Pat Lykos was not my choice for the GOP candidate for District Attorney last year, but I have to say that she has done well in my eyes with this move.

A Harris County District Attorney’s office proposal to bar illegal immigrants from receiving plea deals sparked questions Wednesday — including some from longtime prosecutors in the same office — about the legality and practicality of such a policy.

Four senior assistant district attorneys, speaking anony¬mously to protect their ¬jobs, said Jim Leitner, District Attorney Pat Lykos’ first assistant, discussed the plan with about 50 prosecutors during a meeting last Friday. Under the plan, defendants in the country illegally will not be eligible for probation or deferred adjudication, including mandatory probations under state law. If the accused lies, he or she could be prosecuted for perjury.

The prosecutors also said plea papers are being redrafted for defendants to swear to their immigration status. If defendants refuse to sign, they will not be eligible for any plea bargains and their cases will be set for trial.

Imagine that – those not in the country legally will not be released back onto the streets in order to continue their criminal activity. They will be held pending processing by federal authorities so that they can be returned to their country of origin, I mean, what possible objection could those who shill for illegals have? They tell us all the time that the vast majority of such folks are “good decent hard-working people just trying to support their families doing the jobs that Americans won’t do.” Why would they possibly object to getting rid of the bad ones who are committing the crimes that Americans won’t commit – often victimizing the “good decent hard-working people just trying to support their families doing the jobs that Americans won’t do.” It seems to me to be a win-win situation – we get rid of the bad folks and those who of upstanding moral character will be safer as well. Where is the problem?

Of course, those “good decent hard-working people just trying to support their families doing the jobs that Americans won’t do” are themselves guilty of violating our nation’s laws, so I have no problem with their being arrested and returned to their country of origin as well, but that is an entirely different story. But there is room for American citizens of good-will to differ on that point, and to seek ways to both secure our borders and deal with the issue of what to do with the millions of violators of immigration law already in our country. But at a minimum, it seems that sensible folks ought to agree that it is in everybody’s best interests to get rid of the ones who violate other laws as well.