You'd think the press would have learned something from the whole "Maryland dad" fiasco, but if journalists have the ability to do anything, it's ignore their mistakes and rush headlong into new ones. 

SEE: Shocking Revelation About 'Maryland Dad' Abrego-Garcia Finishes Off the Democrat Narrative

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Times published a headline claiming that an "undocumented grandmother" was now facing deportation because she made a "wrong turn." The intent was clear: To make it seem as if ICE was viciously hunting down innocent people for minor errors in roadway navigation.

Undocumented grandmother faces deportation after wrong turn in San Diego https://t.co/zNmQFhvWOX

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 8, 2025

To set the tone, here's the opening line of the article. 

A 64-year-old grandmother in the U.S. without documentation is facing deportation after she mistakenly took the wrong exit on her way home from work.

I shouldn't have to explain this to L.A. Times reporters, but "in the U.S. without documentation" is just a really tortured, inefficient way of saying "illegal immigrant." This grandmother was an illegal immigrant, and with that clarification out of the way, let's get to the real story here.

Some context you don’t get in the headline:

She had been living in the U.S. illegally for 20 years, has no drivers license (but was still driving), has no identification of any kind, and drove onto a military base where she was stopped and unable to ID herself. https://t.co/uKkgRVMCck

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 8, 2025

So we have a person who has been flouting American immigration laws for two decades, apparently never even attempting to rectify the situation. She then flouted motor vehicle laws by operating a car without a license, putting others in danger. That, too, had likely been taking place for decades with no attempt to rectify the situation. For context, California lets illegal immigrants obtain driver's licenses, and what do you think the chances are that she bothered to have insurance? 

This "undocumented grandmother" then drove onto a military base, one of the few places in the country where federal authorities have the legal right to demand identification at any time. When she couldn't provide any, because again, she had been flouting the law for two decades, she was detained and turned over to ICE. 

Now, that sounds just a little bit different than "undocumented grandma facing deportation for wrong turn," doesn't it? 

Look, I understand the argument that illegal immigrants without expanded criminal records (past crossing the border illegally) probably shouldn't be prioritized for deportation. In this case, this grandmother appears to have had a job as a dishwasher, so as illegal immigrants go, she was at least productive, which is more than I can say for a lot of those who were released during the Biden administration. But, we also have to consider that flouting the law in such an in-your-face way, specifically regarding driving without any identification, needs to carry consequences. 

Ask yourself, what aspects of the law are citizens made immune to if they continue to break various parts of it for decades on end? Why should illegal immigrants be held to a lower standard than those who didn't cross the border illegally? The answer is that they shouldn't be. Does that mean ICE is going to start hunting down grandmothers who work as dishwashers? Probably not, but at the same time, when an illegal immigrant ends up on a military base, illegally driving and unable to provide any identification, that can't just be ignored.

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