Reminder: immigrants entered the U.S. illegally during Trump administration, too
Letter writer Bernard Haske’s laying the murder of Rachel Morin at the feet of President Joe Biden is an insult to all immigrants (“Morin’s blood is on Biden’s hands,” June 20). Haske needs to work on his facts. Under Donald Trump, early 2019 saw an 11-year high in undocumented immigrants, with perhaps the arrival of COVID-19, not his policies, reducing the influx. Though he claimed much more (as he does with everything), Trump added only about 80 miles of new barrier fencing to a pre-existing border wall already stretching hundreds of miles. Couldn’t it be said that Trump’s failed promises and policies enabled a wave of illegal entries during his administration? I don’t recall seeing a letter from Haske on that one.
— Peter Bell, Monkton, Maryland
How many ‘got-aways’ under Biden have nefarious intentions?
I am appalled by Dan Rodricks’ column about the Rachel Morin case (“Dan Rodricks: Rachel Morin’s family is living through its worst nightmare and the ugliest side of politics,” June 20). He seems to portray it as an unfortunate statistic and an outlier because it was perpetrated by an immigrant who entered the U.S. illegally rather than an American citizen. I hardly think her mother regards the loss of a daughter as a statistic.
Rodricks brings up the overused tripe about our immigration system being broken. The fact is we have long-standing immigration laws that are selectively enforced or not at all. He further states we need immigrants. We already have about 3 million immigrants entering the U.S. legally per year.
Then to take the cake, Rodricks has to put in his usual digs at Trump and Rep. Andy Harris. At least Trump made a personal sympathy call to Morin’s mother.
Another fact to consider is that Rachel Morin’s alleged attacker was expelled from the U.S. multiple times during the Biden administration before arriving again as a got-away. It has been estimated that well over 1.5 million got-aways have entered during this current administration. One has to wonder how many of those got-aways have nefarious intentions.
— Michael Ernest, Catonsville, Maryland
If one heinous crime is committed by someone here illegally, that’s too many
My first question is: Why are we constantly bombarded with short-story-length letters from Usha Nellore (“Let’s not politicize the death of Rachel Morin,” Aegis, June 19)? I tire of reading her predictable, conservative-bashing, Trump-hating rhetoric.
She can spew all the numbers she wants to about the percentage of this and the percentage of that, when talking about crimes committed by illegal immigrants, or that these immigrants are so hard-working. And how dare she try to compare this to other crimes committed by criminals who were American citizens. Is that supposed to convey, “See? Crimes are committed by people who are here legally, too.” Of course they are, but this isn’t the argument. Nobody’s saying that all immigrants who enter illegally are murderers. But they shouldn’t be here because they’re here illegally, and they are breaking our laws. They are criminals.
If one heinous crime is committed by someone here illegally, that’s too many. Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez is linked to three crimes, including as the suspect in Rachel Morin’s rape and murder. He was able to enter the country multiple times because of the failed border policies of Joe Biden.
Please give us a break from Usha Nellore. We all know what she’s going to say anyway.
— Theresa Toni, Street, Maryland
What’s the cost of inaction?
Just wondering what the cost of Rachel Morin’s murder is to taxpayers due to that lack of action by the president and Congress (“Rachel Morin killing: Forensic genetic genealogy used to help find suspect,” June 20). What are the costs when an immigrant enters the U.S. illegally, the cost of the Los Angeles investigations, the cost of the Harford County investigations, the DNA research by Harford County, Maryland State Police, the FBI and research in El Salvador? How much does it cost to track a murder suspect from Maryland to Oklahoma, and then tally his arrest, incarceration, the court proceedings to expedite him back to Maryland? And how many times have we had to pay the bill with the current immigration policies, or lack thereof, of our president and Congress?
— Richard T. Webb, Parkton, Maryland
Which of Biden’s border policies should be implicated in Morin’s death?
Let me remind the opportunists wanting to stir up trouble in an election year over the death of Rachel Morin that the suspect was caught three times by border security since early 2023. It is hard to see that any policy of Trump’s second term would have done any better than that. It is also unclear which of Biden’s border policies should be implicated when the suspected killer’s entry into the U.S. was “entry without inspection.” There has been no border policy under the Biden administration that improves the lot of those who sneak across the border without being detected. As a matter of fact, my understanding is that 176 people died trying to enter without inspection in 2023.
— Paul R. Schlitz Jr., Baltimore MD
Those who enter the U.S. illegally have a 100% crime rate upon entry
I see the editors have raised the customary argument that immigrants have a lower crime rate than the population at large. That is not a valid point. First, those who entered the country without authorization have a crime rate of 100% upon entry. Secondly, allowing nearly 10 million unvetted entrants and assuming a (very optimistic) possible crime rate of 2%, that comes to almost 200,000 additional crimes (mostly concentrated in a few states without the additional commensurate resources to cope with it).
Yes, this issue has been allowed to fester because there are so many constituencies that benefit from this. That includes big business interests that like subsidized (by our tax money) consumers and lower wage earners; the Democratic Party that has come to view them as likely voters; and the nonprofit sector that gets plenty of grants and other funds from various sympathetic organizations and individuals leading to higher salaries for officers and directors. I regard this as an unholy trinity.
How can anyone justify what the Biden administration has done by encouraging this disaster on top of an already existing problem?
— Robert T. Kean, Canton, Maryland
Rachel Morin’s murder is proof we need more than Border Patrol to protect us
There is such a simple solution to the border mess, yet no one dares mention it — namely, deploying our military to the area. We have the greatest (I hope) armed forces in the world, and now we need boots on the ground in places like Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico. But perhaps an old law prevents us from doing that. In 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed the Posse Comitatus Act into Federal Law. This foolishness “limits the powers of the federal government in using military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.” Now is the time to examine a law that puts our nation at risk. Any country that can’t control its borders is in serious danger. And Rachel Morin’s murder is proof that we need more than the Border Patrol to protect us.
— R. Ellis Heid, Baltimore
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