Category Archives: rights

Finger Pointing

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There is, presently, a kerfuffle over local cities—many of them sanctuary cities—turning loose illegal aliens with records of violent crimes, rather than holding them for Immigration and Customs in response to the latter’s detainer requests. Most famously, two of those released went on to commit horrific crimes upon their release.

Here’s the thing:

The issue, says [San Luis Obispo Sheriff Ian] Parkinson and dozens of other sheriffs and police chiefs across California and Arizona, is that, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement routinely asks departments to hold prisoners like [Francisco Javier Chavez, out on bail after being charged in an attack which left a toddler with two broken arms, a broken femur, a compressed spine, a urinary tract infection, and a 107 degree fever] until they can take custody of them for deportation, the local law enforcement officials believe doing so will expose them to lawsuits. They cite court cases including the March, 2014, US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruling in Galrza v Szalczyk that held states and localities are not required to imprison people based on ICE “detainer” requests, and that states and localities may be held liable if they participate in wrongful immigration detentions.

“I am not aware of any County in California that is honoring detainers, simply because we can’t,” Parkinson said. “We have to follow the law or the threat of violating the law ourselves,” Parkinson said, citing a Court decision issued approximately one year ago. “The law actually does not give us the right to place an ICE hold, unless there is a warrant for them.”

ICE? They insist

there is no requirement that it obtain a judicial warrant to compel law enforcement agencies to hold suspects and that a detainer is sufficient.

Yeah, you do, guys. At least within the 3rd Circuit’s jurisdiction. And even if you don’t, your bleating of “Not my job” is only getting honest Americans—children included—killed. Quit hiding behind excuses, get off your office-bound patootie, and get the warrant.

On the other hand, there’s nothing blocking the sheriffs and police from dropping a dime on ICE when they’re about to release such a one, so an ICE agent can be present to pick up the illegal alien as he walks out the door. Not doing this is on the locals.

Should judges be releasing these guys on bail? Probably not, but a) that’s a different story, and b) the judges are bound by what the laws in their jurisdictions say about bail requirements.

Gotta Regulate

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Senator Elizabeth Warren has discovered a bit of financial activity that she can’t regulate, and she wants to regulate it.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, MA) on Monday sent letters to six financial regulators saying she is troubled that the big banks and other financial firms backing Symphony Communications Services LLC may use the new tool to skirt regulatory and legal requirements, as well as escape enforcement action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other regulators.

Symphony’s sin? Their words on their publicly accessible Web page.

Symphony is designed to meet the cyber-security and compliance needs of financial firms.

They also tout their ability to guard against government spying.

Never mind that Symphony also says,

The use of Symphony does not change regulators’ ability to obtain messages from our clients. Symphony delivers messages to its clients to download, decrypt, and archive, and they are able to provide those messages to regulators just as they would with other compliant messaging systems.

Symphony is plainly acknowledging that message handling is the sole responsibility of the correspondents, and not at all that of the pipeline.

Senator Warren (and FBI Director James Comey) are prime examples of the need of private citizens and our enterprises for protection from government spying—even domestic spying. They’re already having some success, too, in browbeating Symphony:

Symphony’s current website doesn’t appear to contain the language Ms Warren raises in her letter.

What’s in that message? Inquiring Progressive minds want to know.

Another Thought on SEC “Courts”

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The SEC runs its own courts as it looks to punish those it has decided have engaged in civilly, if not criminally, wrong doings. As I’ve written before, the SEC brings its cases, appoints and pays the judges who’ll adjudicate the cases, and it has first say on any appeals.

In just such a case, an accused person facing a flipped witness (one to whom the SEC has made certain blandishments regarding is own misbehaviors in return for his testimony against a fellow misbehaver) is worried about the effects of those blandishments over the course of his trial.

Critics…worry that key safeguards on the use of cooperators in criminal cases are lacking in the SEC’s administrative courts, where the agency…[has] the power to decide what to fine the cooperator after he or she testifies.

The agency’s multiple roles strike at the “fundamental fairness” of its hearings, violating the checks and balances required by the constitution, [accused’s’] lawyers said in a court filing.

Because the SEC is in an even better position—its in-house position—to effectively “encourage” proper testimony from its “cooperating” witnesses than are prosecutors in actual State or Federal trial courts.

Naturally, the presiding SEC administrative judge demurs.

The SEC in-house judge overseeing the case rejected this argument, saying it was an “attack on the administrative framework” of the SEC’s internal tribunal.

Well, NSS. It’s a valid attack, too, against a tribunal sorely lacking in fairness, much less due process.

Party Apparatchik

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…PRC style. The truth police are there to help.

China’s government will set up cybersecurity police units at major Internet companies, in Beijing’s latest move to tighten control over the country’s online forums.

And

China’s Ministry of Public Security didn’t say which companies will have the new police units.

The modern version of Партийных аппаратчиков.

A Corrupt IRS

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Two Congressmen have some concerns, and they want IRS Commissioner John Koskinen removed. Ron DeSantis (R, FL), House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security Chairman, and Jim Jordan (R, OH), Subcommittee on Health Care, Benefits and Administrative Rules Chairman, laid out their case in Monday’s Wall Street Journal. RTWT, but here are the highlights.

  • Failure to inform Congress. Koskinen concealed—during repeated sworn testimony—from Congress for four months his knowledge that the IRS that it had “lost” vast amounts of Lois Lerner’s (of “I didn’t do it” infamy) emails.
  • False testimony before Congress. One example: of the more than 1,000 computer backup tapes discovered by the IRS Inspector General, approximately 700 were available with their contents intact. Koskinen testified he had “confirmed” that all of the tapes were unrecoverable. Worse, those 700 intact backup tapes were found within 15 days of Koskinen’s informing Congress that they were not recoverable.
  • Failure to correct the record. After his false statements to Congress under oath, Koskinen refused to amend them when given the opportunity at a public hearing earlier this year.
  • Failure to reform the IRS to protect First Amendment rights. Koskinen still hasn’t acted on President Barack Obama’s May 2013 promise to “put in place new safeguards to make sure this kind of behavior cannot happen again.”

It’s not just Koskinen who needs to be fired—not allowed to retire, not allowed to resign, fired—though. IRS personnel cannot be trusted down to the worker bee accountants who do the actual work of checking tax returns. The breadth of IRS crimes—worthy of a RICO case, were it a private enterprise—renders the entire agency worthless. And that’s to the detriment of those worker bees.