ICE’s Voice?
Controversy is everywhere these days. Not surprisingly, the opening of a new office under the auspices of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) called Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) began with a bang.
The idea behind the office created under President’s Trump’s Executive Order No. 13768 is to act as a liaison between ICE and the known crimes committed by aliens as well as track crime trends. The order states: “Sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States willfully violate Federal law in an attempt to shield aliens from removal from the United States. These jurisdictions have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our Republic.”
Homeland Security spokesperson David Lapan explained at a press conference that “There are lots of offices and entities that do similar things for crime victims at large, but nobody has the level of understanding of immigration that ICE does. And so it’s a way to keep victims and their families informed not just about the criminal justice aspects of their particular case, but the immigration aspects,” and “where things are in the immigration process as well as the criminal justice process.”
Proponents further argue that generally speaking there is a need for better data to paint a clearer picture of illegal immigrants vis-à-vis crime.
Opponents, such as Senator Bernie Sanders would say that this action serves Trump’s agenda of “stirring up fear and hatred against immigrants and trying to divide our nation.”
It’s hard to imagine the two sides coming to terms. Speaking of terms, some would say that the term “Illegal immigrant” is derogatory and hints that by virtue of being an immigrant, the person is illegal. An immigrant does not a criminal make. Even the Wikipedia entry for this new agency has a neutrality dispute flag. And the term ‘alien’ is not surprisingly under fire. When the VOICE Criminal Alien hotline opened it was immediately bombarded with calls about Aliens – extraterrestrial – in an effort by the opposition to thwart the effort and shut down its phones.
Immigration can be a complicated subject. Surely each side has some legitimate concerns. But what to do about these statistics: according to their website, in 2016, ICE conducted 240,255 removals of nationwide of individuals in the U.S. illegally. Ninety-two percent of these individually had been previously convicted of a crime.
Well said to all the above… Our founding forefathers would be turning over in their graves if they knew how far we, as a nation have “drifted” away from the moral guiding principles that framed our constitution. The personal integrity of every citizen of this country, past, present and future, constitutes “We The People…”.
“We The People…” should standby, support, and welcome any man, woman or child of any race, color, or religion into this country, AS LONG AS THEY ABIDE BY (including their entry) THE LAWS OF THE LAND, AND STRIVE TO LIVE THE “GOLDEN RULE”.
Unfortunately, some of our own fail miserably to comply to those values too, and whether an “Illegal immigrant” or a citizen involved in “Illegal Activity”, “We The People, to form a more perfect union…” MUST REMOVE THEM SWIFTLY FROM OUR SOCIETY.
From our new Commander and Chief, to all our men and women in uniform (Military and Law Enforcement), THANK YOU FOR STRIVING TO KEEP “We The People…” safe.
As a supporter of increased immigration to the US I can see that Political correctness along with the left wing party’ attack on our 1st and 2nd amendments are putting all Americans at risk..We are either a sovereign nation with borders and immigration laws or we are not.
Obfuscation of the fact that some proportion of foreigners illegally present in our country commit crimes is the stock in trade of those that support unfettered, uncontrolled access to the benefits of being an American by one and all.
In the term described by Chameleon’s writers, “illegal immigrant”, the “illegal” is the modifier, not the “immigrant.” A person who has sneaked into this country, is not an immigrant. The legal definition of immigrant implies and requires that the person went through our immigration process. Therefore foreigners illegally present are something else. That something else is what American law calls “illegal aliens.” The modifier is again “illegal” with the word “alien” describing someone who is not an American citizen.
In a rationale world and discussion, it would not be necessary to explain this, and those using English in a manner intended to obfuscate the truth, would not get away with it. The process required of my grandparents to emigrate from Europe to here was robust, and today’s would be immigrants should be required to make that same effort. Loyalty, adoption of our shared values and an intent to assimilate should be obvious and necessary qualities. We need no more people coming here who hate us and our way of life. That’s the litmus test that matters most.
Completely agree with this comment. One of the tactics of groups is to hijack words and their definitions in order to forward their agenda. A simple word such as alien or term like illegal immigrant are now labeled as derogatory when no such emotion is found in their definition. We are reduced to battling over sound and frequency modulation instead of really addressing the main issue.
A cogent and well written comment, thank you.