Liberal Democrat Rep. Luis Gutierrez gave a shrill speech in which he demanded that Obama install immigration “reform” by executive order. He used the same old tired canards to describe why must have “reform” now. He talked about kids coming home to find their illegal alien parents missing. He talked of neighborhoods being “terrorized” by ICE.

(hat tip Weasel Zippers)

It’s well known by now that the Obama administration has zero interest in stopping illegal immigration or prosecuting it when it occurs. Now comes word that they may be planning to take their apathy and obstruction to a whole new level.

Here’s the idea: If authorities pull someone over for a traffic stop and discover they are in the country illegally, authorities would be forced to let the illegal immigrant go without calling federal agents unless the individual is a convicted felon.

So instead of going through the motions of “catch and release” they’ll just end the “catch” part altogether.

Hang in there, America. The midterms are coming.

San Francisco is one of a handful of left-wing cities that has decided not to follow federal immigration law. However, the true scope of the city’s law breaking is only now becoming evident.

San Francisco’s juvenile probabtion department are actively trying to protect Honduran juveniles caught dealing crack and other offenses by using tax payer money to fly them home. This allows the dealers to avoid official deportation which allows them to re-enter the United States.

Rather than have the drug offenders deported, they have recommended that Juvenile Court judges and commissioners approve city-paid flights home to Honduras for the offenders with the aim of reuniting them with their families.

The practice, federal authorities say, does nothing to prevent offenders from coming back, while federal deportation legally bars them from ever returning. Federal officials also say U.S. law prohibits helping an illegal immigrant to cross the border, even if it is to return home.

Federal officials recently detained a San Francisco juvenile probation officer at the Houston airport, where he was accompanying two Honduran juvenile drug offenders about to board a flight to Tegucigalpa.

Some offenders have been caught and given a free flight home 3 or 4 times on the tax payer’s dime. This is a serious violation of federal law punishable by prison time, and the feds are in the midst of a serious investigation into the city.

This is yet another stunning example of just how crazy San Francisco has become. The rule of law of has become nothing more than a joke as the far-left has tightened its grip on the city.

Geraldo Rivera wrote a slightly shrill piece for the Huffington Post calling on Homeland Security Chief, Michael Chertoff, to stop ordering immigration raids.

Geraldo refers to the estimated 12 million undocumented workers as “technically illegal” and calls raids by law enforcement as more appropriate for targeting Al-Qaeda than illegal immigrants.

He repeats a now discredited claim that during a raid in early March of 2007 in Massachusetts, “nursing mothers” were separated from their children.

At the time of the raid, liberal news organizations wrote hysterical stories claiming that nursing babies were torn from their mother’s teet and shipped back to Mexico.

Those claims were later discredited after an investigation and I’m almost certain Geraldo is aware of that.

Probably the most sensational charge in the piece is when Geraldo states that any latino who votes against “rational immigration reform” is an “Uncle Tom.”

I have previously written in His Panic, Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S. that, “any Latino who votes for a Republican or a Democrat who opposes rational immigration reform is an Uncle Tom.”

It’s easy to give Geraldo grief about his immigration views, but I too am generally sympathetic to the illegal immigrants. If it weren’t for the terrorism issue, I really wouldn’t care about the illegal immigration thing. It’s not the thousands of Mexicans that pour over the border at will that really bother me. It’s the one Middle Eastern terrorist piggy-backing into the U.S. along with the thousands of Mexicans that worries me.

That hasn’t happened yet that we know of, but can you think of a better way for terrorists to enter the U.S.? I also agree with Geraldo that racism is playing a part in the immigration debate. That is certainly not anywhere near the main reason, but there’s definitely a small percentage of people who just don’t like Mexicans.

All that said, if we are a nation of laws then we should enforce those laws. If we as a country decide that we really don’t care about securing the border, then we should change the laws. No other country on earth allows people to just enter unannounced through the back door.

I believe the now defunct “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” package that President Bush and John McCain supported was the right idea.

Geraldo is dead wrong about the immigration raids. ICE has a responsibility to enforce Federal immigration laws, and they should continue to do so.

-Chris Jones