The arrest of an illegal immigrant accused of killing a Maryland mother has driven home a tough political reality for President Biden: Even if his new policy changes seal off the border, much of the damage has already been done.
With 5 million more illegal immigrants settled in the U.S. since the start of his term in January 2021, Mr. Biden has allowed enough seeds of chaos that the bad headlines are likely to persist through the November election.
The latest is the arrest of Victor Martinez-Hernandez. Authorities say he is an MS-13 member who fled El Salvador last year after being suspected in a killing there.
He made it across the U.S. border in February 2023 and, according to police, attacked a mother and a 9-year-old girl in Los Angeles, then made his way to Harford County in Maryland, where he now stands accused of killing Rachel Morin on a hiking trail last summer.
Mr. Hernandez was arrested in Oklahoma on Friday.
Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler, in announcing the arrest, tied the slaying directly to the border chaos.
“Eighteen hundred miles from the southern border, and this is the second woman in our county to be killed by an illegal alien. In both cases, they are suspects from El Salvador with ties to criminal gangs. Should not be happening,” he said. “Victor Hernandez did not come here to make a better life for himself or for his family. He came here to escape the crime he committed in El Salvador. He came here and murdered Rachel.”
Kayla Hamilton, 20, also was killed in Harford County. An illegal immigrant whom the Biden administration caught and released as an unaccompanied alien child, and for whom authorities missed MS-13 indicators, has been charged with that crime.
Across the country, illegal immigrants who arrived on Mr. Biden’s watch are now being charged with serious crimes, including the slaying of Laken Riley in Georgia, the beating of two police officers in New York City and an attempted incursion into Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
“The fact that the border is open has let any criminal they want come into the U.S. You’re seeing that,” said Emilio Gonzalez, who ran U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Bush administration.
He said it undercuts Mr. Biden’s attempt to change the politics of the border narrative with his executive actions two weeks ago, when he revealed a tough new approach to asylum claims.
Under the new policy, most migrants are no longer prodded to see whether they want to claim asylum, and those who lodge claims are held to a higher standard.
SEE ALSO: ‘Parole’ test case results show Biden enforcement problems; migrants duck deportation
The intent was to shut down the sea of bogus claims that have swamped the immigration system, allowing people to remain in the U.S. for years while the immigration courts struggle to deliver verdicts on their cases.
The move spurred condemnation from Republicans, who said it was too little and too late. It also angered Mr. Biden’s left political flank, where immigration rights activists said they were horrified by the attempt to restrict asylum.
The president is expected to attempt a makeup on Tuesday with a policy to help illegal immigrants married to U.S. citizens. They are already virtually insulated from deportation unless they have a significant criminal history, but Mr. Biden’s plan is expected to give them a path to adjust their status without having to return to their home countries.
Immigration rights activists on Monday predicted that the plan would be wildly popular with Hispanic voters and Mr. Biden’s base and could even help sway some independent and Republican voters by drawing a contrast between a pro-family policy and the family separations under Mr. Trump’s “zero tolerance” border policy.
“We anticipate that immigrants and Latino voters will express their gratitude at the ballot box in November,” said Gustavo Torres, head of CASA, a major immigration group in the mid-Atlantic.
At the border, the Department of Homeland Security says the asylum changes are already paying off.
Officials claimed a 10% reduction in Border Patrol arrests in the days after the new policy. They predicted those numbers would continue to improve as would-be migrants change their calculations about their chances of successfully gaining a foothold in the U.S.
The ongoing criminal cases suggest Mr. Biden hasn’t escaped the grim border headlines that have dogged him from his first days in office.
The latest YouGov/Economist survey, taken after Mr. Biden’s policy reversal, showed immigration remained the second highest issue for voters. Mr. Biden’s approval rating on the issue remains decidedly negative, with 64% disapproving and 29% approving.
Mr. Gonzalez said Mr. Biden’s problem is that he nationalized the border, hurting communities far afield, such as Boston, New York, Chicago and Harford County.
“It’s become a national phenomenon where the effects of uncontrolled immigration by normally inadmissible aliens — and that’s a key word,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “None of these people would have been allowed into the U.S. if they had done it right. But they did it wrong, and they overwhelmed the system and they were allowed in.”
Sheriff Gahler said Harford County officials connected Mr. Hernandez to the crime and linked him to a Los Angeles home invasion through DNA evidence. Authorities caught up with him at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not released details about Mr. Hernandez’s case as of Monday afternoon.
Former President Donald Trump weighed in by drawing parallels between Morin and Riley, the Georgia student whose slaying became a national tragedy.
“On day one, we will SHUT DOWN THE BORDER and start deporting millions of Biden’s Illegal Criminals. We will once again put AMERICANS First and MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!” he said on Truth Social.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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