Previously Published in The Messenger
The latest incident of three Salvadoran nationals, two of whom had no legal status in the United States, being arrested with two Molotov Cocktails and a gasoline canister for an alleged plan of firebombing a car sheds light on two issues on which Albany Democrats have categorically dropped the ball and how their negligence has given way to a perfect storm.
First, the disastrous bail reform laws strike again, as Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree is not a bail-eligible offense.
Of course it isn’t…At this point, the better question would be, what charges are bail-eligible?
The fact that the current laws are carte blanche waivers of any culpability with the primary argument often being “benefit of the doubt” doesn’t allow prosecutors and local officials to treat each case with nuance. Plain and simple, these three guys should not have been allowed to walk, regardless of their race, nationality, or citizenship status — even if they’re American-born.
But to make matters worse, two of the defendants should not have been in this country to begin with. The three defendants, the other with legal status as a Lawful Permanent Resident, are alleged to have orchestrated a firebombing of a vehicle belonging to someone with whom
the group had a disagreement of sorts. It’s quite possible that this coordinated attempt at arson at best, or domestic terrorism at worst, might not have been conceived had the two defendants in the U.S. illegally been handled by federal law enforcement.
New York State’s sanctuary city laws must go. There’s a reason we’re seeing such unrest and resistance across the country: state and local officials grandstanding to Trump for the sake of opposition have made the typical duties of federal law enforcement a life-or-death encounter in many cases. Even as President Obama deported close to three million people across his eight years in office, Democratic and Republican state and local officials didn’t hinder federal law enforcement efforts.
States’ rights are important, but the federal government must have some oversight in certain areas. New York continues to circumvent reality in favor of easy fiat political currency by arguing that most people here illegally are simply trying to make an honest life and that they get caught up when the dangerous criminals are sought after.
And while many immigrants might be contributing to society and attempting to make an honest life for themselves, laws are still laws, and the U.S. continues to allow itself to be treated like an ATM rather than a country with borders, laws, and an expectation to not have vehicles in Brentwood firebombed by two people who shouldn’t have been here in the first place.
If Democrats argue that only the truly “dangerous” criminals should be deported, then why weren’t all the stops pulled to ensure the two men from El Salvador were apprehended at the courthouse or at another juncture and had their cases handled by the feds? These are clearly two undocumented individuals with a clearly violent and dangerous agenda. What’s the problem with sending these people back to where they came from and preventing them from ever returning to the U.S.? Why clog the system with people who don’t respect our quiet, suburban communities when the miles-long line is full of immigrants who understandably want a taste of the American Dream?
Democrats might think that all illegal immigrants are on the hook because of the people like the alleged defendants in this case, but in reality, everyone in Suffolk — Democratic, Republican, Independent, American-born, or undocumented — is on the hook for at-large policies guided by pathological altruism and progressive myopia.