Investor's Business Daily, July 25th, 2007
Immigration: A Connecticut city becomes the first in the nation to issue identification cards to illegal aliens. It's supposed to be for their protection. What about ours? And since when do city ordinances trump federal law?
On Aug. 1, 2006, guitar maker Charlie Derrington was riding his motorcycle on Briley Parkway just north of Nashville, Tenn., when he was struck by a vehicle driving the wrong way. The driver of the vehicle, Julio Villasana, fled the scene but was later arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.
According to testimony at his trial by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, Villasana had been deported from the U.S. three times and was allowed to leave voluntarily on 11 other occasions before the accident that claimed Derrington's life.
We mention this because one of the rationales for the city fathers of New Haven, Conn., issuing city identification cards is for the protection of the Villasanas of the world. As the argument goes, the card will do things such as let illegal aliens open bank accounts so they won't have to walk around with large sums of cash or be hassled by police.
What cities like New Haven are doing to protect the Charlie Derringtons of the world is not known. Yes, he could have been killed by an intoxicated U.S. citizen. But he wasn't. He was killed by someone who under federal law was in this country illegally, someone New Haven would gladly have given an identification card and sanctuary. New Haven already prohibits police from asking individuals they come in contact with in the course of their duties about their immigration status.
Derrington's case is yet another justification for building a border fence and for ending the senseless policy of certain municipalities ordering their police not to cooperate with the enforcement of federal law. The money that will be deposited at New Haven banks will come from jobs illegal aliens are not allowed to have under federal law.
In fact, days after New Haven approved the ID program, ICE agents conducted raids that led to about 30 arrests. City officials claimed the raids were retaliatory. The agency responded quite correctly: "ICE is mandated by Congress to enforce a wide range of immigration and customs laws, and we will continue to enforce those laws in Connecticut and throughout the U.S." Good.
Unfortunately, Mayor John DiStefano doesn't think federal laws should be enforced in his city. "You can't police a community of people who won't talk to our cops," he said this week. Apparently his idea of community policing is to forbid cops from interfering with people and businesses acting illegally.
Not quite so hospitable is Waukegan, Ill., Jack Benny's hometown. It's not willing to play the violin over the plight of illegal aliens whose very entry into the U.S. was a criminal act.
On July 16, the Waukegan City Council voted 8-2 to reaffirm the council's decision last month to join and cooperate with federal efforts to find and deport illegal aliens who have committed violent crimes. That would mean Waukegan police could obtain authority to begin deportation proceedings for illegal residents convicted of violent crimes and drug violations.
Terapon Adhahn, who is accused of kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Zina Linnik of Tacoma, Wash., on the Fourth of July, was convicted of incest in 1990. Two years later he was convicted of intimidation with a deadly weapon. Why he was allowed to remain in the U.S. is a tragic mystery.
Adhahn should not have even been in the U.S., much less putting the lives of its citizens at risk. Neither should Julio Villasana. But in New Haven, Conn., they would have been welcome, no questions asked.
