Meet Edin Carey Avendano-Hernandez.

Born a male in Mexico, Avendano-Hernandez immigrated illegally to the United States in 2000—and was deported in 2007 after serving a year in jail for a felony conviction involving injuries to others.

He came back illegally and was arrested again; this time he “petitioned for sanctuary in the U.S. under the U.N. Convention Against Torture (CAT), arguing that deporting him would violate the CAT because he would more likely than not experience torture at the hands of Mexican authorities.”

The petition was rejected by a judge who upheld that Avendano-Hernandez’ 2006 offense had been a serious one, and that he was “not likely to face official torture” in Mexico.

A U.S. Border Patrol canine team stands nearby after they helped detain a group of undocumented immigrants near the U.S.-Mexico border on April 11, 2013 near Mission, Texas. Credit: Getty Images

Avendano-Hernandez, who identifies as a female, had that rejection overturned by Judge Jacqueline Nguyen—a President Barack Obama appointee—who has ruled that Avendano-Hernandez cannot be deported because he faces abuse in Mexico for being transgender.

Let’s recap.

Avendano-Hernandez broke our laws not once, but several times (in at least one case injuring others) and now our government has determined that for this individual’s good, deportation should be off the table.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m not suggesting we ignore the plight of a human being in mortal danger (though our government seems to think it’s ok to continue ignoring the plight of Middle Eastern Christians in the face of Islamic State, but that’s another story).

It’s just that there’s a few problems with this case.

First, Avendano-Hernandez’ claims are somewhat flimsy, which is why a judge rejected his sanctuary petition under CAT in the first place.

Secondly, and more importantly, Avendano-Hernandez harmed people in this country, and yet demands to (after having broken our laws) receive sanctuary to prevent bodily harm.

And what about us?

Who protects us?

Specifically, where is the concern when it comes to preventing harm to people like Brian Terry, Matthew Denice, or Dustin Inman?

All three—like so many more before and after them—lost their lives at the hands of illegal aliens.

Who stood up and advocated for their lives before they were stolen?

A large photo of Kathryn "Kate" Steinle who was killed by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, is shown while her dad Jim Steinle testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, July 21, 2015 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

I’m proud to write under the banner of The Chris Salcedo Show on TheBlaze Radio Network, and I’m particularly excited that Chris has taken it upon himself to shed light on the wildly underreported fact that illegal immigration is NOT a victimless crime.

Chris has put together a three-day series aired on his local and national radio shows where we’re given the chance to hear the heartbreaking stories of loved ones lost, each as the result of an illegal immigrant’s actions.

With this special, Chris amplified the voices of those like Maureen Maloney, whose son Matthew Denice was hit by a drunk driver who also happened to be an illegal alien from Ecuador; a man who, in fleeing the scene, proceeded to run over the young man multiple times, and drag him for what Maloney tearfully described as a “quarter-mile blood trail.”

Though just nine families are highlighted in this series, Chris connected listeners to The Remembrance Project, which seeks to bring “national attention to these under-reported killings, and is ‘connecting-the-dots’ through its initiative," the "Stolen Lives Quilt" - a visual memorial dedicated to slain Americans, who would otherwise still be alive and with their families, if only current laws were enforced.”

That’s the screaming insanity of this whole situation. Of all tragedies in this country, this kind is one hundred percent preventable.

Think about that.

One hundred percent preventable.

Yet rather than talk about THAT fact, there are still so many who instead insist we focus on data showing that “… new immigrants — including illegal immigrants — are actually less likely to commit crime, not more.”

And as a result, we spend all kinds of time debating stats and semantics. It’s deemed offensive, as presidential candidate Rand Paul alluded on CNN, to remind the public that not every immigrant is a kindly part of the huddled masses seeking a better life.

“I don't think you want a nominee that [sic] offends whole areas of the public, whole ethnic groups," said Paul, “If you paint with a broad brush and you want to say, ‘well most Hispanics are drug dealers and they’re rapists and murderers,’ well that’s crazy talk and that offends a whole segment of our population.”

To be certain, not all immigrants—legal or illegal—are violent criminals. (And for the record, Donal Trump didn’t say they were.)

Trump’s specific comments notwithstanding, the point isn’t whether or not a vast majority of illegal aliens crossing the border are violent criminals.

The point is that there are illegal aliens who ARE.

If not for a lackadaisical approach to enforcing our immigration laws, those crimes wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

As Chris’ special helps to illustrate:

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry would be alive today if not for a “rip crew of gunmen who had been trying to rob Mexican drug traffickers” at the Arizona/Mexico border; a rip crew that was also in possession of guns intentionally trafficked by the federal government through the Fast and Furious program.

Dustin Inman would be alive today if not for the illegal alien who slammed into his family’s car, killing Inman and their beloved rescue pet—and leaving his mother with permanent physical injuries.

Matthew Denice would be alive today if not for the illegal alien driving drunk, striking Denice’s car and dragging him for hundreds of feet to his death.

I said the numbers are irrelevant in this discussion, because even ONE is too many.

But what if the numbers aren’t really as slim as some would have us believe? What if, as the mother of Matthew Denice noted, the public awareness of the crimes being perpetrated by illegal aliens is numbed by the persistence of some to artfully omit migratory status from their reporting?

Consider the Buzzfeed version of the story about Edin Carey Avendano-Hernandez, the transgender illegal immigrant I told you about earlier. Not once does the writer use the word “illegal,” or even “undocumented” to describe Avendano-Hernandez’ status.

Others, like then-Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, are less subtle. In response to a reporter’s questioning in the Matthew Denice incident, Patrick was quick to point out that “illegal immigration didn’t kill this person; a drunk driver killed this person …”

True—the immigrant’s legal status didn’t kill Matthew Denice.

But that’s not the point.

Nicolas Guaman was there to drive drunk because he was there illegally in the first place.

THAT is the point.

And like it or not, illegal immigrants ARE committing crimes.

They’re actually committing one particular crime at a rate up to 10 times higher than the rest of the population.

The crime?

Murder.

Per federal data, legal and illegal aliens have “committed 22% to 37% of all murders in the U.S., while being only 3.52% to 8.25% of the population.”

The American Thinker’s Randall Hoven notes that when you separate legal from illegal aliens, the numbers skyrocket, with a “murder rate for illegal aliens of 52 per 100,000 (5,639 in a population of 10.8 million) – about 10 times that of U.S. citizens.”

I hate to break it to you, but we do have a problem.

A big one.

Think of all the senseless, preventable loss of life because our government refuses to enforce our laws and secure our border. The fact is, our leaders are simply too caught up in shoring votes, pleasing special interests and worshipping political correctness.

Then again, we live in a nation where babies are routinely dissected alive and sold for spare parts, so I guess it’s no shock that our leaders place more value on not offending our lawbreakers versus protecting the lives of our citizens.

Edin Carey Avendano-Hernandez will probably get to stay indefinitely despite his indiscretions, as our government seeks to protect his well-being.

Fine.

Is it really so outrageous for Americans citizens to demand the very same courtesy?

Mary Ramirez is a full-time writer, creator of www.afuturefree.com (a political commentary blog), and contributor to The Chris Salcedo Show (TheBlaze Radio Network, Saturday, from noon to 3 p.m. ET). She can be reached at: afuturefree@aol.com; or on Twitter: @AFutureFree

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