Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
“For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned: This is a new era. This is the Trump era. The lawlessness, the abdication of the duty to enforce our immigration laws, and the catch and release practices of old are over.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said those words on a recent visit to our border with Mexico in Nogales, Arizona, signalling the Trump administration’s commitment to law and order — to stop illegal immigration and protect law-abiding Americans.
The Daily Signal reported that the attorney general called the porous border “ground zero” for stopping unlawful entry of gangs and other criminals who bring in drugs and kill. He announced several new policies toward that aim:
– Prosecute anyone suspected of transporting or harboring an illegal alien;
– Charging those who unlawfully enter or attempt to enter the country with a felony offense if they have two or more prior misdemeanor convictions for improper entry, or one prior misdemeanor conviction for improper entry when accompanied by other aggravating circumstances;
– Charging anyone who re-enters the country after a prior removal with a felony, if the person has a criminal record indicating that he or she poses a danger to public safety or is affiliated with a gang;
– Charging those who engage in identity theft or immigration-related document fraud with felonies, including mandatory minimum offenses; and
– Charging anyone accused of assaulting, resisting, or impeding a federal law enforcement officer.
The Trump administration previously announced appointing more immigration judges and border agents to speed up the process of deporting illegal aliens and protecting the border.
Some local lawmakers vowed to defy the government’s effort to enforce the country’s immigration laws.
Several cities, including New York, Seattle, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., have declared themselves to be sanctuary cities and are resisting the administration’s efforts to combat illegal immigration, thereby putting their residents in jeopardy.
Photo credit: By Jonathan McIntosh – Own work, CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons
