Even in Alaska: Illegal Alien From Peru Swept Up by ICE

Anchorage, Alaska, is a long, long way from the United States' southern border. But the influx of people coming across that border illegally during the Biden administration extends even to the Great Land.

Cristian Ibanez Velasquez crossed that border illegally in 2022. In 2024, he married an American citizen, Paola Jimenez, in Anchorage. While he was in the United States, he remained, knowingly, an illegal alien. He was apprehended at the border and, as was the practice during the Biden administration, was released to make his way to Anchorage. That's not completely irrational; during the Biden administration, he had nothing to worry about. But a new president makes a big difference. Now, ICE has scooped up Cristian Ibanez Velasquez, and he is very likely to be repatriated to Peru.

Alaska Public Media has taken a very sympathetic tone with this story.

Immigration officials detained an Anchorage man originally from Peru on Friday, according to his wife, who says she’s been left in the dark about what will happen to him next.
Cristian Ibanez Velasquez, 32, had dropped his wife at work Friday morning and returned home when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers approached him in the couple’s driveway.
He’s been in jail ever since, said his wife, Paola Jimenez, in an interview Thursday, nearly a week later. Jimenez said she just wants to know if he’s safe.
“I just want to know when my husband's gonna get out, when he's gonna be safe and sound at home, because I don't know how it is inside,” she said. “I don't know if he's safe in there.”

Ibanez Velasquez claims to have been in contact with an ICE case agent regularly since crossing into the country.

Jimenez is adamant that her husband has no criminal record and, though he was caught entering the United States illegally in 2022, had been in regular contact with ICE about his whereabouts and immigration case. That involved using an app on his phone to snap photos of himself every Sunday and occasional in-person check-ins, she said.
“The same officer that was doing his check-ins for him was the same officer that detained him that day,” Jimenez said. “Nobody told him there was something else going wrong.”

He does have a record of one crime: He crossed the border illegally. He should have been deported immediately, but this was in 2022, during the Biden administration, when people crossing our borders illegally were given a pat on the head and sent on their way.

That's all changing now.

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Now, there is no evidence that Cristian Ibanez Velasquez is a hardened criminal, a drug dealer, or a gang-banger. In Peru, he was a mechanic. From what information is available about him, he may well be a decent enough guy to have as a neighbor.

But that makes no difference under the law - the law that the Biden administration refused to enforce, the law that Cristian Ibanez Velasquez broke when he entered the United States illegally. We are a nation of laws.

There is an argument to be made here that it could be easier and more affordable to be able to obtain residency when one marries an American citizen, although that would likely create a whole new "bride/groom for hire" problem. But for now, the law is the law; Cristian Ibanez Velasquez is in the United States illegally, and he will probably be going back to Peru. Alaska Public Media may be sympathetic to him, but those of us who understand the rule of law are rather less so.

Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.

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