If you look at a cigarette by itself, it doesn’t show you any sign of cancer.
But documented evidence reveals that its effects accumulate over time, and there’s no way to know which puff of smoke will cost you your life.
Illegal immigration is much the same. While the establishment media outlets like to focus on individuals, it is the cumulative effect of unchecked, unvetted immigrants entering through the border illegally that has inevitable consequences, such as the ones we are seeing now.
The case of Laken Riley, the Georgia student who was brutally murdered, allegedly by an illegal immigrant, has garnered mass public outrage. But she is not the only victim of illegal immigrant crime in the past couple of months.
In February, a Venezuelan illegal immigrant named Renzo Mendoza Montes was arrested in connection with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl, according to Fox News.
Also in February, in Englewood, Florida, another illegal immigrant, Santo Felix Cruz-Ramos, was arrested on charges of sex battery at a hotel, according to WZVN-TV in Naples, Florida.
Yet another February report by WVUE-DT in New Orleans revealed that a 19-year-old Honduran man, Angel Matias Castellanos-Orellana. had been arrested in Kenner, Louisiana, for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint and a myriad of other crimes.
Can’t keep up w/ these stories at this point. Now media in Louisiana are reporting an illegal alien from Honduras has been arrested for the rape of a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint, and stabbing another man repeatedly during a robbery. ICE detainer lodged.https://t.co/WF4HQKVSLy
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 28, 2024
Do we need a complete border wall?
On Monday, Fox News reported that U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested five “child sex offenders” in locations spread across the border, according to Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens.
The arrests took place across five different sectors — Yuma and Tucson in Arizona, as well as El Paso, Del Rio, and Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The criminal histories of those apprehended included charges such as sexual assault of a 15-year-old and aggravated sexual assault of a child, Owens wrote.
Over the weekend, USBP agents in the Yuma, Tucson, El Paso, Del Rio, and Rio Grande Valley Sectors arrested 5 child sex offenders. Their criminal histories include Sexual Assault of a Person of 15 years old & Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child. pic.twitter.com/sNAJ9RLU9x
— Chief Jason Owens (@USBPChief) March 11, 2024
Owens’ post included no details — such as whether those arrested had previously been jailed in the United States and deported, only to try to return again.
However, it’s comforting at least to know Border Patrol has five dangerous criminals under wraps. But what about those who aren’t in custody?
Since fiscal year 2021, there have been an estimated 1.8 million “gotaways” at the southern border, according to a news release from Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee.
A “gotaway” is a person who enters the country illegally without being apprehended.
In a commentary piece published by The Daily Signal on March 4, columnist Jared Stepman noted a Bloomberg report from November that Venezuela’s rate of violent deaths dropped significantly in recent years, reaching its lowest level in over two decades in 2023. Stepman attributed this decline not to improved law enforcement or anti-crime measures in the bankrupt country, but to massive migration out of Venezuela due to the country’s economic crisis.
He theorized that the influx of over half a million Venezuelan illegal immigrants into the U.S. over the past two years has likely included dangerous, violent offenders who previously contributed to Venezuela’s high crime rates. With little to no vetting or control over who is entering, Stepman believes that this has directly led to an increase in violent crimes by illegal immigrants on American soil.
The arrests of the five sex offenders came just days before FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday, in which he warned of the “wide array” of dangerous threats originating from the southern border, Fox News reported.
“From an FBI perspective, we are seeing a very dangerous set of threats that emanate from the border,” Wray stated, citing drug trafficking, violent gangs, smugglers with ties to ISIS, and enough fentanyl seized in the last two years alone to kill 270 million people.
In February, during a visit to the southern border, former president Donald Trump said in a speech, “They’re coming from jails and they’re coming from prisons and they’re coming from mental institutions and they’re coming from insane asylums.”
“You look at the jails now – you look at the jails throughout the region but more importantly throughout the world, they’re emptying out, because they’re dumping them into the United States,” he added, CNN reported.
CNN quoted this part of the speech in a “fact check” article about President Trump, stating that there is “no evidence” for Trump’s claims.
But with sexual assaults and other violent crimes being reported with growing frequency, it seems like the evidence of the carcinogens to our national security inhaled through our open-border policies is only just beginning to show.
