Criminal Aliens

Talk to people who incline toward liberal views on immigration and it's often not long before your interlocutor will admit to supporting an open border policy. Many folks on the Left, including Mr. Obama and most congressional Democrats, would happily let almost anyone into our country who wants to come in, particularly if they're likely to be Democratic voters.

Well, why not open our border and take in the world's refuse? It's the compassionate thing to do, isn't it?Here's one reason, among many that could be listed, why unchecked immigration is a terrible idea:

The number of criminal aliens incarcerated in California rose to 102,795 in 2009, a 17 percent increase since 2003, federal auditors reported Thursday.

This isn't cheap. Nationwide, the Government Accountability Office reports, it costs well over $1.1 billion a year for states to imprison criminal aliens -- those who committed a crime after entering the United States illegally. California, moreover, is more expensive than other states. GAO auditors estimated California spends $34,000 to incarcerate a criminal alien for one year; in Texas, it's only $12,000.

The audit, requested by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, will provide ammunition for states' perennial effort to secure more federal reimbursement dollars.

More than one in four of the illegal immigrants imprisoned in California are behind bars for drug offenses. Many are also repeat offenders. GAO auditors say that, based on a survey, criminal alien inmates have been arrested an average of seven different times.

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but why, after the first arrest, were these criminals still in this country? Don't the American taxpayers have enough to pay for without having to pay to incarcerate people who shouldn't be here in the first place?

There is a silver lining to illegal immigration, though. In the past twenty years two cars that were insured in my name were involved in fender-bender accidents that were the fault of the driver of my cars. I fully expected my insurance premiums to skyrocket both times. In neither instance, however, did my rates go up. It turned out that the other party in these mishaps declined to report the accident because, I had reason to think, they were in the country illegally, and didn't want attention drawn to themselves.

So there is that. Of course, having illegal aliens driving around has its downside since if they hit you, you're out of luck because they usually have no insurance. They can turn our highways into demolition derbys, and law enforcement simply shrugs and says there's nothing much they can do because the poobahs in Washington won't let them.

It's enough to make smoke come out of your ears.