Texas Democratic lawmakers attack rep for calling ICE on illegal alien protesters

Calm down. We have laws in this country.

 

Snitches get stitches.

 

Someone holding a sign that says "I am an illegal immigrant" isn't really evidence of any crime. For one thing, unlawful presence is a civil violation not a crime. For two, such a sign can be merely rhetorical, and to treat such a sign as probable cause for arrest would curtail the free speech rights of citizens. According to one of the protest organizers, some protesters were immigrants (I don't know if he meant documented or undocumented) and some were citizens.

http://www.salon.com/2017/05/31/a-n...blican-calls-ice-on-pro-immigrant-protesters/

This article also has the nugget I was looking for yesterday -- did ICE do anything -- and apparently they did not. Who knows if anyone actually called them or if it was just bluster. Maybe they recognize a looming PR nightmare when they see one.

So, there was no crime, no probable cause for checking papers, no enforcement, and maybe even no call into ICE in the first place. Just some blowhard making as ass of himself.

This is another one of those instances that make me wonder about myself. So proud to be Texan, and yet constantly so ashamed of all the dumbass stuff my state represents.

 

That pretty much sums up the whole thing here. The real issue is that some people were actually applauding the blowhard.

 

Yeah but it's not fair to enforce laws because they tear families apart. That's why we should do away with all of the laws so we'll never have to break a family up or affect someone's life. Who cares if they are a murderer, rapist, or thief? Is that really worth tearing apart their family? No! The right thing to do is to ignore all violations of the law.

Have a little compassion.

 

Rape and theft have statutes of limitations unlike murder and... drum roll... illegal immigration. If I stole your car 5 years ago, but no one ever bothered to charge me, the law says I should no longer live in fear of arrest. I can live a normal life. But, if I snuck into the country 30 years ago, I should still be looking over my shoulder because you never know when they'll come for you. We've had that concept of protection against the overbearance of law for longer than we've had a country.

 

The difference is that with illegal immigration you are constantly breaking that law, it's not something you did a long time ago, it's something you are continuing to do until you are caught and deported. If a prisoner breaks out of jail and evades capture for 30 years, should he still be looking over his shoulder not knowing when they'll come for him? What about his family!!!!!

 

It's an ongoing offense. If you kidnap a child, there isn't some point in time where you get to keep the child as your own. You are still committing the crime as long as you have the child.

 

We simply waited too long to deport averages joes as people have made roots and family here. It's amusing watching all these Christians cheer breaking up families. It's what Jesus would have done, gone after everyone and not just the bad hombres.

 

Because illegals who commit violent crimes are such a big part of the population. Because people want rapists, murderers, and thieves around.... and you aren't making up some lame argument in order to defend breaking up families where non violent offenses happen.

 

Ha, if he bluffed the call just to get the dems riled up, that is A1 troll status there.

 

It's not really a criminal offense at all though. It's an administrative state that has civil, not criminal, remedies. Deportation isn't supposed to be a punishment for an offense, it's just resolving an administrative problem. The problem is that this resolution is very punitive for something that isn't even a punishment. And the failure of the system to enforce its rules in an effective and timely way (thereby allowing people to live here for extended periods of time undocumented) has the effect of multiplying the severity of this non-punishment.

Agreed, though troll master isn't really a characteristic I look for in a public servant. The people of Irving should feel embarrassed right now, though they probably don't.

 

Well said.

 

It is a civil penalty. Like a fine is a civil penalty. That doesn't mean it isn't a punishment. You are making a semantic argument. Just because something is not a criminal offense, doesn't mean violating the rules should be ignored. The difference between a civil and criminal offense is whether the penalty for violation includes incarceration. Deportation is not incarceration, so it isn't considered a criminal penalty. So what? These people are violating the law, and when caught, there is a prescribed remedy. You can't avoid paying your parking tickets because it is a civil penalty, you can't choose not to abate a nuisance because it is a civil penalty, you can't keep your child after being declared an unfit parent because it is a civil penalty. Why is this one particular civil penalty beyond the pale?

 

It's as if you don't even contemplate the actual tangible consequences of deporting people to a strange new land who only know the place they live as their home. For many that's even worse than straight up imprisonment. So essentially you are advocating for a situation where the punishment for a civil offense is tangibly more draconian than what some people get as punishment for actual criminal offenses such as rape. If only a fine was the punishment.

Empathy is all I ask for. That doesn't mean open borders. That doesn't mean migrating masses of unvetted migrants.

 

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...changed-Houston-family-surprised-11192377.php

This is what people are talking about when they discuss tearing up families. But you already knew that.

 

This is a nation of laws, not sob stories. If these people don't want to be deported, there are necessary steps to take to prevent that possibility. Saying, "Boo hoo, I have a family." just doesn't cut it. I think saying deportation is worse than imprisonment is a gross exaggeration as well. There are few, if any, nations on earth that are worse than prison. You are also trying to use the most sympathetic perpetrator as representative of the group as a whole. How many people in the United States illegally were brought here before they were able to form an impression of their country of origin?

 

And?

I mean honestly, this is still very much a half measure, more like quarter measure, considering the amount of illegals still in this country and the amount of deportation. This is only a show for fake Christians and xenophobes.

I guess feel good about yourself for breaking up families of non violent people. Hopefully you can tell your god all about it.

 

Too many fake Christians.

 

You can liken it to a fine, but I still don't think it's quite appropriate to call it a penalty. It's a remedy. Barring re-entry is the penalty. But, I do think its effect is punitive, so let's go ahead and call it a penalty. What other penalty increases in severity with the amount of time the government sits idly by and does not enforce its rules? That's the de facto reality with today's deportations. If we grabbed the guy and sent him back in the first month, it wouldn't be a big deal; 20 years later, he has a job, he has a wife, he has English-speaking children, he has friends, he's a deacon in his church, he's in a gardening club -- when you pluck him out, it's very disruptive. I actually want the same things that the hardliners want, effective border security, and speedy deportation of people unlawfully present. But, it's both foolish and unethical to think you can catch up on the enforcement we should have been doing 20 years ago. The burden you put on illegals with belated deportations is no longer commensurate to the crime. It's too severe. And the cause of the severity is mostly on the government for tolerating a dysfunctional system for so long. Deport recent arrivals. Stop new entries. We need a different solution for the ones that have been around forever.