Send Them Home.

In an all-too-common headline, the paper again reports on a heinous crime committed by illegal aliens in Morris County. A quick Google search reveals that crime by illegal immigrants is not an isolated problem. By definition, these folks operate outside of the normal rules of society. Significant numbers of inmates at our county and state jails enjoy, in their incarceration, their first legal address. And they’re costing us a fortune.

At the same time as we insist that wheelchair bound grandmothers remove their shoes before flying, the federal government does essentially nothing to shore up our borders. Indeed, it sits back and tolerates publications by foreign governments on how to evade even the paltry immigration laws America sees fit to impose. The states get kicked in the teeth by this federal inaction. Illegals clog our jails; their children flood our schools, for which they pay no taxes to support.

As a conservative, I certainly support much of the President’s agenda, including his visionary tax cuts and unapologetically aggressive foreign policy. But much of his domestic agenda leaves quite a bit to be desired. His expansion of the federal government, and reckless spending, almost suffice to make the Democrats in Trenton look good by comparison. But nowhere is his failure more evident that in his steadfast refusal to take decisive action to stem the tide of illegal immigration, and to send those who flout the law back to from wherever they came.

While New Jersey residents can, and most certainly should, INSIST that their congressional representatives take decisive action against illegal immigration – which should, at minimum, include insisting that no one here illegally be permitted to stay – there are certain measure that New Jersey can take on its own.

First, NJ should respectfully request from the federal government that the feds create a secure holding facility – at federal expense, here in New Jersey, to which facility all illegal aliens awaiting trial on criminal charges, serving time for state crimes, or picked up by police can be taken. The result would be to save the counties, and the states, the tens of millions of dollars it costs to house, feed, and medicate these folks, who should not be here in the first place and who would, if the feds did their job, not be here at all. If the feds won’t secure the borders against infiltration, the least it can do is assume the expense of its failures. AR 162 asks Congress to do precisely that.

And, secondly, when our local police – officers trained to spot phony ID – encounter someone with dubious credentials, they should not merely turn him back out into the community. They should enjoy the right to arrest these folks and transport them to a secure federal facility to that they can be rapidly repatriated with their family and friends in their country of origin.

Every American, without exception (including "natives") is either an immigrant or the descendant of immigrants. (Assuming scientific theory to be correct, we are all African Americans) As a nation, we should certainly permit folks who wish to come to do so, in numbers sufficiently small to ensure assimilation into American culture. There’s nothing wrong with a guestworker program, either. But no one should EVER benefit from breaking the law. People here illegally should be immediately escorted to the nearest exit. New Jersey should do its part by reminding the federal government of its obligations and doing its own part to enforce the law.