February 10, 2022
What does it take for an illegal immigrant to be deported under the Biden administration? Incredibly, a 35-page rap sheet with four prior deportations does not meet the criteria.
Meet Mexican national Geraldo Pando. Last month, the day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pando was charged with defacing Washington DC’s Union train station with Nazi symbols.
However, defacing public property with antisemitic hate was only Pando’s latest crime. After illegally entering the US as a minor in 1990, Pando amassed criminal convictions for various felony drug crimes, theft, driving without a license and insurance, and trespassing with intent to commit a crime. Although later dropped, in 2020 he was charged with assaulting a first responder.
Pando’s lawlessness resulted in deportations in 2006, 2007, 2014, and 2017. Yet, despite entering the US illegally at least five times and Pando’s extensive criminal history, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not issue a detainer- a request to inform ICE of an illegal immigrant’s pending release from custody, enabling ICE to put the criminal immigrant into deportation proceedings.
Pando is in no danger of deportation for two reasons. Democratic-controlled Washington D.C is a “sanctuary city”. As a policy sanctuary cities often refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. In other words, D.C. and other sanctuary cities shun US federal law to allow criminal noncitizens to remain living among Americans.
An ICE spokesperson explained to Fox News Digital-
“ICE has not issued a detainer on Pando because the District of Columbia is a non-cooperative jurisdiction and the Washington D.C. jail is barred from honoring ICE detainers…”
The changes made by the Biden administration to immigration enforcement policy have also hamstrung ICE. No surprise, the changes favor illegal immigration and severely limit ICE’s authority to arrest illegal immigrants.
Last year Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Maryorkas effectively decriminalized illegal immigration when he decreed that residing in the US illegally was no longer sole grounds for deportation.
”The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen will not alone be the basis of an enforcement act against them” – DHS statement from 9/30/2021
Further undercutting immigration enforcement, the Biden administration outlined new guidelines restricting ICE arrests to three categories- those who illegally entered the US after November 2021, aggravated felonies, and national security threats. The Biden administration also barred ICE from making arrests at worksites.
No crime by illegal immigrants should be acceptable. It is a privilege for foreign nationals to live in the United States. Criminal acts should revoke that privilege. Immigration should not just benefit immigrants but also US citizens. Unfortunately, the welfare of the American people is not a priority for Biden and those within his administration.
