08 May 2008

Homeland Security Still Brainless

The latest initiative of the Department of Homeland Security is to detain people who are in the United States illegally while they are in the process of trying to leave the country voluntarily.

Illegal immigration is a civil violation, rather than a crime, and the sanction for being present in the United States without a valid visa is, of course, deportation (aka leaving the country involuntarily). Deportation usually involves public expenses for detention facilities and transportation, plus bureacratic expenses to process the cases, delays the departure of the person illegally present in the country, increases the risk that they will seek to stay based upon an asylum petition once detained or bring other civil action against the U.S. related to the conditions of their detention, and compromises the dignity of the people leaving.

If the Border Patrol has resources to waste on this kind of nonsense, maybe they need a budget cut.

No comments: