Looks like Double Jeopardy, wouldn't you agree?

Tonight a Permanent U.S. Resident is sitting in a D.C. immigration prison awaiting deportation. He has been in jail for almost 3 years. In South Carolina, another Permanent Resident, a female who has lived in the U.S. since 1979, is also in the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Some 12 years ago she stole a t-shirt, was judged, convicted, and completed her probation. So why has she been arrested for the same crime - again?

ICE authorities have broadly misinterpreted immigration legislation in order to detain and deport legal residents all over the U.S., according to the CAIR coalition in D.C. (www.caircoalition.org/), which provides free legal consultation to immigrants without attorneys. CAIR says this legislation is poorly-written, and that it is causing many immigrants to be deported for minor criminal convictions for which they have long-since paid their dues.

Does this remind anyone else of the Double Jeopardy clause in the Constitution? The clause was created to protect people from injustice just like this. It holds that no one may be accused and convicted of the same crime twice. How is it possible that the Supreme and District courts has not intervened? 

Imagine you find a rat on the street. You bring it home, bathe it, and dress up in a pretty blue Sunday bonnet. He cleans up well. So well that he might even fool some of your friends who have had one too many cocktails. But at the end of the day, he's still a rat. A fat and smelly one. And that's what this law application is: something dirty disguised as something good for society. The law being used to detain former convicts was intended for felons and those who committed violent crimes. But even in such a case, can we still justify punishing an individual for the same crime twice?

The time has come for us to stop tolerating federal abuse of laws. The heat must be turned up under Congressional rabbit tails if we expect a solution to start cooking. Immigration overhaul had better find its way to the top list of priorities in the Obama administration, otherwise we'll be staring at the same problems in twenty years. Am I mistaken to believe we are a country of progression? Twelve million illegal immigrants aren't going away overnight, and neither are the devastating costs that their illegality creates for our economy.

Slowly the American people lose their voices because they don't use them. Many of us know that we have to act, and know HOW to act, yet we do nothing. Have we forgotten that to know and not do, is tantamount to not knowing?

Thomas Jefferson is turning over in his grave.