Friday, June 29, 2007

A Florida sheriff adopts a new tactic for pursuing violators of immigration law:

Deputies in patrol cars pull up to a construction site in force, and watch and see who runs.

Those who take off are chased down and arrested on charges such as trespassing, for cutting through someone else's property, or loitering, for hiding out in someone's yard, or reckless driving, for speeding off in a car.

U.S. immigration authorities are then given the names of those believed to be in this country illegally.

"It's not wrong for them to run, but it's not wrong for us to chase them either," said Sheriff Frank McKeithen, who created his Illegal Alien Task Force in April to target construction sites in this Florida Panhandle county.

The ACLU does not care for this tactic, and the story says that "[i]llegal immigrants are leaving town" as a result of Sheriff McKeithen's efforts.

(H/T a reader)