If Only Bloomberg and Other Politicians Would Listen to Themselves

It is a rare week when Mike Bloomberg fails to make use of his bully pulpit as mayor of New York City.

Bloomberg has often attempted to impose his wishes on the residents of NYC. Whether it’s limiting the size of soft drinks, warning about ingesting too much salt or all but mandating that new mothers breastfeed their babies, Bloomberg has developed a reputation for being a true control freak.

When pressed about his often controversial positions, Bloomberg adamantly claims to know what is best for everyone's safety and well-being. As NYC mayor he does bear responsibility for formulating policies to enhance public safety in his city – to an extent paralleling the way that the President is responsible for national security.

What’s unfathomable is how Bloomberg continues NYC's sanctuary policies where immigration laws are concerned, but then demands that when individuals trespass into public housing complexes that they be arrested and prosecuted.

Last fall, I wrote about Bloomberg’s demand to prosecute trespassers in public housing, while ignoring immigration law violators.

Now he’s done it again!

On August 16, CBS New York reported on Bloomberg's proposal to fingerprint everyone in public housing – 620,000 people. Bloomberg said, “If you have strangers walking in the halls of your apartment building, don’t you want somebody to stop and say, ‘Who are you, why are you here?’”

If only Bloomberg could understand that those who violate our borders and immigration laws are not unlike the trespassers in public housing who have so attracted his ire. If he had this commonsense understanding, he would then understand just how perilous it is that there are millions of foreign nationals (aliens) who live in towns and cities, including New York, whose true identities, backgrounds and intentions for coming to America are unknown and unknowable.

Our immigration laws are supposed to prevent the entry and continued presence of aliens who are mentally ill, violent or sex offenders. Our immigration laws are supposed to similarly deal with aliens who are convicted felons, including murderers, rapists, bank robbers, gang members, drug traffickers, arsonists, fugitives from justice in other countries, war criminals, spies and terrorists.

Title 8 USC § 1182 – Inadmissible aliens is a section of law within the Immigration and Nationality Act that enumerates categories of aliens who are to be excluded. When aliens evade the inspections process to enter the United States covertly, one may presume that they are sneaking into the country because they belong to one or more categories of aliens deemed excludible by our immigration laws that were enacted to protect innocent lives and the jobs of Americans.

Politicians and high-ranking members of the administration who claim that entering the U.S. without inspection is not a crime are misleading the public. Aliens who have been previously deported and then unlawfully reenter the U.S. are committing a felony. Depending on circumstances, the penalty for that felony is a maximum of 20 years in federal prison. The relevant section of law is Title 8 USC § 1326 – Reentry of removed aliens. Section (b) of that statute addresses “Criminal penalties for reentry of certain removed aliens.”

Anyone desperate and determined enough to run the risk of a 20-year jail sentence should give everyone, including Bloomberg, cause for pause!

Bloomberg is apprehensive of trespassers in public housing; he should be no less apprehensive about those foreign nationals who trespass in the U.S.