Don't jump or I'll shoot!

One of my favorite cartoons ran many years ago in that prestigious publication The National Enquirer. It shows a visibly distraught man standing out on the ledge on an upper story of a high-rise building. A police officer leans out of an open window a few feet to the man's right. "Don't jump or I'll shoot!" says the officer.

How silly! How absurd! How ridiculous! As if that could ever happen!

It has -- it was detailed in this morning's newspaper. Since July, at least five illegal immigrants have been arrested at Houston's Bush intercontinental Airport while trying to board planes headed to Mexico, Honduras or El Salvador, according to Customs and border Protection officials. Evidently, they are guilty of nothing other than the immigration violations. So we are not allowing them to return to wherever it is they're going, because we want to deport them to wherever it is they're going.

Ah, but the reasoning of these brilliant immigration authorities is that these people are repeat offenders. So we're going to run them through our system so they'll learn their lesson, then we're going to deport them. "We feel it's definitely worth the resources to hold these people accountable," said U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle. So how are we going to hold them accountable? The bottom line is --- we're going to deport them.

I am the first to jump up and say our borders should be a heck of a lot more secure than they are now, and when we catch illegals, they should be deported immediately, but I guess I'm missing the point of deporting them when they are already leaving.

Don't leave, or we'll deport you!