Protect America's children

The Washington Times ^ | September 14, 2007 | Tom Tancredo

[NapkinUser]

The law enforcement policies of New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and Newark Mayor Corey Booker — who have ordered the police officers under their authority not to inquire as to the immigration status of the violent criminals they arrest, let alone initiate deportation proceedings — are infuriating, but not unprecedented. As outraged as Newark, New Jersey, and the entire country are over the schoolyard executions of Terrance Aeriel, Dashon Harvey and Iofemi Hightower, we cannot deny that we have seen this kind of thing before. There is, after all, a long and bloody tradition in this country of state and local political obstruction of federal law enforcement that pre-dates the Newark massacre.

Mr. Corzine and Mr. Booker should take note: their predecessors in this dangerous game have not come out well in the history books.

On Sept. 4, 1957, three years after the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to surround Little Rock's Central High School to block nine black students from entering the school. It ultimately took a federal injunction, a police escort and paratroopers from the 101st Airborne to force Mr. Faubus to back down and get the three boys and six girls safely enrolled in the school.

On Sept. 20, 1962, James Meredith, a 19-year-old black student, tried to enroll at the University of Mississippi, but he was denied access to the school by Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett. Ultimately, President John F. Kennedy had to send in federal marshals to ensure Mr. Meredith's entry and protect him during the ensuing campus violence.