Dems tough on (some) crimes, but leave immigration out of it
Democrats can’t have it both ways, casting violent incidents as either signs of societal collapse or no big deal, depending on the agenda.
Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., took the latter stance Monday, when she said the “horrible” killing of a nursing student on the University of Georgia campus should not inform the entirety of U.S. immigration policy, The Hill reported.
ADVERTISING
“I think whenever we’re dealing with violent crime, there is a sense of outrage, of sadness and loss,” Porter, who’s running for Senate in California, said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
“But I think the important thing to focus on is any one instance shouldn’t shape our overall immigration policy, which has so many different facets, including economic choices about what workers to allow and how to create prosperity in America,” she added.
Nursing student Laken Riley, 22, was found dead last Thursday after her roommate reported she didn’t return from a morning run on the University of Georgia campus.
The suspect in her death, Jose Ibarra, 26, is a Venezuelan citizen who U.S. authorities say crossed into the U.S. unlawfully in 2022, The Associated Press reported. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said he was detained when the crossed the border and then released for further processing.
Porter would have us believe that this is a blip, a nothing-to-see-here moment that Republicans are using to attack President Biden’s immigration policies.
But we can tell her Ibarra is not an outlier. So can New York City, and other spots around the country where illegal immigrants have committed crimes.
According to ICE, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston arrested an unlawfully present fugitive convicted of homicide in Venezuela living in state-provided housing on Joint Base Cape Cod in Bourne last October.
The Venezuelan national, 38, failed to disclose his previous homicide conviction to U.S. Border Patrol officials when they arrested him for unlawfully entering the United States in Eagle Pass, Texas, in July.
Porter could check in with the New York City police officers attacked by migrants last month, who fled after being released. There are more incidents, many more.
But those, according to Porter, shouldn’t inform our immigration policy. It’s just part of pursuing the American Dream.
What’s odd is if we substitute “illegal immigrant suspected of murder” with “American citizen active shooter” how quickly the narrative changes.
A lone incident is the definitive sign that guns must go, that there is no good reason for civilians to own them, and any argument about law-abiding gun owners and self-protection are weak excuses to prop up the gun industry.
Democrats are tough on crime when lone, usually mentally ill Americans open fire in a shopping mall or supermarket. But when illegal immigrants commit murder, rape, smuggle drugs and assault police officers, it’s water under the bridge.
“The situation is tragic, and it’s a loss, and it’s important to acknowledge that, but also to recognize all the other how all the other parts of immigration policy fit together,” Porter said.
—Boston Herald/TNS
