The Washington Post recently published an article about Prince George's County Police Department's policy on releasing illegal immigrants they encounter who are found to have warrants for their arrest.

In an instructional video linked in the article, Maryland's Prince George's County Police Chief Henry Stawinski and FOP president John Teletchea instruct police officers that they are not to cooperate with federal warrants for “civil” matters involving illegal immigrants. Chief Stawinski states, “Let’s be clear, the intent of this policy is to keep both you, and our community, safe.” This statement is laughable. Even worse, it’s dangerous, shortsighted and unforgivable.

Let me be clear. What Chief Stawinski and FOP president Teletchea are really saying is this. “The intent of this policy is to protect illegal immigrants, not our officers or the community we serve. We would rather wait until illegal immigrants have had a chance to commit a violent crime against our officers, our local community or other innocent American citizens and legal immigrants before we cooperate with the federal government in removing them.”

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It is well documented that illegal immigrants comprise 30 percent to 40 percent of our federal prison population. There are also thousands of illegal immigrants locked up in state, county and city jails throughout the United States.

Incarcerating illegal immigrants costs American taxpayers billions of dollars every year. These prisoners must be housed, fed, cared for and guarded. None of that is cheap and none of them are even supposed to be here. Think about how many American lives and how much taxpayer money we could save if they were actually deported rather than protected and allowed to stay here.

Who is looking out for the thousands upon thousands of innocent American crime victims who have been attacked, injured or killed by illegal immigrants? Who is looking out for the millions of identity theft victims after an illegal immigrant has turned their lives upside down by using their social security numbers to gain employment? Who is looking out for the American taxpayer who has to fund all this nonsense? It certainly isn’t Henry Stawinski or John Teletchea.

What police departments like Prince George’s County have really done is create a specially protected class of people who can’t be touched until they victimize someone criminally. Illegal immigrants enjoy benefits that no American citizen or legal immigrant enjoys.

If you, as an American citizen, don’t pay your taxes or don’t pay a civil traffic fine do you think you’re going to be given a free pass? Not likely. Since traffic infractions are mostly “civil” offenses, does this mean that residents of Prince George’s County don’t have to pay the fines and can ignore court appearances? And if not, why not?

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A warrant would only be issued for a “civil” infraction. Will Stawinski or Teletchea be held responsible when an illegal alien they order released into the community commits a violent crime? This has happened time and time again all over the United States when local police departments refuse to honor ICE detainers and warrants of arrest for illegal aliens. Kate Steinle is just one example. There is no reason whatsoever that Steinle shouldn’t still be with us today. Her life was taken by a violent criminal illegal immigrant because local police refused to turn him over to ICE before he could kill her. Think about that.

I want to be clear that my two decades of experience with rank-and-file police officers around the country shows that their opinions depart sharply from the dangerous rhetoric some of their command staff puts out. The vast majority of officers on the street, the ones actually enforcing the laws and not sitting behind a desk kowtowing to activists, want our laws enforced. They see the havoc that is wreaked upon this country by an out of control illegal alien population.

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