An off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer shot in New York City.
A young Texas woman run over and killed by an out-of-control Jet Skier.
A young Colorado woman killed by a teen unlicensed driver.
These three tragedies had one thing in common: They were the actions of foreign nationals present in the United States illegally. These crimes, and hundreds more, were preventable.
The government has not only the ability, but the obligation to use deportation to fix the illegal migration crisis orchestrated by the Biden administration. Illegal immigration is a clear and present daily threat to the American people.
The national security risk created by four long years of open borders is not over simply because CBP has reported record-low encounters at the Southwest land border. As Shakespeare said in “The Tempest,” “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”
One of these individuals is Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, who is the purported assailant of a heinous crime against one of CBP’s own officers. The victim was off duty, enjoying a Sunday night by the Hudson River with a female companion, when two illegal aliens driving a moped ambushed them and shot the officer in the face in an attempted robbery.
Nunez is only one of many criminals who slipped into our country under President Joe Biden’s immigration agenda that prioritized “compassion” over public safety.
The Department of Homeland Security reported an estimated 11 million inadmissible alien encounters from fiscal years 2021 to 2024. Most of these aliens were military-aged men, and among them are cartel affiliates, human traffickers, and gang members who saturated border checkpoints and exploited unauthorized and loophole-ridden short-term migration programs to gain access into American communities at the taxpayer’s expense.
Illegal aliens dispersed into cities across the country, none of which have the will, much less the means, to screen, supervise, or support their detention. The Biden wave of illegal arrivals have now spent four years establishing complex organized crime networks within our country. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lengthy indictment in April detailing gruesome charges against 27 alleged affiliates of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, a foreign terrorist organization.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports routinely show how sanctuary policies shield illegal aliens who go on to commit crimes that were preventable—because every murder, assault, rape, or robbery an illegal alien commits is an avoidable tragedy. A year ago, The Heritage Foundation started recording just some of these preventable crimes on a map of the country. What started as a few dots expanded, with each dot representing a victim.
ICE press releases from just the first two weeks of July 2025 are riddled with descriptions of horrific crimes. Among those arrested were repeat offenders, gang-affiliated illegal aliens, and individuals charged with crimes ranging from sexual assault of minors to elder abuse and domestic violence.
In Rochester, ICE removed an illegally present Cuban national convicted of sexually abusing a child under 14. In Tucson, a Nigerian national pleaded guilty for targeting the elderly in an international fraud scheme.
These criminal episodes are the statistically predictable consequences of the mass migration invasion our government is required by federal law to end.
However, not only the “criminal aliens” should be returned to their country of origin. Allowing anyone to circumvent immigration law, including those who “only” committed unlawful entry or overstayed their visas, compromises America’s sovereignty and rule of law.
According to Title 8 U.S. Code §?1227(a), any alien present in the United States in violation of the law is removable, not only those with miles-long rap sheets. Per 8 U.S. Code §?1325(a) and (b), illegal entry is a misdemeanor. Repeat offenses become felonies under 8 U.S. Code §?1326.
“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” The Left frequently recycles this quote credited to Gandhi to justify defiance, and often obstruction, of immigration law enforcement.
But from the inception of an illegal alien’s illicit journey in the U.S., our nation’s truly most vulnerable are often exploited. American children, women, low-income communities, and the elderly become victims of preventable crime and local jurisdictions bear the cost.
The Ghandi quote in the liberal arsenal of deceitful rhetoric illustrates illegal aliens as helpless “refugees” and promotes foreigners who are not in allegiance with our nation, proven by their failure to adhere to proper immigration procedure.
Illegal aliens first exploit our nation’s most vulnerable, starting with the communities they enter. Most U.S. border towns have a poverty rate higher than the national average. According to 2022 U.S. Census Bureau data, nearly 20% of residents in counties along the Texas-Mexico border live below the poverty line, around 9% higher than the national average. I know. I was raised there.
Illegal aliens do not strain only America’s territorial fringe. Under Biden’s direction, federal agencies used public money to send illegals further inland, where they built hubs for crime, shadow economies, and exploitation.
America must not fail the vulnerable, but failure is imminent when it refuses to name the truth, enforce its laws, or protect its citizens. Every crime by an illegal alien is a crime too many and sanctuary policies betray the most vulnerable among us while creating havens for the perpetrators.
It’s time the United States remembered what compassion really is. So long as the truth is ignored, more preventable crime will occur. America should put protecting victims ahead of enabling lawbreakers.