The left is going after I.C.E. Agents for doing what they were hired to do.
Back when I was on the job, I followed two suspected illegal aliens from a construction site to a convenience store. I went inside to do what we call a “consensual encounter” where you start quizzing a person with small talk to ascertain that they do not speak English, or speak heavily accented English, that then gives us reasonable suspicion of alienage, and allows us to verify a suspect’s legal status in the country. When I encountered the first suspect, he didn’t speak English at all. The second one spoke with an accent and did give me a New York State driver’s license.
This was before New York State passed the Green Light law and started giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. At the time, if someone gave you a New York driver’s license, they were more than likely to be in the country legally, but it wasn’t 100% certain. So, I called our dispatch to run his license through the immigration databases. The following sequence of events is confused in my mind as to what order it happened in. At one point, he snatched his driver’s license out of my hand, the first alien ran out the door, the alien whose driver’s license I had pushed into me as if to knock me over, I still had my cell up to my ear talking to dispatch but I was stronger than him (little guy) even with only one arm, so, instead he ran around past me. I grabbed his sweatshirt with my free hand, and he squirmed out of that, hopped into his white Tahoe while torso nude and took off down the road yelling something about seeing his kid one last time.
One of the clerk’s saw what was going on and called 911 as I was trying to tell our dispatch on the phone where I was. I had actually told one of the dispatchers where I was before the incident had gone down, but when I called on the phone, I got a different dispatcher and he didn’t know where to send backup. (It may have been during their shift change). A police lieutenant from the local P.D. showed up, had me hop in with him, and called about the fleeing suspect in his white Tahoe. A rush hour pursuit ensued with the suspect driving over the center of a roundabout, sideswiping a police cruiser, driving into on coming traffic, and eventually getting stopped feet from his house with about six squad cars from three different jurisdictions there and half the cops pointing handguns at him…and this asshole turned out to be legally in the U.S., he just didn’t know it. (He had a minor criminal record. More details in my book, “What Bridge Do You Work At?”).
Of course, afterwards, I had to write up a bunch of paperwork on what went down. One of the Border Patrol supervisors who did internal investigations managed to get the video from the convenience store showing what happened. What I can tell you for sure is that I did show the aliens my badge on a chain around my neck, at some point I had his driver’s license and then I didn’t. Also, that he had slammed into me trying to knock me over. However, after I had already written my memo, the video revealed that I got the exact sequence of events mixed up. To this day, it’s still jumbled in my mind. I remember him snatching his ID out of my hand while I was trying to run his information. That did happen, but I thought he had shown his I.D. to one of the clerks (there were two behind the counter) to buy his coronas and I thought the clerk then handed the I.D. back to me with the suspect snatching the I.D. out of my hand a second time. It turned out, that didn’t happen at all. I never got the I.D. back from the clerk. Why in the world did I think so?
People who study memory will tell you that it is not unusual to not be able to remember the precise sequence of events, or, misremember. The human brain does not process things like a video camera, although, we think it should. My brain focused on the fight (pushing into me) and the flight (hopping into his vehicle while cursing and peeling out of the parking lot leaving me there like a dumbass with his sweatshirt and his coronas).
So, yesterday, I was going through headlines when I came across this from The Gateway Pundit:
So, there is this case of I.C.E. Agent Christian Castro. (I could not find whether Castro is actually an H.S.I. Special Agent or if he’s a Deportation Officer – still part of I.C.E, but in the Enforcement and Removal Operations, E.R.O. part). That’s not important, what is important is that he is currently sitting in the Cameron County Jail where he has been for the last 90 days while Minnesota fights for his extradition from Texas.
What actually happened in the incident? Without going into the full video, here is a fairly good synopsis.
Above, the pertinent part of the video starts around 1:30 seconds in. Although the narrator is from Fox News, take his commentary with a grain of salt. After one of the illegal aliens runs back out of the house, it is not impossible to know what he’s doing. Common sense tells you he’s not there to give hugs and kisses to ICE Agent Castro.
The charges against illegal aliens Alfredo Alejandro ALJORNA and Julio Cesar SOSA-Celis were both dropped by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel N. Rosen (yes, he’s Jewish, no Stephen Miller he). The video did not match up with what the I.C.E. Agents swore happened. The Agents were placed on leave for lying under oath. Given my experience between video and my actual memory, I think it’s less likely that they intentionally lied, and more likely that with the adrenaline flowing and the action playing out, they did not remember correctly.
What would a law geek who only arm chair quarterbacks law enforcement officers’ actions from behind a desk know about getting in a scuffle with an illegal alien fighting with all his might? Agent Castro was in hot pursuit of ALJORNA when ALJORNA was refusing to yield in his vehicle, and then ran on foot to try to make it into the house. SOSA saw what was happening and dropped the shovel, then ran into the house. AJORNA fell just before making it to the house and Castro jumped on top of him. The Agent, Castro, is on top of ALJORNA at one point when SOSA runs back out of the house to help ALJORNA. I surmise that SOSA whacked Agent Castro a couple of times while Castro was still struggling with ALJORNA. Seeing the shovel on the ground just before the confrontation, Castro likely thought he got whacked with a shovel. I don’t believe Castro was intentionally lying on a government form, but I do believe AUSA Rosen was looking for an excuse to throw an ICE Agent under the bus.
To make matters even worse, both ALJORNA and SOSA were released by a “conservative” judge (is there really such a thing in Minnesota?). Judge “Schiltz, a former Supreme Court clerk to conservative icon Antonin Scalia, has previously ripped the Trump administration for ignoring dozens of court orders and demanded to see ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons for a contempt proceeding.” It appears they both had Temporary Protected Status at one time, though, the Trump administration has now revoked that. If that isn’t enough, both illegal aliens have anchor babies in the U.S. (Thanks, “conservative” Supreme Court ruling. What exactly are you guys conserving).
With this persecution from Minnesota, it is clear that the Democrats will be using “states’ rights” to prosecute ICE Agents and prevent them from doing their jobs. I believe they are serious about prosecuting all ICE Agent if the Dems ever regain power. The Center for Immigration Studies has a good article titled, “States vs. Federal Immigration Officers: Can state prosecution become state persecution?” Excerpt:
Finally, this case reminds me of the case of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. They were fired and imprisoned for the shooting of a drug smuggler in the ass. A “conservative” AUSA named Johnny Sutton put the two away on felony charges. George W. Bush commuted their sentences after Ramos was assaulted in custody. Trump later pardoned them.
If the Democrats get back in power, they will be using lawfare to go after I.C.E. and Border Patrol once again. Even if they fail, it seriously effects morale and gives excuses to slugs (see my previous article) to not do their jobs. To stop it, we need better AUSAs and better judges.
P.S. Could someone set up a givesendgo account for Christian Castro?
20 year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol. Author of "What Bridge Do You Work At? Or, Kids Are Cute; Therefore, Open Borders" & "East into the Sunset: Memories of patrolling in the Rio Grande Valley at the turn of the century". Books are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, as well as Thrift Books.
Master's Degree in Justice, Law and Society from American University.
Grew up partly in Europe.
