Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware introduced the Law Enforcement Congressional Badge of Bravery Act on Jan. 29, 2008, in what would later prove to be a sadly ironic moment.
One element of this bill, according to its official summary, would authorize "the Attorney General to award a State and Local Law Enforcement Congressional Badge of Bravery to a state or local law enforcement officer who the Attorney General cites for performing an act of bravery while in the line of duty."
While introducing this bill, Biden highlighted the growing dangers faced by law enforcement officers.
"The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund -- which commemorates the service and sacrifice of law enforcement officers and helps promote law enforcement safety -- found that officer deaths were up sharply nationwide last year," Biden said, according to the Congressional Record.
"Police departments around the country are scrambling in an arms race to match the firepower of the bad guys," he said.
No one in Congress disagreed with Biden's proposal. It became law.
Three years later -- on Feb. 19, 2011 -- the Tulsa World ran a story with this headline: "Illegal immigrant pleads guilty to Owasso robbery."
"A twice-deported man who was shot by police as he robbed an Owasso convenience store last year pleaded guilty Friday to the heist as well as to a related firearm charge," the story said.
In a plea agreement made in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, Jose Luis Moreno-Yanez, a Mexican national, pled guilty to two counts. The first was "Hobbs Act Robbery and Attempted Robbery." The second was "Use, Carry, and Brandish a Firearm During a Crime of Violence."
In the agreement, this illegal alien described the actions he had taken on July 21, 2010.
"I walked into the Kum & Go convenience store at 10603 East 86th Street North, Owasso, Oklahoma, in the Northern District of Oklahoma, armed with an Armscor, Model 1600, .22 caliber rifle," he said.
"While pointing the rifle at an employee," he said, "I ordered the employee to take money from the registers and put it in a bag. When the employee did not move fast enough, I jabbed him in the right shoulder with the barrel end of the rifle and threatened to kill him if he did not hurry, after which I grabbed the money from the registers."
How was this armed robbery thwarted?
While this illegal alien was aiming his rifle at the store clerk, Owasso Police Department Detective Jason Woodruff, who had just gone off duty, drove up in front of the Kum & Go to fill his car with gas.
What he did then would earn him the Law Enforcement Congressional Badge of Bravery.
Woodruff, says a Justice Department statement, "observed multiple bystanders and store employees huddled at the east end of the business.
"The bystanders and employees alerted Detective Woodruff to a robbery in progress," it says. "Detective Woodruff, without further regard for his own safety, approached the convenience store to assess the robbery. He determined the best course of action was to confront the gunman inside the store to prevent the possibility of an outdoor shoot-out amongst the bystanders and passing motorists.
"Detective Woodruff drew his weapon and entered the business while the gunman's attention was away from the door," it says. "He announced his authority and confronted the ski-masked gunman. The gunman pointed his assault rifle and Detective Woodruff fired at the gunman. He pursued the gunman inside the store and incapacitated him. At this point, the store clerk and two customers were able to flee the store."
This courageous detective then called the local emergency services "to expedite medical assistance for the wounded gunman."
The perpetrator, Jose Luis Moreno-Yanez, was sentenced to 147 months in prison. He was released on December 1, 2021, when President Joe Biden was in office. Then he was removed from the country -- briefly.
"On December 12, 2021, Luis Moreno-Yanez was removed from the United States," says a document filed on June 2 in the U.S. District Court for Northern Oklahoma.
"In May and June 2023, (he) illegally re-entered the United States and was charged in two separate state cases for robbery with a firearm," said a statement issued last Friday by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
"He pleaded guilty in both cases and was additionally convicted of possessing a controlled drug, assault and battery, among several other charges." For these crimes, he was sentenced to serve concurrent sentences of 18 and 20 years in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
Last week, Moreno-Yanez was sentenced in the federal court to serve 78 months for "Unlawful Reentry of a Removed Alien." The judge ordered that he must serve 39 of these months after he completes the sentences he received in state court.
"While Moreno-Yanez is unlawfully in the United States, his criminal history shows that he commits acts of violence," U.S. Attorney Clinton Johnson said in his statement. "He has no regard for the laws in the United States and continues to show that he is a threat to lawful citizens."
That threat was facilitated by politicians like Biden who failed to secure this nation's borders. If a previously convicted armed robber could illegally cross Biden's border in 2023, could an Iranian-backed terrorist from Hizballah or Hamas have done the same?
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