Illegal alarm! NH should ignore hysteria

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Illegal alarm! NH should ignore hysteria
Short of "get-in-free" cards for all, is there anything the state or federal government can do that doesn't offend defenders of illegal immigrants?
Our story last Sunday on the pending inclusion of New Hampshire in a federal "Secure Communities" program sent someone from something called the "New Hampshire Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees" right into orbit.
"This is going to be a witch hunt," said Eva Castillo, pronouncing herself very disturbed to hear that people who are arrested will have their fingerprints analyzed by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service.
Her comment makes no sense whatsoever. As a spokesman for ICE told our reporter, people who are arrested have their fingerprints routinely taken. Those sent to Washington have historically been checked against the FBI criminal-history database. Under the new program, they will also automatically be checked against a Department of Homeland Security immigration database.
"It's color-blind," said the spokesman.
That's not good enough for Ms. Castillo. She said the program will make immigrants less likely to come forward to help police in an investigation or to report being victimized.
Again, this is errant nonsense. This program doesn't receive the fingerprints of witnesses or crime victims. It gets fingerprints of people booked for crimes. But that doesn't seem to matter. This "scared to report crimes" line has become the standard mantra for any attempt to curb illegal immigration.
We wish the new program, long overdue, might actually be used to enforce immigration laws. But we won't hold our breath. The ICE spokesman said priority will go to those convicted of the most serious crimes, not everyday illegals.
Still, that's a start. We hope New Hampshire officials will facilitate the program, but last time we checked, Gov. John Lynch's spokesman sounded decidedly squishy as to the governor's position.
http://www.unionleader.com/article.a...f-bca50acd0d0e