Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have done the American people a huge favor.
With their chartered flights and buses ferrying illegal aliens to elite coastal enclaves like Martha’s Vineyard and liberal haven cities like New York City and Chicago, they have single-handedly exposed the hypocrisy of the left on border security and illegal immigration.
The left’s furious but impotent response to these moves was a textbook example of hyperbole designed to ignite and divide rather than resolve an historic border crisis.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reaction is probably amazing. He asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate DeSantis and Abbott for “kidnapping.”
“I urge the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether the alleged fraudulent inducement would support the kidnapping allegations under relevant state statutes,” Newsom wrote.
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Other open border advocates have repeated similar claims. On MSNBC, twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accused Texas and Florida of “literal human trafficking.”
These claims are wrong. Numerous journalists, including Fox’s Bill Melugin, have reported that these illegal aliens are voluntarily embracing these travel opportunities and are often excited to travel further inland, away from the border.
But more importantly, the radical, open-border crowd should look in the mirror before blaming Patriots like DeSantis and Abbott. Because a careful reading of Title 8 of the United States Code, Section 1324, shows that when it comes to illegal immigration, they are the ones breaking federal laws.
First, consider Title 8’s very clear language, which makes it a federal crime, “any person who encourages or causes any alien to come, enter, or be in the United States with knowledge or reckless disregard the fact that such entry, entry, or stay is or will be contrary to law.”
Encouraging and facilitating illegal immigration is exactly what the federal government has been doing since President Biden took office. But let’s go back even earlier.
Sanctuary cities have existed in this country for years. Mayors in cities like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Washington, DC have openly stated that illegal aliens are not only protected from incarceration and deportation, but also receive taxpayer-funded benefits, including access to local schools, welfare programs and even driver’s licenses .
In fact, Newsom himself signed legislation last year that would provide illegal aliens living in California with $1,000 stimulus checks and extend the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, to them as well.
Would someone care to explain why these lavish benefits and promises do not amount to incentive or encouragement?
But that’s not all. Title 8 also makes harboring illegal aliens a federal crime, and this is where the lure of illegal aliens through cities of refuge encounters another major problem.
The law “makes it a criminal offense for any person who, in knowledge or in reckless disregard of the fact that a foreign national has entered, entered or is staying in the United States in violation of the law, hides in ports or hides from detection or attempts protects such aliens from concealing, harboring, or preventing detection in any location, including buildings or transportation.” Again, this is a federal offense.
This is exactly what shelter cities do every day. These jurisdictions do not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This means if a person is illegally in the United States and commits a serious crime and is currently in a jail cell in a city of refuge, local law enforcement will not contact ICE to let them know they are detaining a criminal illegal alien.
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In most cases, ICE can know that the illegal alien is in prison based on his or her fingerprints sent to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
These jurisdictions are excluded from working with ICE. They won’t even let ICE agents into the taxpayer-funded prison to talk to or engage with an illegal alien who is here in violation of federal law.
The bottom line is that criminal illegal aliens in these cities, even those accused of horrific crimes, are protected from deportation as city guides stiffen the ICE and prevent them from doing their jobs. That is the definition of “hosting” an illegal alien.
Haven policies are just a haven for criminals. They are a nightmare for tax-paying citizens – and those who came to our country legally.
The left’s open borders policy is cruel and inhumane. They cause a record number of deaths and assaults on migrants. They enrich the cartels and human traffickers.
They are also an affront to law and order. Perhaps the open-border crowd should open the books before making any more unwise claims of breaking the law.
