Without a border, immigrant crime can hit everywhere

The radical anti-borders contingent insists that illegal aliens commit crimes at a lower rate than U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. On its face, that assertion is false. Entering the U.S. without inspection and authorization by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a crime under 8 U.S. Code Section 1325.  

After committing the crime of improper entry, most illegal aliens then go on to commit a number of fraud offenses, banking and tax code offenses in order to work illegally, open a bank account, rent an apartment, etc. 

However, even putting aside immigration offenses, labor violations and tax crimes, honest analysts have maintained that illegal aliens engage in inordinately high levels of criminal activity.  

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECTED IN MARYLAND MOM RACHEL MORIN'S MURDER FACES MAXIMUM PENALTY IF CONVICTED

Research conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) found that "illegal aliens are incarcerated up to five and a half times as frequently as citizens and legal immigrants." And a study by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) found that while foreign-born individuals make up "15.4 percent of the nation’s population" they "comprise 20 percent of inmates in prisons and jails." 

A memorial to Jocelyn Nungaray. (Getty Images)

Those findings seem to be borne out by the events of last year. Communities across the U.S. have recently seen a wave of crime equal to that experienced by New York, Baltimore and Los Angeles in the 1970s. Here are just a few examples: 

• The Massachusetts State Police recently arrested a Colombian national wanted for drug trafficking in Spain. He was apprehended after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and then released by DHS.
• On June 26, 2024, Oved Bernardo Mendoza Argueta, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was arrested in Irving Texas and charged with murder after allegedly shooting two people in a Chick-fil-A.
• Jhon Moises Chacaguasay-Ilbis, an illegal alien from Ecuador, has been charged in upstate New York with choking Joselyn Jhoana Toaquiza to death on June 18, 2024, her 21st birthday.

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• Police in Houston arrested two illegal aliens from Venezuela for the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray. One of the suspects was apprehended while illegally crossing the border and was released into the United States because he wished to apply for asylum.
• In February of 2024, Jose Ibarra, an illegal alien from Venezuela was arrested in Athens Clarke County for allegedly murdering nursing student Laken Riley.

And these aren’t simply aberrations. According to police in New York City, robberies in the Big Apple are up 300%. And they say the increase is directly attributable to the mass influx of illegal aliens who have been treated to luxury hotel rooms at taxpayer expense while they rob, rape and pillage their way through the five boroughs. 

Correlation isn’t direct evidence of causation. However, in this case, there is a clear link between crime and migration. The current administration has allowed a record number of foreign nationals into the United States and in all the states where those migrants have gone, they have left a trail of felonious acts. And most of those crimes were drug offenses, sex offenses and/or violent crimes.  

ICE arrests an illegal immigrant who is a Honduran national and charges him with a sex crime. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

It doesn’t take a genius with a Ph.D. in higher mathematics to figure out what is going on here. Murderers, rapists, thieves and drug dealers are now streaming across our non-existent borders where they simply have to say the magic words – "I want asylum."  

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The federal government then transports them to the interior, where they are released to prey upon American communities, safe in the knowledge that the police in sanctuary jurisdictions won’t cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  

The American government is responsible for ensuring the safety of U.S. citizens and those lawfully present in the U.S. But it can’t do that if it waives foreign criminals across the border and then protects them from deportation.  

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It is time to stop the insanity. Every one of the crimes referenced above was, by definition, 100% preventable – because, if the immigration laws of the United States had been enforced, the perpetrators would have been turned around at the border, or rapidly detained and deported. As such, they wouldn’t have been present in the United States to murder, rape and rob. Secure borders mean secure communities. But no border means no country and no safety. 

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Tom Homan is a senior fellow at the Immigration Reform Law Institute and the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Matt O’Brien is the director of investigations at the Immigration Reform Law Institute and the co-host of IRLI’s podcast "No Border, No Country." He is a former U.S. immigration judge. 

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Matt O’Brien is the director of investigations at the Immigration Reform Law Institute and the co-host of IRLI’s podcast "No Border, No Country." Immediately prior to working for IRLI he served as an immigration judge. He has nearly 30 years of experience in immigration law and policy, having held numerous positions within the Department of Homeland Security.