Did you hear about the latest deportation 'outrage'? The sympathetic New York Times headline about the story reads, 'Man Who'd Served His Time in US is Deported to an African Prison.' The sub-headline says the situation in question "highlights a tension in President Trump’s deportation agenda, in which immigrants can be sent abroad and detained indefinitely." The opening sentences of the article lay out two competing mentalities surrounding the case. To the Times' credit, they don't bury some of the most significant facts at play. Which category do you fall into?
After fatally shooting a man in the head in Brooklyn in 1996, Orville Etoria was convicted of murder and given a prison sentence of 25 years to life. During his incarceration, Mr. Etoria, a Jamaican citizen with legal residency in the United States, was ordered deported by an immigration judge. But upon his release in 2021, immigration officials allowed him to stay in America, provided he complete annual check-ins with the authorities. To those close to Mr. Etoria, 62, it was a reprieve that gave him a second chance at life...To those who support President Trump’s stated mission to deport the “worst of the worst” and other immigrants in record numbers, Mr. Etoria is exactly the kind of dangerous felon who should be expelled from the United States.
This individual -- a foreign national -- shot another man in the head, killing him, while on American soil. Those "close to" the murderer insist the 2021 decision to not only let him out of prison, but to allow him to remain in the United States grants him a "second chance at life." That chance was not extended, of course, to the murder victim. Even if one believes he deserves a shot at redemption, why should he get it here in the US? Indeed, he's a convicted killer with a standing deportation order against him from a separate judge. That's a lot of due process, with a body count. The second question in the mix is whether this man should be sent to a third country, where he may struggle with due process moving forward, rather than back to his nation of origin:
[The] case represents a tension at the heart of the administration’s deportation agenda. Some legal experts argue that there is little justification for sending immigrants to far-flung countries where they have never been and can be detained indefinitely without charges, as is the case for Mr. Etoria. These critics argue that the administration is unnecessarily putting deportees at risk by sending them to unfamiliar nations where they have few prospects or access to due process, instead of simply sending them home...In a statement to The New York Times, the Department of Homeland Security countered that Mr. Etoria should have been deported long ago. “Our message is clear: Criminals are not welcome in the United States,” the statement said.
I'm open to the idea of putting him on an airplane to Jamaica and just being done with it. On the other hand, if you're a foreigner in the United States and are very concerned about your future rights, I'd humbly suggest not shooting people in the head. Fox's Bill Melugin is right to highlight a key component of this timeline, by the way:
Something that jumps out from this NYT piece on a Jamaican murderer who was deported to Africa by the Trump admin...
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 1, 2025
After his release from prison in 2021 for fatally shooting a man in the head in NY, & despite having a deportation order, the Biden admin let him stay in the US. pic.twitter.com/UJa1KgZ2GW
This foreign national was a convicted murderer with a court-imposed removal order against him, and the Biden administration decided that he should be able to stay in the United States after his incarceration. What a complete mess the Biden years were on immigration policy, and so many other fronts, for that matter. Meanwhile, what might you notice about this development?
A Biden-appointed federal judge abruptly blocked the Trump administration from flying out hundreds of illegal alien children over Labor Day weekend after immigrant advocacy groups rushed to court, claiming Trump was carrying out a mass deportation in the dead of night. The emergency order by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan froze a pilot program the administration said would reunite nearly 700 kids with parents or guardians in Guatemala. By the time the judge intervened, charter buses had already rolled up to planes in Harlingen and El Paso and, in some cases, children were seated on board awaiting departure. Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign told the court, "These are not removals under the statute. These are repatriations. All of these children have parents or guardians in Guatemala who have requested their return."
Were we not reliably informed that family separations are the cruelest imaginable immigration policy outcome? That was the official party (and media, of course) line during the first Trump administration. So why are left-wing activists rushing to a Biden-appointed judge to halt the reunification of illegal children with their families, reportedly at the request of those families? It almost as if the rules change endlessly, rooted firmly in a pro-illegal immigration political agenda. I'll leave you with this, in case you missed it earlier in the week:
NEW: According to the criminal complaint, which was signed off on by a federal judge, Nunez was laughing and recording the ICE agents on his phone while he towed their vehicle away in LA , which had the keys and a weapon in a gun safe inside. HSI used TikTok to track him down. https://t.co/I09b0VRKs3
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 2, 2025
