ICE as the guard against dangerous drunk driving

It is not too much to ask that any illegal alien caught driving drunk be deported.

Those driving around drunk with thousands of pounds of steel, whether American or foreign national, pose a serious public safety threat. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an estimated 10,874 people were killed in 2017 in drunk driving crashes. Very few drunk drivers, including repeat offenders in many states, receive a meaningful punishment and are deterred. But when the offenders are foreign nationals, given that drunk driving is a frequently repeated offense, every subsequent offense, which could potentially kill other motorists and pedestrians, is 100 percent avoidable. Why should they remain in the country? But that is exactly what happens, thanks to sanctuary cities.

Which brings us to the case of Betsaida Sunem Moreno-Manriquez. The NBC affiliate in Portland, Oregon, wrote a puff piece on her as a “Cornelius mom” being deported by the big bad ICE guys, even though she was brought here when she was one year old. However, she is also a repeat-offender drunk driver.

According to a regional spokeswoman for ICE, Betsaida Sunem Moreno-Manriquez, a Mexican national who is here illegally, “pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of intoxicants” on August 20, 2015. So why is she still in the country?

“On April 6, 2016, Moreno-Manriquez reported to the Portland U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office where she was arrested and transported to the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington. On May 5, 2016, Moreno-Manriquez posted bond and was released from custody. On April 13, 2017, she failed to appear for her scheduled immigration court appearance and was ordered remov[ed] in absentia by an immigration judge.”

All too often, criminal aliens are allowed to remain in the country because they fail to appear for court dates and are released on bond. But it gets worse.

According to ICE, “On Aug. 4, 2018, Moreno-Manriquez was arrested by the Forest Grove Police Department on various local charges. Following that arrest, Moreno-Manriquez failed to appear at her scheduled court appearance for those charges and a warrant was issued for her arrest.” According to Washington County, Oregon, court records, Moreno-Manriquez was charged with giving false information to police and driving without a license. The bench warrant for her arrest was issued August 16, 2018.

Every day this woman remains in the country, she is a ticking time bomb. Yet because she is protected by Oregon’s sanctuary policies, ICE had to go find her on its own. According to the ICE spokeswoman, “On July 9, 2019, Morena-Manriquez was arrested by ICE in Hillsboro, Oregon, and is currently being held at the NWDC pending her removal to Mexico.”

The local NBC article quotes open-borders activists talking about second chances for DUIs and downplaying the severity of the crime. They make constant reference to separation of families, which has become the new political human shield against enforcing the laws against illegal aliens, even those who pose a danger to the country. Now they are trying to shame ICE into cancelling the deportation.

Pueblo Unido raises money and pays to send attorneys to Tacoma for consultation appointments with detainees facing deportation on a regular basis.

“How many people do you know who had a DUI who got a chance to get diversion and move on with their lives? And then how many were permanently separated from their families?” Pueblo Unido Executive Director and Founder Cameron Coval asked. “She's right now fighting for her freedom and the opportunity to stay in this country with her children.”

But what about the Americans who are permanently separated from their children in the grave due to the daily DUI manslaughters by illegal aliens driving drunk? Just in one year of apprehensions with very limited resources, ICE arrested a pool of aliens who together racked up 80,730 DUIs, not including over 76,000 other driving offenses.

These stories go untold every day, as was the story of one mother, Aileen Smith, who related on my podcast last year her tragedy of losing her unborn child in an illegal alien drunk driving wreck. The illegal alien driver was arrested eight times for DUI and was never turned over to ICE, thanks to sanctuary policies in New Mexico. Aileen related how, unlike criminal aliens who get endless pro bono legal help and PR from open border groups, she was left with nothing and nobody to help her.

In June, Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, a criminal alien with a history of drug and driving violations who was allowed to remain in the country, went on to kill seven bikers in New Hampshire with his truck.

When the media shows you harrowing images of moms being arrested and “separated from their kids,” what they don’t show you is their decision to drive drunk and risk the lives of Americans. We have the ability to remove them before they can continue their frequently uncontrolled habit.

This case in Oregon is a perfect example of what ICE is up against. There are people who have been given due process over and over again, yet they chose to further break the law and not show up in court. Then when ICE decides to deport them, opponents act as if these people are angels and just committed low-level offenses. But the reality is that while we can’t choose our natural-born citizens and are stuck with what we get, we can choose our immigrants. And there are many wonderful immigrants who will never get arrested or drive drunk. Why do we need any criminal aliens in our country?

A sane GOP Senate would stay in session through the August recess and pass bills like the old Scott Gardner Act (H.R. 3808), sponsored by former Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., which would mandate that ICE apprehend all illegal aliens arrested for drunk driving.

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px;}

/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.

We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */