Illinois Family Institute’s Smith: ‘The Illegal Immigrant Invasion Exploded’ During the Biden-Harris Administration

According to David E. Smith, director of the Illinois Family Institute, the rise in crime in Illinois and other states is due to the Biden-Harris administration’s willful failure to secure the country’s borders.

Smith claims that the current administration’s actions have opened the borders to an influx of illegal immigrants, leading to a dramatic increase in criminal activity.

“When the Joe Biden administration came into office, he immediately signed a number of executive orders that opened our borders, and the invasion of illegal immigrants exploded,” Smith said. Prairie State Wire“For more than three years, masses of people, many of them criminals, have been pouring into our country. Many of them settled in Illinois.”

Smith’s comments reflect growing concern among some Illinoisans about rising crime rates in their communities. He argues that undocumented immigrants are contributing significantly to the crime wave.

“An overwhelming percentage of crime in our major cities, including assaults, robberies and domestic violence, is committed by ‘undocumented’ immigrants,” Smith said. “Chicagoans have every right to be angry about the rise in crime. They are right to be angry about the current administration’s failure to perform its primary function, which is to secure the border and protect citizens from foreign invaders.”

Smith argues that the immigration crisis is being used as a strategy to expand government control.

“The evidence strongly suggests that this was part of a deliberate strategy to create a crisis, let it fester, and then, when the outrage crescendos, pass legislation to expand government authority and ‘fix’ the problem they created in the first place,” Smith said. “Of course, this will be done by spending more taxpayer money.”

Smith is particularly concerned about the consequences of increasing government intervention.

“What do people do when they are worried about their communities or their buildings being taken over by armed gangs? They turn to government,” he said. “The solution is always and everywhere more government, bigger government, stronger government, more taxes, less freedom.”

He also criticized what he saw as a deliberate attempt to undermine national sovereignty.

“They knew that by inflaming this crisis, people would get angry and they would propose big government policies (tyranny) that we would never have accepted otherwise, like federal digital IDs,” Smith said. “There is also a deliberate effort by some one-world liberals to undermine the concept of a nation state — no borders.”

Smith advocates a stricter approach to immigration laws and more autonomy for the state.

“Simple: Strictly enforce current immigration laws! We must also give states the power to fend for themselves,” he said.

Smith also pointed to sanctuary cities and states, which he said encourage illegal immigration and misuse taxpayer dollars.

“Safe cities/states not only encourage illegal immigrants to relocate to ‘friendly’ areas, they also provide them with sanctuary and often tax dollars in the form of medical care, food stamps and housing assistance,” he said.

The TRUST Act of 2017 transformed Illinois into a sanctuary state, protecting illegal immigrants from federal immigration enforcement.

This policy has caused much controversy.

There are now nearly 700,000 illegal residents in the state, costing taxpayers billions of dollars each year.

Meanwhile, crimes related to organized crime activities, often in collaboration with foreign drug cartels within the state, such as human trafficking and drug trafficking, have increased dramatically.

The rise in gang violence in Illinois and elsewhere has sparked a heated debate over the implications of asylum city and state policies that limit local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Critics argue that such policies facilitate the movement and activities of dangerous criminals. Smith also addressed the issue of human and child trafficking, which he claims has been exacerbated by current immigration policies.

“How about the human trafficking crisis? That’s a huge, huge problem,” Smith said. “The U.S. government is unknowingly giving women and children to pimps to use as pimps. So we have criminal activity everywhere and in our local neighborhoods. We have unwitting sanctuary advocates who provide perverse incentives to these criminal elements. As a result, more and more hardworking families are going to be victimized.”

A new report from Shared Hope International has given Illinois an “F” for its response to child sex and human trafficking, despite some improvements in the state. The report highlighted a stark disparity, with only 10 percent of prostitution arrests involving traffickers or buyers. While Illinois has allocated $115 million for gender-based violence, less than 1 percent is earmarked for specialized services for trafficking victims. According to ABC 7 Chicago, trafficking survivor Brenda Myers Powell criticized the state for inadequate resources and support for victims, noting that many end up in jail instead of getting help.

Recent 911 calls in Chicago have sparked controversy and concern after reports surfaced that alleged gang members of the Tren de Aragua, a notorious Venezuelan criminal organization, allegedly took control of an apartment building on South King Drive.

The reports are similar to those from Aurora, Colorado, where heavily armed illegal aliens were seen loitering on the grounds of an apartment complex.

NBC Chicago reported that Tren de Aragua is indeed active in Chicago and Illinois.

The situation was exacerbated by a threatening video posted by a TikTok user who identified himself as a member of a native Chicago street gang. In his video, the man warned of impending violence and said, “This ain’t Colorado. This is just like where you come from. The only difference is… we got switches.”

A “switch” is the slang term for a device that turns a semi-automatic firearm into an automatic weapon.

The incident also draws attention to a disturbing case involving Jean Torres-Roman, a well-known member of Tren de Aragua who was recently arrested in connection with a violent robbery of a Denver jewelry store.

Torres-Roman was initially held in Chicago on illegal weapons possession charges, but was released by a local judge despite a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep him in custody.

Torres-Roman fled to New Mexico after the robbery in Denver, where he was arrested.

Smith’s organization, IFI, has worked for nearly two decades to advance public policy in line with Judeo-Christian values. IFI supports initiatives aimed at promoting biblical truths and supporting families.