More Illegal Alien Crime in Sanctuary City America
FAIR continues to shine a much-needed light on the connection between crime and mass illegal migration. While the vast majority of illegal aliens do not commit egregious crimes, American citizens have the right to know about the sub-section of the illegal alien population that does. Below are a few cases from this year that show the potential consequences of open borders and sanctuary policies.
On November 16, an unnamed homeless illegal alien minor from Guatemala allegedly became involved in a fight with two homeless men: 25-year-old Alonzo Pasquale and 29-year-old Alonzo Lucas. This resulted in both men being stabbed, and Pasquale’s death. The 15-year-old Guatemalan migrant had reportedly crossed the Southwest border within the last year, apparently unaccompanied, and made his way to New York City. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics show that over 169,000 Guatemalan minors have been encountered since Fiscal Year 2021. Allowing unaccompanied minors – mostly teens, not children – to arrive in already dangerous cities would seem to inflame an already combustible situation.
As this case demonstrates, massive illegal migration further exacerbates the problems and pathologies of large cities – many of which also happen to be sanctuary cities – such as crime and homelessness, thereby damaging the quality of life of all city residents. According to Breitbart News, “New York City Police Department (NYPD) Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told local media that the Lower East Side park and its surrounding area, has seen a surge in murders, robberies, felony assaults, and misdemeanor assaults — some of which have been carried out by newly arrived border crossers and illegal aliens.”
But the above case is not an isolated incident. During the summer, Venezuelan migrant Daniel Hernandez Martinez – who arrived in New York City on June 27, not long after entering the country illegally – went on a crime spree that saw him arrested 6 times for 14 different crimes in just a two-month period. His offenses included robberies, an attempted stabbing, violent assaults, and assault on a police officer. As New York City makes cuts to its budget to try and cover the costs of more than 125,000 illegal aliens arriving in the city, it is likely the city authorities will have even less resources to tackle these types of incidents.
The problem is not limited to New York City, with another sanctuary city, Chicago, also seeing a decline in public safety. In early May, Venezuelan Elvis Diaz Betancourt allegedly stabbed another Venezuelan migrant, with whom he was living in a migrant shelter in Chicago, during a fight in Pritzker Park, bearing the name of the family of Illinois’ pro-sanctuary governor. The victim was stabbed so deeply that he claimed he could see his organs. The illegal alien suspect had arrived in Chicago around January of 2023, possibly on a migrant bus. Indeed, Chicago has seen a mind-boggling 11,333 percent increase in the arrests of Venezuelan nationals since the border crisis began. Also keep in mind that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics show that Venezuelans are now the second most numerous nationality of illegal aliens encountered at the border, second only to Mexicans.
Regardless of the nationality of the criminal, we should remember that every instance of a crime committed by an illegal alien is a crime that could and should have been prevented. If our borders were secure and our policies deterred illegal migration and visa overstays, crimes like these would be far less likely to happen. Given that the opposite is true, the results are sad but not surprising. Far from being compassionate, open borders policies place people at risk of crime.