Judge Hanen is located in the Southern District of Texas, Brownsville Division, and the Nava-Martinez case involved smuggling a child from El Salvador into the United States, illegally. The child’s mother, an illegal alien, paid a smuggler $8,500 to bring the girl from El Salvador to Virginia, but the smuggler was caught by DHS agents at a border checkpoint near Brownsville, Texas. Good, you might think: the Obama administration says it wants secure borders, so the human trafficker was turned back. Right?
Wrong. Let’s give the floor to Judge Hanen to explain what the record in the case showed:
The criminal conspiracy instigated by Salmeron Santos [the mother in Virginia] was temporarily interrupted when Nava-Martinez [the professional human trafficker] was arrested. Despite this setback, the goal of the conspiracy was successfully completed thanks to the actions of the United States Government. The Court is quite concerned with the apparent policy of the Department of Homeland Security (hereinafter “HHS”) of completing the criminal missions of individuals who are violating the border security of the United States. Customs and Border Protection agents stopped the Defendant at the border inspection point. She was arrested, and the child was taken into custody. The DHS officials were notified that Salmeron Santos instigated this illegal conduct. Yet, instead of arresting Salmeron Santos for instigating the conspiracy to violate our border security laws, the DHS delivered the child to her–thus successfully completing the mission of the criminal conspiracy. It did not arrest her. It did not prosecute her. It did not even initiate deportation proceedings for her. This DHS policy is a dangerous course of action.http://www.powerlineblog.com/archive...eyond-guns.php
The DHS, instead of enforcing our border security laws, actually assisted the criminal conspiracy in achieving its illegal goals. The Government’s actions were not done in connection with a sting operation or a controlled delivery situation. Rather, the actions it took were directly in furtherance of Y.P.S.’s [the little girl's] illegal presence in the United States. … In summary, instead of enforcing the laws of the United States, the Government took direct steps to help the individuals who violated it. A private citizen would, and should, be prosecuted for this conduct.
The DHS is rewarding criminal conduct instead of enforcing the current laws. More troubling,the DHS is encouraging parents to seriously jeopardize the safety of their children. While Y.P.S. was transported in a car, others are made to swim the Rio Grande River or other bodies of water in remote areas. This concern for the safety of these individuals is not fanciful or theoretical; it is a real and immediate concern. As this Court waited for the judgment to be prepared before it released this opinion, two illegal aliens drowned, two more are missing, and a three-year-old El Salvadorean toddler was found abandoned by smugglers–an event occurring just outside of Brownsville.
