CNN (Op-Ed)
By Raul A. Reyes
July 6, 2015
As
the nation was preparing for the July Fourth weekend, there was grim
news from San Francisco. On Wednesday night, Kate Steinle, 31, was
fatally shot, apparently randomly,
while walking with her father on a busy pier. A Mexican immigrant, who
CNN reported was in the country without documentation, was arrested in
her death.
Illegally
re-entering the country after being deported, as Juan Francisco
Lopez-Sanchez is said to have done, is a federal felony. He has also
been accused of a horrific,
violent crime. And according to immigration authorities, he has seven
other felony convictions, including four for drug offenses.
But
that doesn't make him a symbol of the estimated 11 million undocumented
immigrants in the United States. Nor is he the poster boy for
out-of-control illegal immigration
across our southern border (illegal immigration from Mexico is at a
40-year low). He does not represent the overwhelming majority of
immigrants in this country -- legal or otherwise -- who are productive
members of society.
Lopez-Sanchez is simply a dangerous individual who should not have been free and among us.
It
is a myth that increased illegal immigration leads to more crime.
Research from the Immigration Policy Center shows that crime rates fell
in the United States as the
size of our immigrant population, including undocumented immigrants,
grew from 1990 to 2010.
The
Washington Post just analyzed Donald Trump's recent comments about
Mexican immigrants being drug dealers and "rapists" and found that he
was wrong about immigrants
and crime. Remember, being in the country without authorization is not a
crime -- it is a civil infraction.
Most undocumented immigrants come to the United States to work and provide a better life for themselves and their families.
Consider
that several mass shootings, from Aurora to Newtown to Charleston, were
committed by young white men. Does that mean that all young white men
are potential mass
murderers? Of course not.
The
same news outlets that are now trumpeting Wednesday's murder as proof
that undocumented immigrants are criminals often overlook or ignore
other stories of undocumented
immigrants who are genuine heroes. In 2013, an undocumented immigrant
rescued a mother and her child on Staten Island, New York, amidst the
storm surge of Superstorm Sandy.
In
2011, an undocumented immigrant in New Mexico saved a 6-year-old girl
from an attempted kidnapping. One of the first Americans killed in Iraq
in 2003 was an immigrant
from Guatemala who came to the United States illegally.
One
takeaway from this episode is that deporting as many undocumented
immigrants as possible is not the answer to our immigration problems.
Lopez-Sanchez had been deported
five times, and yet he was still here in the country without
authorization.
Back
in 2011, the deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
told an immigration subcommittee of Congress that it costs $12,500 to
deport a person. Multiply
this by five and that is how much taxpayer money was wasted on a
criminal who remained at large to randomly take the life of an innocent
young woman.
Another
lesson here is our country does not need more immigration enforcement;
our country needs smarter and better immigration enforcement. Up to now,
immigration authorities
have wasted time, manpower and money chasing after people working
productively in their communities as, say, gardeners and maids, while
felons like Lopez-Sanchez slipped through the cracks.
That's
why it was good news last week that the Department of Homeland Security
announced it is rethinking its deportation priorities to focus on
recent arrivals and serious
criminals.
This
move is a step in the right direction, because it is time to start
seriously targeting those immigrants who are a real threat to public
safety. The government will
be focusing its enforcement efforts on three categories of people:
convicted criminals, recent border crossers and terrorism threats.
True,
Lopez-Sanchez should not have been in the country, or he should have at
least been behind bars. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement erred
in not seeking a warrant
or court order for his arrest and he was released in accordance with
city law in March.
What's
more, President Barack Obama's proposed executive action on
immigration, currently tied up in a legal battle, might also have made a
difference because it would
have freed up resources to go after people like Lopez-Sanchez.
The
executive action would have given deportation relief to parents of
DREAMers, while allowing DHS to zero in on criminals. Instead, despite
the fact that our country
spends more on immigration enforcement than all other law enforcement
agencies combined, our system failed Kate Steinle.
Although
Steinle's death was a tragedy, it was the alleged action of one man.
All undocumented immigrants do not deserve to be vilified by false
association.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment