Those who oppose the enforcement of our immigration laws are peddling the story that the aliens here are hard working law abiding folks. Many are. But many are not.

On April 7, 2007, the US Justice Department issued a report on criminal aliens that were incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local jails.

In the population study of 55,322 illegal aliens, researchers found that they were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. Nearly all had more than 1 arrest. Thirty-eight percent (about 21,000) had between 2 and 5 arrests, 32 percent (about 18,000) had between 6 and 10 arrests, and 26 percent (about 15,000) had 11 or more arrests. Most of the arrests occurred after 1990.

They were arrested for a total of about 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging about 13 offenses per illegal alien. One arrest incident may include multiple offenses, a fact that explains why there are nearly one and half times more offenses than arrests. Almost all of these illegal aliens were arrested for more than 1 offense. Slightly more than half of the 55,322 illegal aliens had between 2 and 10 offenses.

More than two-thirds of the defendants charged with an immigration offense were identified as having been previously arrested. Thirty-six percent had been arrested on at least 5 prior occasions; 22%, 2 to 4 times; and 12%,1 time.

Even when the Administration tries to hustle and show they are really doing their job, their own figures show the inadequacy of the job being done.

The AP reported Friday that it had rounded up 596 illegal aliens in the Southeast as a result of a three day roundup.

The kicker though, is this from the article; a number of the illegals (144) had previously been convicted on assault charges and 3 had been convicted of murder.

What were those people still doing here?

And then there's this: Twelve had been previously arrested on immigration charges and apparently illegally reentered.

An essential element of sovereignty is that each nation has the right to determine the criteria for entry and residence within its borders. It's time our law makers and border enforcement officials give this perfectly obvious principle heed.

Clarice Feldman