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Conservative columnist and FOX News Channel contributor Michelle Malkin told a group of University of Wisconsin students Friday the nation needs to enforce its immigration laws more strictly.
The UW College Republicans hosted Malkin’s lecture at Ingraham Hall. College Republicans Chair Sara Mikolajczak said the topic was planned months ago, but considering the immigration issues currently engulfing the campus, it was important to get a view from the conservative side.
“Entry into this country is a privilege, not a right,” Malkin said.
She added that this rule should apply to everyone from native-born citizens to foreigners visiting on visas.
Malkin went on to say that immigration should be strictly guided by the rule of law.
“Without the rule of law, you get chaos,” she said.
She said there are 400,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. who have been court-ordered to deport, but have remained. Many of these illegal immigrants are released under the assumption that they will honor the court’s order but fail to do so, according to Malkin.
In comparison to this mass of court-ordered deportees, there are only 2,000 federal agents of Homeland Security assigned to take care of the situation, Malkin said. She added that a huge difficulty is the lack of a systematic tracking system to enforce these deportations.
“Catch and release is good for fish, but not good for people,” Malkin said.
Malkin added she realizes federal officials cannot deport all illegal immigrants at once, but they should have priorities on court-ordered deportees.
She said the illegal immigrants need to respect the rules they agreed to upon entry.
“They feel entitled to stay because the law hasn’t caught up to them,” Malkin said. She added while there are loopholes in the system that are exploited by good families, the same loopholes allow criminals the same opportunities.
Malkin said we are not the boarding house to the world, but in fact a sovereign nation. She explained that one exception leads to more until we “end up with complete anarchy,” and the current immigration policies leave our doors wide-open.
“The border fences to both the North and South are a joke,” she said.
College Democrats Chair Claire Rydell said people come here because they want the best for themselves and should be allowed to come legally if they can.
She added the government should focus more on ways to help people once they are in the country instead of building more fences.
Malkin also talked about the sanctuary policy of many cities, saying it is a crime and should be repealed. In order to do so, Malkin said voters need to get serious about voting out officials who are supportive of this policy and other immigration leniencies.
Officials who uphold the sanctuary policy are just trying to help other human beings, Rydell said. They shouldn’t lose their positions because of that help, she added.
“Citizenship has to have meaning if we are to be defined as a country,” Malkin said.

