Illegal Aliens Win Another Round

Jorge Mora Ramirez, the admitted illegal alien who became a cause célèbre after he was charged with criminal trespass, has so little fear of our criminal justice system that he told his story to the Associated Press:

Jorge Mora Ramirez paid about $2,000 to get from Mexico City to Massachusetts, first getting space on a truck with 20 people and making it across the border into Arizona. He eventually joined his father in Massachusetts, and his siblings followed.

He started working for a Jaffrey-based roofing company. In April, on the way to pick up his paycheck, he stopped his car along the road in the town of New Ipswich to make a phone call. He left his hazard lights blinking.

A police officer approached and asked to see some identification. He gave him a driver's license from Mexico and insurance documents from Massachusetts. Then he was questioned there for about an hour, then later at the police station, where he was charged with trespassing, the first case of its kind in New Hampshire.

Ramirez at first entered a guilty plea to the trespass charge. He retracted the guilty plea after the Mexican consulate got a firm specializing in immigration law to represent him.

Last Friday Judge L. Phillips Runyon III dismissed trespassing charges against Ramirez and seven other illegal aliens. The illegal aliens, from Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, were charged with trespass after traffic stops when they produced fake identification and admitted they were in the country illegally.

The Daily News Tribune reported that Judge Runyon agreed with defense lawyers that the police chiefs in New Ipswich and Hudson were improperly trying to enforce federal laws:

"The criminal trespass charges against the defendants are unconstitutional attempts to regulate in the area of enforcement of immigration violations, an area where Congress must be deemed to have regulated with such civil sanctions and criminal penalties as it feels are sufficient," Jaffrey District Court Judge L. Phillips Runyon III ruled.

[. . .]

"The current charges clearly conflict with the comprehensive menu of federal immigration offenses, sanctions and penalties by attempting to add a new one to them," Runyon wrote.

He said federal law has a mechanism to let local officers assist in enforcing immigration law.

"This role for local law enforcement exists within the federal plan for enforcing immigration violations, which is further indication that Congress intended to preclude any local efforts which are unauthorized or based on other than federal law," he said.

The New York Times explained that Judge Runyon noted that under the federal system, local police departments that want to be involved in immigration enforcement may go through a training process that allows them to become "deputies" of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. That process, Justice Runyon wrote, "is further indication that Congress intended to preclude any local efforts which are unauthorized or based on other than federal law."

Before Ramirez retracted his guilty plea, Judge Runyon ordered him to pay $120 on the charge of operating without a license, and a $1,000 fine for the criminal trespass charge. Judge Runyon then suspended the latter fine for a year, provided Ramirez stays out of trouble and reports to the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Manchester by Friday.

ICE spokesman Paula Granier said that if Ramirez turned himself in, he'd find himself before a federal judge. "He will be put into proceedings for removal from the United States," she said. That's the politically correct way to say deported. Granier was quoted by the Portsmouth Herald as saying:

But the fact is, she said, this case is about one illegal immigrant whose only crime was being broken down on the side of the road.

Granier is wrong, entering the United States illegally is a crime. Ramirez admitted he was in the U.S. illegally.

Has Ramirez faced deportation proceedings? Has his employer been fined? No, Ramirez is just another example of the ICE's "catch and release" policy. T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, has called the ICE's "catch and release" policy insane.

The United States is a nation of immigrants, and immigration still provides great economic and cultural benefits. But the borders simply cannot be left unchecked. Our security demands tougher policing of immigration. If the feds refuse to do it, and courts refuse to let local police do it, who will?

If the immigration authorities would just deport these illegal aliens when they are caught, it would be a small step toward gaining control of our borders.

http://cayankee.blogs.com/cayankee/2005/08/_illegal_alien.html