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As the legal battle rages over President Obama’s now-blocked executive order on amnesty for illegal immigrants, there’s another legal matter that’s stirring controversy for Border Patrol agents in Arizona.
Imagine if these law enforcement officers were told by their superiors — explicitly advised in a written memo — that they could, and possibly should, let drunk drivers go free. In other words, a preferred option for dealing with intoxicated drivers whom those agents stop would be…to let them keep on driving, even if they pose a serious safety risk to themselves or to others.
You don’t need to imagine such an unthinkable scenario — it’s apparently a reality, one that appears to be an offshoot of the Obama administration’s argument about exercising “prosecutorial discretion” at the border.
According to a Fox News report on a memo obtained by the ever-vigilant Judicial Watch: “The Obama administration is telling Customs and Border Protection agents in a busy stretch of the U.S.-Mexico crossing that they don’t have to arrest intoxicated drivers, sparking backlash from advocacy groups and others.”
Of the three options the advisory from Obama’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) presents to border agents in the Tucson, Arizona, region, the recommended alternative for dealing with drunk drivers is to simply let them go on their way. This advisory apparently pertains to encounters with both illegals immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.
The reason DHS reportedly gives for the “let the drunks” go advice, says the Fox News post, is to try to keep the Border Protection agents out of legal trouble.
The advisory makes clear agents have no legal obligation to intervene in state crimes and that with the third option, “there is generally no liability that will attach to the agent or agency for failing to act in this situation.”
The bulletin, reviewed by FoxNews.com, goes so far as to say agents wouldn’t be liable if they allow the driver “to continue down the road and they kill someone.”
The president of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, believes the DHS advisory to be more about politics than protection for the border agents. But whatever the reason for it, says Fitton, the policy hurts public safety.
“’Families across America are now at risk on the roads, as President Obama and his appointees at the Department of Homeland Security have given illegal aliens a license to drive drunk,’ he said.”
MADD — Mothers Against Drunk Driving — is also mad about the DHS memo and its implications. The Fox News report quotes the president of the organization as saying that all law enforcement officers — no matter who they are or for which agency they work — should follow “standard procedures” when they encounter a drunk driver.
“’Law enforcement is the first line of defense in preventing drunk and drugged driving, and their efforts are crucial to keep our roadways safe.’”
h/t: Fox News
This post originally appeared on Western Journalism – Informing And Equipping Americans Who Love Freedom
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