Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has claimed on many occasions that "Catch and Release" has ended for illegal aliens detained. That's funny because those caught in the recent Swift & Company meat packing plant raids are already being released on their own recognizances after posting bail.
That's right, they were "Caught and Released".
Denver Post
Meatpacking workers detained during last week's federal raids began facing immigration judges Tuesday in Colorado and five other states.
Some were released after relatives posted bond of at least $1,500. In Colorado, Immigration Judge Donn Livingston saw 27 detainees at the regional detention facility in Aurora and set court hearings where they are to be informed of charges against them.
What do you have to say about this Michael Chertoff? It is 100% "Catch and Release". The next time you hear this charlatan claim that "Catch and Release" has ended, chuckle and then curse Chertoff's name out loud like I do. More than 75% of illegal aliens released do not show up for their hearings and melt back into society under different names and identities to remain here and escape justice.
Labor-union leaders representing workers in Colorado have asked a federal judge to release them, arguing that workers were mistreated and denied access to lawyers.
The raids constituted "an outrageous abuse of police power," and the government's criminal probe into identity theft "functioned as the Trojan Horse to effectuate an immigration raid," said a lawsuit filed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7.
Wow, so according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union our Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency actually needs a better reason to perform an immigration raid. In actuality all the agency needs is suspicion that the company has hired one illegal alien to perform a raid. With 1,300 illegal aliens being arrested in the recent Swift & Company raids, I'd say that threshold was met.
Let's take a look back a year ago, October 2005, at what Michael Chertoff had to say and my response to it:
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Chertoff also pledged to end the "catch and release" policy that has allowed tens of thousands of non-Mexican illegal aliens to disappear within the United States.
Note that it says "non-Mexican". Therefore we can conclude that the way we handle things with Mexican illegal aliens will remain the same. Catch and release. What a traitorous statement coming from someone charged with homeland security. Homeland security starts at the border.
Chertoff said it is should be possible to achieve significant progress in reversing that policy in less than a year, noting that his department's budget for fiscal 2006 includes $90 million in new money to add hundreds of beds. He said his agency also plans to expand use of an expedited removal program that could cut the average time in detention from 90 to 45 days.
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So how has that worked out for us? How is your program working Mr. Michael Chertoff? Has the $90 million done anything? Apparently not as the "Catch and Release" policy is still in full force as witnessed above.
It should be noted that soon after the comments above by Michael Chertoff, the use of "Non-Mexican" was dropped entirely and his use of just "Catch and Release has ended" was included in future speeches and sound bites. The intent, of course, to convince the American people that we no longer did things like releasing detained illegal aliens back into the community.
