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When 22-year-old Laken Riley was murdered in broad daylight during one of her daily runs in the college town of Athens, Georgia, it was quickly determined that the main suspect was Jose Ibarra, who had entered the country illegally. Ibarra had been known to the authorities previously, and he had even been apprehended crossing the border, but he was merely released, offered a court date, and got on a bus to New York City.
Riley’s parents and friends are undoubtedly haunted daily by a “what if.”
“What if the administration deported criminal illegal aliens they not only know about, but have already arrested?” Jason and Allyson’s daughter would be alive.
But rather than help prevent a trail of grieving families, this awful question haunts a growing number of families in the greater D.C. area, as violent crime perpetuated by illegal immigrants continues to rise.
In February, Nilson Trejo-Grenados was arrested in Maryland for the murder of a two-year-old boy in D.C. Trejo-Grenados, who hails from El Salvador and was in the United States illegally, had previously had a removal order against him as recently as 2022. Trejo-Grenados was never deported.
In June, Victor Martinez Hernandez was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the rape and murder of Rachel Morin in Maryland in the summer of 2023. Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, had previously been arrested by Customs and Border Protection on three separate occasions, but was never deported. In the meantime, he allegedly managed to assault a 9-year-old girl and her mother in their home in Los Angeles. Because of that incident, law enforcement had Martinez Hernandez’s DNA on file (despite the fact that no charges were ever brought) and tracked him.
In July, Maudin Guzman-Videz, in the United States illegally from Honduras, was arrested due to his connection to a murder that occurred in Oakton, Virginia. In this case, instead of searching nationwide for an arrest history, authorities need only to consult his arrest record within Fairfax County. Guzman-Videz was charged with malicious assault in March, but never appeared for his court date and was not sought out by law enforcement. Guzman Videz’s violent tendencies escalated when, in June, he was arrested for another malicious wounding. Not only was he not deported, but he was released back on bond.
Perhaps the most maddening thing for those on the side of justice and the rule of law is this: The system is working. All of these individuals have violent criminal histories. All of them have been arrested, been identified, and had their information collected and cataloged.
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Vice President Kamala Harris promises she’ll secure the border because she’ll sign legislation. But laws are merely tools. The executive has to enforce the law, to use these tools, to protect our communities. Liberals have trended toward the opposite. In sanctuary cities, state and federal law enforcement officials explicitly decline to follow the law. Officials will know of someone’s immigration status, and sometimes even past violent crimes, and be unable to act on it. Instead of actively working to change the law, progressives continue to find creative ways to circumvent the law, making legislative advocacy near impossible.
Tragically, the wake of tragedy from an open border will continue so long as officials, including our chief executive, promote sanctuary cities and fail to deport dangerous people who refuse to abide by our nation’s laws.
Maggie Cleary Kilgore is a visiting fellow at Independent Women’s Law Center and deputy commonwealth attorney in Culpeper County, Virginia.
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