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Politics : About that Cuban boy, Elian -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (3720)	4/30/2000 1:48:00 AM
From: chalu2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9127

I think the INS power arises out of our desire (until recently, most fervently expressed by Republicans) to actually enforce our immigration laws. Now, you know, even though you bear the name gao seng, the INS busting into your home in the middle of the night is as likely as Bill Gates calling you tomorrow and asking for a a loan. So, I have no real idea at what is alarming you. Think about this: most people don't "inform" on illegal immigrants, and there are certain places they are likely to be--restaurants, certain types of factories, certain types of agricultural sites and so forth. Many times you got some guy from Honduras, maybe Mexico, maybe who knows where, no one really knows his name, and perhaps--just perhaps--he was even born here. Who knows? Multiply this by 30 or 40 or 100 workers of similar mysterious origins. Now, how does the INS know who's who? They don't. They just know what's likely, but getting evidence that the workers at a particular facility are illegal or legal is nigh impossible. If they subpoena the employer's books, the next day every migra in his employ is on a bus to the next town. So, the INS can't get enough solid evidence on these people to qualify for your standard search warrant. They're all transitory men of mystery. You can't say: "Magistrate Judge, I know there are 30 Spanish-speaking people working at the Tres Burros restaurant in El Cerrito, grant me a warrant to enter there & question everyone so I can determine what's what and who's who." That's not enough--but if we historically demanded such a search warrant (and "evidence" as to who these folks really are), the INS could just about close up shop. Can't be done in almost all circumstances. So they need these warrantless surprise raids, unless you can think of some way of enforcing the immigration laws against masses of transitory workers of unknown origin that the INS hasn't come up with in the past 50 years. No, Gao Seng, they are not breaking into your home under cloak of darkness to look for illegal Guatemalans under your bed. So you can relax.