House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants and their families that enforcement of existing immigration laws, as currently practiced, was "un-American." The speaker was condemning raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

She would continue her speech with the following comments: "We have to have a change in policy and practice and again ... I can't say enough, the raids must end. The raids must end. "You are special people. You're here on a Saturday night to take responsibility for our country's future. That makes you very, very patriotic."

So, the Speaker of the House of the United States was calling for the ICE not to enforce the federal immigration law through workplace raids. Its a policy that new Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will certainly follow in the future since her intent is to focus on the employer instead of the employee. In her view, eliminating demand and not supply means victory in the federal illegal immigration game.

The problem is until last year under the Bush Administration, federal immigration laws were not enforced at all despite the fact that the law clearly states that imprisonment and fines are the result for any illegal immigrant that has committed a federal crime.

The law indicates that an immigration crime is committed by : 1.Entering or attempting to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers; or 2. Eluding examination or inspection by immigration officers; or 3.Attempting to enter or obtaining entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact.

The recent speech by the Speaker of the United States House highlights the politically corrupt world of the United States Congress. A law exists but if you don't like it and it can't easily be changed, just call for a lack of federal law enforcement and highlight the law breakers as the victims. Its all done in the interest of pandering for Hispanic votes, congressional power and narrow political gain.

Of course, the real victims of illegal immigration are not the federal law breakers but the American taxpayer and the unfortunate members of the law enforcement community given the dubious task of trying to enforce the immigration laws that the United States Congress has already passed.

To illustrate this point just consider the passage of the recent Stimulus Bill intended to use billions of American taxpayer dollars to create American jobs. The provision to use technology to make it easier for employers to prevent hiring illegal immigrants from those jobs was eliminated by the Congress prior to the bills passage.

As a result, the Center for Immigration Studies now estimates that up to 15% of those new federally funded construction jobs will be filled by people who are in this country illegally. That may amount to 300,000 jobs that will go to illegal immigrants funded by the hard working American taxpayer.

In the words of the current Speaker of the House, that sure seems like an un-American way to reward the criminal behavior of illegal immigration. Indeed for the United States Congress, the lack of protection for the American taxpayer and worker in the recently passed Stimulus Bill amounts to a national political crime in this most difficult economic time.

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