Senate Needs To Look South

Norm Coleman’s amendment to the Immigration Bill, requiring local law enforcement to cooperate with federal authorities and laws on illegal immigration, was defeated today 49 to 48. The amendment didn’t require local law to engage in raids or such, just report findings in their ordinary course of duties to federal enforcement. Two Republican Senators didn’t show up to vote, which may have shifted the balance.

A reader sends me this excerpt from the Mexican immigration law:

Check out Mexico’s Ley General de Población [“General Law of Population” – the body of law governing Mexican immigration], Capitulo III, Articulo 73:
Ley General De Población
Capítulo III Inmigración
ARTÍCULO 73
Las autoridades que por ley tengan a su mando fuerzas públicas federales, locales o municipales, prestarán su colaboración a las autoridades de migración cuando estas lo soliciten, para hacer cumplir las disposiciones de esta ley.

For you non-Spanish speakers, that means:
“The authorities who, by virtue of law, exercise a mandate for public enforcement [the police] at federal, local or municipal level, shall provide cooperation to immigration authorities when said immigration authorities request it, to comply with the provisions of this law [the General Law of Population].”

So Mexican police are required by law to cooperate with immigration authorities - and they do. The standard procedure: when Mexican police capture illegal aliens, they turn them over to immigration authorities, where they are processed and deported to countries of origin.