While the media is focused on the potential cost if President Trump shuts down the southern border for a period of time, there is not much focus on the cost of the status quo unbridled illegal immigration. And that cost is often not quantifiable in monetary terms. A previously deported illegal alien has been arrested in Louisiana on 100 counts of possession of child pornography and sexual battery of a minor.

According to Louisiana’s Attorney General Jeff Landry, Miguel Martinez, an illegal alien who had previously been deported in 2005, “was arrested on 100 counts of possession of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13 years old, one count of production under the age of 13, and one count of sexual battery of a juvenile under the age of 13.”

This was the conclusion of a joint state and federal operation, which included Mississippi state authorities as well. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of ICE, has placed a detainer on Martinez pending the outcome of the criminal case. An ICE spokesman confirmed these details with Blaze Media but declined to comment further on Martinez’s background and nationality until he is transferred to ICE custody.

These cases of criminal aliens who have been previously deported, yet successfully re-enter to victimize more Americans have become all too familiar. However, this case has a wrinkle that demonstrates how the criminal alien problem sits at the nexus of both weak border enforcement and sanctuary cities thwarting interior enforcement. It was discovered over the course of the investigation that Martinez had already been convicted of sex crimes in California and is a registered sex offender in the Golden State.

How can known sex offenders be allowed to remain in the country, rather than being turned over to ICE for deportation? It’s dangerous enough for citizen sex offenders to remain around children, but harboring other countries’ sex offenders is a completely avoidable liability.

This case also shows that what is attracted to sanctuary states doesn’t necessarily remain in sanctuary states. By incentivizing illegal immigrants to come and obtain benefits, sanctuary jurisdictions often place other cities and states in danger, in this case, the states of Louisiana and Mississippi.

This is one of the reasons why the Founders swapped out the Articles of Confederation for the Constitution and empowered the federal government to deal with issues pertaining to the sovereignty of all the states collectively. They wanted to protect the entire union from “the intrusion of obnoxious aliens through other States,” in the words of Madison.

Roger Sherman, among the greatest of all the Founders, noted during the House debate on the Naturalization Act of 1790 that “it was intended by the Convention, who framed the Constitution, that Congress should have the power of naturalization, in order to prevent particular States receiving citizens, and forcing them upon others who would not have received them in any other manner” (emphasis added). Sherman was emphatic that federal control was designed to “guard against an improper mode of naturalization” and prevent individual states from flooding the country with immigrants based on “easier terms.”

However, getting all the states to cooperate with federal law enforcement is only half the equation. Even after the criminal aliens are deported, if the border continues to remain largely open, they will march right back in, as Martinez did. This is the untold story of the mass migration and asylum fraud. While as much as 40 percent of Border Patrol resources are diverted to “care for, transport, provide medical and hospital watch for families and children” of those surrendering to agents en masse, according to CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenen, criminal aliens who don’t want to get apprehended have a free opening to re-enter undetected.

The Trump administration ramped up interior deportations by 46 percent in fiscal year 2018 over the final year of the Obama administration. In the same year, ICE apprehended, with intent to deport, illegal aliens who collectively were convicted of or charged with 2,028 homicides, 50,753 assaults, and over 12,000 sexual assaults or sex offenses. How many of these criminal aliens are able to return even more easily than before because of the unprecedented shutdown of Border Patrol?

A recent example was Simon Rochel-Cervantes, an illegal alien from Mexico who spent 11 years in a Kansas facility for the rape of a child. After serving his sentence, Rochel-Cervantes was deported back to Mexico on February 19, yet he was picked up by police in Kansas again just two weeks later.

While a partial border wall alone will not directly solve the mass migration and asylum fraud, it will likely help Border Patrol strategically slow down and interdict those who enter surreptitiously because of their criminal records.

As Jeff Landry, Louisiana attorney general and former congressman, said about this case, “Illegal immigration has real-life consequences – countless numbers of needless crime victims, including too many Louisiana families and children. For their sake – I again urge Congress to realize the national emergency we have at our Southern border, support President Trump, build the wall, and help us make our communities safer.”