Ahh, our dear old Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has told us time and time again that "catch and release" has ended. I personally think I've heard him grandstand and say this about 10 times in the last 6 months. It's now his favorite soundbite to prove that he's doing his job.
But is it really true? Of course not and here is a perfect story to prove the point.
A man arrested after reckless driving and wrecking admitted to police he was an illegal alien, worked for Wal-Mart, committed document fraud more than once, drove without a license, drove without insurance and what happened to him? He was "caught and released" on his own recognances on an unsecured $1,000 bond. That's right, in addition to being released, he managed to get a bond on top of it. So some company aided and abetted his release on top of the 7 other laws that were broken in this paragraph alone.
Rock Town Weekly
Marlon Wilfredo Vega Herrarte, 24, is out on $1,000 unsecured bond. Court records say he told police he is an illegal alien from Guatemala who has been in this country eight months. He works at Wal-Mart, the file says.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Correy Smith says Vega Herrarte’s immigration status wasn’t discussed at Monday’s bond hearing, and he didn’t know the defendant was an illegal immigrant. If he had, he says, he would have objected to bond.
In addition to reckless driving, Vega Herrarte is charged with two counts of possessing false documents — an ID card and a birth certificate — as well as driving without a license and operating an uninsured vehicle, all misdemeanors, according to court records.
He was held after getting in a wreck after racing another vehicle on the streets. On top of this he was treated at a hospital after the wreck. Who paid for that? Was it part of his health insurance that was obtained illegally through hs fraud or did the taxpayers once again foot the bill?
As for Wal-Mart, they're playing the ignorance card.
John Simley, spokesman for Wal-Mart, which court records say is Vega Herrarte’s employer, says the company does not knowingly hire illegal immigrants. They also have trained employees to spot fake documents — something he says is not a common problem with Wal-Mart applicants. "For a company as large as we are, the incidence [of applicants using fake documents] is low."
Yeah the incidence of fraud is low because you can't actually verify the documents. Obviously their program of spotting fraudulent documents doesn't work because this illegal alien used two false documents and landed a job there. Why Wal-Mart isn't participating in the Basic Pilot Program the government offers -- for free -- to verify a workers eligibility to work is beyond me. It wouldn't cost Wal-Mart anything and would actually make their job of verifying legal documents easier rather than "guessing", like they're doing now.
Of course Wal-Mart is just full of shit, they don't care if their workers are illegal or not because there is currently no real penalties being handed out by the government for employers of illegal aliens.
In the end, "catch and release" is alive and well. For an illegal alien to openly admit it to police and to not have ICE agents waiting for him when he posted bond just proves that they're not serious about this issue and that Michael Chertoff is full of shit.
