Repatriated: Violence against non-violent offenders?

     The Long Beach Daily Breeze reports that twenty-five illegal immigrants were detained after having been intercepted by federal officers just off the coast of California near Abalone Cove.  The official report states that the panga boat was intercepted for a possible smuggling operation.  The statements made by officials allude that it was a drug smuggling operation.  The article is unclear, to me, whether the boat was known to carry human passengers before the raid occurred.  The individuals were questioned by federal authorities before either being deported – or as the official report says: “processed and repatriated” – or held for further questioning in regards to the smuggling of drugs.  The article indicates that smuggling activity off the coast of California, whether drugs or humans, has increased in recent years.  The article makes mention of another panga-related incident where a Coast Guard Officer died due to a head wound caused by a collision of the illegal vessel into his inflatable boat. 

            As I look at the photos, read and re-read this article, my thoughts go back to ten years ago, a time when I didn’t really have a strong stance on illegal immigration.  Now, my opinions about the treatment and processing of illegal immigrants certainly have a liberal tone, reaching really far to the left.  Didn’t our country basically begin as an influx, eventually overrunning the native populations, sending them into marginal regions of the country?  What gives our government the authority to treat another human being the way it did that day?  Or any other day?  My opinion is that everyone should be welcomed with open arms to this country, not “repatriated” as they are now.  It sickens me to think that the foreign populations living within our borders, the ones who secretly keep this country going because they are exploited for their services (living in servitude and modern-day slavery in order to survive), are treated so inhumanely by our government for the non-violent “crime” of looking for a better life.  

http://www.dailybreeze.com/latestnews/ci_22158851