WASHINGTON   –  “A disappointing thing happened in Missouri last week -- for the second time this year, a county sheriff in the Eighth Congressional District apprehended illegal immigrants and was then told to release them by the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  In January, four illegal aliens were ordered released in Ozark County, and just last week, 13 illegal aliens in custody in St. Francois County were given their walking papers.

I couldn't be more frustrated with the way our federal officials handle situations like these, especially after I worked on measures three years ago to improve the coordination between federal, state and local law enforcement when dealing with aliens living and working in the U.S. without going through the legal process.  Immigration and naturalization in the United States are great privileges, and the federal enforcement of our laws should never be taken lightly.  Instead, violators of our federal immigration laws are being caught and then released often without charges or inquiries of any kind.

I'm not alone in my frustration. Our county sheriffs have every right to be upset, along with every law enforcement agent in the state. They spend considerable time and effort to assure our communities are safe and livable, and they put themselves in harm's way to do so.  To be told that an illegal alien in their custody should be let go is an affront to their good work, and a pretty good assurance that the offenders will become someone else's problem in another jurisdiction down the road.

The other folks who have every right to be outraged right along with me are the Missourians looking for work in a tough economy.  There is no doubt that, even in our Southern Missouri congressional district, jobs that could be done willingly and well by residents of our communities are instead being sourced to illegal laborers.  It has never been more important to have regulations in place to protect our U.S. workforce from undocumented aliens.
One of those measures is a strong requirement that employers verify the legal status of every worker they hire and pay.  Another is obviously stronger border protections that keep illegal aliens, illegal drugs, illegal weapons and the threat of terrorism contained at the border.  And yet another is the willingness to prosecute wrongdoing whenever and wherever it is discovered, whether it is by an agent of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency or by the county sheriff who knows our communities best.

Immigration policy is rumored to again be up for debate in Congress, but I fear none of these much-needed improvements to the law will be in it. Instead, we will begin another long discussion about pathways to citizenship and reforms of our system.  Frankly, those relaxed proposals are tough to accept when so many naturalized citizens and legal resident aliens have taken the time to go through those processes legally.

Instead, we ought to focus on how we can save American jobs, protect American communities, and restore integrity to the immigration process. It starts by using every resource available to us, something the federal government is uninterested in today.”