Letting terrorists go...

The Department of Homeland Security doesn't have enough resources to keep violent felons in jail - and so they are being released wherever possible. Here's some excerpts from a column in the New York Post.

Only the worst violent felons (think rapists and murderers), individuals known to be terrorists, and those who have been previously deported are deemed "mandatory" holds. Everyone else can be released if no space is available. Among illegals not deemed "mandatory" holds:

* "Aliens who are subject to an ongoing national security investigation."

* Aliens whom we aren't sure are terrorists but who still "raise a national security concern" based on "specific information or intelligence specific to the individual" — in other words, suspected terrorists.

* Aliens who "exhibit specific, articulable intelligence-based risk factors for terrorism or national security concern."

Perhaps more disturbing: Buried beneath the four groups listed as "mandatory" and eight as "high priority," suspected drug smugglers and human traffickers are merely "medium priority."

Border Patrol agents find it particularly disconcerting to release human traffickers, whom they view as as both murderers and grave security threats — people with no scruples who will take anyone across the border, for a price.

When they are released according to the procedures in the memo, the illegal aliens are given notices to appear for a hearing. Of course, most don't. "The number is actually around 3 percent," notes Center for Immigration Study

And, what about my favorite topic, political correctness?

Political correctness can be seen in the classified memo. It explicitly prohibits racial — or even national origin — profiling. A determination for holding an individual cannot be "based solely on the alien's race, ethnicity, nationality or religion." In other words, 19 Saudi Muslims are considered no greater security threat — or deemed more important for detainment — than 19 Mexican farm hands.

But don't blame DHS. It's the law. DHS couldn't assess risk based on an illegal's race or national origin even if it wanted to. For over two decades, immigration law has forbidden consideration of race or national origin.