Hollow Blog

The June 2, 2008 Washington Post article “Immigration Prosecutions Hit New High: Increased Use of Criminal Charges Strains System” further strengthens the argument that the U.S. Immigration service is dysfunctional and many of its new “policies” and practices are based on Administration politics, xenophobia, and other other undesirable characteristics.

As we noted earlier, these type of “policies” and practices hurt the U.S. in many different ways, including:

• deterring legal resources away from much-more-needed cases (see below)
• prison/jail overcrowding

Some highlights of the Washington Post article include:

 [Some] federal officials are more critical, warning that the focus on immigration is distorting the functions of law enforcement and the courts. Several Arizona officials noted that U.S. prosecutors there last year were so short on resources, they chose not to prosecute a number of marijuana seizures of less than 500 pounds, although they later revised the guideline to 20 pounds.

And…

“We’re concerned about the misdirection of resources,” said Heather Williams, first assistant to the federal public defender of Arizona. Each day her office’s lawyers spend on misdemeanor border-crossing cases, she said, “they’re not talking about a drug case, a sex crime, a murder, assault or any number of white-collar cases — and the same is obviously true of the prosecutors….This is taking on a life of its own,” she said.

And, finally, on the topic of civil liberties…

Williams also warned that the program tests the U.S. legal system’s promise of fairness to the accused. “If we as a U.S. citizen were placed in any other country on the planet, and had to resolve a case in a day that could result in being deported and having a criminal record, we would be outraged, and so would our government,” she said.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) continues to pump tens of millions of dollars into:

• new detention (jail) facilities to house mostly non-criminal immigrants
• renting beds and cells from local (county) and state prisons/jails (which are overcrowded to begin with)

This means that in states like California — which have big issues with prison overcrowding (see below) — dangerous U.S. citizen criminals may end up walking free while non-criminal “illegals” take their spot.

Some Americans may say, “How can this be?!” or “This makes no sense!”

Answer:

• Politics
• Lust for power and control by current Bush Administration
• Fear-mongering
• Prejudice/Racism
• Xenophobia

…and all at the expense of public safety and public tax dollars .

But this is not entirely the U.S. Government’s doing. Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg said that Government is “of the people, by the people, for the people.” This means U.S. citizens are also largely responsible. They are either those citizens who support illogical government actions, or citizens who do not speak out against them (or vote accordingly).

So, citizens of California and other prison-overcrowded states… It’s up to you to.

Weigh this in the privacy of your thoughts:

Are my streets safer with prematurely-released criminals, or illegal-alien non-criminals?

Some Facts:

• Violating immigration laws is not a Federal or State crime. It is a civil violation for which immigrants go through a process to determine whether they have a right to stay in the United States. Immigrants detained during this process are in non-criminal custody. The average cost of detaining an immigrant in a jail cell is $95/day for each individual.

• Most illegal immigrants in detention (jails) are non-criminal.

• Illegal aliens with criminal records are pretty much a non-issue. Reason: they’re on top of ICE’s “most-wanted” list: they are agressively pursued and much-more-quickly captured than U.S. citizen criminals with similar offenses. This is due to the fact that ICE is much better funded than local (county) or state law-enforcement agencies.

• Dept of Homeland Security “buys” bed space from over 312 county and city prisons nationwide to hold the majority of those who are detained (over 57%). Immigrants detained in these local jails are mixed in with the local prison population who is serving time for real crimes. [Source: detentionwatchnetwork.org/aboutdetention]

California Prison Overcrowding references:

• Officials Seek More Time to Address Prison Overcrowding
• Level of Overcrowding in California State Prisons
• California to Address Prison Overcrowding With Giant Building Program
• Schwarzenegger Uses Executive Authority to Relieve Prison Overcrowding, Proclaims Emergency
  to Allow Inmate Transfer
• California’s Prisons in Crisis - High price of broken prisons - Tough sentencing creates
  overcrowding that endangers inmates, haunts taxpayers

ICE’s Huge Budget and New Detention/Jail Facilities:

• New, multi-million-dollar 1,000-bed Immigrant Detention Center in Virginia
• Some of ICE’s Budget FY 2007 is…
  • Custody Management (detention, jails, beds): $241 million
  • Fugitive Operations: $76 million
  • Transportation and Removal (transporting immigrants to/from jails and air-fare for deportation): $94.1 million
  • Total ICE in FY 2007: $4.73 billion

Dear U.S. Citizen:

You’ve been warned about where your tax dollars are going. Have you been listening?

Yup! America’s best news sources, like The Washington Post, have been reporting these unscrupulous practices for years…

Border Policy’s “Success” Strains Resources: “With roughly 1.6 million illegal immigrants in some stage of immigration proceedings [as of 2006], ICE holds more inmates a night than Clarion hotels have guests, operates nearly as many vehicles as Greyhound has buses and flies more people
each day than do many small U.S. airlines.” [source: washingtonpost.com]

Locking Up the Huddled Masses: “Immigration detention is big business. Many detention centers are operated by for-profit companies. The federal government pays the companies, which in turn often pay the counties. Since Texas has plenty of poor rural counties with cheap real estate, it’s not surprising that thousands of immigrants are detained here. But Texas isn’t alone. There are immigrant detention facilities nationwide, including county jails, holding thousands.” [source: newamericamedia.org]

By the way…

We at Hollow-Man.net do not believe prisons are the answer to most of the offenses for which our society currently incarcerates individuals. A combination of psycho-therapy, psychiatric counseling, pharmaceutical medication, and electronic tracking are much more effective … and much cheaper for the taxpayer.

Ultimately, a less-criminal society may be achieved by…

Making life less stressful and rewards more equitable for people. Doing so naturally reduces
cravings for things such as drugs/alcohol (a means of escaping stress) and associated crimes and violence.

Means to an end … That’s what immigrants are to certain politicians, the current Bush Administration and certain U.S. government agencies, and even certain U.S. citizens.

Question: What is the “end”?

Answer: The same as it has been for centuries: political power, wealth and “job security”.

The ICE-police officers who employ Constitution-violating methods — or violate basic human rights via deception, harassment or coercion — are simply henchmen doing the Government’s dirty-work. The Govt. boys/girls-at-the-top — i.e., the actual decision-makers — would never:

• admit  to defending policies or practices that “violate the Constitution”
• openly defend/back the actions of law-breaking “ICE-police Stormtroopers”
• issue search-and-seizure warrants, unless the alien was dangerous, felonious, a terrorist, etc.*

Immigration courts have turned a blind eye to illegal searches by frequently ruling that ICE can use illegally obtained evidence to deport non-criminal people.

Question: If we continue to allow the government to practice this way, how long before the government harasses U.S. citizens?

Answer: It has already begun. Here are just a few of many examples:

• Immigration Attorney Harassed by ICE at Home
• Lawsuit in NJ Against Illegal ICE Immigration Raids Across NJ

Do not let the government set-up creeping, totalitarian, Constitution-violating “regulations”. Contact Senators, Congress reps, and the White House directly and express your opinion.

*Immigrant search-and-seizure warrants should be issued on the same precedents as standard criminal warrants. Otherwise, such warrants are a waste of government resources and, hence, taxpayer dollars. There are over 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., and the vast majority are non-criminal. So…

Question: How can the U.S. Government justify spending billions of taxpayer dollars on expensive, FBI-like operations like ICE’s current National Fugitive Operations Program?

Answer: Because U.S. Citizens, through inaction, allowed this to happen. But it’s not too late!

We at Hollow-Man.net are a group of U.S. citizens and immigrant residents that are extremely concerned with ICE’s increasing reports of Constitution-violating actions. ICE is a  branch of the U.S. Government’s DHS.

Specifically, we are referring to countless reports, such as this and this, in which ICE officers use deceptive “techniques” to gain entrance into secure private residences — even those of U.S. Citizens. An example of this is intercom/buzzer-based outer security doors of apartment or group-residence complexes. Here, ICE officers may use outright deception — for example, claiming to be UPS or FedEx delivery — to gain access to the inside of a complex. W/o reasonable cause — such as gaining access to apprehend to a dangerous or felonious criminal — actions such as this are in total and complete violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Setting Priorities…

Many of the “Fugitives” that ICE agressively pursues in its “National Fugitive Operations Program” are  non-criminal aliens who have overstayed their Visa, are asylum seekers, and other “illegal”  immigrants with no criminal records or soft criminal records. These individuals pose no credible threat to the United States. Going after them with the heavily-funded Fugitive Operations program is a shameful waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars.

The Government’s main objective should be to make the U.S. a safer nation for everyone. Therefore, why not use these same Government-police resources to combat and thwart crime in general — whether they are committed by illegal immigrants or U.S. citizens?

If USCIS/ICE feel their current tactics of pursuing all “illegals” or “fugitives” is justified (regardless of criminal record), then ICE leaders should either:

(a) propose and, then, get Congress/President to pass a law/Act that allows this type of action; or

(b) get a Federal-judge-issued warrant for every secure building or private-property-area ICE agents enter.

Bottom line: USCIS / ICE must have a Federal-judge issued warrant to enter a secure building.

Note: That the warrant-less entry, in linked example noted above, was to gain access to the home of a U.S. Citizen (an immigration lawyer). The ICE officer even stated, “I’m going to kick your door down.”

If U.S. Citizens  don’t act now, the Govt. will continue to creep-up Constitution-violating actions like this  — and we will come to ”accept” more and more removal of our civil liberties! 

Act now — and let the Govt. know you want your civil liberties protected … and your tax dollars better spent!