By Steve Pomper
Back in the 1980s, local American cops were dealing with the proliferation of non-American criminals unleashed on the U.S. by Fidel Castro. Cuba’s communist dictator released many of his worst criminals, some mentally deranged, into America.
To show the impact of illegal (irregular) immigration on police nationally, when I was a rookie in the early 1990s, we were still dealing with criminals who came to the U.S. during the 1980 “Mariel Boatlift” from Cuba to Miami, which occurred from April to October 1980. Veterans would tell me stories about how bad it still was in Seattle.
Ostensibly, Castro painted the move as something the self-proclaimed “popular” Marxist thug was doing “for the people.” He was “allowing” people to leave Cuba for the USA. But, like the Trojan Horse, Castro had more nefarious reasons for his “benevolence.”
According to the Association of Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST), “That set in motion a six-month drama in which more than 125,000 Cubans fled their country and overwhelmed the shores of the U.S. Castro, whose façade of popularity and support was badly shaken, then upped the ante by allowing thousands of criminals and mental patients to leave as well.”
While those 125 K immigrants may have been effectively legal immigrants, as U.S. policy at the time called “wet foot, dry foot.” According to CNN, it allowed “Cubans who arrive in the United States without a visa to become permanent residents….” President Obama ended the policy in 2017.
The Cuban boatlift mainly impacted Miami, but the criminals hidden among the law-abiding legal immigrants, who would not have been allowed into the U.S.—effectively illegal aliens, then dispersed throughout the country.
And that was only thousands hidden within a hundred thousand plus. Today, there are likely many thousands of criminals (including terrorists) reportedly hiding amongst more than 10 million illegal immigrants. Entries facilitated by officials who disregard the negative effects on Americans—again, including law enforcement officers.
Those police veterans told me the stories about Mariel Boatlift criminal immigrants and their associated crime on Seattle’s streets. If Seattle, the furthest major city from Miami in the continental U.S., was directly affected by the release of criminals from Cuba, then any city was also at risk.
Why the history lesson? I wanted to draw a link between then and now and the nefarious (or opportunistic) foreign leaders exploiting America by sending criminals to our shores, for cops to deal with.
American officials didn’t learn from history, therefore history repeats. Though the massive immigration invasion continuing in 2024 does not directly correlate to that single 1980s event, it does show that illegal alien criminals intentionally released from foreign countries into the U.S. impact local law enforcement and their communities.
Still making the historical connection, the PBS/NPR affiliate in south Florida, WLRN, this year headlined: “Migrant crimes bring Venezuelans to their own ‘Mariel moment,’” showing a similar split (as Cubans experienced) between people coming to the U.S. genuinely to escape communism versus the criminals sent here by Venezuela’s communist leaders.
These days, it seems, there’s a conveyor belt of stories about criminal illegal aliens who’ve assaulted, robbed, raped, tortured, or killed innocent U.S. citizens (sometimes it’s a cop who’s murdered) or legal immigrants. I recently wrote about a state trooper killed by an illegal alien about 20 miles from my house, in this Sanctuary State.
The torrent of illegal immigrant crime in America continues. Some have attempted to justify the crimes, saying, “Americans commit these crimes, too.” How stupid is that? Anyone who can’t see the difference between crimes committed by people legally in the U.S. and people who shouldn’t even be here to commit jaywalking, never mind murder, is an imbecile, lying, or both.
Here are just a couple of recent stories about crimes allegedly committed by illegal aliens. They show how illegal immigrants entering the country at a given location (southern border) now find their way to every state in the union, some bringing crime with them.
Most illegal immigrants are not committing further crimes after breaking immigration laws to enter the country. But we’re primarily concerned with those breaking more laws after entering the country illegally—especially committing violent crimes, who wouldn’t have committed those crimes here if they weren’t here.
One example, as reported by the Post Millennial, shows, “On July 15, the Utah County Attorney General’s office charged a foreign national from Mexico with attempted rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, and other charges. The foreign national was arrested on July 11 by Lehi police, per Utah County arrest records.”
Lehi is a community of about 75,000, 30 miles south of Salt Lake City. The PM described the brutal crime. Allegedly, the suspect asked the known victim to drive with him to her bank to withdraw money he said she owed him. Instead, the suspect drove her to a secluded mountainous area, kidnapping her, where she jumped out of the car to escape.
Reportedly, the suspect chased and caught her and then threw her to the ground where she hit her head on a rock nearly causing her to lose consciousness. The suspect groped her sexually while holding his hand over her mouth, making it hard for the victim to breathe.
The PM described the brutality noted in the charging documents. “The defendant tried to pull down her pants and ripped her underwear in the process. The victim told the defendant ‘No’ and continued to cry and yell, at which point he hit her in the face, causing her nose and lip to bleed.”
Across the country, with a different slant on the crisis, illegal immigrants are also causing an increase in crime, ironically, by becoming victims themselves of other violent illegals. According to Matthew Holloway at Law Enforcement Today (LET), in Brooklyn, recently, “Three illegal immigrants have been shot and two of them have died with the third clinging to life…” after this drive-by shooting.
The Latin Times via MSN.com reported, “Investigators believe the shooting is linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has established a presence in New York City. Furthermore, the incident is reportedly tied to a turf war between Tren de Aragua and a spin-off crew that includes former members, The [New York] Post reported.”
So, the influx of millions of illegal immigrants allowed into the U.S. is impacting Americans whether they are the targets or from the criminals targeting each other. Doesn’t this also put innocent bystanders and the cops at risk. Officers who must investigate and arrest these foreign thugs who now consider parts of the United States their “turf.”
It’s important to stay informed on this criminal immigrant crisis. And, while I don’t necessarily endorse the following resources (although I may in the future with more familiarity), they appear useful for research. There’s https://www.illegalaliencrimereport.com/ and https://x.com/ImmigrantCrimes
Here’s one more item on the immigrant front. To complicate things even more, Seattle lefties have worked as hard as they could to defund the police. Their defunding efforts helped spur the current police retention and hiring crisis.
Coming full circle, those Seattle lefties now want to “benefit” from their equally deleterious immigration policies by hiring DACA (non-U.S. Citizens) individuals to be police officers. Historically, traditionally, and currently police candidates must be American citizens.
Now, I understand the unique aspects of the DACA (Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals) illegal alien status. Individuals brought to the U.S. illegally as children by their parents. Many appear to us and feel to themselves as American as any natural born or naturalized citizen. But they’re not legally citizens or residents. The U.S. is not to blame for this. Their parents are to blame even if they did it for all the right reasons. They disrespect those playing by the rules—like my mother.
However, allowing non-citizens to become law enforcement officers is not the way to fix the problem of either DACA or the police staffing crisis. Essentially, DACA is an act that puts these folks in limbo with a renewable two-year deferment. DACA status allows them to remain in the U.S. despite their illegal status and allows them to legally work while in the U.S.
The way the radical, anti-cop left operates, I can’t trust that this isn’t a “backdoor” way to get all illegal immigrants a “path to employment in all sensitive jobs.” All misfortune and sympathy aside, they are still illegally in this country. Is it too much to ask that at a bare minimum sensitive employment like law enforcement remain out of reach until they become citizens? Citizenship must continue to mean something.
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