Shooting by Twice-Deported Illegal Alien Shows Why Every Illegal Alien Must Go
Juan Ayala Montero’s Memorial Day shooting rampage exposes the deadly cost of weak borders and lax interior enforcement.
On May 23, in a quiet neighborhood of New Caney, Texas, families enjoying the Memorial Day weekend found themselves under siege. Juan Ayala Montero, a 60-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, turned a petty argument with neighbors into a shooting spree.
Montero allegedly got into an argument with a group that included a minor. He then retrieved an AR-style rifle from his home and sprayed over 30 rounds in multiple directions. One victim was struck in the torso and head with non-life-threatening injuries.
Federal prosecutors have now charged him with being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm, an offense carrying up to 15 years in prison. Montgomery County has charged him with felony deadly conduct for discharging a firearm. ICE has lodged a detainer, which ensures he will face deportation proceedings once justice runs its course.
Not an Isolated Incident
As random as Montero’s outburst may seem, his actions were not out of character. He had been deported from the United States twice before and had a history of criminal charges on both sides of the border.
He first crossed the border illegally in 1983. An immigration judge ordered his removal in 1999, and he was deported in 2000. He re-entered illegally and got deported a second time in 2006.
While living in the U.S. illegally, he amassed a criminal record for attempted homicide, assault, driving while intoxicated, and charges of criminal trespass and aggravated assault with a firearm.
Open borders advocates like to cite studies showing that American citizens commit more violent crime than immigrants. Regardless of the validity of those stats, which are questionable, that’s how it should be. In fact, it should not even be close.
Immigration controls exist for a reason. Legal immigrants must show they haven't carried diseases over the border and don’t have criminal records. It’s not about being a stickler for paperwork. We already produce enough tired, poor huddled masses of “wretched refuse” and “tempest-tost” homeless domestically. The last thing we need is to let more in.
How Cases Like This Can Be Avoided
Americans deserve safety in our own communities, especially on a holiday that celebrates the men and women who gave their lives for them. Incidents like this are not unavoidable. In fact, the federal government guarantees they will happen when it leads criminally prone people in other countries to believe they can enter and exit our country with impunity.
We can't expect Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to have a 100 percent success rate in stopping illegal border crossings, just as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cannot deport every single illegal alien in the country. But the intentional non-enforcement of the country’s immigration laws encouraged foreigners for years to make the trip across the southern border, knowing the minuscule odds of detection, the lower odds of getting deported, and the guaranteed ability to return.
Thankfully, President Donald Trump has once again allowed CBP and ICE to do their jobs. The first layer of the border wall he promised beknow has a firm completion date in mid-2027. By sealing the border with a physical barrier and increasing enforcement, illegal aliens who before thought they could evade CBP and ICE will face stronger disincentives to try.
Close cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement also dissuades people from entering illegally.
Montgomery County’s participation in ICE's collaborative 287(g) program helped identify Montero’s status quickly and secure the detainer. If he had committed the shooting just 12 miles to the south, in Houston’s Harris Couty—which does not participate in 287(g)—he might have posted bond and disappeared.
The Risk of Allowing Illegal Immigration to Fester
Every illegal alien allowed to remain represents an unrepresented risk imposed on law-abiding citizens. Not because most illegal aliens are necessarily violent, but because we can’t know if they have criminal records in their native countries if we don’t know that they’re here.
ICE must finish the job the American people have tasked it to do by electing a Republican-majority Congress and reelecting President Trump: identify, detain, and remove every illegal alien it can locate. Additionally, the Trump administration should crack down hard on counties that refuse to participate in the 287(g) program, using federal funds as both carrot and stick to enforce compliance.
An illegal alien deported twice, with a violent criminal history on both sides of the border, should never have settled in a Texas neighborhood on Memorial Day weekend to shoot it up. Porous borders and inconsistent deportation policies under Republican and Democratic presidents made this possible. The U.S. has enough homegrown violent criminals. The legal immigration process aims to ensure we don’t bring in any more.
MORE COVERAGE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION FROM RESTORATION NEWS
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