ON TARGET

                                                                               1/11/19       By Dave Gunn

A Tale of Two Immigrants

Romil Singh was born in Fiji. Like many in foreign countries, he wanted to come to the United States and take advantage of the opportunities available here. He came through legal channels and was careful to obey every immigration law we have. He settled in Newman, California, learned English, and became a United States citizen.

     So great was Singh’s love and appreciation for America, that he wanted to become a policeman, one who serve the people of Newman by upholding the law. Consistent with his pattern of life, he fulfilled the requirements to become a police officer and was hired by the small police force in Newman.

     Even though Singh was conversant in English, he realized that it would be a good thing for a police officer to be better understood by his fellow officers and the public. Therefore, at his own expense took additional English classes to increase his proficiency in the language of America.

     It was not long until officer Singh had received a promotion to corporal. With his wife and newborn son Romil Singh was living his version of the American dream.

     Gustavo Perez Arriaga was born in Mexico. Like Singh, he also wanted to come to the United States. Unlike Singh, the opportunities he sought were opportunities to engage in criminal enterprises. With a long history of gang affiliations, Arriaga saw America as the land of plenty to plunder.

     Arriaga, also unlike Singh, had a total disrespect for our immigration laws and entered the United States illegally. It wasn’t that he didn’t know our laws. He knew them as well as did Singh. He just made the purposeful decision to disobey them.

     In his first journey to America, Arriaga was caught and deported. Not deterred, he once again came to our nation illegally, sneaking in like the bandit he is. Along with his violations of our immigration laws, he acquired two arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol. In other words, he is a drunk driver.

     The day after Christmas, Romil Singh and Gustavo Arriaga met. Corporal Singh pulled Arriaga over on suspicion of driving under the influence. Apparently Arriaga did not want to receive a third DUI ticket which he would ignore, so he shot Singh, killing him on the street of his beloved community.

     Newman police immediately knew the identity of the murderer, but made no public announcements until he was captured. We should note here that, according to our legal system, Arriaga is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

     Arriaga was captured in a house where he was hiding while planning to once again cross the border into Mexico, where he knew he could disappear and avoid the consequences of his actions. He didn’t have the courage to shoot it out with the SWAT team and so was arrested without incident.

     Arrested with Arriaga are his girlfriend, two of his brothers, and four friends. All were accused of hiding Arriaga and aiding in his attempted evasion of law enforcement. Liberals often tell us that we should go easy on enforcing immigration law so that illegals will trust our law officers and cooperate with them. Apparently the seven who aided Arriaga didn’t get the memo.

     In the weeks that have followed, Democrats from California like Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris have said much about children being temporarily separated from their illegal immigrant parents at our southern border. They have been strangely silent about officer Singh being permanently separated from his wife and baby child.

     Why wasn’t the Immigration and Customs Enforcement alerted to pick up Arriaga when he was arrested for the two DUI’s? It is because California is a “sanctuary state,” and so local law enforcement is forbidden to help the federal authorities.

     Nancy Pelosi says that President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall is “immoral.” I say that sanctuary laws, and all laws that allow predators like Arriaga to come and to at will in America are immoral, and those who support such laws lack good sense.

[Dave Gunn is the nom de plume of Dr. David E. Gonnella, Pastor of the Magnolia Springs Baptist Church in Theodore, Alabama. The opinions expressed are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the church or its membership.]