The problem is, Junior had the same position on the border. So did Clinton, and Senior, and Reagan, and Carter, and Ford, and Nixon, and Johnson. In the twelve years of Reagan and Senior, an estimated 8.7 million illegals crossed the border between the US and Mexico. In Clinton's eight years, the number is estimated at 5.1 million. In Junior's eight years, it's about 7 million. So far under Obama, it's about 2 million.
One thing that I find truly bizarre is many cities have adopted "sanctuary laws" that ban local police from asking people about their immigration status. First began in the 1980's, there are about 21 Sanctuary Cities, including Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Detroit, Jersey City, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland, OR and Portland, ME.
Phoenix used to be one, but has since done away with their Sanctuary policies. Last year the governors of GA and TN both signed into law a ban on cities within those states from employing any kind of sanctuary policies.
The concept of a Sanctuary City just defies belief, really. Like I said, it's bizarre. Part of the issue is that local and state police aren't "trained" in immigration enforcement, since the immigration laws are federal, and are civil laws at that (until you get caught a second time, anyway). The "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996" tries to address the relationship between the federal government and local governments, where minor crimes such as shoplifting and traffic citations became grounds for possible deportation. But it still had locals who were untrained in federal immigration enforcement enforcing the laws.
It seems to me that if you're here illegally, that alone should be grounds for deportation.
But with Sanctuary cities, you have things happen like where, in 2008, an MS-13 gang member (MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha, is like the Crypts and the Bloods, only they are multinational and originate in Central America) murdered a father and his two sons during a traffic altercation in San Francisco. The city of San Francisco knew he was a member of MS-13, and knew he was an illegal alien, as the gang member, Edwin Ramos, had already been convicted of two felonies previously, but was never reported to federal immigration officials due to San Francisco's Sanctuary Policy. The city of San Francisco has rejected any and all claims of liability.
Also in San Francisco, a 17-year old named Rony Aguilera, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was arrested and convicted in 2007 for assault. He was never reported to federal immigration officials due to San Francisco's Sanctuary Policy. A year later, he and another friend, both MS-13 members, murdered and nearly decapitated a 14-year old kid in a sword attack.
In 2008, Salvador Vivas-Diaz, an illegal alien, had four arrest warrants, a suspended driver’s license (that was obtained illegally using false information), had been charged with forgery and failure to return to court but he was never reported to federal immigration authorities due to Phoenix's former sanctuary city policy. Then, while driving drunk, he plowed his car into the police car of Phoenix police officer Shane Figueroa, which resulted in the death of the police officer.
In February of 2009, Francis Hernandez, an illegal immigrant, plowed into a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop in Denver, CO leaving three people dead and two injured. Hernandez had been arrested numerous times before but was never reported to federal immigration authorities due to Denver's sanctuary city policy.
There are countless other examples of this kind of crap. Awesome.
