The Immigration Raid Dog & Pony Show

Hey, I thought we couldn't do this:

Federal immigration authorities rounded up more than 1,000 illegal immigrants at dozens of sites and charged nine individuals of the firm that employed them, federal law enforcement officials announced. Seven current and former managers of IFCO Systems, which has offices in several states, were arrested and charged in connection with the employment of illegal immigrants, said U.S. Attorney Glenn Suddaby in Albany, New York.

Suddaby said two lower level employees were also charged in the case.

Wednesday's action against IFCO Systems - an industry leader in the manufacture of wooden pallets, crates and containers - came as Homeland Security and Justice Department officials prepared to announce steps to toughen internal enforcement of the nation's immigration laws.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other Bush administration officials and a federal prosecutor will appear at the agency's Washington headquarters Thursday. They will announce the new strategy aimed at employers and disclose the results of the enforcement actions targeting IFCO Systems.

Customs officials said agents made more than a thousand arrests in nearly forty locations including Houston, Texas; Cincinnati, Ohio; Phoenix, Arizona; and Albany, New York.

Michelle Malkin and Mark Levin, just to name two, believe that this was just a Bush Administration stunt to assuage the public backlash against its amnesty initiative and lubricate passage of its pet "guest worker" program. And while I concur with their cynicism, it strikes me that this just undermines the White House's stance on this issue even further by publicizing just how practicable enforcement and deportation really are. Why, then, run up the white flag of amnesty (again) when the Bushies themselves have proven that we can get control of our borders and tourniquet the hemhorraging of impoverished Mexicans into our country?

Based on what Double-M dug up on enforcement statistics over the past decade, it's garishly clear that when it comes to controlling illegal immigration, it is the will that has been missing, not the way:

As Rubenstein points out, this means that from 1997 to 2003, worksite arrests under the Bush Administration fell by a factor of some 97% since 1997 - and plunged by another 2/3rds by 2004.

Where have they been all this time?

As for getting tough on employers, Rubenstein also notes these stunning statistics: "[O]f the 3,064 workforce investigations closed [in 2004], fines were imposed in just 3 (three!) of them – one out of one thousand. By contrast, fines were imposed in about 11% of closed investigations in 1997."

This is not guesswork or unfounded speculation. The Bush Administration is not enforcing immigration laws because it does not want to enforce them, and in the teeth of the overwhelming majority of the American people who do. That is an appalling load of witting political and national security negligence on the part of a POTUS whose political meal ticket for nearly five years has been the GWOT. It is nothing short of astonishing.

And, sure enough, most of the illegals bagged in this raid are already being "released on their own recognizance."

You know, if a president, any president, pisses in the collective face of his core supporters long enough, he really won't be able to win them back. Can Dubya's "friendship" with Vincente Fox really be worth the necrotizing of his presidency?