Elon Musk has accused Democrats of refusing to deport illegal immigrants because such individuals represent potential voters down the road.
“Dems won’t deport, because every illegal is a highly likely vote at some point. That simple incentive explains what seems to be insane behavior,” Mr. Musk said in post on X.
“It has become so brazen that a gang of illegals can beat up police officers on camera in Times Square, get out of jail for free and *still* not get deported! Instead, a partly federally funded NGO bought them free tickets to California,” he added.
He was referring to a recent incident in which a group of illegal immigrants assaulted police offices in New York City, but instead of being held in custody pending hearings, all but one were set free without bail.
The motivation, Mr. Musk argued, is to secure a permanent Democrat majority and rule the country as a “one-party state.”
In his latest message on X, Mr. Musk was reacting to a post about the brother of Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant who is accused of the grisly murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, whose body was discovered along a running trail on Feb. 22.
Mr. Ibarra’s brother, Diego Ibarra, also allegedly entered the country illegally, News Nation reported.
Deportation?
A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that Mr. Jose Ibarra, the murder suspect, was arrested in September 2022 by ICE agents after making an illegal crossing near El Paso, Texas.However, he was paroled and released for further processing.
Mr. Jose Ibarra was subsequently arrested in August 2023 by New York Police Department (NYPD) officers and charged with “acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17,” as well a motor vehicle license violation, the spokesperson said. He was released by the NYPD before immigration officers could file a detainer request and trigger the deportation process.
After Mr. Jose Ibarra was arrested on murder charges on Feb. 23, 2024, ICE lodged a detainer, according to Lindsay Williams, the agency’s spokesperson.
While the detainer is of no help to Mr. Jose Ibarra’s alleged murder victim, the detainer does mean he faces deportation after either being found not guilty and released from custody or, if convicted, after serving out his sentence, Fox News reported.
Some Republicans have raised the argument that lax border policies are to blame for Ms. Riley’s death.
“The brutal murderer who took the life of Laken was one of the millions of illegal aliens that the Biden Administration simply released and unleashed upon our country,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote in a post on X.
Mr. Johnson, a critic of the Biden administration on border issues, called on the president to use his existing statutory authority to close the border.
“For Laken, and the countless many others lost to this border catastrophe, House Republicans will continue to fight tooth and nail for a return to law and order,” he wrote.
‘One-Party State’
While Republicans push for tougher border measures, Mr. Musk alleged in a Feb. 2 post on X that President Biden’s strategy is, in fact, to let in as many illegal immigrants as possible and then enact legislative reform to legalize their stay.The Tesla CEO said that the aim of this “simple, yet effective” strategy was to secure a permanent Democrat majority and rule the country as a “one-party state.”
On President Biden’s first day in office, he proposed the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which immediately sparked uproar over provisions such as pathways to citizenship for some 11 million illegal immigrants.
The measure was introduced in the House of Representatives but died with the end of the 117th Congress. It was revived in a somewhat modified form in May 2023 as the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2023, which remains stuck in committee.
Both prior and current versions of President Biden’s immigration reform bills propose pathways to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, including farm workers and people who were brought to the country illegally as children.
The Biden administration’s legislative efforts to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants remain in limbo amid Republican opposition.
Besides Mr. Musk, others have accused the Biden administration of being intentionally lax on border security so as to let in more illegal immigrants for political benefit.
President Biden and members of his administration have rejected this claim, accusing Republicans of playing politics with the border crisis and of cynically denying the administration the opportunity of meaningful immigration reform by legislative means.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Mr. Musk’s remarks.
