“It’s happening,” asserts Mr. Leavitt. “Everyone knows about it, and I think it violates every constitutional right there is. It’s outrageous.”

For example, Mr. Leavitt represented Ramelthy Garcia Ocampo, who was in the country illegally when he was arrested in April, 2004. Ocampo had a prior gross misdemeanor conviction on his record when he was accused of threatening a man and carving some initials onto a vehicle in Las Vegas. Ocampo was also listed in investigative reports as a one-time member of a Mexican criminal gang.

In a plea agreement, Ocampo pleaded guilty to malicious injury to a vehicle, and prosecutors agreed not to oppose probation.

But attorney Leavitt complains that the Department of Parole and Probation recommended nearly a year in jail in the case. (Ocampo has not yet been sentenced.)

Public defender Phil Kohn calls the trend “crazy.” Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, says if the allegations are true, the situation would violate the tenets of fairness upon which our justice system was founded.

Kimberly Evans, a spokesperson for Department of Public Safety, denies the allegations.

“We certainly do not have a policy that would direct our investigative people to recommend jail time as it relates to someone’s status in the country,” she said this week. “There is no such policy, nor has there ever been.”

Well, if there is no such policy, there should be.

What’s “crazy” here is the fact that an illegal trespassing alien like Ramelthy Garcia Ocampo -- a man who breaks the law anew every morning when he wakes up in the United States and puts his feet on the floor -- was still running around loose, free to commit new crimes, after his prior gross misdemeanor conviction.

“Probation” is supposed to be a “second chance” for an offender who the court believes will make a good faith commitment to commit no further crimes if released.

But an illegal alien repeats his ongoing crime the moment he sets foot on the sidewalk outside the courthouse. His “promise” can’t last till he’s around the corner.This nation is almost unique among nations in its generosity when it comes to allowing foreigners to immigrate here legally. But there are some rules and limits. Multi-lingual professionals with good educations and family in this country sit in Romania and Russia and plenty of other nations, waiting for their names to come up on lists for legal visas to the United States. Shall they be made to wait longer while unskilled quasi-literate thugs sneak into this country and take their places, just because the homelands of these criminal thugs are separated from us by no ocean? Mr. Leavitt wants to cite the Constitution? Article I Section 8 authorizes the Congress and only the Congress to “establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” And the Congress has done so. Yes, I can think of some changes I’d like to see in the immigration laws. But the answer is to take it to Congress.

Any lesser public official (including an “officer of the court”) who allows a known illegal alien to walk free has violated at the very least an ethical duty to see the law enforced. And now these attorneys assert it’s somehow proper to go further, to set loose onto the community someone who stands convicted of crimes which the Legislature has deemed worthy of jail time, despite the fact he had no right to be here, committing his crime, in the first place?

This is like saying a bank robber should not be held responsible for the death of the teller because his gun went off accidentally, or because he had no idea the teller had a heart condition. The robber lost the chance to make that argument when he commenced his first crime.

As the Department of Parole and Probation noted in its sentencing advisory in Ocampo’s case, “Although he reports family support and community ties, he is in the country illegally, and as such, he cannot legally seek employment nor participate in other programs designed to assist in community supervision.”

Precisely.

Yes, illegal immigrants have some civil rights, as does any felon caught in flagrante delicto. They may not be tortured, and so forth. By our good graces and in obedience to our sense of decency, this nation extends to such illegal trespassers the right to humane and dignified treatment -- for as long as it takes to expel them.

But “constitutional” rights? Shall we next invite them to vote? Or have we, already?

Mr. Peck worries about “fairness” and “factors being applied equally”? Always with the caveat that every defendant should get a jury trial, and jurors should come to their senses and stop enforcing any and all “drug” and “gun” laws, all illegally trespassing aliens who come to the attention of any government authority should be “uniformly” turned in to the proper authorities and immediately expelled, unless they have committed additional crimes, in which case they should serve their full sentences, and then be expelled.

Public Defender Phil Kohn says this is “crazy.”

No, it is coddling, facilitating, and using our tax dollars to serve as accessory to the repeat offenses of these criminals that is nuts.

What shall we suppose would happen to any of us who snuck into Germany, or Turkey -- or Mexico -- and was apprehended committing a crime without any documentation showing that we had a right to be in that country, in the first place? A couple of free meals, show us the door, “Have a nice day, see you next time”?

Now that’s crazy.