Uncovering Undocumented Immigrant Crime

The brutal murder of a Georgia student shocked the nation and catapulted the illegal immigration issue front and center in the presidential election. The victim, 22-year-old Laken Riley, went for a jog and never returned. A day later an illegal immigrant from Venezuela was charged in her death.  

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records show that the suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, entered the United Sates illegally in September 8, 2022. Ibarra was arrested in New York City a year later for "acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17."

Despite his arrest, Ibarra was released by New York City authorities.  ICE should have been notified of the arrest and detained Ibarra.  By the time ICE learned of the details, the Venezuelan had fled the sanctuary city.  Had New York City officials followed protocol, Laken Riley would be alive.

As details of the grisly murder began gaining circulation, the legacy media launched a disinformation campaign.  Big media omitted the detail of Ibarra's immigration status in reporting on the incident. The details seeped through the national conscience on social media, exposing the cover up.

The New York Times, Washington Post and its television echo chambers tried to deflect the simmering national anger by claiming the arrest of an illegal immigrant was an isolated case.  America doesn't have a problem with "undocumented immigrant crime" was the common theme.

That became an administration talking point too, but facts keep surfacing indicating illegal immigrant crime is a bigger problem than most Americans had been led to believe.  The arrest of one Venezuelan is only the tip of a growing iceberg:

• An illegal immigrant from Honduras was arrested this month in Louisiana for robbing a man at knifepoint and repeatedly stabbing him.  After his arrest, he was also charged with allegedly raping a 14-year old girl.
• A Mexican national who entered the U.S, illegally was arrested in Washington State for allegedly crashing his SUV into a state trooper's car, killing him. Arrest documents stated the suspect had admitted drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana before getting behind the wheel.
• An illegal Salvadoran immigrant was arrested in connection with the murder of a two-year old toddler in Maryland.  He was one of five suspects arrested for the killing.
• A 34-year old Guatemalan illegal immigrant was arrested in Boston for the sexual assault of a 14-year old girl.  The suspect had been released weeks earlier by Gloucester District Court and ICE was not notified.  
• A gang of illegal immigrants stomped and kicked two New York City police officers in Times Square, the center of the city.  Five alleged assailants were released without bail and several fled to California.  

There are likely many similar illegal immigrant crimes that have gone unreported, particularly in sanctuary cities. NBC news tried to soft pedal the ugly incidents, claiming data did not support charges of a migrant crime wave.

However, the news outlet was forced to concede that "the data is incomplete on how many crimes each year are committed by migrants, primarily because most local police don't record immigration status when they make arrests." NBC's attempt at whitewash collapsed on its own admission. 

Had the reporters at NBC not had an agenda, they could have searched the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data base.  In a weeklong law enforcement effort in January, ICE arrested 171 "non-citizens" with pending charges for murder, homicide or assaults against children.  

In fiscal year 2023, the agency arrested 73,822 "non-citizens" in the U.S. with criminal histories.  Those individuals were "associated" with 290,178 crimes and convictions, according to border patrol statistics.  If this is not a crime wave by NBC's definition, then what is?  

Agent arrests and seizures at the border offer further testimony to the crime surge.  Since 2021, agents have arrested 43,674 illegal immigrants at the border with one or more criminal convictions; seized 18,507 weapons; and, confiscated 2,031,059 rounds of ammunition.  

Finally, the Federal Bureau of Prisons released some eyeopening statistics.  As of January, 8.1% of inmates are Mexican nationals.  Non-citizens make up 15.4% of the prison population.  The numbers do not include illegal immigrants in state prisons or local jails because there is no available data.

Communities are becoming less safe because of crimes by illegal immigrants and transnational gangs, such as MS-13 from El Salvador, which ICE labeled "a threat to public safety."  Covering up this menace will not fool Americans, who now see illegal immigration as the top issue facing the nation. 

Persons Of The Year: U.S. Border Patrol Agents

That publication fossil--Time Magazine--selected singer Taylor Swift as its Person of the Year.  The pop diva narrowly beat out stuffy King Charles III and Barbie, a plastic doll.  Apparently, there is a dearth of humans who met the magazine's news-maker criteria. 

How hard can it be to select the person who shook up the world's news? In 1938, the magazine chose Germany's Adolf Hitler.  In view of the conceited editors' shallow standards, it's surprising Time overlooked the Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, who dominated worldwide news.  

Since Time bungled its selection, the Diatribe is offering a nominee that few appreciate. 

The top news makers arguably are the 16,878 Border Patrol Agents stationed along the 1,954-mile border between Mexico and the United States. These courageous men and women are on the frontlines of an ongoing war with Mexico's human and drug smuggling cartels.

Their bravery and service is ignored by most Americans who consume news from The Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, ABC, NBC and CBS News.  Cartels use social media to peddle fentanyl, so these disinformation platforms are blind to the role of border agents. 

The agents are the last line of defense against criminal syndicates that rake in billions of dollars annually by controlling the tide of drugs and migrants flowing from Mexico into the U.S. Their jobs are made harder by a lack of resources, technology, manpower and support from Homeland Security.

This year in particular has been the most challenging in the 20-year history of the U.S. Customers and Border Protection. Agents were swamped by 2.4 illegal immigrants who crossed the southern border from Mexico.  September saw the highest number of crossings, an 86% increase from June of this year.

Encounters, a sanitized word used by the government, increased 4% over 2022, but it represents a 40% hike since fiscal year 2021.  The numbers are staggering: 7.5 million encounters since January, 2021, at the southwest border.  The data does not include 1.7 million getaways.  

Just this year, agents arrested 35,433 immigrants with criminal convictions, 598 known gang members, including 178 were members of the notorious MS-13 gang, risking their lives to catch these law breakers.  Agents also apprehended 169 illegal immigrants on the terror watch list. 

Agents and their partners in Air and Marine Operations seized 27,293 pounds of deadly fentanyl that was smuggled across the southwest border.  That's enough fentanyl to kill more than 6 billion people. A total of 73,654 Americans died of fentanyl overdoses in 2022, according to the most recent data.

Fentanyl wasn't the only dangerous drug exported into the country. Agents seized a total of 241,000 pounds of illicit drugs this fiscal year.  In a drug bust in Temecula, California, Border Patrol agents stopped a gray sedan, driving suspiciously.

When the agents inspected the cedar, they discovered 62 bundles of the blue fentanyl pills concealed inside its door panels and seats. The pills weighed 81.4 pounds with an estimated street value of $3.6 million. Often, seizures follow dangerous high-speed car chases as the drug mules flee from agents.

Agents are in harm's way every day on the job.  In two separate instances, Customs and Border Protection agents were shot at by cartel members on the Mexican side of the border.  In May agents tended to a four-year old child dropped from a border barrier by smugglers.  

As agents rushed to aid the injured boy, cartel members opened fire on the agents.  Fire and rescue first-responders on the scene were forced to take cover.  An Air and Marine Operations helicopter came to the rescue, providing cover for the agents transport the boy to the helicopter.

In another incident, agents patrolling the San Isidro Mountains at nightfall came under heavy fire.  Remote surveillance camera operators captured video of an individual, armed with a rifle.  The shooter was firing from the Mexico side of the border.

One border agent was killed in 2023.  Since January 2021, 43 Customs and Border Protection agents have died in the line of duty, according to Homeland Security.  Likely, this may be the first time you are reading about this tragic death toll.   

The media cabal only covers the border patrol if there is an activist group accusing an agent of abuse. The deaths of agents apparently don't warrant a mention on the national news.  Perhaps, it's because Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas keeps assuring Americans the border is secure.

The unprecedented flood of drugs and immigrants is overwhelming the agents, who protect Americans.   They are the unsung heroes of 2023. The women and men of the Border Patrol deserve to be recognized as the Persons of the Year, despite the lack of news coverage. 

Sanctimony Over Busing Illegal Immigrants

Swarms of illegal immigrants flooding across the Southern border have been deliberately ignored by the media to support the administration's lie about a secure border. But when 48 migrants arrived on a bus in the exclusive enclave at Martha's Vineyard, the news coverage was intensive and sanctimonious.   

All it took was a busload of 48 migrants for the pro-Biden media to condemn the exploitation of illegals as political pawns. The migrants spent 44 minutes on the luxurious island before they were whisked off by the national guard after residents discovered the illegals were not lawn service workers. 

Florida Governor Ron deSantis airlifted the illegals from Texas and then bused them to the exclusive vineyard. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been busing illegals nabbed at his state's border to Chicago and New York City, both sanctuary cities.  Mayors in those two cities are apoplectic. 

The president's spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre condemned the governors for sending illegals to Democrat-run sanctuary cities.  "What they are doing is a legal stunt, is a political stunt.  It's really just disrespectful to humanity." Her words oozed with hypocrisy.   

Apparently, Jean-Pierre forgot the administration's busing of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to cities throughout the nation. Migrants were dropped off in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, Florida.  Others were shipped to Houston and Dallas. There was no outrage.

Administration officials flew or bused immigrants to states and cities over their objections.  When the administration, dropped off 2,000 immigrants in Westchester County (N.Y.), even Democrat lawmakers questioned the move. Rep. Tom Suozzi griped the flights landed at night with no prior warning.

Dozens of flights shuttled immigrants from the Southern border to Jacksonville last year without prior notice.  In Iowa, the governor complained after two dozen immigrant children showed up in Des Moines, prompting law enforcement to investigate if they were victims of human trafficking.

Over the protest of Tennessee leaders, the administration began sending immigrants to their state. Four planes arrived in Chattanooga without prior notice.  These were not isolated incidents.  Many states had similar experiences.  Immigrants in most cases were unaware of their destination.  

Now that Governor DeSantis and Abbott are flipping the script it seems unfair to the political elitists responsible for the open border policy.  Biden has ignored the pleas of border states to fix the problem.  Democrats are begging Biden to sue Abbott and DeSantis instead of addressing the border crisis.   

Sanctimonious Democrats are denouncing the governors for treating the immigrants inhumanly.  Really? Every one of those immigrants paid a human smuggler from the Mexican drug cartel to get into the U.S. They weren't sent in an air-conditioned bus or an airplane. 

Fifty three illegal immigrants stuffed into a sweltering tractor trailer died earlier this year in Texas. Each put their lives in the hands of smugglers.  Just recently Border Patrol agents rescued more than a dozen migrants locked in a U-Haul truck.   This is what "disrespect for humanity" looks like  Jean-Pierre.

Biden's open border policy is inviting the cartel to exploit foreigners arriving in Mexico.  His policy is enriching drug cartels.  The Biden plan is inhumane and cruel.  

Thanks to Martha's Vineyard, more Americans are now aware the Border Patrol has apprehended more than 2 million illegal immigrants this fiscal year, which ends this month. The numbers do not include more than 500,000 getaways who avoided apprehension and escaped into the country. 

Think about that figure of 500,000.  The number of getaways are larger than cities such as Miami, Oakland, Tampa and Cleveland. Where have all those illegals gone?  The administration doesn't have a clue about their whereabouts or whether they are terrorists, gang members or drug runners. 

Open borders are facilitating a tide of lethal drugs into America. The Border Patrol  has seized 1,007 pounds of cocaine, 4,009 pounds of methamphetamine and 461 pounds of fentanyl at the border.  No one knows how many drugs swept undetected into the U.S. 

It is no coincidence that drug overdose fatalities are spiraling in the U.S..  More than two-thirds of overdose deaths involve fentanyl.  A trailer loaded with 1,337 pounds of meth, was recently seized. Meth is often mixed with fentanyl by the cartel. Two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose.

It is open season for drug and human smuggling into Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Democrats control Congress, yet refuse to even acknowledge the problem much less address it.  Instead, they criticize governors dealing with the catastrophic invasion every day at the border.  

Democrats often deflect the border issue by insisting on immigrant reform first.  Why haven't Democrats acted?  They have the votes. The answer is obvious.  They prefer an open border irregardless of the consequences for the country. Their policy is killing immigrants and Americans.  

Unaccompanied Children: Propaganda Versus Fact

A chilling photo of two immigrant children in a fenced detention center went viral two months ago.  The picture of young females stretched out on a concrete floor caused a national furor over President Trump's immigration policy.  There was only one problem.  The photo was snapped in 2014.

In May, posts on Twitter and other social media never mentioned the photo was four years old. The provocative image and others were posted by President's Obama's former speechwriter Jon Favreau, who claimed the photos were evidence of Mr. Trump's cruel punishment of unaccompanied children.

Only when an Arizona newspaper pointed out the photos were taken four years ago did Favreau confess.  However, he attempted to weasel out of his deception by pleading he made a mistake.  His assertion came long after the images triggered a national outrage on the handling of minors.

The incident is one example of many disinformation efforts to inflame the national conscience over this volatile issue. As a result of the propaganda, the blame for the treatment of these children has fallen on the shoulders of the current administration.  Facts seem to matter little to the perpetrators.

In the rush to judgment, few recall the U.S. policy for detaining unaccompanied children has been in force for a decade.  Under a law passed with bi-partisan support in 2008, unaccompanied foreign children from countries other than Mexico or Canada are taken into custody for their protection.

The unaccompanied minor problem spiked during the Obama years, beginning in 2014 when thousands of immigrants from Central American countries were smuggled into the U.S.  From October 2015 to March of 2016,  unaccompanied minors apprehended at the border rose 78 percent.

According to a Pew Research analysis of U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, from 2014 to March of 2016, border agents detained 71,951 unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.  Detention centers quickly were overcrowded by the stream of foreign minors.

Alarmed at the surge, the Obama Administration was forced to launch a public information campaign in Central America to stem the flood of children. Although the effort had a temporary impact, it failed to deter the tsunami of immigrant youths journeying north to the U.S.

During the crisis, the Obama Administration followed the 2008 law without a peep from the media.  Minors were temporarily placed in shelter facilities operated by Customs and Border Protection.  After screening, they were transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

This policy was designed to prevent human trafficking and to keep children safe.  The youths were fed, sheltered and provided medical care until they could be released to a family member or sponsor. No matter what you read in the media, this policy remains the same today as it was under Obama.

In recognition of the growing problem, the Department of Health and Human Services recently expanded the number of shelters to 100 with 13,000 beds in 17 states.  The federal budget for this fiscal year was increased to $1.08 billion to handle minors placed in U.S. custody.

It was no coincidence the fake social media propaganda appeared soon after the administration enacted a policy of zero tolerance for illegal adults apprehended at the border. The directive does cause children to be temporarily separated from their families after the adult is placed in custody.

Adding to the duplicity, the media circulated stories asserting 1,500 children separated from their parents had gone missing. There was confusion about whether the children were separated from families at the border.  It turns out ORR transitioned the minors to sponsors in the U.S. 

Under President Trump, ORR has placed 23,543 minors who entered the country illegally.  Some of those minors are sent to family members who may be living in the country illegally.  Reuniting families is a priority even if the sponsors are undocumented foreigners.  Does that sound cruel?

Critics deliberately obfuscate the issue by mixing the unaccompanied minor policy with the apprehension of illegal adult immigrants.  The issues are divided by very different laws and legal directives.  Most news reporting jumbles the two together to support their anti-Trump narrative.

Additionally, the media has neglected to report that some minors are not innocent children. Documents obtained by government watchdog Judicial Watch reveal nearly 1,000 cases in 2014 of foreign minors confessing to murders, rapes, smuggling and prostitution in their country of origin.

The ORR incident logs also contain reports of Central American minors suffering sexual assaults during their journey through Mexico and being subjected to inappropriate sexual relationships with Mexican cops.  Why is there no denunciation of Mexican corruption and treatment of minors?

Children traveling alone is a humanitarian and public safety nightmare.  Some are quick to pin the blame on the administration because these minors are put in peril after parents ship them out on their own.  There are better ways.  The United States offers legal immigration and political asylum.

No one in Congress is asking the obvious question: Why are so many unaccompanied foreign minors continuing to enter the U.S. illegally?  Finding a solution requires answers from the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.  A country trying to protect children is not the problem.