For years, at my personal blog, I collected stories of preventable killings by illegal immigrants, under the tag Deport the Criminals First. My last post under that tag was about the killing of Kate Steinle in June 2015. Although I stopped writing about the issue, the killings keep happening. The latest example occurred this weekend, ending the life of an NFL player and his companion. CNN:

Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and another man were struck and killed in a suspected drunken driving accident early Sunday morning.

Indiana State Police say the man they believe hit them is an undocumented immigrant who has been deported twice.

. . . .

Police identified the driver of the F-150 as Manuel Orrego-Savala. Police said he gave them an alias at the scene — Alex Cabrera Gonsales — and attempted to flee on foot. He was taken to the Marion County Jail, accused of driving without a license and on suspicion of intoxicated driving.

Detectives said Orrego-Savala is a citizen of Guatemala who is in the United States illegally and was deported twice, in 2007 and 2009. They’re working with US immigration officials, who have placed a hold on Orrego-Savala.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement released a statement late Monday saying Orrego-Savala was previously convicted of driving under the influence in Redwood City, California, in 2005. He has other “misdemeanor criminal convictions and arrests in California and Indiana,” the ICE statement said.

Stories like this outrage people not because illegal immigrants are worse criminals than citizens — they’re not — but because they are not supposed to be in the country to begin with.

For example, the reason that the killing of Kate Steinle was such an outrage was because it was totally preventable. Had San Francisco officials simply returned her killer to the custody of ICE (which had been preparing to deport him), rather than kicking him loose onto their streets, that beautiful young woman would be alive today. Similarly, if we had any semblance of border protection, maybe Edwin Jackson and Jeffrey Monroe would still be alive.

I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but this all illustrates the need for real border security. The fact that this is obvious does not make it less true. It’s a security issue for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that when we fail, Americans die as a direct result.

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