In case you were wondering if the title of this article was a typo, allow me to assure you that it was not. It’s no secret that an unconscionable number of illegal aliens are freely roaming the United States these days thanks to the open border policies of the Biden/Harris administration. That number has been grossly inflated by liberal government leaders who seem unable (or even unwilling) to do anything to remove them from the country or at least detain them while they await deportation. Too many of the migrants have criminal records of various types but a significant number of them are predators who have been convicted of sex offenses, either here in the United States or in their home countries. How many? The number is in the tens of thousands. But now a new bill introduced by Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa would seek to clamp down on them. The appropriately titled “Be Gone Act” would direct ICE to round up these criminals for deportation as a priority since our supposed Border Czar won’t do the job. (NY Post)
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More than 15,000 illegal immigrants with sexual assault convictions are currently roaming the US. And a new Republican-backed bill would force ICE to track them down and deport them.
The bill — titled the “Be Gone Act” — comes after the acting chief Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed to Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales last week that the US has more than 600,000 migrants with criminal convictions.
The figure includes both those who were allowed in despite committing crimes in their home countries, and migrants who were convicted here.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduced the bill Tuesday to expedite the deportations of illegal migrants convicted of sexual assault and aggravated sexual violence, according to the text of the bill, which was first obtained by The Post.
It’s not as if we didn’t know this problem was taking place. There have been several high-profile cases of young women and girls being raped or murdered (or both) by migrants in the past few years, outraging the nation. Some perpetrators have thankfully been brought to heel, but many others have evaded capture or simply been released after being processed. Far too many others haven’t even been identified. This is clearly a badly needed measure to put in place, but can it be effectively enforced?
That’s where the situation becomes considerably more tricky. Even when one of these reprobates manages to be captured, too many judges have been allowing them to walk free with little to no bail being set. This flies in the face of the entire concept of legal immigration. If you come to the United States as a noncitizen migrant, you are expected to be on your best behavior and show that you had a clean record in your country of origin. If one of your first actions upon arriving is to commit a sexual assault on one of our citizens, you should be on the first available bus out of the country or behind bars for a lengthy period.
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Unfortunately, that system is almost entirely dysfunctional at the moment and it currently shows no signs of improving. That’s what makes Ernst’s bill such a needed remedy. But simply passing a bill doesn’t solve anything as we’ve already learned. It needs the support of the executive branch and the will (and resources) to apply the necessary manpower to the task. ICE is already overwhelmed across the board and they receive very little cooperation from state and local officials in many areas.
If nothing else, the Be Gone Act would serve as an instructional litmus test. Would even Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have the nerve to oppose such a bill? Don’t bet your bottom dollar against the idea. Backing such a bill would be tantamount to admitting that their entire immigration policy has been a disastrous, dangerous failure. No matter how much it may enrage the rest of the nation, if such opposition bought Kamala a few more votes among Arab-Americans I can fully see her opposing it. One bill in the Senate isn’t going to correct this critical issue. It will take an entirely new administration and a vast reallocation of resources dedicated to the enforcement of our immigration laws. Keep your fingers crossed.