Houston, the Criminal Alien Shelter

The recent murder of Officer Rodney Johnson [1] cannot be considered merely a terrible tragedy of the sort that happens to police in their hazardous profession.

Houston is far more dangerous than it needs to be because of the city's illegal alien sanctuary policy (General Order 500–05 [2]), in place since 1992, which prevents police from questioning suspects adequately and sends the message that illegal aliens are treated with kid gloves.

Walter Alexander Sorto [3] is the worst sort of illegal alien criminal [4], a violent career lawbreaker, who was not deported by authorities when they should have. Instead, the Salvadoran was allowed to remain, and he used the opportunity to murder at least two Houston women. Sorto was sentenced to death in 2003 for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Roxana Capulin and Maria Moreno Rangel [5], two young women who worked waiting tables in an East End Mexican restaurant.

Sorto had been convicted of armed robbery in 2000, but was given 10 years probation instead of jail time and deportation [6] even though he was an illegal alien with a prior record.

He and two other men then engaged in a crime spree around Houston for several months: the group was called the "monsters of the barrio" and left at least six dead in their wake. As mentioned, the legal system finally sent Sorto to death row (where he resides today and would like Spanish-speaking pen pals [7]).

Diane Clements, a crime victims advocate, asked "What if the INS had done its job?" [3] It's too bad the city's elected representatives don't similarly grasp the connection between immigration anarchy and crime.

Forensic evidence indicates Sorto may also have been involved in the kidnapping of 13-year-old Laura Ayala [8], who was abducted in March 2002 close to her home in Houston. Four years later, there is no child and no body, although blood analyzed [9] as being Laura's [10] was identified in 2002 in the car belonging to men (including Sorto [11]) believed to have abducted her.

Houston's sanctuary policy [12] sheltered a known illegal alien criminal, Walter Sorto, and left him free to engage in terrible crimes. Now there has been another needless death [13] because the city would rather protect foreign criminals than its law-abiding citizens.