Illegal Immigrants Elude Enforcement Officials
Deporting Undesirable Aliens Nightmare for Border Security Services
By the end of 2007, the Canada Border Services Agency reported that 41,000 illegal immigrants for whom removal warrants were sworn were classified as “whereabouts unknown.” That compared with 22,000 the Agency could put their hands on.
Canada Loses Illegals
In a recent much-publicized crackdown called Operation Hide and Seek, Canadian authorities targeted locating 45 of 2000 high priority illegals, many with known criminal ties or suspected war criminal backgrounds. The authorities didn’t capture any but did confirm that 21 had left the country, 13 of them probably to the U.S. On that basis authorities extrapolated the figure and proclaimed that more than 25 percent of these really bad guy illegals are now in the U.S., a point probably not lost on U.S. Homeland Security as it strives to seal the U.S.-Canada border.
Part of Canada’s seeming inability to keep track of illegal immigrants stems from lack of a place to hold those without documentation or those with forged documents. Most arrive by air at Vancouver and Toronto, where they claim refugee status. On the ground in Canada, they begin the lengthy Canadian legal process of having their individual cases investigated and adjudicated. Because immigration holding facilities are overcrowded, including some entire airport fringe hotels, some immigrants are permitted to post bond. After doing so, however, a considerable number of them quickly disappear into the cities.
Another part of the problem for the Canada Border Services Agency is the country’s “revolving door.” Immigrants convicted of crimes in Canada are routinely deported after serving their sentences. Almost as routinely, many are soon back in Canada, gaining entry with aliases and false documents.
U.S. Interdiction Efforts Frustrated
The U.S. Border Patrol also has its own “revolving door” at its southern border. The number of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. runs into the millions. While efforts are made by the Border Patrol to halt the flow, their problem is exacerbated by rampant narcotics trafficking, potential terrorist threats, and low paid illegals who have become economically important as the unskilled labour force that helps drive the country’s agribusiness, manufacturing, and construction industries. Then, as in Canada, once inside the U.S., constitutional questions have risen about the rights of illegals under U.S. law.
For example, according to the Washington Times of February 9, 2009, Arizona rancher Roger Barnett is currently being sued for $32 million by 16 illegal immigrants on the grounds he allegedly violated their civil rights when he captured them on his land and held them at gunpoint until arrival of U.S. Border agents. For more than ten years Barnett has been corralling illegals on his land, by his estimate 12,000 of them. They have killed his cattle, vandalized his fencing and machinery, and, on one occasion, attempted to break into his house.
In a more well-known case, two Border Patrol agents were sentenced to long federal prison terms for shooting and wounding a suspected drug smuggler. Ironically, shortly after their sentencing, the drug smuggler was again arrested at the border with a load of drugs. The drugs were confiscated, while the smuggler made bail and quietly slipped back to the safety of Mexico.
British Provide Security Clearances to Illegals
The Security Industry Authority of Britain has encountered its own problems with illegal immigrants using false identification, in their case to obtain security clearances permitting them to work in sensitive jobs. Recently, the Authority revealed that more than 7700 illegals had erroneously received security clearances, but of these only 35 had been apprehended and deported. 12 illegal immigrants were found to be working for the Metropolitan Police. Even more embarrassing, another had a security job responsible for guarding cars used by the Prime Minister. In the U.S., this would be akin to his being on the U.S. President’s Secret Service detail.
Politicians and their bureaucrats may be wrestling with these problems for a long time. Even with escalating domestic unemployment and severe economic recession, their countries still offer more hope and “safe haven” than many of the illegal immigrants’ homelands. That is unlikely to change.
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