Thanks to Judicial Watch, light has been shone on another stupid administration policy where immigration enforcement is concerned.
First the background: Folks who know anything about enforcing immigration laws at the border know that within 100 miles of the physical international boundary, Border Patrol agents can conduct roving patrols or even establish temporary checkpoints to determine the citizenship (or right to be in the United States) of drivers on our highways and byways.
As one might imagine, any number of other offenses are discovered in the course of such patrols and checkpoints — narcotics trafficking, wanted persons, and, not least, drunk or drugged drivers. It has always been the Patrol's policy to cooperate with local police by holding offenders, including the drunks, thus sparing many an innocent life along the way. They are entirely within their right to hold such offenders pending assumption of custody by the responsible agencies, since these things occur in the scope of their duties.
But now here's the egregiously stupid: Judicial Watch has obtained a government memorandum for Border Patrol Agents telling them to let impaired motorists go on their way. But the agents are supposed to take succor from the hypothetical question posed and answered by the green-eyeshade legal types who prepared the memo, by assuring them that they aren't, as a matter of law, liable if someone gets killed as a result. Nice to know ... but there's that small thing called conscience.
The administration keeps telling us that it is interested in immigration enforcement that involves "felons, not families", but many DUI/DWI offenses can in fact be felonies in some states, depending on prior offenses by the driver and other factors. In any case, it's clear that the administration isn't really interested in any kind of effective law enforcement by immigration and border officers. It's all about appearances and lip-gloss. They just keep trying to stuff that pig into a tuxedo, no matter how awkward and foolish they appear with their pronouncements.