Nancy Pelosi Trashes ICE

On March 7, 2009, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke in front of a mostly-Hispanic audience at St. Anthony's Church in the Mission District of San Francisco. The appearance was part of a nation-wide series of speeches entitled "Family Unity" tour organized by the leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The principle organizer is Luis Gutierrez (D-Il), a man who has referred to government agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol, as "Gestapo". Pelosi, in her speech, not only pandered to the audience, but condemned the efforts of ICE to enforce our existing immigration laws. Her remarks were unworthy of a House Speaker when referring to federal law enforcement agencies.

Here are some of the quotes of statements made by Speaker Pelosi (which were recorded by a member of the audience unknown to Pelosi):

"Our future is about our children."

"Taking parents from their children...that's un-American."

"Who in this country would not want to change a policy of kicking in doors in the middle of the night and sending a parent away from their families?"

"It must be stopped...What value system is that? I think it's un-American. I think it's un-American."

"I can't say enough, the raids must end. The raids must end."

"You are special people. You're here on a Saturday night to take responsibility for our country's future. That makes you very, very patriotic."

First of all, we all know that Pelosi is an ultra-liberal politician from San Francisco, and nothing in this posting will cause outrage in her district. They have the representative that they want and deserve. But somewhere out there in the heartland of America, this must anger someone that the Speaker of the House of Representatives would make these statements about federal law enforcement authorities who are enforcing the law. Pelosi talks as if the Congress were holding hearings into police corruption as in the Knapp Commission hearings into New York City Police corruption decades ago.

That is certainly not the case here.

What about the accuracy of Pelosi's charges? Is it true that ICE is kicking down doors in the dead of night to capture one or two illegal aliens in a family? Although it has been alleged, my experience as a DEA agent (who also worked in a task force with US Immigration) tells me something different. Even 20-30 years ago, if Immigration got a tip that John Doe was an illegal alien and living at such and such an address, they would do nothing because they didn't have the resources to go after one or two persons at a time. That is ten times as true today. Doors being broken down in the dead of night sounds more like drug raids (when night-time warrant execution is authorized by a magistrate). Raids described by Pelosi sound more to me like raids on a business where ICE figures to round up dozens of illegal aliens or more during works hours. Could it be that some of these cases quoted by Pelosi and the open-borders crowd involve illegal aliens who are wanted on other criminal charges?

Similarly, what about about the charges of ICE agents dragging parents away from their children? ICE has already refuted those charges. They have taken great care to insure that when a parent is arrested, no child is left unattended. Is someone trying to use the example of Elian Gonzalez here, which was conducted by the Clinton Justice Department under Janet Reno? (I supported the action of the Justice Department in that case since I felt that Elian's father had every right to reclaim his son.)

Or maybe you would care to bring up the case of the Mexican woman in Chicago who was finally arrested in Los Angeles and sent back to Mexico a couple of years ago-leaving her young son in the care of US church officials, with whom she had enjoyed sanctuary? Let's be clear: If an illegal alien parent is subject to deportation, they have every right to take their entire family with them back to their home country-regardless of the citizenship status of the child. If they choose to leave them behind-for whatever reason-that is on them.

Our immigration and border officials are doing an impossible job-with precious little support from our government in Washington. Nancy Pelosi's outrageous comments underscore that point. Ms Pelosi should be ashamed of her comments and apologize to the men and women of ICE.