Why Hoosier Enquirer Readers Stand With ICE — Remember the Victims and Finish the Job

Caravans of Biden's Ilegal Alien Invaders in 2022-2024

INDIANAPOLIS — Hoosier Enquirer readers aren't shy about telling us what they think. They write us, comment on our stories, share our reporting and donate to independent journalism because they want a publication willing to address issues that much of the American media too often approaches through a predictable political lens.

On immigration enforcement, the message we hear from many of our readers, subscribers and donors is especially clear: They support ICE.

They believe America's borders should mean something. They believe immigration laws passed by Congress should actually be enforced. They believe people who receive final lawful orders of removal should be removed. And they especially believe foreign nationals who commit serious crimes and have no lawful right to remain in the United States should not repeatedly be released until another American becomes a victim.

For those readers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement isn't the enemy. It is part of the solution.

And there is an important piece of history that tends to disappear from today's partisan shouting: Tom Homan's immigration-enforcement career didn't begin with Donald Trump.

OBAMA'S ADMINISTRATION HONORED TOM HOMAN

In 2015, while Barack Obama was president, Homan was Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

That year Homan received the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive, one of the federal government's most prestigious recognitions for career senior executives.

The federal government's own description praised Homan as a 32-year law-enforcement veteran who had been instrumental in leading ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations through what it called extraordinary challenges and unprecedented achievements.

That isn't Republican campaign literature. It is the federal government's official 2015 record.

Homan wasn't personally handed a political endorsement of every position he would take years later, and nobody should rewrite history to suggest Obama agreed with today's Trump immigration agenda. But the distinction is important: professional immigration enforcement was considered distinguished public service during a Democratic administration.

The presidents have changed. The politics have changed. The necessity of enforcing federal law has not.

HE READERS HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THE VICTIMS

There is another reason so many Americans feel strongly about this issue.

They remember the names.

Immigration policy is usually discussed through enormous numbers: border encounters, visa overstays, asylum applications, deportations, detention beds and immigration-court backlogs.

Human beings can disappear inside statistics like those.

So remember the people whose deaths have been invoked in America's long-running debate over illegal immigration, sanctuary policies, border enforcement and the government's ability to remove people who have no lawful right to remain.

Remember:

Laken Riley, 22.

Jocelyn Nungaray, 12.

Kayla Hamilton, 20.

Rachel Morin, 37.

Deborah Brandao, 33.

Casey Chadwick, 26.

Mollie Tibbetts, 20.

Larisha Thompson, 40.

Lizbeth Medina, 16.

Ruby Garcia, 25.

Santiago Lopez Morales, 48.

Nazareth Tamer-Claire, 31.

Maria Pleitez, 42, and her daughter Dayanara, 11.

Luis Jocsan Nanez Lopez, 15.

Da'Cara Thompson, 19.

Ivory Smith, 7.

Megan Bos, 37.

Hallie Helgeson, 18.

Brady Heiling, 19.

Alexis Jasso, 30.

Aiden Clark, 11.

Fernando Navarrete, 43.

Grayson Davis, 29.

Matthew Denice, 23.

Isidro Cortez, 28.

Maverick Martzen, 8.

Alex “AJ” Wise Jr., 10.

Katie Abraham, 20.

Taliyah Crochet, 18.

Rylan Oncale, 18.

Kate Steinle, 32.

Moussa Fofana, 18.

Anya Varfolomeev, 19, and Nicholay Osokin, 19.

Sarah Root, 21.

Police Officer David Lee, 44.

Melissa Powell, 47, and her son Riordan, 16.

Robert Boles, 70.

Nabra Hassanen, 17.

Genesis Cornejo-Alvarado, 15.

Jamiel Shaw II, 17.

America Thayer, 55.

Javier Vega Jr., 36.

Tony Bologna, 49.

Michael Bologna, 20.

Matthew Bologna, 16.

Mora Gerety, 8.

Ian Matteo-Garcia, 6.

Christopher Gadd, 27.

David Hadrich, 27.

Cynthia Goulding, 58.

Cheston Edwards, 36.

Connor Holcomb, 22.

Andi Lynn Blair, 3.

Corbin Wagner, 25.

Gretchen Gross, 76.

Epharo Gilbert, 46.

Diane Hill-Luckett, 68.

Dominic Durden, 30.

Cooper Whiteside, 38.

Brittany Islami, 34.

Read those names again.

Children. Teenagers. College students. Mothers. Fathers. Workers. Police officers.

Their cases aren't identical, and responsible journalism shouldn't pretend otherwise. Some involve convicted murderers. Some involve defendants whose cases require the presumption of innocence. Others involve fatal automobile crashes. Immigration histories also vary. Some offenders crossed the border unlawfully, some had previously been removed, and others became removable for different reasons.

Kate Steinle's case illustrates why precision matters even in a passionate editorial. José Inés García Zárate had been deported five times and was unlawfully in the country, but a California jury acquitted him of murder and manslaughter in Steinle's death. He later pleaded guilty to federal firearms offenses.

HE isn't going to change a verdict because it complicates an argument. Facts come first.

But neither should Americans pretend the broader immigration-enforcement question disappears because individual cases differ.

LAKEN RILEY SHOULD STILL BE ALIVE

Some cases are impossible to explain away. Laken Riley was 22 years old when she went jogging on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22, 2024. Democrats couldn't stand for her survivors in the chamber gallery? Shameful, forgettable, and unforgivable too.

She never came home. The sat on their asses, blue haired and resisting progress and America first.

José Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan national who had entered the United States unlawfully, was convicted of Riley's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

Her death ultimately became the name of federal legislation. The Laken Riley Act was signed into law in January 2025.

That is how badly government sometimes works: Congress passes a law bearing the name of a dead 22-year-old because the country didn't adequately protect her while she was alive.

For HE readers, the obvious question is not complicated:

Why should it take another Laken Riley to make Washington enforce immigration law?

RACHEL MORIN WAS A MOTHER OF FIVE

Rachel Morin was 37.

She went onto the Ma and Pa Trail in Maryland in August 2023 and was brutally murdered.

Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, an El Salvador national who authorities said had entered the United States unlawfully, was ultimately convicted of her rape and murder.

Morin left behind five children.

Kayla Hamilton was only 20. Walter Javier Martinez, an MS-13 member from El Salvador who had entered the United States unlawfully, was convicted in her murder.

Jocelyn Nungaray was only 12 when she was killed in Houston. Two Venezuelan nationals whom authorities said entered the United States unlawfully were charged with capital murder in connection with her death. Because criminal charges are allegations until proven in court, HE will continue to describe that case accordingly.

These distinctions don't weaken the argument for immigration enforcement.

They strengthen it because immigration policy should be debated with facts rather than slogans.

WHAT NUMBER WOULD BE ACCEPTABLE?

This is the question politicians who oppose aggressive immigration enforcement should have to answer.

Not every undocumented immigrant is violent. Not remotely.

Millions of immigrants — documented and undocumented — work, raise families and live peacefully in American communities. Nothing about supporting ICE requires pretending otherwise.

But that isn't the relevant question. The relevant question is:

When the government encounters someone who has no lawful right to remain in America, particularly someone who commits serious crimes, why shouldn't the government use every constitutional and lawful tool available to detain and remove that person?

How many preventable victims would be an acceptable price for refusing?

One?

Ten?

Fifty?

A hundred?

Tell that number to a mother who buried her daughter. Tell it to children who lost a parent.

Tell it to a family staring at an empty chair every Thanksgiving.

Government cannot prevent every murder, every drunk-driving death or every act of violence. No immigration policy can promise that.

But when government already possesses the lawful ability to remove a dangerous foreign national, failing to use that authority deserves scrutiny.

SUPPORTING ICE DOESN'T MEAN OPPOSING IMMIGRANTS

This distinction should be obvious, yet American politics continually blurs it.

Indiana benefits enormously from immigration.

Immigrants are Hoosier doctors, nurses, engineers, professors, scientists, business owners, factory workers, farmers, students and neighbors.

America should welcome people who want to become part of this country.

But legal immigration and immigration enforcement aren't opposites.

They depend upon each other.

Imagine spending years waiting for an immigrant visa, undergoing background checks, filing documents, paying fees, appearing for interviews and following every instruction the United States government gives you.

Then imagine being told that enforcing those same rules against somebody who simply ignored them is somehow cruel.

That isn't fair to legal immigrants. Yet on the otherhand, does every phone recording need to continue to have spanish language options? Marque cinco? Engilsh is now the official language and this practice needs to end.

A serious immigration system should welcome those entitled to come, decide asylum claims quickly and fairly, provide the due process required by American law and remove those who ultimately have no lawful right to stay.

ICE DOES MORE THAN DEPORTATIONS

The public discussion surrounding ICE also routinely reduces an enormous federal law-enforcement organization to images of immigration arrests.

ICE's responsibilities extend well beyond that.

Its Homeland Security Investigations component investigates human trafficking, child exploitation, narcotics smuggling, money laundering, transnational criminal organizations and other serious offenses.

Its Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel identify, arrest, detain and remove noncitizens when federal immigration law authorizes those actions. No agency exercising government power should receive unconditional support.

ICE officers must obey the Constitution. Detainees must receive the protections American law requires. Officers who abuse their authority should face consequences. Government mistakes should be exposed rather than concealed. That is called accountability.

But accountability is not the same thing as preventing an agency from carrying out the lawful mission Congress assigned to it.

THERE IS STILL WORK TO DO

This is where HE readers, subscribers and donors who support ICE should remain focused.

America still has an immigration-court system capable of allowing cases to linger for years.

Federal, state and local databases still need better coordination.

Congress still needs to write immigration laws that can actually be administered.

And enforcement priorities should begin where the public-safety argument is strongest.

Start with violent criminals.

Start with convicted gang members.

Start with repeat offenders.

Start with foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes.

Start with fugitives who already have final removal orders.

Start with people involved in human trafficking, child exploitation, narcotics trafficking and transnational criminal organizations.

And when someone is already sitting in a local jail and federal authorities have lawful grounds to take custody, government agencies should be working together rather than creating bureaucratic opportunities for dangerous offenders to return to the street.

THE OBAMA-HOMAN HISTORY SHOULDN'T BE FORGOTTEN

The transformation of Homan from decorated federal executive into one of America's most controversial law-enforcement figures says something remarkable about how much the politics of immigration have changed.

The official 2015 Presidential Rank Award record identifies Thomas D. Homan, Executive Associate Director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, as a Distinguished Executive.

The award exists to recognize sustained extraordinary accomplishment by career federal executives.

That happened while Barack Obama was president.

It doesn't mean Obama would endorse everything Homan says or does today.

It means enforcing immigration laws wasn't once treated as inherently disreputable work.

It shouldn't be today.

WHY SO MANY HE READERS STAND WITH ICE

Hoosier Enquirer readers who support ICE aren't necessarily asking America to close its doors.

They are asking America to control those doors.

They aren't demanding that every undocumented immigrant be treated as dangerous.

They are demanding that dangerous people who have no lawful right to remain here be removed.

They aren't asking government to abandon due process.

They are asking government to finish the process once due process has run its course.

And they aren't willing to forget victims simply because remembering them makes the immigration debate uncomfortable.

Look at those names one more time.

Laken Riley. Jocelyn Nungaray. Kayla Hamilton. Rachel Morin. Deborah Brandao. Casey Chadwick. Mollie Tibbetts. Larisha Thompson. Lizbeth Medina. Ruby Garcia. Santiago Lopez Morales. Nazareth Tamer-Claire. Maria and Dayanara Pleitez. Luis Jocsan Nanez Lopez. Da'Cara Thompson. Ivory Smith. Megan Bos. Hallie Helgeson. Brady Heiling. Alexis Jasso. Aiden Clark. Fernando Navarrete. Grayson Davis. Matthew Denice. Isidro Cortez. Maverick Martzen. Alex Wise Jr. Katie Abraham. Taliyah Crochet. Rylan Oncale. Kate Steinle. Moussa Fofana. Anya Varfolomeev. Nicholay Osokin. Sarah Root. Officer David Lee. Melissa and Riordan Powell. Robert Boles. Nabra Hassanen. Genesis Cornejo-Alvarado. Jamiel Shaw II. America Thayer. Javier Vega Jr. Tony, Michael and Matthew Bologna. Mora Gerety. Ian Matteo-Garcia. Christopher Gadd. David Hadrich. Cynthia Goulding. Cheston Edwards. Connor Holcomb. Andi Lynn Blair. Corbin Wagner. Gretchen Gross. Epharo Gilbert. Diane Hill-Luckett. Dominic Durden. Cooper Whiteside. Brittany Islami.

They weren't statistics.

They had families.

They had plans.

They had birthdays that should have come and graduations, weddings, careers, children and grandchildren some would never live to see.

America cannot bring them back.

What America can do is learn from every case in which its immigration system failed, distinguish the facts of one tragedy from another and refuse to accept preventable violence merely because immigration has become politically uncomfortable.

That is why many Hoosier Enquirer readers support ICE.

That is why HE supports vigorous, constitutional immigration enforcement.

Protect Americans. Secure the border. Enforce the law. Welcome legal immigrants. Give everyone the due process American law requires. Remove dangerous foreign offenders who have no lawful right to remain.

And never forget the victims.

There is still work to do.  So, vote accordingly and put out your yard signs and bumber stickers this fall. We can never return to Open Boarders again.