Animals and Immigration

Several animal stories in the news today: A Joey (baby kangaroo), a panda, a snake, a serval (wildcat), and a monkey. It seems odd to me that so many animals hit the news on the same day.
The town where I live voted on a proposition to have local law enforcement apply to be given special federal deportation authority. Some people are very upset about it, some think it's overdue. New Haven, Connecticut has decided to go the other way, citing public safety as a concern. I can somewhat understand that. Just because a person is in this country illegally, doesn't mean that they should be taken advantage of--enslaved or robbed, with the knowledge and the understanding that these people won't go to the police under fear of deportation. This is a valid concern. I still think that the police have a responsibility to enforce existing laws--including immigration laws. I don't think that enforcing immigration laws should be the number one priority of any local law enforcement agency--violent crime should be. If the victim of a violent crime should happen to be an illegal alien, then the police officer should make every effort to arrest both parties, but it would be somewhat understandable if the victim 'got away,' although that may make it difficult to prosecute the violent offender without the victim to testify against him. In other words, illegal immigrants are criminals, just by virtue of being here illegally, but, the criminals that victimize them need to be taken care of. Even if you care nothing about the immigrants (and you should care about them, they are still people), keep in mind that murderers and muggers will find somebody else to prey on if the illegal aliens are deported.
Some of the objections raised to using local law enforcement supplement ICE is that our local police have been accused of racial profiling in the past, and this may simply give them another tool to harass Latinos. I hope that is not the case, but, to be honest, it seems to me that some of our police have shown some bias against Latinos. From what I understand, the town's position is that if someone is accused of a felony, and there is reason to suspect that they are here illegally, then their status will be checked, and, if it is deemed appropriate, then they will be deported. The Mayor has promised that we are not going to check status of traffic violators. I would assume that to mean that people reporting crimes are not in danger of being deported either.