Michelle Malkin brings up a good question in her recent post Was One Of The NYC Bomb Plotters An Illegal Alien?. Amazing how on Michelle is about these things. She's like a rabid bulldog when she notices potential immigration issues.

You've heard about the two men who were busted for allegedly plotting to bomb the Herald Square subway station. You may not have heard that one of the men, Shahawar Matin Siraj, a 22-year-old Pakistani national living in Jackson Heights, New York, had run into problems with immigration authorities.

...

A deportation officer e-mailed me to say, "I am now guessing that he either entered illegally or entered as a student and violated status (by working, etc) and was placed in removal proceedings - hard to tell. Either way, he doesn't appear to be here legally if in removal proceedings..."

What the hell is wrong with us? When are we going to start taking this issue seriously? Right now it's all "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" when it comes to immigration status. That may work fine in the military where the thing you aren't telling about is not illegal, but when you suspect someone of breaking a law and you are in law enforcement you should have the right to question a suspect about a suspected crime.

The other question I have is why these people are "catch and release" and not "catch and deport"? Why do we let them stay in the country unmonitored and just on faith expecting them to show up for a hearing? We need a more streamlined approach of on the spot judicial issuance of deportation. If someone is found here illegally they need to be escorted to the border and tossed out until they file the proper paperwork.

Damn this shit gets me angry!