Government-funded activists at the N.C. Justice Center are going after 287-g programs in the state via an incident last month in Alamance County. The first step is a story in the N&O implying that a sheriff’s deputy should not have arrested an illegal immigrant for driving without a license and displaying a false license plate.

Should not have because the woman was traveling with three of her children ages 14, 10, and 6 and another unrelated illegal immigrant man. When the mother was whisked away by the law, the kids were left with the man, who then abandoned them by the side of I-85. Not until some hours later did the father — also an illegal immigrant — of two of the kids arrive from Maryland to pick them up.

I see a patten here, but not the one the Justice Center and a co-opted N&O reporter intend. The theme is irresponsibility. The lefty lawyers at the center want to bury that and play up the notion that the 287-g program endangered kids. Bzzt. Fail.

The mother opted to endanger her kids by her actions. But heaven knows we do not expect citizens to behave responsibly. Why should we treat illegal immigrants any differently?