President Trump can use existing law to prosecute organizers (and funders) of the Marxist “People’s Tribunals” being led by the Mexico caravan organizers and their “comrades” in the “open borders” and “sanctuary cities” networks who are already here.
The “caravan” of more than 1,000 Central American migrants who began walking across Mexico toward the U.S. border at the end of March has dwindled since President Trump put pressure on the Mexican government and announced the deployment of National Guard units to our southern border.
However, as The New American has reported, spokesmen for Pueblo Sin Fronteras (Spanish for People Without Borders or Village Without Borders) have said that the remaining caravan marchers intend to continue to the U.S. border, where some of the migrants will request asylum, while others will attempt to enter illegally. Moreover, as we noted in the above-linked article, Pueblo Sin Fronteras (PSF), which is based in San Diego, California, is a lead player with other radical “immigrants’ rights” groups inside the United States that are establishing communist-inspired “People’s Tribunals” to put “ICE on Trial,” an effort aimed at making it impossible for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to carry out enforcement of our immigration laws. Together with the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance (CIYJA), Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), Detention Watch Network (DWN), Freedom for Immigrants (formerly known as CIVIC), and other Marxist groups, the PSF activists are serving as frontline agitators for the politicians promoting the illegal Sanctuary City movement.
Following decades of weak-kneed acquiescence by both Democrat and Republican administrations to the brazen violation of our immigration laws — and the outright assault on our immigration system by the Obama administration — the Trump administration has been sending many welcome signals that it is working vigorously to reverse the inexcusable inaction and suicidal policies of its predecessors. One important plan of action that many sane voices are urging President Trump to pursue is to begin prosecuting the activists — such as those PSF organizers currently lionized in glowing media reports — who are engaged in the criminal activity of illegal-alien smuggling.
In a recent Townhall column, for instance, Chris Reeves points out that what the PSF leftists are doing is clearly in violation of federal law and makes them liable to prison terms of up to 10 years or more. He writes:
Under Section 274 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, any person who knowingly brings or just attempts to bring an alien into the United States illegally has committed a crime punishable by up to ten years in prison. Moreover, anyone who “encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States” illegally can be jailed for up to five years. Someone who “aids or abets” people in committing either of the above acts can also be jailed for five years.
Dan Cadman, a retired INS/ICE official with 30 years of government experience, similarly points to the need for the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) to initiate prosecutorial action against “Sanctuary City” politicians who are engaged in felonious criminal activity, such as, for example, Libby Schaaf, the mayor of Oakland, California, who even went so far as to warn criminal aliens of an impending ICE raid. In a report for the Center for Immigration Studies, Cadman notes that Mayor Schaaf could be prosecuted under 8 U.S.Code Section 1324, which provides cause for action against: “(A) Any person who … (iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.”
The same section, observes Cadman “then goes on to enumerate criminal penalties ranging from five years to life, per violation, which means one offense for every alien who has been harbored or shielded from detection.”
It gets even more serious. Section 1324 even invokes the possibility of the death penalty for those whose actions result in the death of “any person.” It reads:
(B) A person who violates subparagraph (A) shall, for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs — … (iv) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), or (v) resulting in the death of any person, be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, fined under title 18, or both.
Mayor Schaaf is not exempted from this law by virtue of being an elected politician. Neither is California Governor Jerry Brown, nor are any of the hundreds of “progressive” mayors, city councilmen, county commissioners, prosecutors, police chiefs, and sheriffs who have joined the subversive sanctuary city movement. They fall within the meaning of “any person,” as the law regards offenders, and should be prosecuted the same as any other individuals would be under the law.
The reckless and subversive actions of the professional sanctuary agitators and their politician allies have resulted in deaths, both to American citizens and to other illegal aliens (see here, here, and here). The law clearly states that these sanctuary activists/politicians be held criminally accountable, and that when their actions result “in the death of any person,” they shall “be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, fined under title 18, or both.” These are serious consequences, which is proper for serious crimes that also have serious (life-taking) consequences. The death penalty, obviously, is extremely unlikely ever to be requested in a sanctuary-related case, even one that has resulted in someone’s death, but the specter of fines and serving prison time should be a very real, sobering prospect. As it is, the sanctuary felons have been allowed instead to flaunt their criminality and to bask in media celebrity as supposed human rights heroes.
Dan Cadman notes that Mayor Schaaf could also be prosecuted for “Conspiracy against the United States” as codified at 18 U.S.C. Section 371. This section of the law, he points out, “has been used successfully in matters ranging from the Volkswagen emissions scandal to, most recently, Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign official, who pleaded guilty to that charge in exchange for dropping of several other felony offenses. Since on its face, this provision of law requires that two or more persons join together in the conspiracy, who, you may ask, participated in a conspiracy, if one existed? Why, self evidently, the ‘person or persons [presumably] unknown to the government’ who provided the inside information on the upcoming raid so that Schaaf could thereafter spill the beans.”
The Justice Department under Jeff Sessions has already been pursuing legal action to cut off federal funds to sanctuary cities and counties, but criminal prosecution of the individuals — including prominent scofflaw politicians — who are publicly leading and aiding the subversive and dangerous sanctuary movement would open a whole new legal front and would signal that the Trump administration is serious indeed about ending this blatant threat to the rule of law, to public safety and to national security.
In addition, as we pointed out recently (STOP Funding the Revolution), the Trump administration has a golden opportunity to cut off the illegal funding for the vast network of political activists (including those in the illegal alien/sanctuary movements) from the large tax-exempt foundations. The myriad organizations of full-time, professional radicals that lead the massive protests and demonstrations would quickly evaporate without the constant cash infusions from Soros, Ford, Rockefeller, Gates, Bloomberg, and the other billionaire funders of radical causes. And those massive cash infusions would quickly evaporate if those foundations that are engaging in these activities were properly investigated, prosecuted, and faced with losing their tax-exempt status.
Photo: Wikimedia
Related articles:
Mexico’s Migrant “Caravan” Organizers Put “ICE on Trial” In U.S.
Foundations: Cutting Off the Toxic Funding Flow
Judicial Watch: Soros Using U.S. Funds to Help Overthrow Macedonian Government
