Horowitz: Illegal alien crime wave continues as border heats up again

Just because they're overshadowed by an unprecedented news cycle doesn't mean the border and criminal alien problems in this country have disappeared. We still have huge numbers of criminal aliens who remain in this country undeterred and who continue to be incentivized to cross the border with the confidence that they can remain here undetected. Until we begin enforcing some of the original immigration laws on the books, we will continue importing more gangs, drug traffickers, and child molesters at a time when we are struggling with domestic violence and insurrection among the citizen population.

Three illegal alien brothers from Honduras are accused of raping a 10-year-old girl in Kenner, Louisiana. According to police, Raul Paz-Perez and Wilmer Paz-Perez, both 35, and 31-year-old Elder Paz-Perez all live together in the same apartment as Elder's girlfriend and four of her children. The alleged victim is one of her children. Raul and Wilmer are in custody, and Elder is still on the run. Jail bookings of the two arrested brothers indicate there is a federal immigration hold.

The brothers are accused of first trying to pay the 10-year-old girl for sex, and when she refused and locked herself in a bathroom, all three allegedly broke in, held her down, and raped her.

The northern part of Kenner, a western suburb of New Orleans, has been called "Little Honduras." As I noted when I covered these cases more prolifically last year, the child sex problem among some illegal aliens is more pervasive than you ever hear in the news. According to data from Girls Not Brides, a global nonprofit against child marriage, the child marriage rates for girls in Latin American countries from which we are seeing an increase in illegal immigration are particularly high, especially in rural areas. The organization estimate that 34 percent of all married Honduran women were with their male spouses as minors.

Some of this culture has also been brought in through the front door. According to a Senate Homeland Security Committee report published in January 2019, a loophole in our spousal visa policies has allowed roughly 8,700 child brides, including 14-year-old girls, to be brought into the country on fiancé or marriage visas for the purpose of marrying older men.

In fiscal year 2019, ICE reported that there were a total of 14,500 sex crime charges among those who were subject to ICE detainers. Louisiana has certainly had its share of cases. One previously deported illegal alien was arrested by state officials and charged with 100 counts of child porn. Thankfully, Louisiana cooperates with ICE, so these individuals are usually caught and deported after the first crime. But many illegal alien sex offenders in sanctuary states and cities, such as Montgomery County, Maryland, are recycled back in the system.

For example, in sanctuary Illinois, 26-year-old Eduardo Castillo-Vivaldo of St. Charles was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor. Local media refers to him as a "suburban man," but the jail booking indicates that he has a federal hold on him. Unlike the Louisiana brothers, he is being offered $100,000 bail. Pursuant to the state's "Trust Act," local police are forbidden to honor ICE detainers when releasing those who post bail. This is just one example of an illegal alien child sex offender suspect who could easily escape ICE apprehension with the help of sanctuary laws.

In New York, local authorities released Ever Morales-Lopez, 26, who had been convicted on conspiracy charges in relation to an MS-13 gang murder in 2018. Though ICE lodged a detainer, he was released and is now charged with murder in aid of racketeering in another MS-13 murder. Thankfully, the FBI was able to track him down, but local officials had no compunction about releasing another country's brutal gang member who is alleged to have participated as a lookout and scout for two murders.

According to ICE, in FY 2019, NYC officials ignored 7,526 detainers lodged against criminals who collectively accounted for 17,873 criminal convictions and 6,500 criminal charges. Among those crimes were 200 homicides, over 500 robberies, over 1,000 sexual offenses, over 1,000 weapons offenses, over 3,500 assaults, and over 1,500 DUIs.

With New York averaging about 300 murders a year (although that number is rising), clearly there are a ton of illegal alien murder suspects we never hear about.

In Frederick, Maryland, which has seen an increase in illegal immigration in recent years, an illegal alien female from Peru is accused of beating an elderly woman to death with a rolling pin inside her own home. Thankfully, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins participates in the 287(g) program, which ensures that the immigration status of anyone who passes through his jail is verified with federal agents.

In other jurisdictions, she might have fallen through the cracks. Just 45 minutes to the east in Baltimore County, ICE announced earlier this week that two illegal alien suspects in an MS-13 gang killing of a 16-year-old girl in Baltimore had prior criminal records but were released by authorities in New York and Maryland in defiance of ICE detainers.

The lesson is clear: If we continue to slack on interior enforcement and fail to shut off the magnets that encourage illegal immigration, we will continue to suffer from avoidable crimes committed by other countries' criminals. If we continue to allow sanctuary cities to flourish unchecked, then we will suffer from repeat offenses of these individuals, even after they are already detected following prior crimes.

Because we have failed to defund sanctuary cities, cut off all welfare and jobs to criminal illegal aliens, or use existing tools to choke off identity theft, illegal aliens continue to come with the confidence that they are unlikely to be detected. Despite the initial slowing of illegal immigration at the border due to the pandemic, the numbers are now rising very quickly. After bottoming out at 17,000 apprehensions in April, that number has nearly tripled to roughly 50,000 in August. That is the highest level in 12 months. At this pace, in a month or two, we will be back at the levels of the 2018-2019 border crisis.

While the Trump administration has done a good job of finally deterring the family units from coming openly to surrender and declare asylum, the resurgence in the past few months has been driven largely by single adult males. From what I can gather from CBP statistics, the August numbers for single adults were the highest since at least as far back as 2010.

Our federal officials swear an oath to protect us against all enemies – foreign and domestic. While they are busy treating peaceful Americans like criminals under the guise of public health concerns, they are failing to protect us both from domestic and foreign actual violence.