Is It "un-american" To Enforce The Immigration Laws?

In a speech last week in San Francisco, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that raids on large employers of illegals by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were "un-American." Her predominantly immigrant audience applauded loudly.

What were they cheering for?

Illegal aliens apprehended by ICE raids have committed serious felonies usually repeatedly over a period of years. This record does not include the initial act of entering the U.S. unlawfully, which is only a misdemeanor.

The first felony committed by illegals is to buy the social security numbers of American citizens on the black market in order to obtain employment. Identity theft imposes serious costs on its victims, including exposing them to enforcement actions by the IRS, which will prosecute them for unpaid taxes on wages earned by the identity thief.

How many Americans really think such people should not be taken out of circulation by ICE? And why isn't Speaker Pelosi sympathetic to the victims of the identity theft? The easiest way to round up illegal immigrants committing identity theft is to raid the workplaces where they are employed, such as Swift Beef, which was raided in the largest such enforcement action in U.S. history. Employment is, after all, the magnet that draws the illegals here.

In what way is it un-American for law enforcement to raid places where laws are broken? Presumably the Speaker would not decry any other law enforcement officials as "un-American." ICE agents proceeded either with a warrant, or in the case of Swift Beef, with the company's consent, making a warrant unnecessary in order to enter the workplace and arrest illegal immigrants found there.

Speaker Pelosi complained about raids in the middle of the night. In fact, most ICE raids occur at the workplace during working hours, when illegal aliens can be apprehended right from the workplace en masse. And since when is it un-American to apprehend criminals during the night?

What Speaker Pelosi seems most fundamentally to regard as "un-American" is any ICE enforcement of our immigration laws. If ICE does not enforce the law at the workplace, then how can the Immigration Reform and Control Act, passed in 1986, making it illegal to employ illegal immigrants be enforced? She has no answer except to point out that she favors "comprehensive immigration reform" which the Senate rejected in 2007, despite the full-fledged support of former President Bush, 85% of Democrats, and all business-oriented lobbies. The people reacted overwhelmingly against the proposal, and Republicans got the message. John McCain retreated from his support during the campaign and stated he would vote against the bill if it came up again.

Will Republicans hold firm when it comes up again, possibly this summer? This will be another high-profile congressional fight. And this time Republicans won't have a president leading them in the wrong direction. If the Democrats side with Speaker Pelosi and against ICE, then Republicans will have starkly defined the battle lines for the midterm election on an incredibly sensitive issue.