House Judiciary Report: How One Illegal Alien Gang Member Was Allowed to Terrorize New York

To call the mess on our southern border a crisis is to engage in the grossest of understatements. Since Joe Biden took office in January of 2021 and immediately set about undoing every Trump-era immigration and border security policy he could, effectively throwing the borders open to all and sundry, we have seen millions pour into the United States — from all over the world, including places like Syria and Somalia, China and Iran — mostly unscreened and unvetted. Oh, yes, not all of them are bad people — but a lot of them are.

On Wednesday, a House Judiciary Committee report linked to that Committee’s official X account gave us a chilling example of the harm caused by just one of these bad actors.

The report states in part:

This interim staff report focuses on the case of just one criminal illegal alien, Daniel Hernandez-Martinez, and highlights how the open-borders policies of the Biden-Harris Administration ensured his release into the United States. According to new, nonpublic information uncovered by the Committee, in early 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration released Daniel Hernandez-Martinez into the United States without any legal justification. Mere months after his release, Hernandez-Martinez began terrorizing New York City, committing at least 22 criminal offenses within a span of just six months. Although Hernandez-Martinez has had a prolific criminal career during his short time in the country and DHS records indicate he is a suspected member of the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang, there are no records in his A-file that indicate that ICE has removed him from the country.

22 criminal offenses. By a suspected gang member who never should have been here in the first place.

Here’s a look at his rap sheet:

According to press reports, Daniel Hernandez-Martinez, a Venezuelan national, “randomly attacked at least three stranders and two cops, and [has been] arrested – and released – six times on 14 different charges” in the two months after he arrived in New York City. In addition to a string of petty thefts, including “using a large metal pipe to break locks to steal bicycles in Times Square,” Martinez is alleged to have threatened and assaulted multiple people, including hitting a man with a bike tire, kicking a woman and dragging her by her hair, threatening another person with a chain, and pulling “out a large knife and advance[ing] toward an undercover officer.”

This man has been allowed to stay — illegally — in the United States.

It’s not just a problem for the United States. This besets the entire Western world.

See Related: After Unchecked Waves of Illegal Immigration, the British Are Now Strangers in Their Own Land 

Crisis at the Border: Under Biden, at Least 99 Illegals on Terror Watch List Released Into United States

While we can’t help the British from here, we can do something about our nation and border.

Daniel Hernandez-Martinez is a bad man. But he’s just one of many. Granted, yes, the left, especially the open borders/sanctuary city types, will argue that most illegal immigrants aren’t bad people, like Martinez — leaving out the inconvenient fact that their very first act of entering the United States was, by definition, a crime. And we could make an excellent argument that there are, here, now, in our country, far worse people; as I noted the other day, at least — at least — 99 illegal aliens who are on the Terror Watch List have been released into the United States.

That’s right. Almost a hundred people, all of whom are on the Terror Watch List, were just let go. We now have little or no idea where these people are or what they intend to do, except that it won’t be in the interests of the American people.

Daniel Hernandez-Martinez should have been deported immediately after his first arrest. If Venezuela balks at taking him back, give him a one-way ticket to Caracas, have him accompanied by a U.S. Air Marshal to make sure he gets on the plane and off on the other end, and leave him there. That should be an obvious policy — anyone in the country illegally, who comes to the attention of law enforcement, faces immediate deportation to their point of origin — no appeal, no argument, no sanctuary, no nothing, no kidding. 

Remember this in November. Kamala Harris favors open borders. Vote accordingly.