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Phoenix Police Chief: Don’t Just Treat the Symptoms, Fix the Problem

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Jack HarrisThe Washington Post’s George Will has a great column on Police Chief Jack Harris, who argues that Washington’s failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform directly affects his ability to fight crime in Phoenix.

According to Will, Harris fits the profile of a top cop, “is stolid and patient, but there are limits.” He writes:

Clearly, he is weary of explaining that this is one of America’s safest large cities, with declining rates of violent crime and property crime. Unfortunately, there are the kidnappings.

For them, Harris says, “The answer is not in Phoenix. The answer is in Washington. “We know how to close a border,” says Harris with acid dryness: “build a wall” and deploy “machine gun nests.”

But “I personally think that is stupid.” For now, however, the U.S. “has turned immigration policy over to Mexican thugs.” So, we have reached a point at which barbed wire, car batteries and acid become the business tools of kidnapper-torturer-extortionists.

What does Harris suggest as an alternative to turning our nation’s immigration policy over to “thugs?” Simple:  if you want to crackdown on crime, deal intelligently with the borders, get folks out of the shadows, and create a system that people want to go through and not around.

Pass comprehensive immigration reform.