France cracks down on Illegal Immigrants

I am almost speechless - France is getting tough! If they keep acting like this, I might just change my mind about sending the Statue of Liberty back to them....

PARIS (AP) - A Russian boy suffers head injuries after falling from a window while trying to elude police. A North African man slips from a window ledge and fractures his leg while fleeing officers. A Chinese woman lies in a coma after plunging from a window during a police check.

As France races to deport 25,000 illegal immigrants by the end of the year—a quota set by President Nicolas Sarkozy—tensions are mounting and the crackdown is taking a toll.

But with three months left in the year, police have caught at least 11,800 immigrants, less than half the target, so Sarkozy has ordered officials to pick up the pace.

"I want numbers," Sarkozy reportedly told Brice Hortefeux, head of the Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co- Development, which Sarkozy set up after taking office in May. "This is a campaign commitment. The French expect (action) on this."

The president, who cultivated a tough-on-crime image while serving as Interior Minister, says France needs a new kind of immigrant—one who is "selected, not endured." More....

Let's hope he comes and explains "selected, not endured," to President Bush and the rest of the border blurring politicians!