This is a tale of two friends and a human story about what it means to seek both justice and mercy in our national immigration debate.
This week, I said goodbye to my dear friend Jackie Cruz Acencio as she prepares to leave San Diego with her husband, Oscar, a U.S. Marine, who is being medically evacuated from Balboa Naval Hospital following a tragedy that never should have happened.
On Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, Oscar was driving his family home with Jackie and their three children when they were struck head-on on a rural road northeast of Julian in San Diego County.
Jackie and Oscar’s eight-year-old daughter, Arya, was killed. Oscar suffered traumatic brain injuries and lost his leg.
The driver who collided with their family is Brayan Josue Alva-Rodriguez, a 25-year-old man with two prior DUI convictions who was in the country illegally.
In March 2023, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the country.
The Cruz Acencio family believes, with reason, that their daughter would still be alive had existing sanctuary state policies not shielded a repeat offender who never had a pathway to citizenship.
In contrast, I also think of my friend Fito, who was brought here as an infant from Tijuana, Mexico, and lived as an American in every way.
After a youthful mistake he made at age 18, he was deported. He returned to the United States to be with his family and child. Later, when he tried to live openly under his real name and sought a California driver’s license, ICE detained him, and he was deported again under the Obama Administration.
Today, he’s a pastor in Tijuana, and I miss my friend.
I share these stories because they reveal the reality of our immigration system, not the talking points.
Our immigration debate has collapsed into absolutes, replaced by extremes on both sides, with one side denying the need for borders at all and portraying immigrants as angels, while the other denies the humanity of everyone who crosses them, shouting “deport them all” and labeling all immigrants as MS-13 gang members.
In December 2023, with The Goat Initiative, I traveled roughly 60 miles east of the city of San Diego to the border to the small town of Boulevard. What I saw firsthand crystallized my strong beliefs on national security.
All along the U.S. side of the border, the ground was littered with what appeared to be hundreds of torn-up and discarded passports, what I thought looked like evidence of individuals destroying records of their true identities and countries of origin.
During the Biden administration, Customs and Border Protection handled more than eight million encounters at the southwest border, not counting the two million estimated “gotaways.” To me, it was an obvious national security threat.
Now our country is being torn apart by this debate.
On one side, ICE agents are being called Nazis and being chased down for removing people like the man who hurt the Cruz Acencio family. From the other side, the loudest voices scream “deport them all!”
Most “normie” Californians I speak with, whether Republican or Democrat, believe as I do and want a solution that involves both a pathway to citizenship for long-time, contributing immigrants and accountability for those who commit violent crimes.
Mercy for people like Fito; no mercy for those who take innocent lives like Arya’s.
Amy Reichert is a resident of La Mesa.
Want to submit a letter to the editor, guest column or opinion piece? Find our guidelines and submission form here.
Hence then, the article about opinion two friends one broken immigration system was published today ( ) and is available on Times of San Diego ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Opinion: Two friends, one broken immigration system )
Also on site :