The list is long! And, Obama surely tops it! But, here are some others who have brought us to this awful place in our Nation’s history: Senator Dianne Feinstein, Former Senator Sam Brownback (now governor of Kansas), the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Edwin Larios Muñoz (a convicted murderer)! Huh?
Editor: See also our post yesterday, here, for additional historical background and why the soft treatment of illegal alien teenagers by the Office of Refugee Resettlement has served as a magnet for more to break into America.
Last night a reader directed us to this 2006 article at VDARE by Thomas Allen which spells out the early history of how the illegal alien “children” first came under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Allen tells us about Edwin Larios Muñoz the poster-boy who tearfully testified in Congress about his supposedly brutal treatment at the hands of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and was featured on the cover of an August 2002 issue of Parade magazine (I could not find the cover—ed)
Only three years later (2005) Honduran cover-boy Munoz was arrested and convicted of murdering Silvia Sanchez-Parada and her unborn child.
Read the VDARE article and then see some news prior to 2006.
First, from the San Diego Union Tribune from August 2, 2002 (amazing the story is still available!):
Each year thousands of children under 18 try to sneak into the United States. While many make it, many are caught and turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service as “unaccompanied minors.” In San Diego alone, the INS processed 390 children last year. This year, the pace has quickened, with 234 arrested through July 31.
As the numbers rise, the INS is increasingly under fire for the way it handles the children.
One of the chief critics is California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has sponsored a bill that would remove the children from INS jurisdiction and transfer their care to a new office in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Feinstein and others have highlighted the San Diego case of Honduran immigrant Edwin Larios Muñoz, who was arrested Aug. 19, 2000, at the San Ysidro border crossing. Edwin is featured in an article in today’s issue of Parade magazine, and he testified in front of a Senate committee in February about his experiences at Juvenile Hall, where the INS housed him.
In his tearful testimony, Edwin said that at age 14 he was surrounded by violent juveniles facing serious charges such as murder and rape, witnessed numerous fights and was hit with sticks by probation officers.
Munoz not subjected to any cruel punishment!
Alan Crogan, the head of the Probation Department, disputed Edwin’s claims of mistreatment at Juvenile Hall, where he was held from Aug. 29, 2000 until Feb. 27, 2001.
Crogan said Edwin was kept in a special unit with other non-citizen Latinos and allowed the same privileges as other detainees. He attended school and was allowed the standard recreation time of two hours a day.
“He was not subjected to any kinds of cruel and unusual punishment,” Crogan said.
Nonetheless, Feinstein’s bill then became part of the Bush reorganization of Homeland Security.
In the meantime, however, Feinstein’s bill is moving forward. Last week, it was moved out of the Senate Government Affairs Committee as part of legislation to form the Department of Homeland Security.
So who was meting out “cruel and unusual punishment?”
Feinstein’s star witness was later tried and convicted (again), and here, of brutally murdering a woman and her unborn baby in a home where he rented a room. Munoz was under the care at the time of Bethany Christian Services a subcontractor of one of the top nine federal contractors—Church World Service.
….his client had been here only a month through a Bethany Christian Services refugee program.
There are a lot of reports on the case, google them, if you want to spend another minute on this horrible story.
See all of our coverage for several years on the so-called “unaccompanied alien minors” here.