New York’s Mayor Bloomberg Demands Trespassers be Prosecuted, But Ignores Dangers Posed by Immigration Law Violators

On September 27, 2012 the New York Post published an article, “Bloomberg blasts Bronx DA for not prosecuting trespassing arrests” which stated:

“Mayor Bloomberg blasted the Bronx DA's controversial policy of not prosecuting some trespassing arrests in public housing — saying that the move will bring the city back to its bad old days of crime and disorder.

“If you want to bring crime back to New York, this is probably a good way to do it,” Hizzoner fumed.

The comments came the day after it was revealed that DA Robert Johnson's office would no longer prosecute trespassing cases in public housing unless the arresting cops could justify their collars.”

The obvious concern of the mayor was that those who would sneak into public housing would do so for nefarious purposes. His concerns are certainly understandable and justifiable. Yet when millions of illegal aliens, in a manner of speaking, trespass on the United States by evading the critically important inspections process by which aliens seeking entry are supposed to be screened by CBP (Customs and Border Protection) Bloomberg opposes any effort to identify these trespassers even when the NYPD encounters them!

What an absolute disconnect!

Let us remember that the immigration laws were enacted to achieve two primary goals- protect American lives and to protect Americans' jobs. The immigration laws are absolutely oblivious as to race, religion or ethnicity.

It is should be a matter of commonsense that every reasonable effort to make certain that aliens are prevented from entering and, if such aliens ultimately evade that inspections process that efforts be made to locate, apprehend and remove those aliens for the safety, security and well-being of the country and its citizens. Yet Mayor Bloomberg has in essence declared the City of New York to be a Sanctuary City, continuing — indeed, expanding on the policies of his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani who was the mayor of New York City on September 11, 2001 when the terrorists struck against the United States and New York City.

On February 27, 2003 the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims conducted a hearing, of which I was one of the four witnesses called upon to testify, on the topic: “New York City’s Sanctuary Policy and the Effect of Such Policies on Public Safety, Law Enforcement, and Immigration.”

Here is an excerpt of my prepared testimony for that hearing:

This hearing is being held to attempt to understand why a young woman in Queens, New York was viciously assaulted by a number of aliens who had no lawful right to be in the United States at the time that they carried out this heinous crime against that woman. I also understand that the Subcommittee is concerned about cities around our country, which have prohibited their employees from contacting the INS when they encounter aliens who are illegally in the United States. An example of this is Executive Order 124, which was promulgated by Mayor Ed Koch of New York City nearly 15 years ago. Because of my assignment to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, I was not personally stymied by that executive order; however, I know from my colleagues at INS who were assigned to other units at the NYC District Office, that this order made their jobs more difficult. In the 1970s prior to the issuance of Executive Order 124, when I was assigned to the Frauds Unit, the access I had to the office that had oversight over the NYC Welfare system enabled me to determine if a person who filed a petition for a spouse to receive resident alien status based on their marriage was also receiving welfare as a single parent- an obvious discrepancy which indicated either welfare fraud or immigration fraud was being committed.

New York City’s Executive Order 124 may well have been promulgated with the intention of showing sympathy to our illegal alien population, but in this day and age it sends a wrong and dangerous message. Criminals often mistake kindness for weakness.

While Mayor Bloomberg is clearly able to understand that trespassing into public housing complexes endangers public safety, he appears utterly unable to grasp how illegal aliens and potentially criminals and terrorists among them, pose at least as serious threat to the United States as do the trespassers he has so stridently demanded be prosecuted.

The time has long since come for him and other political “leaders” to connect the dots!