Gwinnett Daily Post

Guest column
2/8/2009

Conway, ICE to be commended for upholding law
By D.A. King

The startling result of the combined efforts of Sheriff Conway’s office and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the just-ended 26-day enforcement “surge” provides valuable and memorable insight into the crime that is illegal immigration.

Not to mention into the industry that is built around aiding and abetting illegal aliens.

Thanks to the courageous attention to duty of Sheriff Butch Conway, more than 900 illegal aliens arrested for additional crimes will face deportation and no longer roam the streets of Gwinnett. Thank you, Butch Conway.

Thirteen of the soon-to-be-deported illegal aliens who were able to elude apprehension by American Border Patrol were in jail accused of murder – 28 with armed robbery charges. “Willing workers” facing prosecution for kidnapping? Eleven.

For the majority of Gwinnett residents whose first concern is public safety and the equal application of American law, the operation in preparation for federal 287(g) authority to allow Gwinnett jail deputies to check immigration status of inmates was a huge success.

For the corporate-funded, increasingly militant far-left illegal alien lobby that howls “racial profiling” and “hate” in defense of the uninterrupted supply of resentful victims of geography needed to expand the entitlements and political power on which it feeds, the operation represents a huge threat.

According to news reports, of the foreign born population that was booked into the Gwinnett County jail in less than a month, nearly 70 percent were in our nation in violation of our immigration laws. Those illegal aliens represent about 30 percent of the total jail population.

It is important to note that 100 percent of the jail’s prisoner intake was screened for immigration status. Stating the obvious truth for grateful residents, Conway said “I can categorically state that Gwinnett County is safer today because of this operation.”

Child molestation charges hung over 23 of the illegals discovered by Conway and federal authorities.

Led and advised by the ACLU and the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, leaders of groups such as “Georgia Detention Watch” and “Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment” have been taught to parrot the mindless time-worn talking points that assisting ICE in removing illegal aliens “is local enforcement trying to enforce something that should be corrected at the national level,” as ABLE’s Tracy Blagec told the media.

On the ACLU’s Web site, we are treated to that radical group’s take on Conway’s attention to duty: “We believe local enforcement of federal immigration laws leads to racial profiling as well as erosion of trust between immigrant communities and the police, making our communities less safe.”

Raise your hand if you think deporting murderers and child molesters makes it “less safe.” Raise your hand if you can explain what race “illegal” is.

Gwinnett residents should be raising their voices against the special-interest groups who will never stop fighting any enforcement of our immigration laws. Including the permanent authority for Conway’s deputies to multiply the effect of the ICE Agents with a 287(g) agreement.

The premise that we should stop enforcement – for any reason – is beyond absurd, and it is dangerous.

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which advocates for enforcement of American

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