Bush's Border Chief Refuses to
Enforce Immigration Laws Against Illegals

he man in charge of the nation's border security says he won't enforce immigration laws against the flood of illegal aliens entering the U.S. from Mexico.

Even though the nation is supposedly conducting a "war on terrorism," Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, who is in charge of the nation's border and transportation security agencies, said government security officials won't enforce the law because Americans are too compassionate to "uproot" illegals living in the U.S.

"There's a lot of compassion out there. You don't send out a paddy wagon to round them up," he said in an interview with the Washington Times.

Hutchinson, a former Republican congressman from Arkansas, earlier this year criticized the arrest of about 400 illegal aliens in California by the Border Patrol because the apprehensions took place nearly 100 miles away from the border inside the U.S. In response to complaints from Hispanic Rep. Joe Baca, D-CA, who opposes arrests of illegals, Hutchinson said the apprehensions, although lawful and proper, violated Bush administration policy and were "not approved." The special unit making the apprehensions, known as the Mobile Patrol Group, was promptly reassigned to checkpoints near the border.

Under the new Hispanic outreach political strategy developed by White House political adviser Karl Rove, Border Patrol agents are allowed to apprehend illegals at or near the border. But agents have orders to keep "hands off" of aliens who successfully evade capture and penetrate the country's interior.

About 300,000 of those illegals were ordered deported after committing additional crimes in the U.S., but authorities say they can't find them. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they have only 2,000 agents to try to track down the criminals.

Hutchinson said he supports the president's plan to grant amnesty to the estimated 8 million to 13 million illegal aliens inside the U.S.

"Immigration has provided vitality to the growth of the country," he told the Times. "We ought to recognize that, and that's an important principle in the development of our immigration policy. We have to be able to assimilate or integrate immigrants into our society where they can become Americans."

He said the president's plan, called a "guest worker" plan under which an unlimited number of immigrants from any country in the world who find jobs can come to the U.S., was designed to "bring 8 million [illegal] aliens out of the shadow and give them legal status."

Public opinion polls repeatedly show that large majorities of Americans want the government to enforce laws against illegal immigration and to reduce legal immigration. Nonetheless, Hutchinson believes Americans don't want the laws enforced.

"I don't think America has the will. I think they have too much compassion to tell our law enforcement people to go out there and uproot those 8 million here - some of whom might have been here for 8 or 12 years, who got kids here that are American citizens - and to send them out of the county."