The fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have led to increased calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other illegal immigration enforcement operations. Liberals, Democrats, and others on the Left, combined with the socialist and communist organizations organizing and funding anti-ICE protests nationwide, have escalated their attacks on ICE — verbally and physically, calling them murderers, among other insults. And while criticism continues to mount, it is important to recognize truth and fact because while Good’s and Pretti’s deaths were unfortunate, Democrats’ immigration policies have caused more violence and murders than anything ICE has done.
The Biden administration allowed a record number of illegal immigrants to enter the country. With this increase in illegal immigration came a significant rise in those entering the country with criminal records, many of whom had a history of violent crime. Former President Joe Biden and his Democratic accomplices in Congress opened the floodgates to a litany of problems and violent crime due to the refusal to enforce immigration law. And, unfortunately, many Americans paid the price for it, with illegal immigrants murdering innocent women such as Laken Riley and Rachel Morin, among others.
For example, consider the surge of encounters of illegal immigrants at the border each year by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection after Biden became president.
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In 2020, the last year of President Donald Trump’s first term in office, CBP reported 646,822 nationwide encounters. In 2021, that total soared to 1,956,519. In 2022, the number of encounters increased again to 2,766,582, and in 2023, that number jumped again to 3,201,144, representing an approximately 495% increase in nationwide encounters by CBP between Trump’s last year of his first term and 2023. That total dropped slightly in 2024 to 2,901,142 encounters, but it was still significantly higher than when Trump was in office and reflected the damage Democrats did.
The increase in encounters correlated with an increase in the arrests by CBP of illegal immigrants entering the country with criminal convictions. This, too, significantly increased from Trump’s first term to Biden’s term, and innocent people paid the price for this political malfeasance. As Biden and Democrats prioritized radical immigration ideology over public safety, violent criminals rushed into the U.S.
During Trump’s last year of his first term in 2020, CBP arrested 2,438 illegal immigrants who had been “convicted of one or more crimes, whether in the United States or abroad, prior to interdiction by the U.S. Border Patrol.” This total skyrocketed in subsequent years, with CBP arresting 12,028 in 2022 and 15,267 in 2023. In 2024, the total number of CBP arrests rose to 17,048 — marking a staggering 699% increase in illegal immigrants with a criminal conviction entering the U.S. from Trump’s last year in office to Biden’s last year in office.
Most notably, of the numbers referenced above, this includes a 2000% increase, between Trump’s last year and Biden’s first year, in the number of illegal immigrants arrested with a homicide or manslaughter conviction. But the dangers that Democrats created with their radical immigration policies doesn’t stop there. Not only did they wantonly allow violent criminals to enter the country during Biden’s term, but in many cases, they actively prevented them from being deported.
Consider the case of Laken Riley, who was murdered by illegal immigrant Jose Antonio Ibarra in February 2024. According to a report by the House Judiciary Committee in August 2024, Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022. Border Patrol initially arrested him but later released him because the Biden administration believed it was “warranted due to ‘urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.’” This “benefit” cost Riley her life.
He was also arrested in September 2023 in New York City for “acting in a manner to injure a child,” but he was released again. No further actions were taken by law enforcement, and Ibarra’s arrest was “expunged.” A month later, in Georgia, he was caught shoplifting, another crime that should have resulted in jail or his deportation. However, again, nothing happened, and Ibarra remained free, which ultimately allowed him to murder Riley.
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Perhaps even more egregious was the rape and murder of Rachel Morin in Aug. 2023 by the illegal immigrant Victor Martinez Hernandez. An illegal immigrant from El Salvador, he had an existing arrest warrant from El Salvador after being accused of murdering a woman. While in the U.S., he also allegedly assaulted a woman and a 9-year-old in Los Angeles, according to reports. Hernandez was actually deported three times before he murdered Morin, but ineffective border security policies allowed him to re-enter. This negligence resulted in Morin’s murder.
There are numerous other examples over the years from various parts of the country. Democrats implement radical immigration policies, and Americans pay the price. Whether it’s rape, murder, assaults, or drug trafficking, the damage from Democrats’ immigration policies and decisions has endangered too many innocent people, resulting in the unnecessary loss of life. The entire country would have been significantly safer and much better off if Democrats’ radical immigration policies had never seen the light of day.