Fiddling in New Jersey

While Gov. Jon Corzine (D) and Mayor Cory Booker (D) call on increased restrictions on gun sales and New Jersey has entered an agreement to forward gun information to the ATF weapons database, the idea that cracking down on illegal aliens and eliminating provisions relating to Newark's status as a sanctuary city are not going to happen, despite the fact that two of the accused murderers in the Newark triple execution slaughter were illegal aliens who had a lengthy record of criminal acts and had been out on bail when committing further crimes, including the triple slaying.

Indeed, Booker has no intention of helping the INS do its job. His police chief thinks that the immigration status of the suspects is irrelevant.

REPORTER: Booker's director of police, Garry McCarthy, says the immigration status of the suspects is "irrelevant." He also is dismissing reports that the execution-style murders were related to the violent Central American gang, MS-13.

I doubt that the families of the victims in the triple slaying would feel that the immigration status was irrelevant. The immigration status is a central to how and why the suspects were still on the street.

If law enforcement and prosecutors were intent on reducing crime as they claim, they would have sought out the immigration status of these individuals to confirm that they were indeed privileged to be in the US or whether they were illegal aliens. That information would have been used in setting bail, or remanding those individuals into custody pending deportation following criminal justice action.

They had an opportunity to find out whether these individuals should have been held on immigration charges, which would have prevented them from being on the streets and free to commit more crimes. Indeed, the criminal justice system failed because no one bothered to find out whether these suspects were illegal aliens, which would have been grounds to hold them without bail. The excuse given is that the prosecutors only ask about this information following sentencing. That's a lame excuse.

The suspects in the Newark triple murder were able to obtain bail and commited more crimes while out on bail before being rearrested, with bail provided. Again. Indeed, in one instance, the bail requested was reduced by the judge and consolidated so that the suspect was allowed to go back on the streets. How shortsighted is that? These people proved that they were a menace to society and yet the bail set permitted them to roam the streets.

Booker is shortsighted if he thinks that ignoring the illegal alien problem will make the problem disappear or reduce the crime rate in his city. He got elected because he claimed he would reduce crime, and yet when given the opportunity to do so, he's looking the other way because he wants people to think that it's not his responsibility to enforce immigration law.

He's taking the easy way out, instead of dealing with the tough problem of rooting out the illegal aliens in his city that have been a source of so much pain and suffering for Newark residents.

Meanwhile, a man suspected of murdering a pregnant woman in Paterson was also out on bail at the time of the murder.

A Paterson man has been charged with murdering a pregnant Bergen County woman in a drive-by shooting, and police say he was free on bail at the time, awaiting trial in a machete slashing, according to a report in The Record of Hackensack.

Police have charged Julio Graciano, 20, with the July 28 killing of Elisha Rae Wordelman, a 23-year-old from Westwood who was fatally shot while standing outside Riverview Towers in Paterson, The Record reports.

Graciano is an illegal alien as well. Again, the failure to deal with the immigration status before the setting of bail meant that this individual was free to commit more crime. In this instance, he murdered a pregnant woman.

Still, the politicians in New Jersey look the other way at the obvious problems associated with illegal aliens and have instead settled upon 'fixing' the problem of guns in New Jersey.