Why the Jamiel Shaw Jr. Story Matters



In 2008, a young African-American man by the name of Jamiel Shaw Jr. was ruthlessly gunned down by an illegal alien who had been previously released from a California prison.

Jamiel Shaw Jr. was a good student with a promising college football career ahead of him when he was gunned down in cold blood by 19-year-old gang member Pedro Espinoza while innocently walking home from the mall. Earlier this month, a jury found Pedro Espinoza guilty of the murder and recommended the death penalty for his crime.

The murder would have never taken place had Espinoza been removed and deported after being arrested for being in the country illegally. What should anger and concern California citizens even more is that California politicians in Sacramento recently passed a new bill that would compel local law enforcement in most cases to ignore requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold illegal immigrants if they could otherwise be released. The bill, AB 1081, is now on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk awaiting his signature or veto.

Jamiel Shaw Jr.’s story matters because it shows what the consequences can be when immigration laws, or laws in general, are not followed and especially enforced. And Jamiel Shaw Jr.’s story is not an isolated incident. FAIR has listed hundreds of such incidents over the years, again, crimes that could have been averted if we were enforcing our laws rather than pandering to the open border lobby.

Gov. Brown would be doing a great disservice to the citizens of California if he signs this bill into law, thereby potentially exposing many to future crimes.

Jamiel Shaw Sr., father of Jamiel Shaw Jr., recently appeared in a video (including a FoxNews.com op-ed) where he pleaded with Gov. Brown not to sign AB 1081. In the video he asked, “How many have to die by people being let out into the streets from the county jail that should be deported.” A good question indeed that Gov. Brown should ponder before taking action.

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Content written by Federation for American Immigration Reform staff.

7 Comments

  1. Pingback: Will you help me find THIS person? - Big Jolly Politics

  2. avatar

    One simple reason that so many illegals remain in the USA- None of the Congressional parisites have had any
    of their children murdered by ILLEGALS. When a few of their KIDS are murdered we will see a much different
    approach to this problem!
    The person who addresses any of these theives “elected to Congress” as “the HONORABLE S— H— from
    California is complicit in allowing so much crime to be perpetuated in CA and the USA. I would venture to say
    that 85% of those in the CONGRESS of the USA are self-serving people as well as greedy human beings !
    They and they alone have caused ALL the problems we experience because they allow or vote for these mostly
    unconstitutional “bills” and laws that perpetuate the “screwing” of the American Citizens!

  3. avatar

    This is what happens when we have a President whose political training was obtained in Chicago and the second person in line for the Presidency represents a sanctuary district. Our government is in the hands of persons who cater to the wishes of Mexican narcotraffickers who control the coyotes and to Mexican irredentist lobbies who cater to the wishes of the Mexican government.

  4. avatar

    That young man’s murder is only a very, very small statistic of those illegal’s who, by their very PRESENCE in the US are felons, commit crimes after crimes without fear of punishment. There is no single group responsible for the failure of ICE to remove these people from the country, but the preponderance of the evidence dumps it on the shoulders of the Democrats.

  5. avatar

    If he doesn’t sign the bill doesn’t it become law automatically anyway insuring that the bill passes no matter what? WTH is going on?

    • avatar
      Kristen Williamson on

      Paul – you’re correct. Governor Brown must veto the law in order to block it from going into effect. If he takes no action it will be adopted as law in California.

  6. avatar

    WHY ISN’T THE LAW BEING FOLLOWED? ISN’T IT “TREASON” FOR NANCY PELOSI TO ENCOURAGE THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA TO IGNORE A FEDERAL LAW? WOULDN’T IT BE STUPID FOR A GOVERNOR, WHOM SHOULD KNOW BETTER, TO ACCEDE TO THAT DEMAND?

    I DON’T SEE THE PROBLEM….FOLLOW THE DAMN LAW, STUPID!