Illegals: The Cost Is in the Crimes

Generally, I take a dim view of measuring the illegal-alien problem in terms of "cost." First off, the "cost" argument is seriously tainted; it's also used to justify abortion. Secondly, one does not have to be an Econ Ph.D. to determine that many illegals actually contribute positively to the economy.

But there are "costs" which rise above the dollars-and-cents yappaflappa.

How about dead people? Raped women? Or drug-dealing?

Jessica McBride hits a grand-slam homer in this blog entry. Some highlights:

ROGELIO PROMOTOR never held a state driver's license and wasn't even supposed to be in this country. But that didn't stop him from racking up a series of citations and crimes over three years in Wisconsin.His behavior kept escalating - until four people lost their lives, three of them airline pilots and one a 14-year-old boy.

After CESAR FARIAS-MENDOZA allegedly stabbed his girlfriend, Theresa Kish, to death in the basement of a Milwaukee pregnancy help center in 2003, he was declared indigent and received a state-funded public defender, and he also needed a court interpreter, according to court records. Kish suffered 10 stab wounds, including one to her jugular vein. Farias-Mendoza was convicted. His case is still tying up the criminal justice system three years later. An appeals court ruled June 7 that Farias-Mendoza’s confession was inadmissible because police “illegally seized” him when they held him in a locked interview room for five hours.

Court records say the detectives left the room to find a Spanish-speaking detective to speak with Farias-Mendoza, a Mexican citizen.

LUIS TRUJILLO and JOSE SANTA MARIA, abducted and raped three women, including one who was carjacked outside the State Fair. She showed the men pictures of her children in a failed attempt to ward off the attack. Another woman, abducted on the East Side, left a trail of evidence behind because she thought the men were going to kill her and she wanted police to catch them. The news story at the time says one of the men came to America “to buy some livestock for the humble family farm back in El Salvador.”

MANUEL ARGUIJO, identified by federal authorities as an illegal immigrant, was finally sent to prison for cocaine dealing in 2003. By that time, he was already a habitual criminal and four-time felon in Wisconsin. He was identified as an illegal immigrant only after hitting prison.Arguijo was even released on $2,000 bail during the Dane County trial. The cocaine conviction was just his latest trouble with the law, and he was not turned over to ICE for the earlier crimes. Consider:*In 1999, Arguijo was convicted of three felonies for being a felon in possession of a firearm. And this is where it really gets interesting: According to CCAP, he was sentenced to probation in 2000 for those convictions. It was revoked in 2001.

Darth Doyle, willing to kill embryos for dollars, has never shown the LEAST interest in illegals until Mark Green raised the question. Then Darth went into a "high dudgeon" mode, blaming the Feds for not securing the border.

But in 12 years as Attorney General and 3.75 years as Governor, Darth wasn't interested.

The families and friends of the pilots, the raped women, the coke-addicts--THEY are interested.

And that interest should be shared by all Wisconsin citizens.