Last time we checked in on progressive Montgomery County, Maryland, four illegal immigrants had been arrested on rape charges since Democratic politicians imposed new rules in late July that hampered local officials' ability to cooperate with ICE. The federal agency warned that this act of political signaling would put innocent people's well being at risk, an admonition that has been tragically vindicated on numerous occasions since. Two of the aforementioned rape suspects, both in their 20's, had been taken into custody for allegedly repeatedly raping an 11-year-old girl. One of those suspects had been ignoring a final immigration removal notice since 2016, while his accomplice had re-entered the country following a previous deportation. In my post about their arrests, I made the always-necessary point that one need not demonize all immigrants, or even all illegal immigrants, in order to express anger and highlight the unacceptability of any violent crime committed by people who should not have been inside the United States at all:
That the vast majority of immigrants -- legal and illegal -- are neither dangerously violent nor threats to public safety. There's in fact a great deal of evidence showing that immigrants are less likely to commit violent crimes than native-born Americans, with mixed data on this comparison regarding unlawful immigrants. The purpose of highlighting disgraceful stories like the development below is not to demonize an entire population; it's to draw attention to the consequences of political posturing against needed immigration enforcement. Beyond that, every single act of violence inflicted upon an American by someone who should never have been in the country in the first place is an unacceptable outrage.
Americans must be able to discuss the impact of policies (these statistics throw a wrench into another popular narrative) without being reflexively accused of xenophobia and racism. Defenders of loose-to-nonexistent interior enforcement should also have to explain themselves when their political preferences result in tangible harm. Since my August 23 post, the list of illegal immigrants arrested for rape in Montgomery County alone has increased to seven. Details on latest, terrible case (content warning):
NEW: 37yo Emilio Carrasco-Hernandez raped a 15yo girl in a Silver Spring home they shared, cops say.
— Kevin Lewis (@ABC7Kevin) August 31, 2019
The victim had "stinging" pain after the attack.
This is at least the seventh undocumented immigrant arrested in Montgomery County, Md. on rape/sex abuse charges since July 25. pic.twitter.com/Twu3xw7n9w
On August 26, the 15-year-old girl spoke with Montgomery County Police's Special Victims Investigation Division. She explained that her stepfather, Carrasco-Hernandez, had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions between August 16 and August 25 of this year...What's alleged to have [occurred] is too graphic to publish. The victim, however, reported having trouble using the bathroom afterward because it was "very painful" and "stinging."...According to ICE, Carrasco-Hernandez is a Honduran national living in the U.S. illegally. In April 2017, a federal immigration judge deported the then 35-year-old. He later illegally re-entered the U.S. on an unknown date and by unknown means...In the last six weeks, Montgomery County Police have arrested at least seven undocumented immigrants for allegedly raping and sexually assaulting females in Germantown, Rockville, Silver Spring, and Wheaton. One victim was 11-years-old at the time of her repeated abuse. Other victims were 12, 15 and 16-years-old.
Montgomery County Democrats who chose to make a show out of "standing up" to President Trump have merely put their own constituents in greater danger, and the details of several of these awful stories underscore the reality that the border is hardly secure. The Democratic Party writ large is increasingly moving toward a stance of effective open borders (see here and here), with their momentum toward decriminalizing illegal crossings and ostentatious objections to basic interior enforcement. In an effort to keep up with his Left flank, Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden recently embraced a new escalation in the open borders sweepstakes, apparently calling for border detention centers to be shut down completely:
Joe Biden just joined the rest of the radical open borders Democrats and said he wants to "close down" detention facilities.
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 29, 2019
This is his solution to the illegal immigration crisis? Extreme! (Also, why didn't he do anything about it when he was VP?) pic.twitter.com/I7IB07Yg61
"Close them down. We don't need them." This seemingly flippant line generated the applause Biden was likely seeking, but think about the actual implications of this idea. With thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants pouring across the Southern border -- overwhelming US resources for much of 2019 -- unlawful migrants must be held in order for their claims of asylum to be adjudicated. We know that a large majority of such claims are unfounded, and that many illegal immigrants released into the US with a pending court date never end up complying with the judicial process. This is already a problem that has been exacerbating the border crisis and inexorably increasing the population of people living in the US illegally.
By "closing down" the existing facilities, the chaos would only worsen -- further incentivizing illegal crossings, and vastly diminishing our already-flawed capacity to turn away dangerous people. Will Biden maintain this insane position? (Update: looks like it). Will he continue to insist that illegal immigrants should receive free taxpayer-funded healthcare, including abortions, as virtually the entire 2020 Democratic field has endorsed? One wonders how the victims of these alleged crimes might feel about these reckless and irresponsible ideas. I'll leave you with a reminder from a left-wing publication that Biden is a relative moderate on these matters, certainly as compared to fellow top tier candidate Elizabeth Warren, who effectively supports open borders.
