ICE Prosecutes Smugglers But Fails to Arrest Thousands of Smuggled Aliens

A news release posted on the ICE (Immigration and Customs) website on June 14th reports on the arrest of 6 aliens charged with smuggling hundreds of aliens into the United States. The smuggled aliens came from countries as diverse as Brazil and India and, likely, other far flung countries.

It is always a good thing when the agents of ICE are able to conduct investigation that puts an alien smuggling ring out of business and all who participated in this investigation should be commended.

Here are a couple of points for you to consider:

Once again it would seem that the management at ICE has an aversion to identifying the nationalities of the defendants who were arrested. It is at least obvious in this news release that those arrested were aliens considering that according to the information contained in the news release that these individuals were placed under arrest for violations of the administrative provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

The use of the administrative provisions of the INA as a means of preventing the flight of these defendants provides a good example of why the immigration laws are so important to the law enforcement efforts of all law enforcement agencies.

When I worked cooperatively with law enforcement officers from other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, I would often take aliens into custody pursuant to the administrative provisions of the INA to put defendants on “ice’ to make certain that they did not flee while criminal charges were forthcoming for other violations of law ranging from theft, to weapons possession, to drug trafficking to murder. The administrative as well as the criminal provisions of the INA can be a true force multiplier when they are harnessed in conjunction with other law enforcement efforts.

It is just impossible to understand why the ICE news release would identify the cities in the United States where these defendants lived but avoided noting the countries of citizenship for these same defendants.

Additionally, it is important to focus on just how much money was allegedly paid by the smuggled aliens to these smugglers Considering the extreme amounts of money that were allegedly paid I wonder if any of these aliens may have come from so-called Special Interest Countries (countries identified with the state sponsorship of terrorism).

Another point not covered in the news release is what efforts, if any, have been made to locate and apprehend the hundreds of smuggled aliens. If ICE only arrests the smugglers and fails to make an effort to identify, locate and apprehend the aliens who entered into a criminal conspiracy to be smuggled into the United States, in addition to failing to arrest law violators involved in this case, the inference that other aliens who may be contemplating to avail themselves of the “services” of other smugglers, is that they would have nothing to fear from ICE even if the smugglers are arrested. This is a dangerous message to send to would be illegal aliens from the four corners of the planet.

It is also worth noting that aliens who have the financial resources to pay such hefty “fees” to the smugglers may well be engaged in serious criminal activities or were intending to engage in serious criminal activities once they entered the United States illegally.

This again relates back to the concerns I have about what efforts are being made and what resources may be brought to bear to locate, apprehend and seek the removal of these hundred of illegal aliens, who by virtue of the surreptitious method by which the entered the United States, there is no paper trail or biometric record of their entry into the United States.

It is interesting to note that the young women who were smuggled into the United States apparently agreed to work as strippers before they set foot in the United States. There is a tendency to describe illegal aliens who are smuggled into the United States as being the “Victims of Human Trafficking.”

Not long ago I wrote a commentary about my disagreement with the way that such a determination is made when, in reality the alien who pays a smuggler to be smuggled into the United States should be seen as a co-conspirator rather than a “Victim.”

Here is a link to commentary that appeared on my website.

It has been said that it “Takes two to Tango.” It is as important for ICE to seek to arrest and seek the removal of smuggled aliens as it is to apprehend and prosecute the smugglers who brought them here for a “fee.”

A final thought – there are unknown millions of illegal aliens who are currently present in the United States. Their true names, countries of citizenship and other relevant information is unknown and unknowable including their potential affiliation with criminal or terrorist organizations.

The magnitude of this crisis is also unknown and unknowable with estimates of this illegal population ranging from 12 million to two or perhaps three times as many illegal aliens being present in our country. Many of these illegal aliens availed themselves of the services of smugglers not unlike those whose arrests were chronicled in the news release.

It is obvious that there are huge numbers of aliens smugglers operating to enable illegal aliens to penetrate our nation’s borders thereby creating havoc for our nation- have a serious deleterious impact on issues ranging from national security, criminal justice and hence community safety to the economy, the environment, healthcare, education and other important threats to the well being of our nation and our citizens.

The question to be asked is how many special agents of ICE are “out there” on the hunt for these smugglers and the aliens who circumvented the inspections process that is supposed to prevent the entry of aliens into our country whose presence would be harmful or dangerous to the United States and all who live, work or visit our country?

Title 8, United States Code section 212 is the section of law (the INA) that enumerates the various categories of aliens who, under the Immigration and Nationality Act, are supposed to be prevented from entering the United States and are supposed to be removed if they are found here.

Here is a link to that section of law

Please take the time to review the contents of this section of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

Among the categories of aliens who are supposed to be kept out of the United States are aliens with dangerous communicable diseases, aliens who suffer serious mental illness and are prone to violence, aliens who are convicted felons, aliens who fugitives from justice in other countries, aliens who are human traffickers and drug smugglers, aliens who are war criminals and aliens who have committed human rights violations. Also aliens who are engaged in terrorism and espionage are among those who are, by law, supposed to be prevented from entering our country and are supposed to be removed if they manage to evade the Border Patrol and enter the United States.

It must be presumed that an alien who would pay many thousands of dollars to a smuggler to evade the inspections process rather than seeking to enter our country lawfully knows that they would not be able to lawfully enter the United States because they fall under one or more categories of aliens who are statutorily ineligible to enter the United States.

Yet the President, members of his administration and members of Congress, at the behest of special interest groups and deep-pocketed contributors have made it clear that they cannot wait to provide these unknown millions of illegal aliens with lawful status and a “pathway to United States citizenship!”

With an inducement like that, no one should be surprised the smugglers have no shortage of “clients!”

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!

We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.

My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.

The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

The practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.

The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!

The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians. I implore you to get involved!

I believe our nation’s is greatly benefited by the rich diversity of our people which is why I could never imagine living anywhere except New York City, arguably the most diverse city in our nation if not, in fact, the world. However, my idea of diversity most certainly does not include members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels or members of other transnational gangs or members of al-Qaeda!

If our government’s failures to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce our immigration laws concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!

All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!

You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!

6 charged in New Jersey with international alien smuggling conspiracy

Michael Cutler
Michael Cutler, a former Senior INS Investigator, an expert witness in more than a dozen Congressional Hearings is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and an advisor to the '911 Families for a Secure America.' He writes about the nexus between immigration and national security.