For some things, satire is superfluous.

[mhendo]

@Maus Magill

I do think this is less about the Bush Administration and more about the sorry state of the INS. Of course, the only option is to not reform the INS, but rather to pass more laws to screw up the INS even more.

While it’s true that the poor performance of certain sections of the bureaucracy can often be largely detached from the policies of the current Administration, that really isn’t the case here.

The Bush Administration is directly responsible for the reconfiguration of the American immigration system in the wake of 9/11, folding the old INS into the newly-created Department of Homeland Security, and transferring large amounts of productive labor from the processing of immigration applications to security measures such as background checks and border monitoring. This was done without shoring up, to any effective level, the capacity of the application-processing sections, leading to much longer waits for almost every type of immigration application and a large increase in the number of lost or incorrectly handled forms.

So, we end up in a situation like that described in the linked NPS story, where the DHS is now clamping down even harder in the area of security, when the main “cause” of the security problem they claim to be fixing seems to be the poorly-planned reallocation of resources within the DHS. Aliens are sending in change of address forms, which are then, as the Justice Department report quoted in the story says, often mishandled, misplaced, lost, or have their information incorrectly entered. Then, when the DHS wants to deport the aliens and can’t find them, the DHS rep in the story has the utter gall to say that the people “bolt,” rather than admitting that they can’t be found because the DHS people don’t know their ass from any particular hole in the ground.

It’s a beautiful system, both for the people who work the security angle in the DHS, and for the security freaks in the Administration, because their own restructuring and their own incompetence provide the basis for increasingly draconian security measures that, as Rysler says, fall hardest on those who are actually following the rules.

Welcome to America, you huddled masses!

I’m wondering if, by the time i put in my own application for permanent residence, this program will have expanded to include me. At least being under house arrest for 12 hours a day will give me more time to hang out on the Dope.

[Cervaise]

@Little Nemo

It may have finally happened. The Bush administration may finally have come up with a policy so ridiculous that even their most ardent supporters are looking this thread over and saying, “Damn, I’m not touching this one. They’re on their own this time.”

Nah, they’ll be back, once they’ve received their talking points and marching orders from the usual bunch of rent-a-pundits. As has been the typical pattern, it takes a couple of days for them to get their rhetorical ducks in a row. Then we’ll be back to the status quo, where the so-called conservatives who ostensibly believe in small government will put aside their cognitive dissonance and forcefully regurgitate the spoonfed arguments in favor of the long slow slide toward a police state. Won’t that be fun.

[Little_Nemo]

I dunno. This will be a tough one to spin towards anything involving sense. My guess is they’ll have to go with the “blame it on the democrats” line and find someone in the INS who was a Clinton appointee they can pin this one on.

[Sublight]

@Clothahump

Please send me the $5.00. I need the cash.

I’m sending it in used panties. I’ve been looking for an excuse to use that vending machine outside my office.