September 26, 2005

Impeach Bush—And/Or Abolish The EOIR?

By Juan Mann

On August 29, syndicated columnist Patrick J. Buchanan made a courageous call for President Bush’s impeachment.

Buchanan wrote:

“Well, we are being invaded, and the president of the United States is not doing his duty to protect the states against that invasion. Some courageous Republican, to get the attention of this White House, should drop into the hopper a bill of impeachment, charging George W. Bush with a conscious refusal to uphold his oath and defend the states of the Union against ‘invasion.’” [“A national emergency,” by Patrick J. Buchanan, August 29, 2005, Creators Syndicate Inc.]

WorldNetDaily later reported that immigration reform leader Congressman Tom Tancredo would not be taking Buchanan up on his impeachment challenge anytime soon.

Tancredo was quoted as saying he would not pursue impeachment because that “his immigration reform bill [H.R. 3333] will do what is necessary to stem the flow of illegal aliens into the U.S.” [Tancredo won't initiate Bush impeachment, By Ron Strom, September 2, 2005]

But Tancredo’s H.R. 3333 does absolutely nothing to break the immigration litigation log-jam and deport aliens through summary removal.

In fact, H.R. 3333 goes in exactly the opposite direction—by hiring more government attorneys to appear in EOIR Immigration Court hearings. [Section 207]

The problem is that there are too many lawyers involved in alien deportation already—not too few.

This is the story to date:

You think that when the Border Patrol arrests an illegal alien, the alien gets sent back immediately, right?

Wrong.

You think that when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent finds a convicted criminal alien resident (“green card” holder) who is removable for immigration violations, the alien gets deported right away, right?

Wrong.

This is what really happens: Most arrested aliens are entitled to remain in the United States during years of litigation before the EOIR—an agency within U.S. Department of Justice—the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal, and even (on occasions) before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The process of deporting illegal aliens and criminal aliens from the United States is far from being a system of summary removal.

Like just about everything else in America these days, it has been condemned to slow death by lawyers and federal judges—rigged in favor of relief from removal through endless federal litigation.

Under the current state of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the behind-closed-doors deportation proceedings of the federal immigration bureaucracy are in reality more like “get to stay” proceedings.

It is a system “of” the Open Borders interests, “by” the lawyers, and “for” the aliens.

And that’s exactly what the Treason Lobby doesn’t want you to know.

The federal immigration litigation bureaucracy is the Treason Lobby’s “ace in the hole” in these times of citizen outrage over the flood tide of illegal immigration.

And no matter how loudly American citizens scream over “border enforcement,” the process for actually removing illegal aliens and criminal aliens has so far remained rigged.

That’s why courageous citizen efforts like the Minuteman Project are not enough to actually deport aliens.

That’s why landmark citizen initiatives like Proposition 187, Proposition 200 and the current California Border Police initiative are not enough to deport aliens.

The Treason Lobby and its handmaidens in the media and the private immigration bar don’t want you to know that the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), its nationwide U.S. Immigration Court system, and its internal appellate operation called the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) even exists.

When is the last time you’ve ever seen the word “EOIR” in print in a newspaper?

The Treason Lobby has done its job well.

In reviewing the landmark California Border Police initiative currently underway in the Golden State, I recently wrote:

“[A]ny increased boots-on-the-ground immigration enforcement by police officers, immigration agents, the U.S. Border Patrol—or even a citizen Border Protection Corps—also desperately needs companion immigration legislation from Congress to see to it that the aliens arrested for immigration violations are actually deported!”

When was the last time you’ve seen any effort in Congress to streamline the process of deporting aliens—in even the best immigration enforcement bills currently in Congress?

Answer: the last time was in 1996, when Congress granted expedited removal authority…which still has yet to be implemented as written.

Want to make a difference for immigration law enforcement?

Then realize that abolishing the current perpetual litigation system in favor of summary removal will do more to remove illegal aliens and criminal alien residents from our shores than America has ever seen.

Immigration law enforcement desperately needs Congress to fire a laser-guided missile of legislation down the main air-conditioning vent of the EOIR and the federal immigration bureaucracy.

Impeachment or no, America still waits for that courageous Congressman to drop a summary removal bill into the hopper.

What about it, Mr. Tancredo?