ICE offers aliens a deal

Found this in the patriotpost

Between 5 August and 25 August, Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered a special program to 457,000 illegal aliens who have no criminal records yet have failed to follow a court’s order to leave the country. The pilot program, Operation Scheduled Departure, had offices in six U.S. cities where aliens could “turn themselves in, get their affairs in order and leave the country without being detained.” The program was advertised on Spanish language media in the cities where the ICE offices are located.

According to Julie Myers, HSD Assistant Secretary for ICE, the program would have assuaged the “concerns raised by aliens, community groups and immigration attorneys who say ICE unnecessarily disrupts families.” But Jim Hayes, who supervises deportation for ICE, claimed that advocacy groups and lawyers had counseled eligible aliens not to participate—as an act of protest. “What the advocates state is that... we don’t like enforcement of the law itself,” Hayes said.

In any case, the program was a bust, enrolling a total of eight (that’s 8) aliens. Hayes saw it as a victory because it proved the efficacy of capturing illegal aliens over trying to coax them to comply in the current climate of entitlement. None of the eight has yet departed, Hayes said. They are an Estonian, two Indians, two Guatemalans, a Lebanese, a Mexican and a Salvadoran, proving that, if nothing else, the U.S. government is an equal opportunity deporter.

Chuck's in depth analysis:

Jim Hayes, the Acting Director of ICE's Office of Detention and Removal, said ICE didn’t consider the program a failure because it learned that this technique was ineffective when compared to sweeps and raids.

It doesn't matter what is cost, you see, because we learned that People won't voluntarily leave a country that they entered illegally, when the statistics show they are far less likely to actually get caught, and in the mean time they contribute nothing to the society in terms of taxes, but manage to take as much from the society as they can in terms of services.

The program had generated some interest, given that 136 calls were placed to ICE’s hotline. It also produced a small cost savings for the bureau. While the agency spent $41,000 on the initiative, it saved $13,000 by not having to detain the eight participants. (Saving $13000 by Spending $41,000--yep, that's our gummint’s effectiveness at its finest. $41,000/8= $5125 per criminal alien. By ICE’s own estimate, there are 475,000 criminal aliens in the US. At this rate, it will cost $2, 342, 125, 000 [that's two billion, three hundred forty-two million, one hundred twenty five thousand dollars, folks] to get these folks to leave.

Just a thought--wouldn't it be easier (and more cost effective) if we offered each of them $3000 to just get out? We could provide free airfare, and upon landing in their home country, hand them the checks (payable in the currency of their home country, naturally. That would save over $1 billion right there. Even better, we could tell them the checks are waiting at the customs desk inside the airport... and then teach them to never trust the government.

--Chuck