Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today questioned Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s decision to investigate a law enforcement action by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to ICE, the Bellingham operation resulted in the arrest of 28 illegal immigrants and is part of an ongoing worksite enforcement investigation.
Ranking Member Smith issued the following statement regarding Secretary Napolitano’s decision to investigate the investigators:
“Let me see if I have this straight: ICE agents arrest a criminal illegal immigrant gang member, discover he had worked illegally with other illegal immigrants at a manufacturing plant, begin an investigation of the employer and arrest the illegal immigrants to get more facts … and the Secretary orders an investigation of ICE?
“I am surprised that Secretary Napolitano, a former federal prosecutor, either fails to understand or chooses to ignore the fact that in workplace immigration enforcement cases, the best evidence for a criminal prosecution of the employer often comes from the illegal immigrant workers themselves.
“This sounds like good police work, not something to investigate. Secretary Napolitano’s decision is beyond backwards. It is an insult to the dedicated ICE agents whose daily work makes our country safer and enables American citizens and legal immigrants to get available jobs in our economy.
“The Secretary is on the wrong side of this issue. She should be standing up for U.S. citizens and legal immigrant workers, not the illegal immigrants who take their jobs.”
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