“You only arrest for the purpose of dealing with a felony that’s committed, and I don’t count drunk driving as a felony.” That was former vice president Joe Biden last week, and the presidential contender announced a punishment for ICE agents who dare arrest illegals caught driving drunk.
“You change the culture by saying you are going to get fired,” Biden explained. “You are fired if, in fact, you do that.” That fell afoul of former ICE boss Tom Homan, who explained that according to current statues, any crime by an illegal is grounds for deportation. If Biden doesn’t like what ICE is doing, Homan told Fox News, “then he can change the law, but you cannot fire a law enforcement officer to enforcing the law that he took an oath to enforce, a law that was enacted by Congress.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Authority, “every day, almost 30 people die in drunk-driving crashes.” Those crashes claim more than 10,000 lives per year, and contribute to costs of $44 billion in 2010 alone. Many states prosecute drunk driving as a felony, particularly in cases of injury or death. Even so, presidential contender Biden doesn’t consider drunk driving a felony, and last week announced more good news for those illegally present in the United States.
“In many cases, they’re more American than most Americans are because they have done well in school,” Biden said of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. “They believe the basic principles that we all share. I think they should be, in fact, fine to put on a path to citizenship.”
Legal immigrants and legitimate citizens might wonder what the former vice president, a lawyer, is talking about. On the other hand, Biden’s comments did not prevent a ringing endorsement from a prominent California Democrat.
“For me, vice president Biden is the best candidate,” Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg told reporters last week. “This country desperately needs both strong leadership and a voice of healing. This country is so badly divided in large part because of the current president.” As it happens, when it comes to drunk drivers Steinberg and Biden are on the same page.
In 2017, Steinberg approved $300,000 in city funding to provide legal services and other benefits for foreign nationals illegally present in the United States. Steinberg, a supporter of sanctuary laws, said his concern was people who are a threat, but illegal immigrants eligible for monetary aid include those with convictions for DUI, a felony offense if people are injured or killed.
Last year in Knight’s Landing, a small community north of Sacramento, Mexican national Ismael Huazo-Jardinez smashed his truck into a residence killing Jose Pacheco, 38, Anna Pacheco, 34, the couple’s son Angel, 10, and injuring their 11-year-old daughter. Police charged Huazo-Jardinez, previously deported in 2011, with felony DUI and three counts of vehicular manslaughter.
Huazo Jardinez attempted to flee the scene but Sutter County judge David Ashby, a 2016 appointee of Gov. Jerry Brown, allowed the Mexican to post bail. The suspect then fled but was quickly apprehended by ICE agents and also charged with ‘two counts of possessing a firearm while being an alien unlawfully in the United States.” Despite the two fatalities in the felony DUI, the case drew no public comment from mayor Steinberg, Governor Gavin Newsom or attorney general Xavier Becerra, once on Hillary Clinton’s short list as a running mate.
On December 16, 2018, Newman, California, police officer Ronil “Ron” Singh, a legal immigrant from Fiji, pulled over a drunk driver who gunned down the officer. Police arrested a Mexican national calling himself Gustavo Perez Arriaga and Paulo Virgen Mendoza.
The Mexican national, illegally present in the United States, had been arrested for felony DUI, in 2011, in a case that caused injury, and arrested on another DUI in 2014. That year the Mexican was sentenced to five days in jail but failed to show. Under California sanctuary policy, he was never handed over to ICE for deportation.
After the murder of officer Singh, several other illegals helped the suspect flee. One of them, Eriz Quiroz, has already been sentenced to prison after prosecution by U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott. The suspect, now calling himself Paulo Virgen Mendoza, is being prosecuted by state judge Ricardo Córdova, a 2003 appointee of Democrat Gov. Gray Davis, and the murder case has been postponed until March 10, 2020.
Attorney general Xavier Becerra and Gov. Gavin Newsom, both supporters of California’s sanctuary law, did not attend the funeral of police officer Ron Singh. Neither Democrat has publicly decried the officer’s murder as an example of “gun violence.”
Meanwhile, Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg, a former state Senate boss, spends taxpayer dollars on the legal fees of illegals, believes drunk driving does not constitute a threat, and believes Joe Biden is the “best candidate” for president. The former vice president believes drunk driving is not a felony, that ICE agents who arrest drunken illegals should be fired, and that foreign nationals are more American than Americans because they “have done well in school.”
The election takes place on November 3. As President Trump says, we’ll see what happens.
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