ArcaMax

Twenty years ago, former President George W. Bush was serving his second term in office when Mario Ramiro Aragon, a Guatemalan national, was first removed from the United States.

"On or about August 10, 2006, United States Border Patrol ('USBP') encountered ARAGON, using the name Jose Juana-Zapata, in Sasabe, Arizona," said an affidavit filed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer this January in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut. "On or about August 12, 2006, USBP issued him a Notice and Order of Expedited Removal. ... On August 19, 2006, ICE executed the expedited removal and removed him from the United States to Guatemala on an ICE operated flight from Phoenix, Arizona."

ICE took his fingerprints and "advised him ... that he could not return to the United States for a period of five (5) years as a consequence of having been found inadmissible."

Aragon did not heed this advice.

Less than a year later, he was arrested in the United States again -- on a more serious charge.

"On or about May 24, 2007, Homeland Security Investigations ('HSI') in Hudson/Newburgh, New York arrested ARAGON on charges of murder for hire and illegal reentry of a removed alien," said the ICE officer's affidavit. "On or about August 1, 2008, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York convicted ARAGON, under the name Mario Ramiro Aragon, of murder for hire, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1958. He was sentenced to 87 months of imprisonment."

What had this formerly deported illegal alien done?

In a 2008 statement announcing Aragon's 87-month sentence, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York explained his crime.

"ARAGON pleaded guilty on December 12, 2007, to paying an undercover officer, posing as the would-be murderer for hire, to murder his brother-in-law," said this statement.

"According to the criminal Complaint, ARAGON gave the undercover officer $200 as an advance payment for the murder," said the statement. "The remaining $300 was to be paid after the murder was committed. ARAGON gave the undercover officer a physical description of the intended victim, and agreed to meet with the undercover officer the following day to show him the house where the intended victim lived.

"The following day, ARAGON and the undercover officer met again in New City, Rockland County," said the statement. "ARAGON confirmed to the undercover officer that he wanted the intended victim killed, showed the undercover officer the house where the intended victim lived, and identified the intended victim in a photograph.

"ARAGON was arrested shortly thereafter."

In 2013, Aragon was removed from the United States again, according to the ICE officer's affidavit. This time ICE flew him from New Orleans to Guatemala.

But he did not stay there.

"On or about July 21, 2019, USBP in Sasabe, Arizona encountered ARAGON after he illegally re-entered the United States," said the affidavit.

"On or about January 15, 2020, the United States District Court for the District of Arizona convicted ARAGON of illegal reentry of a removed alien," it said. "He was sentenced to 13 months and one day of imprisonment."

In July 2020, ICE once again put him on a plane -- this time in El Paso, Texas -- and flew him back to Guatemala.

Then last month, Aragon was arrested by the Waterbury Police Department in Waterbury, Connecticut. "WPD arrested ARAGON for breach of peace in the second degree and criminal trespass in the first degree," said the ICE affidavit. It also stated that "the WPD listed him as being homeless upon his arrest."

This case is one example of why President Donald Trump is doing the right thing in securing this nation's borders and enforcing our immigration laws within the country.

On Jan. 20, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem put out a statement summarizing her department's accomplishments during the first year of Trump's second term. "In President Trump's first year back in office," said Noem, "nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 675,000 deportations."

By enforcing the immigration laws against those who are violating them in this country, the Trump administration has deterred illegal border crossings. According to DHS, the Border Patrol encountered a daily average of 5,110 individuals at the southwest border during the Biden administration, while daily encounters averaged only 251 in the first year of Trump's second term.

This country must never go back to former President Joe Biden's open borders.

To find out more about Terence P. Jeffrey and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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