[ilbegone]

Originally Posted by Bri-M

This is no one's fault but Salinas' own.

If he had not ran and jumped into the river, he might have been deported and alive somewhere in Latin America, or more likely released and still harvesting salal in Washington state.
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Growing anything in a national forest without a permit is breaking the law.
it is O K for illegals to break the law. It is their right.

I'm not sure what you meant by this.

To begin with, Salinas was here illegally. That's a crime.

A Forest Service LEO employee suspected Salinas and a woman of illegally harvesting (not growing) vegetation on Federal land which requires a permit to harvest, another illegal act.

The Forest Service employee couldn't communicate with Salinas and the woman, so the employee called the Border Patrol to provide an interpreter.

Once the Border Patrol agent, another LEO, arrived Salinas fled - another crime.

He jumped into the river and drowned, his own fault.

Perhaps what you are referring to is the federal program of "catch and release", which I alluded to in the post above. Or the fact that in 60% of cases, Federal immigration judges let illegal perps walk in America rather than deporting them.

How is this problem fixed?

There has to be a president who will enforce immigration law in it's fullest, after all Forest Service, Border Patrol, justice department, and Immigration judicial employees report to cabinet level White House personnel. And it wouldn't hurt to have congressmen in office who will eliminate funding for presidential pet programs and other action if the President doesn't have a policy of fully enforcing immigration law.