Evelyn Gallegos’ April 13 letter attempting to diminish the murder of Ruby Garcia, committed by an illegal immigrant, and to broadly minimize violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants was blinded by ideology.
Local law enforcement officers cannot immediately ascertain the citizenship status of someone they’ve arrested – that information is only received upon request from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Notably, sanctuary cities prohibit their law enforcement from asking, which significantly affects the data. And criminal prosecution of illegal immigrants virtually stopped after the pandemic, additionally skewing crime statistics.
Empirically, violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants is on the rise for the simple fact that illegal immigration is on the rise. Obviously, every one of those crimes would not have happened within the U.S. if the illegal immigrant had been prohibited from entry or deported prior to the crime.
We are a nation of laws, not feelings. There is a legal process for people seeking to enter our country – one is either here illegally or not. Likewise, one has either committed a violent crime or not. Breathlessly delineating which guilty group of violent criminals is more guilty is merely a distraction from the very serious discussion that is taking place about the grave need to secure the U.S. southern border.
I agree with Gallegos that lawmakers should be doing more to enact and prosecutors to enforce laws against criminal actions, and I again call on them to do so. Those in authority, especially President Biden, should be working to ensure our safety, rather than actively working to do the opposite as he did when he rescinded the Remain in Mexico policy.
Assigning made-up terms like implicit bias and using dog whistles like xenophobia to describe concerned U.S. citizens does nothing to improve the safety and security of our state and nation.
State Sen. Lana Theis
22nd District
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