LatinaLista — Once upon a time being Commander-in-Chief meant that though people who worked in the various federal agencies disagreed with the man in the Oval Office, they may have griped among themselves but didn’t go public and certainly never held a joint press conference with the opposing political party.
Yet, for some reason, those days are gone for this administration. In a rare show of public disagreement, the president of the union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers blasted his boss for authorizing the deferment of deportations for young people known as DREAMers.
To make this public display even more egregious and suspect, the union boss was accompanied by Republican senators.
The union boss, Chris Crane, alleged that some purported DREAMers were abusing the system.
“Prosecutorial discretion for dreamers is solely based on the individual’s claims. Our orders are if an alien says they went to high school, then let them go,” he said at a press conference with GOP senators. “Officers have been told that there is no burden for the alien to prove anything. … At this point we don’t even know why DHS has criteria at all, as there is no requirement or burden to prove anything on the part of the alien.
“We believe that significant numbers of people who are not dreamers are taking advantage of this practice to avoid arrest,” he said.
He then went on to say that any of the agents who complained about the policy were under threat of losing their jobs.
That Mr. Crane would align himself so publicly with Republican senators when denouncing the single most important policy to win over Latino voters thus far from this administration is not a coincidence. Nor does it show, as some conservative politicians hope, that Mr. Crane’s statement is a bipartisan observation.
It is very obvious that it is far from it. If it were, Crane would have made his charges known directly to ICE administrators, instead of bypassing them to call out the President directly. Also, he wouldn’t have done it at a press conference with Republican senators at his side.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions but, as in every job, if you don’t like the policy — you quit. It’s probably true that the agents feel like their jobs are threatened because most employees who disagree with their employers can attest that’s what happens.
But the fact that Crane is trying to turn this into a federal witch hunt of those who disagree with Obama’s new policy is stretching the truth to comply with the Republican agenda.
If there is a criticism to be made of Obama, it’s that his administration has been too lenient with those who disregard past protocol and blatantly disrespect the office of the President and Obama himself by trying to publicly humiliate and insult him.
It’s time Obama showed leadership and clarified his new policy to ICE agents by offering to accept their resignations if they can’t comply — and sanction those who think the man in the Oval Office, their boss, is open game for public insult.
Comment(10)
gringojaime
Maybe the president of ICE union met with GOP congress men because his bosses and the president would fire him if he brought the issues of criminal aliens being released with no proof of being “dreamers.”
Why do you want these criminal, spousal abusers released to walk your streets?
Dreamers my eye, they are invaders who have no respect for U.S. laws – not unlike this president who gives edicts to circumvent congress.
AlvaradoFrazier
You don’t do this in law enforcement, it’s a punk move to not go through your chain of command. If he believes it’s wrong, stand up and say so.
franklinjake78
@AlvaradoFrazier Actually in Law Enforcement, (I am prior law enforcement), Justice is supposed to be blind, and you are to go after all law breakers, regardless of race, creed, religion, etc. What Obama has done, is single out one group of people and ordered his people not to enforce the law. If Mr Obama doesn’t like the law, it is his duty, as we saw with Obamacare, to push legislation to change the law – not to just ignore it. Especially on something that the Federal Government is Constitutionally required to do. And ICE Officials have been griping for a long, long time about the lack of Federal support for cracking down on Illegal Immigration for decades, with ZERO help from the Federal Government. To add insult to injury, no Obama makes it 100% worse with ordering Fed Agencies to not enforce Immigration Laws.
It is a particular stab in the back, to those of us who are victims of Illegal Immigrants. I have been victimized twice. The first time was when my Identity was stolen from an Illegal Immigrant ring, and a decade later, am still dealing with credit issues from that. But Illegal Immigration is a “victimless crime” liberals say. The big tamale, was 2 years ago. I was on my motorcycle and was hit by an Illegal Immigrant driving a car, with no drivers license or insurance. I was in the ICU for 2 weeks, underwent multiple major surgeries, in the hospital for 2 months, and a year and a half recovery. We ate over a million dollars in medical ills, of which we lost everything from. I lost the business I owned, our 2 houses we paid cash for, our life savings, etc. But Illegal Immigration is a “victimless crime” liberals say. And to top it all off, by the definition of felonies that will have Illegals’ sent home, the Illegal that ruined our lives would NOT be deported. Furthermore, which no liberal nor Administration Official is arguing with, is that if the person that ruined our lives just stated they are a “Dreamer”, they are directed to be let go.
So since we have lost everything, if I robbed a bank to feed my kids, do you think Obama would say that they would refuse to prosecute me? And furthermore that I could keep the money – the fruits of my breaking the law? Yes it is the same thing.
AlvaradoFrazier
@franklinjake78 My issue is with chain of command protocol. I’ve been in law enforcement for 28 years, I enforce the law whether I like it or not. When I don’t like it, I go through chain of command or go to my union and work for change.
My family has had a similar crime of identity theft, so I know that to say victim-less crime is untrue. Someone is always affected by a crime and you’re right, it’s a *itch to be a victim.
“And ICE Officials have been griping for a long, long time about the lack of Federal support for cracking down on Illegal Immigration for decades, with ZERO help from the Federal Government.”ZERO Help?”:
Well Pres. Obama has expanded Secure Communities from 11 jurisdictions under Bush, to close to 2,000+ jurisdictions, so can’t agree with that statement.
I’m not an ICE Agent so I do not know particulars of what someone can say to be freed. But ICE policy does say about “Dream” :
“Individuals who have been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, or three or more other misdemeanor offenses not occurring on the same date and not arising out of the same act, omission, or scheme of misconduct are not eligible to be considered for deferred action under the new process.”
Alsedarna
With all due respect, I think this article misses the mountain for the molehill. Not having personally served in law enforcement, I fear that I cannot comment as to the nature of the chain of command, nor can I say with certainty one way or another whether or not this was the most appropriate way for Agent Crane to voice his concerns.
That being said, as far as your comments on this article go, you seem to have done a rather nice job completely ignoring the entirety of what the speech was actually about, while instead attempting to demonize the man purely on the basis of his political association, presumably with the belief that any complaints leveled against the DREAM Act must be part of some conspiratorial Republican agenda and therefore, so intrinsically wrong that his points must not even be worth discussing.
I suggest however that you consider the actual content of his speech. Firstly, dealing with a matter of fact, the DREAM Act, in its current iteration, does not in fact, posess any requirements that an illegal alien provide proof that they meet the requirements of the Act. If memory serves, this requirement WAS in the initial versions of the bill, however the act was struck down three times over in both the House and the Senate, before the President signed his own version into law via fiat regardless of the will of the nation’s representatives.
Secondly, there exists the fact that regardless of your political affiliations, the orders this man were given still exist, and the incident this man described still happened. ICE have still been ordered to (again, without questioning or requiring documentation of any sort) immediately release anybody detained on immigration charges if they claim to be protected under the DREAM Act. In addition, there did exist a case whereupon an illegal immigrant was found engaging in domestic abuse, preventing his victim from reaching emergency services, assaulting and then fleeing federal agents, only to be let free immediately upon his claiming to be covered by the DREAM Act. According to Agent Crane, this is not the only such incident to have occurred thus far, and while I have yet to verify this statement, it is, if nothing else, cause for legitimate concern and hence, subsequent research.
Whether or not in stating this Agent Crane happens to be “denouncing the single most important policy to win over Latino voters” is irrelevant. What matters is whether or not what this man claims actually happened, and given that he gave explicit reference to the fact that news of this incident has been widely distributed among ICE agents, I’m rather inclined to believe him on that point. But no, CLEARLY “Crane is trying to turn this into a federal witch hunt of those who disagree with Obama’s new policy is stretching the truth to comply with the Republican agenda”, never mind the fact that you couldn’t quite be bothered to actually state where the truth happened to be stretched. Also, I presume you mean “witch hunt” to refer to mass hysteria and panic about an issue which in reality is non-existent, another claim which you just so happened to fail entirely to substantiate. Everything else aside, even if this one incident occurred in complete isolation, I’d still say that’s proof positive that we’ve a clear problem somewhere along the line.
But no, if there exists ANY problem with this issue, “it’s that [Obama’s] administration has been too lenient with those who disregard past protocol and blatantly disrespect the office of the President and Obama himself by trying to publicly humiliate and insult him” (or in other words “if you so much as dare to consider criticizing an executive order on the grounds that you feel it puts this country at risk, you’re a wretched hatemonger who deserves to be publicly denounced for it”), and this complaint wasn’t kept secret through the chain of command, only so that it could be crushed and demonized by bureaucracy before the public ever had chance to catch wind of it.
Should you consider penning such articles in the future, I would highly advise you to actually consider the substance of what you attack, as opposed to publishing ill-researched pieces consisting of little more than the very attempts at public humiliation you so claim to despise.
Feet in 2 Worlds’ News Pick, July 30, 2012 | Feet in 2 Worlds
[…] Jindal is not alone. The head of the union representing employees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appeared with Republican senators with his own criticisms of the policy. Latina Lista comments here. […]
franklinjake78
@Alsedarna Well said! This is a normal tactic of the left. They obviously cannot argue the facts on this issue. 90+% of people that heard this would be outraged – and I find it interesting that most of the media refuses to cover this – because it would make Obama look bad. And we know the media is in full protection mode for Obama.
But this is the same as calling people who disagree with Obama on policy “racists”, people who believe in traditional marriage as “bigots”, and on and on. When they cannot debate on substance, they personally attack them.
franklinjake78
@AlvaradoFrazier Again, Agents have been going up the Chain of Command for decades, with zero meaningful help from Superiors.
And as far as expanding the Secure Communities, what has that specifically done to stop and crack down on Illegal Immigration? Nothing. There is “window dressing” action that does nothing, and there is “real action” that actually makes a difference. It is like Obama titling Obamacare “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”, with repeated promises that once past, that his bill spending trillions would bring down the cost of Health Care premiums for everyone, as it implies in the “rosy” title. However, Health Care Costs have gone up even faster since the passage of the bill, and over 70% of businesses cite Obamacare as one of the main reasons they are not hiring, because they are bracing for the higher costs of having employees. So as you can see in this case, just because Obama took action on Health Care with the promise to make it better on the financial part, it has failed miserably, and made things worse.
One act that Obama did, was appoint Holder who during his Administration, the Justice Dept ran Fast & Furious which allowed thousands of guns to be “walked” into Mexico with no tracking devices on them. These guns have killed hundreds of Mexicans in Mexico, and killed at least one Border Agent, Brian Terry, who was murdered by one of these guns 80 miles within our borders by a smuggling crew that operates freely INSIDE the US Border. THIS IS INSANE! but hey, Obama expanded Secure Communities, so hey, who cares about a bunch of dead Mexicans and dead Border Patrol Agents on the Unsecure border – nothing to see here, move on.
Both parties have failed us on the borders. This isn’t just a shot at Obama. But Obama is the one pouring salt in the wounds of the Tens of Millions of Americans that have been victimized by Illegal Immigrants, by allowing hundreds of thousands (which I guarantee will turn into millions) of Illegal Immigrants to obtain legal status, and totally ignore their crimes.
Marisa Treviño
Franklinjake, the only tactic I see in reading this thread of comments is that the “right” are in full attack mode trying to discredit and insult. In all my 8 years of posting online, this never changes. The main focus of the post was not to debate the policy but to highlight the method of how this union boss chose to air his feelings. So, I guess this means that all of you who support him would support any employee who disagrees with his employer to call a press conference and air his grievances in public and with the employer’s competition.
You all are more tolerant than anyone would have guessed.
Lanceur08ifaek
@dreamthemovie http://t.co/rCqNGhql