To Protect and Serve

Well, Virginia Beach folded. In the face of growing anger from its citizenry, the city announced it will stop its "Sanctuary" policy of failing to inform federal authorities about criminal illegal aliens.

The back story here is brutal. On March 30, 17-year-old Alison Kunhardt and 16-year-old Tessa Tranchant were killed when illegal alien Alfredo Ramos slammed into their car. Ramos was drunk and had four previous beefs with the law, including a D-U-I conviction.

Yet, Virginia Beach police Chief Jake Jacocks told the press he had ordered his officers not to call Homeland Security Agents (ICE) about any "low-level" offenders because he, Jacocks, didn't believe it was his job to help the feds.

What?

It seems to me that every law enforcement officer should want as few criminals in town as possible. Since Ramos was here in the USA illegally, and was a consistent lawbreaker in Virginia Beach, the feds could have easily removed him from the area and sent him back to Mexico. Apparently, Jacocks had a problem with that.

But not any longer, at least in public. After my reporting battered the government of Virginia Beach, it has changed it's dangerous and irresponsible policy. But Jacocks got in a last shot calling me, your humble correspondent, "pathetic."

But that was an improvement over what Denver Post columnist Joanne Ostrow called me after she saw my coverage of the Virginia Beach story. Ms. Ostrow called me "racist."

So why all the anger? Doesn't it make sense that any person who is in the country illegally in the first place, be deported when convicted of committing a crime on American soil? I can't read minds but there is something very strange going on inside the "pro-immigration" movement.

When President Ronald Reagan delivered citizenship to almost three million illegal aliens in 1986 through his "amnesty" program, the entire problem of people coming to America without proper credentials was supposed to have been solved.

At the time the Atlanta Journal editorialized "it will help stem the tide of future illegal entrants ..."

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, all rhapsodized that Reagan's vision would be great for America.

So now we have four times as many illegal aliens waiting for another amnesty, with more coming every hour of the day.

With emotions running high, the federal government, never a tower of courage, does not seem able to fix the chaos. Most Americans understand that the vast majority of illegal immigrants simply want a better life and will work hard to get it. So I ask you, who wants to deny anyone a better life?

But by failing to institute standards of behavior in the immigration arena, the U.S. government puts us all at risk. There's no way on this earth that a four-time loser, in this country illegally, should have been driving around drunk. Didn't Allison and Tessa deserve to live? We have millions of Americans who drive around smashed, do you we need to add to that number with insane "Sanctuary" policies that protect criminal illegal aliens?

The power brokers in Virginia Beach were forced to do the right thing but still don't believe they were ever wrong. How did things get so out of whack in America?

Veteran TV news anchor Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of the book "Culture Warrior." To find out more about Bill O'Reilly, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. This column originates on the Web site www.billoreilly.com.

COPYRIGHT 2007 BillOReilly.com.