Jan Hefler writes about the agonizing, aggravating, absolutely addled world of immigration on today’s Burlco Blog.  It’s something I take quite personally, as someone who spends most of her day wading through the morass that is our legal system.
Hefler highlights the horrible irony inherent in a system that grants asylum and ultimately citizenship to a woman who fled the Soviet Union, only to condemn her to death at the hands of an illegal criminal alien who slipped out of ICE custody.
I straddle two different worlds, one that is populated by good and decent immigrants who only want an opportunity to succeed in this country, and another that is filled with people who look at this country as just another place to turn a trick, unfold a criminal scheme or, as we saw on 9/11, do worse.  Ignoring that either of those worlds exists is a case of self-delusion.
One of the most tragic aspects of this story is that the system gave new life to an immigrant, and then allowed it to be taken from her, brutally.  Another is that the good men and women who work for ICE have their hands tied by laws that rarely take into consideration the dangers they face on the ground.  Still another is the fact that the evil, vicious criminals who don't deserve to be here in the first place make it all the more difficult for the good ones, who have to hear themselves lumped in with 'those dirty illegals.'
To say that I’m troubled about that is an understatement.  The talk about securing our borders is a smokescreen.  We need to deal with the immigrants who are already here, with common sense, with compassion and, when they pose a threat, with the force of federal laws that will neutralize them.
The cowards in Washington need to act, now.