Melvin B. Miller
Editor & Publisher

Compassionate
immigration reform

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, Americans began to worry about the nation’s porous borders. Reports indicated that more than 11 million illegal aliens now live in the United States. Some have been here for many years and have families, children and jobs. Strict enforcement of the immigration laws would result in tragic human upheaval and substantial economic loss for the businesses which depend upon the labor of the illegals.

Nonetheless, perhaps because 78 percent of the illegal immigrants are from Mexico and other Latin American countries, many political conservatives insist upon a draconian enforcement of the law. The nation is about equally divided on whether illegal aliens should be summarily deported.

Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner (R – Wisconsin) almost fomented riots across the country when he proposed legislation to solve the problem of illegal immigrants by imposing jail sentences for offenders. Illegal aliens in the United States are now guilty of a civil violation, but Sensenbrenner’s bill would make the offense a felony punishable by a year and a day in jail. Repeat offenders would be subjected to mandatory minimum sentences.

Many Americans are obsessed with the delusion that incarceration is the solution for a myriad of social ills. An exponential growth in the prison population in recent decades increased the number of inmates to more than 2.1 million by the end of 2004. As a result, the United States now has an incarceration rate of 724 per 100,000 residents, the highest in the industrial world. Incarceration rates per 100,000 in other nations are: Canada – 116, England/Wales – 145, France – 88 and Japan – 60.

The Sensenbrenner bill would also make it a crime for anyone to provide humanitarian aid to an illegal alien. Americans providing such assistance could be sentenced to as much as five years in prison if convicted. The fine for hiring illegal immigrants would increase from the present $250 - $10,000 range to $500 - $25,000 and a minimum of a year in jail for repeat offenders.

The severity of the penalties in the Sensenbrenner bill incited massive demonstrations across the country by illegal aliens, their supporters and American citizens who might be criminally liable for befriending illegals. Senators Ted Kennedy and John McCain fashioned a compromise solution which ultimately failed, but the problem will have to be resolved.

The sticking point is amnesty. No politically acceptable solution will grant amnesty to those who violated the immigration laws, no matter how severe the exigencies of their lives, so that they jump ahead of those who patiently waited in line. A solution must be found because America can never secure its borders without resolving the problem of those who are willing to risk death to come here for economic opportunity.

Prosecutorial indiscretion?

Nine teenage students from Falmouth High School were arrested last week for selling drugs to an undercover police officer who was posing as a classmate. The sting operation was established because many parents had complained about “rampant drug use” at the school.

Police reports indicate the police officer made 31 purchases of marijuana and one purchase of ecstasy since January. The students were charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana and distribution. There apparently was no charge for distribution in a school zone, although some of the sales occurred on school property.

Parents and a former prosecutor have rallied in support of the nine teens. Some educators have complained that it is “sneaky” and unfair to have an undercover cop right in school.

There was no such outcry in support of Mitchell Lawrence, a black 17-year-old student at Monument Regional High School. He sold a bit more than one gram of marijuana to an adult undercover cop and was sentenced to two years because the sale occurred within 1,000 feet of a school.