Florida Sheriff: 'We Have a Non-Existent Immigration System' Under Biden-Harris

AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough

What do a violent Colombian theft ring and a serial killer from Peru have in common? They all got allowed into the US by the Biden-Harris administration, despite their histories and the crimes they committed once here. And law enforcement has gotten tired of a federal immigration system that refuses to enforce the law and lets criminals victimize their communities. 

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First in Tampa, Florida comes the case of a "South American theft group" allowed to operate with impunity by the Department of Homeland Security. The group stole nearly $1.7 million in cash and valuables in their sophisticated operation. Despite law-enforcement efforts to get federal officials to detain the group over immigration violations, Polk County sheriff Grady Judd revealed, the group remained at large and committing more crimes.

"They had no fear," Judd remarked:

Law enforcement identified burglaries in several counties: one in Polk, one in Pinellas, one in Manatee, one in Collier and five in Hillsborough. However, when they served search warrants, little evidence was found. The suspected stolen items were already gone.

In a news conference Thursday, Judd said the four suspects remained in the country illegally during the course of the multi-agency investigation, despite multiple interactions with federal immigration officials. ...

“These defendants conspired together to commit multiple burglaries across Central Florida —using members of the group as decoys outside the homes of small business owners while others broke into the residences, stealing more than $1.5 million worth of items,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a statement. “Thanks to the great investigative work of our law enforcement partners, our Statewide Prosecutors have charged them with serious felony counts and these criminals will be held accountable.”

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The apparent ringleader, Geraldine Galeano-Perez, faces 13 counts in this case, but she has a robust history of crime. And not just in Colombia either:

Her prior criminal history in Colombia includes illegal trafficking/possession of firearms & ammunition, and grand larceny. She has also been arrested in New York for possession of controlled substance, possession of forged instrument, and money laundering.

It's not just Galeano-Perez who shouldn't have been on the streets. Co-defendant Milton Ayala-Sierra has a rap sheet in New York that includes forgery and money laundering. He's been deported, but fellow co-defendant Geiler Orobio-Cabezas has a rap sheet in Michigan for burglary. The fourth member of the ring, Jason Alexander Higuera-Ruiz, has absconded on bail and is now a fugitive with a $5.6 million bounty.

All of these are or were in the country illegally. How did they get allowed into the US in the first place? How did they not get deported the first time they got arrested for crimes? Sheriff Judd has an answer to these questions, which is that the Biden-Harris administration has no immigration enforcement system at all -- and deliberately so:

'We don't have a broken immigration system in the United States of America. We have a non-existent immigration system in the United States of America,' he said.

'Now we have these organized criminals coming through the Southern border targeting legitimate Americans, legitimate small business people, and looking for people in gated communities in nice houses with money and jewelry.'

And he warned: 'These people are coming after you too. And they're able to do that because you have a non-existent system to keep these criminals out of our country. 

'They can't keep 'em out,' he added.

'The federal government allowed those burglaries to occur because they won't do their job.'

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That certainly appears to be the case with Gianfranco Torres-Navarro, who entered the country illegally on May 16 of this year. ICE arrested him the same day, gave him a notice to appear for a court hearing sometime in the future, and let him enter the US. Torres-Navarro then moved to upstate New York, where he lived for three months while ICE eventually discovered who Torres-Navarro really is:

A reputed Peruvian gang leader suspected in 23 killings in his home country was arrested Wednesday in New York by U.S. immigration authorities.

Gianfranco Torres-Navarro, the leader of “Los Killers” who is wanted for the killings in Peru, was arrested in Endicott, New York, about 145 miles (233 kilometers) northwest of New York City, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday. He is being held at a federal detention facility near Buffalo pending an immigration hearing. ... 

Six reputed members of “Los Killers,” formed in 2022 in an area along the Pacific coast where Peru’s main port is located, were arrested in a series of raids in June and accused of homicide, contract killing, and extortion, the National Police of Peru said.

Torres-Navarro was previously a member of the Los Malditos de Angamos criminal organization, Peru’s Public Prosecutor’s Office said. He is also known as “Gianfranco 23,” a reference to the number of people he is alleged to have killed.

The people of Endicott must be breathing a sigh of relief at the moment. But how did 'Gianfranco 23' get allowed into the country at all? Sheriff Judd can certainly explain that, but Byron York does a good job of that as well:

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The presence of Torres-Navarro in the U.S., free to go as he pleases, was a direct result of the border policies of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. You’ve heard about their policy of allowing millions into the U.S. unvetted. This is that policy in action. Torres-Navarro is the face of that policy. He is a one-man, walking illustration of the dangerous nature of the Biden-Harris border.

Wait a minute, some Democrats might say. Are you arguing that every person who crosses the border illegally is a murderer? Of course not. What the Torres-Navarro case shows is that U.S. authorities, under Biden and Harris, are not really checking anybody. If they let a man wanted for 23 murders through, they’ll let anybody through. And indeed, they do. ...

Torres-Navarro was presumably not on the terrorist watch list. He is just a cold-blooded mass killer involved in standard gang crimes. One might think that would be plenty of reason to keep him out of the U.S., but he was ushered right in.

And that is why the public should know about Torres-Navarro. He is in the U.S. because of the way Biden and Harris chose to run the U.S.-Mexico border. And he is in custody through the work of an agency, ICE, that Harris wanted to “reexamine” and profoundly change, “starting from scratch,” in light of her goal of decriminalizing illegal crossings into the U.S. The border should be a major issue in this presidential campaign, and the story of Torres-Navarro is part of it.

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Indeed, and it will be, mainly because Kamala Harris herself will make it a key issue. She bragged that she will put her own record on border security up against Donald Trump's any day and assumed responsibility for three-plus years of the outcomes on the southern border. Harris should be made to answer for Gianfranco 23, the Colombian theft ring and their unaddressed crime spree in the US, and the terrorist-watch-list entries casually strolling over their broken border.

The sooner, the better. 

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