Posted on 07/12/2015 11:58:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
If you don't recognize the name Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, don't worry: You will. He's not a candidate for president, but before long he'll have higher name recognition than Jeb Bush.
A felon convicted on several drug charges, the Mexican national had been deported five times but managed to get back into the country. He has been arrested for the apparently random murder of 32-year-old Kate Steinle in San Francisco on July 1. For anti-immigration advocates, his case starkly exposes everything that is wrong with our immigration policies.
Those flaws would be: First, Lopez-Sanchez was here -- illustrating our unwillingness to secure the border. Second, he was (allegedly) violent, proving the danger that unauthorized immigrants pose to American citizens. Third, he was not held for federal immigration agents by the sheriff, an indictment of San Francisco's "sanctuary city" policy.
Donald Trump used this episode to buttress his claim that Mexico is sending criminals to the United States. Mark Krikorian, head of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), said the tycoon's "widely mocked warnings of this very danger have been vindicated."
But what does this prove, exactly? It's no secret that anyone who is sufficiently determined to sneak into the country from Mexico can probably do so sooner or later.
That's not because enforcement is lax. Spending on border security has tripled, after adjustment for inflation, since 2000. The number of Border Patrol Agents has risen fivefold in the past two decades. Politicians act as though we could make the Mexican border impermeable. But recent experience shows that's a fantasy.
The accused is anything but representative of Mexican immigrants, documented or otherwise. Contrary to myth, this group is averse to violent crime as well as property crime. Noncitizens, who make up about 13 percent of the population, account for about 6 percent of all federal and state prison inmates. Many of them, of course, are not undocumented immigrants, but legal ones.
A 2008 study by economists Kristin Butcher of Wellesley College and Anne Morrison Piehl of Rutgers for the Public Policy Institute of California reported that people born abroad make up 35 percent of the state's adult population -- but only 17 percent of state prisoners.
"Noncitizen men from Mexico ages 18-40 -- a group disproportionately likely to have entered the United States illegally -- are more than eight times less likely than U.S.-born men in the same age group to be in a correctional setting," the authors found.
It's true that if Lopez-Sanchez were not in the country, he would not have been able to kill anyone. But if the presence of immigrants has a protective effect against crime in the neighborhoods where they live, as the evidence suggests, then there are murders that would have occurred but didn't because of their presence.
San Francisco does have a "sanctuary" law that prohibits local police from working with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement without a court order or warrant. Maybe in this case the city went too far -- or maybe the feds simply dropped the ball.
They turned the suspect over after he completed a federal prison term for trying to enter the country illegally. It would have made more sense to deport him. In any case, they apparently didn't take legal steps to make sure of getting him back when the city was done with him. Instead, they merely asked the city to hold him.
A court dismissed an outstanding charge against Lopez-Sanchez. Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said he would have given him back to ICE if it had issued a warrant. Since it didn't, he let him go. Given that the inmate's record showed no violent crime convictions, though, his implication in a murder was hardly foreseeable.
The sanctuary policy, in any event, is not a mindless favor to felons, but an attempt to promote valuable cooperation between local immigrants and police. If otherwise law-abiding undocumented foreigners fear being apprehended by local cops on immigration violations, they aren't likely to help solve crimes. If they are assured the cops won't report them, they are more likely to come forward.
Mirkarimi knows something Trump and his allies refuse to learn: In advancing public safety, undocumented immigrants, when treated generously, are more helpful than harmful.
It's a shame that Lopez-Sanchez, if guilty, was not deported before he could commit this crime. But he proves no more about undocumented immigrants than John Lennon's killer proves about white guys named Chapman.
Funny, at first I thought this was another story about Baraq.
Illegal invader, not undocumented foreigner.
The illegal Xenos are wrecking America.
My bet is he was not undocumented.
My bet is he was fraudulently documented.
Fraudulently documented foreigner.
Too bad we can’t find any articles telling the American citizens’ side of this story.
Back when I first became an activist about the border only the national news outlets censored the illegal status of perps and did “poor immigrant” sob stories to drum up sympathy.
Now even the local outlets will not tell us when the perp is an illegal alien.
They will never tell the stories of the tragic deaths of Americans at the hands of people who should not even be here, except for the perfidy of our government with the collusion of The Ministry Of Propaganda.
Are you really that dense?
Exactly
Noncitizens, who make up about 13 percent of the population, account for about 6 percent of all federal and state prison inmates.
...people born abroad make up 35 percent of the state's adult population -- but only 17 percent of state prisoners.
The writer seems to think that this is acceptable?
We need to stop letting them manipulate the language. Most illegal aliens have more documents than you do. They have them in multiple names. They are not undocumented. They are illegal aliens with fraudulent documents, hence fraudulently documented foreigner is the most accurate description.
Huh? If they have more documentation than why do they sneak in? All they have is show the documentation on the border. And by the way I am a naturalized citizen and I came here legally and did not sneak in.
They buy their fraudulent documents once they get here. Even an illegal alien needs documentation for living.
They have to sneak in because they did not apply to be an immigrant.
If they had applied to be an immigrant as you did and complied with the laws, they wouldn’t be illegal aliens.
Every one of the 30 million illegal aliens knew they were sneaking in and subject to deportation. They know they are breaking laws every day they are here using phony documents.
I’d like to see the proof for the following:
“But if the presence of immigrants has a protective effect against crime in the neighborhoods where they live, as the evidence suggests, then there are murders that would have occurred but didn’t because of their presence.”
What “evidence”???
When Mexicans displace blacks in a neighborhood the murder rate goes down?
Is there a place for undocumented taxpayers to hide out?
What the Hell has happened to Townhall?
Why? What do you mean?
They’ve joined The Ministry Of Propaganda
Well it's Steve Chapman
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