The nation’s top immigration enforcement official vowed on Thursday to process many — but not all — of the illegal immigration cases referred to his agency by the state of Arizona, something he said his agency has continued to do even while federal attorneys wrangle over the Grand Canyon state’s new immigration law.
"The truth of the matter is we do not have sufficient resources to identify, apprehend and remove every single person that’s in this country unlawfully," John Morton, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said at a morning press conference. "So we’ll continue to accept the referrals from the state of Arizona, just as we do today, but we will continue to make a decision on a case-by-case basis, in light of our resources and in light of our priorities."
Those remarks come three weeks after The Chicago Tribune reported he told editorial staff that "his agency will not necessarily process illegal immigrants referred to them by Arizona officials." The Chicago Tribune did not offer an exact quote, and a subsequent email to the Chicago Tribune reporter seeking Morton’s precise wording was not returned.
Republicans on Capitol Hill and others took issue with Morton’s remarks, accusing ICE of changing its enforcement policy and "nullifying existing law."
The ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told Fox News that Morton was "telegraphing to every ICE agency in America that they really don’t intend on cooperating with Arizona." Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, later told a top-ranking ICE official she was "rather stunned" by Morton’s comments.
On Thursday, Morton insisted his agency did not change any policies after Arizona passed the controversial immigration law, which broadens the authority of local police by allowing them to ask suspected illegal immigrants for proof of immigration status and detain them if appropriate.
Morton said ICE would alter how it processes referrals only if a Justice Department review analyzing the legislation calls for such a move. The Justice Department is currently weighing whether to file a challenge to the legislation in federal court, with a decision coming "relatively soon," Attorney General Eric Holder said at Thursday’s press conference.
"We’ll wait to see what the attorney general and his team decides," Morton said. "In the meantime, we’re not going to approach enforcement in Arizona any differently than we do now, which is on the merits and [within] the resources that we have."
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/06/10/ice-chief-vows-to-process-illegals-in-az/?test=latestnews
They DO NOT appear to be on the side of the LEGAL American citizens! Go figure.
