INS to Free 3,400 Ex-Convicts.
Hum. You know, I'd thought that Ashcroft would have dithered and defied and kept people in jail longer (well, longer than he did, anyway -- three weeks is a comparative bagatelle, and most of them will be in jails a while longer yet as the process goes through). I suppose as a practical issue it would have been impolitic for the head of Justice to have refused a direct order from the Supreme Court.
Ashcroft vowed yesterday to take action against countries that refuse to accept the immigrants or unreasonably delay their return. He said in a speech in Denver that he may ask Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to "discontinue granting visas" to citizens of countries that do not cooperate. That would be an unprecedented action, Justice Department officials said.
Ho. I want to see him do it, I really do. I mean, let's face it: there can't be that many visa requests from the four major "offenders" -- and political considerations won't allow him to refuse visa requests from Cuba; almost all of those are some sort of official visit. Either that, or they're Cuban-Americans visiting back and forth, bringing up family, and again, political considerations won't allow it. (Bush II Fraudulency does not want to outright lose Florida next election cycle, or make things harder for the Republicans down there.) OK, sure, he can deny student visas from those countries, and tourist visas. But if any of them are requesting employee visas, then he'll have to contend with the corporations who yank the Shrub's strings, and they will not be pleased if he messes with them, especially if he does it with any frequency.
Ashcroft also vowed to work with state and local law enforcement officials to determine whether any detainees could be returned to state or local custody to serve additional sentences.
Ah, there's the Ashcroft we all know and loathe. Congress having been slapped down on this issue for having made an ex post facto law and Justice having been slapped down for enforcing it, he'll just try to do an end run around the Court. Of course, since any additional offenses that he could find in records would almost certainly already have been punished (well, they wouldn't be in records, otherwise, now would they?), he can just get slapped down again, but by then, the people will have served additional time beyond their sentences -- again. Plus, of course, there's that "terrorist" designation he's looking to slap on the "most dangerous"; since their offenses are a matter of public record, the only way he can make that stick is by jailing people under the Secret Evidence portion of the Immigration Acts ("we know you did it but we won't tell you how or why we know and we won't let you defend yourself because in order to defend the country we have to shred the Constitution, that radical document"), which various courts are repeatedly holding to be unconstitutional.
Fun having our own little despot in charge of doling out "justice", isn't it?
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!