The Deporter

This Saturday night at 6 PM I will be interviewing author Ames Holbrook on my show Straight Shooting. Mr. Holbrook is the author of the new book, The Deporter. Ames Holbrook was a federal deportation officer from 1998 to 2002, based in New Orleans. Previously, he served in the U.S. Army with a special weapons team in Italy and then with the 3rd Infantry Division in Germany. He now writes full time. Here is a quote from Holbrook:

"We have an immigration crisis in our country, all right, and it is a good deal more demonstrably wrong than the millions of illegal immigrants in the shadows. It is costlier to the fabric of American life than the September 11 attacks were. Illogical, deadly, ruinous. Yet none of our leaders is raising a finger to stop it. On the contrary, it is our leaders who drive the destruction."

Presidential Candidate Tom Tancredo had this to say about "The Deporter":

"As a congressman who is constantly exposed to tales of government incompetence regarding border control, I am rarely shocked. However, after reading The Deporter, I am once again reminded of the state of disarray our borders are in. This is a fascinating read."
–Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.)

And from Publisher's Weekly:

From Publishers Weekly
Former U.S. deportation agent Holbrook describes his job (a combination of policeman, lawyer and diplomat) in this unsettling memoir. Among its revelations is that America routinely releases illegal aliens who have committed crimes in the U.S. when the criminal fails to confirm his nationality with an official document and foreign consuls won't cooperate. (Cuba, Vietnam and Laos refuse to accept criminal deportees, while China, India, Egypt, all former U.S.S.R. nations and many others simply stall or insist there's no evidence for that person's citizenship.) Holbrook also reveals tricks he invented to deport the worst offenders that would have gotten him fired if discovered. For example, countries show less reluctance with lesser criminals, so in the case of a convicted murderer who also trespassed, he might only mention the trespass. Holbrook stresses that Bush administration officials could force nations to take back their murderers, rapists, thieves or child abusers, but choose not to; nor does the government prevent them from being released back into American communities after they have served their prison time or a portion of it, but deportation has been thwarted. This engrossing but disturbing book may impel some readers to action.