OPINION:
Convicted murderer Humberto Leal, who was illegally brought to the United States by his family 36 years ago as a 2-year-old, shouted “Viva Mexico” twice as a lethal injection was deservedly administered to him (“Mexican executed for ’94 Texas slaying,” Nation, July 8).
Leal committed one of the most despicable acts imaginable: raping and bludgeoning to death a teenage girl. The death penalty appeal case centered on the failure of local Texas authorities to advise Leal of his right to seek counsel from staff at the nearest Mexican consulate following his arrest.
This violation of an international agreement could have no impact on the determination of his guilt or innocence, but is precisely one of the reasons activists continue to agitate for prohibiting state and local law enforcement from inquiring about immigration status.
If Texas cannot determine immigration status, the state cannot advise an arrestee he may contact a consulate. This forces state and local law enforcement to break one law or the other, thus tainting the entire judicial process.
The case has further implications for terrorists who would strike greater numbers of Americans than Leal did. Again and again we are lectured by incompetent Obama administration appointees about “homegrown terrorists.” But neither Leal, who spent much of his 38 years in our country illegally, or Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber and a naturalized citizen from Pakistan, were homegrown. Regardless of the ground under their feet, they harbored a deep-seated disdain for our country, seeing it as a playground where immigrants are paid not to work, enjoy affirmative action job benefits that aid them in stealing jobs from Americans, and bask in the twisted philosophy that it’s not over until the alien wins and America loses.
For anyone blinkered enough to have any doubts, Leal’s family at the homestead in Guadalupe, Mexico, burned a T-shirt with the American flag emblazoned on it on his day of reckoning.
CHRISTOPHER MAXWELL
Ventura, Calif.
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