In their effort to normalize illegal immigration, anti-enforcement media outlets aim to elicit sympathy for those breaking the law – even when the crimes committed are serious – and often deadly.
A recent Daily Beast article demonstrates this disturbing practice in its portrait of a “Honduran immigrant,” who spent Election Day – a “day devoted to democracy” – in immigration court.
At the age of 14, Bill Clinton Granados-Benitez illegally entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor but was deported in absentia after failing to show for his scheduled court appearance. He received a reprieve after a Texas court found authorities had failed to properly notify him of his appearance date.
Given a second chance, the 18-year old Honduran national was in court again last March facing charges related to his arrest for driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.
To Daily Beast, however, his offense should not be seen as serious crime.
“The majority of the arrests appeared to involve drunk driving. The most serious violence heard by [the immigration judge]involved a few punches and that stun gun,” the article maintained.
Driving drunk, as well as other driving-related offenses, can be grounds for deportation. As recent reports indicate, they are not uncommon, nor victimless.
Osmaira E. Mendez-Urdaneta, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was supposed to appear in a Virginia court last month on charges of involuntary manslaughter, but never showed. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records show an immigration judge ordered her deportation in 2001. “As far as I’m concerned, any time she gets behind the wheel, people are in danger,” said Arden Bourgeois, the stepson of Beverly Bourgeois, who was killed last August by Menendez-Urdaneta.
In North Carolina last month, Jesus Alvarado-Velez, 28, recently pleaded guilty to felony death by motor vehicle, felony serious injury by motor vehicle and driving while impaired and will now spend 60 to 84 months in prison. Alvarado-Velez, who was drunk and had no license, was driving on the wrong side of the road on April 8 before crashing into and killing Leroy Clayton Owens.
Owens’ wife was a passenger in the car died twice on the operating table, but survived. According to news reports, Lakeatia Owens “said God brought her back so she could be a living reminder of Alvarado-Velez’s actions.”
An illegal alien from Mexico was indicted last week on charges of driving under the influence and vehicular homicide related to a 2017 car crash in Augusta, Georgia, that killed Michael Botello. Records show Eduardo Gonzalez-Frias had been deported but illegally sneaked back into the U.S. prior to the fatal crash.
In August, Ciriaco Viconte Alva Perez, who had multiple prior deportations, was handed over to ICE following a crash he caused by driving at speeds on a West Virginia highway up to 121 mph. His toxicology report has not been completed. Joshua Fields, Brittany Sorn, and a nine-year-old survived the crash, but sustained serious injuries.
Perhaps, the Daily Beast and other open border apologists should save the sympathy for these innocent victims of criminal aliens.