One way tickets to Siberia, the Gobi desert...or FRANCE!

Legal immigration is cool--it's what America is all about. But it's high time we laid down the law on the freeloaders. If they want to be here that's great, but I expect taxes to be paid same as I do. One of the reasons social security's going broke is because it's paying out to people who've never paid in. Same for the welfare rolls--how is it that a person can be here illegally, yet enroll with the government to get a free check, food stamps, and send their kids to school at our expense?

The solution is simple: just stop it!

I live next to a large apartment complex (1.600 or so apartments), and about a week ago a white helocopter with green stripes that a person chartered to survey flew over it. The colors were the same as the INS. One person started running around knocking on doors saying the INS was raiding the complex and everyone scattered. That day the school next to the complex was 20 percent absent several hundred students.

A few weeks ago the local spanish radio station was broadcasting that INS raids were taking place at work sites around town. At least half the cities' construction work force fled their jobs some leaving their tools behind.

During the holiday season the area around here has a shortage of resturant and construction workers because they all sneek back across the border to see their family. They dont think twice about getting caught coming back. They just keep trying until they make it.

It has been estimated there are 6 to 8 million immigrates here illegally. I can assure you that the number here in Houston and Harris County is at least 1 million. I think the true number is closer to 25 million nationwide.

The INS will not arrest illegal aliens and deport them here in Houston if they are not indicted for a criminal offense. Instead they get a free ride once they are here and my tax dollars must pay for most of their medical care and I have to pay some of the highest insurance rates in the country to drive because every other driver here doesn't have insurance because they dont even have a drivers licence to begin with because they dont even belong in this country.

Most of the people in my neighborhood cant speak English. They are illegal aliens and proud of it.

That's pretty sad, TexasCN. I feel for ya.

Yes, add healthcare and car insurance to the list of things we pay more for due to these freeloaders. Grrr

This does bring a question to mind: if there are so many illegals working in your local economy, how is it handled? For example, where I live there are crews of illegals who work on the farms, and get paid cash by the farmers, who never report it.

With such a large population, being employed in actual business settings, surely they can't do the same? What about W-2's and such? I would think it unwieldy, if not downright more trouble to fudge the paperwork as it would be to hire some legal workers.

Yet another way the gov'mint could be catching freeloaders, but isn't...