Local police protect our borders: local police are finding themselves as the only line of defense against illegal immigration--even as the federal government increasingly strips authority from those same officials.

A police car carrying New Ipswich, New Hampshire, Police Chief W. Garrett Chamberlain and a fellow officer pulled a van over in July 2004 during a routine traffic stop. Inside were nine passengers who openly admitted to being illegal aliens, most from Ecuador. Chamberlain detained the illegals and immediately called the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement service for the federal government to begin deportation proceedings. Federal officials told Chamberlain to simply let them go.

"We're 45 minutes north of Boston, it's two weeks before the Democratic National Convention, and the immigration police have no interest in detaining these people long enough to find out who they really are," Chamberlain told the Boston Globe. "It's kind of disheartening, in this post-Sept. 11 world, my guys are out there going the extra step to try to identify people who might be a potential threat to us, and they tell us we have to go ahead and release them." Although President Bush and many senior members of his administration have publicly stated that "everything changed after September 11th," one thing that has not changed is federal indifference toward America's porous border.

While federal officials dither on the issue of securing American borders from terrorists, drug cartels, and common criminals, local police officials have taken the lead with some innovative proposals to deal with the real security problem of unchecked immigration. Chief Chamberlain resolved to be ready the next time he pulled over a group of illegal aliens.

Chamberlain professes not to be an "activist" and says, "I am not against legal immigration.... I don't believe closing the border is the answer. Securing it is."

Chamberlain's opportunity came on April 15, 2005 when he stopped behind a red Ford Explorer with its hazard lights on, on the westbound shoulder of Turnpike Road. Chamberlain's officers asked the driver if he was all right, but he didn't initially respond because he was talking on a cell phone. After some further inquiries, they found that the driver, Jorge Mora Ramirez, was an illegal Mexican immigrant who had several fake identification cards, including a fraudulent Massachusetts driver's license and a Social Security card. The police chief of the tiny town of 4,200 charged Ramirez with "operating without a valid license" and "criminal trespass" under state statutes.

Chamberlain told the Concord Monitor, "We're applying a state law to illegal aliens, instead of federal law, because the federal government refuses to enforce its own laws. Someone needed to bring it, so I brought it."

New Hampshire has a broad trespassing law: "A person is guilty of criminal trespass if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place." Chamberlain reasoned that if Ramirez had no right to be in the United States, he certainly didn't have the right to be in New Ipswich.

Hudson, New Hampshire, Police Chief Richard Gendron found Chamberlain's effort "pretty creative" and began arresting illegal immigrants for criminal trespass as well. "We are of the opinion that they came into this country illegally ... and for law enforcement to look the other way is wrong," Gendron told the Boston Globe.

Federal officials, however, took an entirely different view of Chamberlain's and Gendron's innovative efforts to help solve the illegal immigration crisis. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Bureau spokeswoman Paula Grenier downplayed the importance of apprehending illegal immigrants and accused Chamberlain of trying to find a media spotlight: "This case is simply about one illegal alien, with no criminal record, who was arrested by this chief. He is using this case to grandstand and to accuse the feds of doing nothing."

"Nothing" is, of course, precisely what federal officials do as a matter of policy in all but the most egregious cases, even after the September 11 attacks. Another Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman admitted to the Boston Globe: "The immigration system is not set up to detain or lock up every alien who is in the U.S. illegally. If it were, there would have to be jails stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic." Van Pelt told the Globe that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement can hold fewer than 20,000 aliens, even though more than one million are currently in court proceedings.

New Hampshire Judge L. Phillips Runyon ruled in August 2005 on one of Gendron's cases that "criminal charges against the defendants are unconstitutional attempts to regulate in the area of enforcement of immigration violations, an area where Congress must be deemed to have regulated with such civil sanctions and criminal penalties as it deems sufficient." Runyon and other judges quashed local officials' attempts to do something--anything--about total federal complacency about massive violation of U.S. immigration laws, but Chamberlain has vowed to continue to look at other innovative methods of finding a way to make an impact.

Deportation by Local Officials?

El Paso County, Colorado, Sheriff Terry Maketa is facing precisely the same federal indifference toward illegal aliens as New Hampshire, though the estimated 30,000 illegals in his county account for nearly 10 percent of the total population. "When they're arrested for a misdemeanor, they don't deport them," Maketa told the Colorado Springs Gazette. "They tell us, 'Let 'em go.'" El Paso County spent more than $1.2 million in 2004 alone to jail illegals facing criminal charges. "That's a big chunk of change," County Commissioner Chairman Jim Bensberg told Colorado Senator Wayne Allard. "The county can't afford that."

Maketa publicly floated the suggestion that the county research the possibility of creating a shuttle service to return illegal immigrants to the Mexican border rather than incarcerate them, arguing it would be less expensive for his county than the existing cost of incarcerating as many as 100 inmates in the already overcrowded county jail.

Spreading the Alarm

Local law enforcement officials in border states have also taken the lead in spreading the alarm over the federal failure to control national borders. El Paso County, Texas, Sheriff Leo Samaniego testified before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security on February 7: "Federal resources have been expanded in cities to our north to combat drug use and distribution, yet most of the drugs have originated from this border. If illicit organizations can bring in tons of narcotics through this region and work a distribution network that spans the entire country, then they can bring in the resources for terrorism as well. If illegal aliens can be smuggled through here in truck loads (and they are) then terrorist organizations can also covertly smuggle the people to carry out their plans." Samaniego, who serves as Vice Chairman of the Texas Border Sheriff's Association, stressed that border incursions by drug lords have become more brazen and drug caravans are increasingly heavily armed.

Sheriff Arvin West of Hudspeth County, Texas, concluded that "efforts to secure the border ... have not been effective thus far." West informed the House Homeland Security Committee that "the issues facing our nation along the U.S. and Mexico border threatens our very freedom and way of life." He asked Congress: "If drug cartels can solicit untrained people to drive across the border undetected and enter this country with illicit products, then what can a well-trained terrorist do?"

While federal officials remain indifferent to the rampant law-breaking of mass illegal immigration and drug running--and the terrorist threat that this law-breaking opens up--a growing number of local and state officials are doing what they can to protect their communities and states.