Romney's Fantastic Idea

I am not a fan of Mitt Romney and would not (based on his health care schemes in Massachussettes alone) support him for President, but when someone has a good idea you've got to give them credit.

Governor Mitt Romney is seeking an agreement with federal authorities that would allow Massachusetts state troopers to arrest undocumented immigrants for being in the country illegally.

Currently, State Police have no authority to arrest people on the basis of their immigration status alone, said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom. If they arrest immigrants for violations of state law, troopers can call a centralized US Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Vermont to check on their status, and can detain immigrants if federal officials request it.

Under the agreement Romney is seeking, troopers would have greatly expanded powers: They could check an immigrant's legal status during routine patrols such as during a traffic stop and decide whether the immigrant should be held.

``It's one more thing you can do to make this a less attractive place for illegal aliens to come to work," Romney said.

A lot of people who favor granting amnesty (or "clemency" or "a path to citizenship" or whatever you wish to call it) to illegal immigrants buttress their position by saying something along the lines of "we can't deport 12 million people."

My contention has always been that we can deport 12 million people as long as we're not trying to track them all down and air-lift them out of the country at once. If we a) secure the border and b) empower local law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants as they are found we can gradually whittle away at the estimated 12 million illegals who are living in this country until, after several years, their numbers are greatly reduced.

This is entirely possible. Why so many Americans lack the will to do this is beyond me.

You can read more from Rob Port at SayAnythingBlog.com