Chertoff to Step Up Enforcement

The Christian Science Monitor has a view on a Michael Chertoff’s goal of stepping up enforcement in view of what occurred in the Senate last week:

Both gloat and glum hang over Washington after last week’s Senate defeat of the immigration bill. But now what? Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff has the best answer: Enforce current laws, however imperfect they may be.

“To regain the credibility with the American people that has been squandered over 30 years, we’re going to have to be tough,” he said, after losing a months-long struggle on Capitol Hill to pass immigration reform.

The squandering he refers to is the unfulfilled promise by several presidents to treat illegal immigrants with justice – and fairness.

The justice lies in better securing the border, timely deportation of those who break immigration laws, and sustained enforcement of laws against the hiring of illegal workers and against the forging of identification documents.

The fairness lies in finding more humane ways to conduct raids on work places with illegal workers, in better preventing exploitation of such migrants, and in not stepping on their basic civil rights. Click here for the rest of the editorial.

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