The latest “fact check” trick by KRNV/News4 in Reno goes like this:
They tell you illegal aliens have “lower incarceration rates” than native-born Americans. They quote the Cato Institute. They flash a chart. They act like the debate is over.
In 2023, Cato says, native-born Americans were locked up at 1,221 per 100,000. Illegal immigrants at 613. Legal immigrants at 319.
So the headline becomes: “See, illegals are about half as likely to be in prison.”
And you are supposed to clap like a seal and ignore the bodies.
Here’s the real question.
Not “who has the higher rate.” It’s this: If these people were not in the country at all, how many Americans would still be alive?
Answer: every single one of their victims.
Meet The Victims the Charts Ignore
Take Laken Riley.
Twenty two. Nursing student in Georgia. Went for a morning jog on campus in February 2024. Never came home.
She was kidnapped, beaten, sexually assaulted, and murdered by José Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan national who crossed the border illegally in 2022 and was released into the United States.
If he wasn’t here, Laken finishes her run, goes to class, and lives her life.
Then there is Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston. Twelve years old.
In June 2024, she was kidnapped, raped, and strangled. Two Venezuelan illegal immigrants, reportedly linked to the Tren de Aragua gang, were charged with her murder after they were allowed into the country and then released.
If they’re not here, Jocelyn is home in bed, not in a creek.
Now tell Laken’s parents and Jocelyn’s mother that “overall incarceration rates are lower” and see how that sounds out loud.
When The Government Hands Illegals A 40-Ton Weapon
You want another brutal reality? Look at our highways.
In Florida, Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant truck driver, is accused of making an illegal U turn in his 18 wheeler. A van slammed into the trailer. Three Americans died.
Reports say he failed his commercial driver’s test ten times, struggled with English, and still got licensed in California and Washington.
Ten failures. Limited English. Big rig. Who thought that was a good idea?
That was not an “act of God.” That was a policy choice.
And it’s not an isolated story.
DHS has flagged other fatal crashes involving illegal migrant truckers and questioned states that hand out commercial licenses to people who are not even supposed to be here.
Just this week, in San Diego, a Guatemalan national here illegally with a history of DUIs was charged with murder after a drunk crash that killed an 8-year-old girl and hurt six others.
Again. If they’re not here, those Americans aren’t dead.
Nevada Victims of Federal Failure
Nevada, sadly, has not been immune from the catastrophe of illegal immigrant crime.
It was only a year ago that an illegal immigrant from Mexico, Fernando Jimenez‑Jimenez, killed off‑duty Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officer Colton Pulsipher in a drunk driving wrong‑way crash on I‑15 near the Valley of Fire.
And let’s not forget Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, who murdered four elderly residents in Douglas and Washoe counties over a six-day period in January 2019.
If Jimenez‑Jimenez and Martinez-Guzman weren’t here, those Nevada victims would be alive and with their families today.
The Scam Behind The “Lower Crime” Talking Point
So why do the fact checkers and the Cato crowd keep yelling “lower incarceration rate”?
Because it moves the argument to a place where they can win on paper and lose nothing in real life. They don’t count:
- The American who never gets murdered if the killer is deported or never let in.
- The girl who never gets raped if the attacker is stopped at the border.
- The families who never get hit by a truck driven by someone who should not be licensed, or even in the country, in the first place.
They take a policy question and hide it inside a statistics game.
It is like saying “This drunk driver is safer than the average drunk driver, so quit complaining that he ran over your kid.”
Nobody would accept that in a normal life. But for illegal immigration, the media calls it “fact checking.”
The Common Sense View: Zero Crimes Is the Target
The conservative view is simple. A sovereign country controls who comes in. If you’re here illegally, you shouldn’t be here. And if you’re not here, you can’t:
- Kill a jogger in Georgia.
- Strangle a 12-year-old in Houston.
- Plow a semi across a Florida highway or a California freeway and leave dead Americans behind.
The “acceptable level” of crime by people who should not be here is not “lower than average.” It’s zero.
So the next time a fact checker tells you “illegal migrants commit less crime,” ask one question: “Tell me which American victims are an acceptable trade for your chart.”
You will not get an honest answer. Because once you say Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray should still be alive, the whole narrative falls apart.
And in their guts, they know it. But they don’t have the guts to say it.
I just did.
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