ICE agents arrested an illegal immigrant with a criminal record longer than most people’s grocery lists during a traffic stop in Kings Beach, California, on the north shore of Lake Tahoe on October 7, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The man, Mario Jesus Valdez-Flores, had been deported from the United States five times. Five. And each time, he came back. California’s beautiful Lake Tahoe area, full of ski lodges and millionaires, apparently kept calling his name.
Valdez-Flores racked up convictions for selling drugs, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and DUI, among other offenses, officials said. He first entered the U.S. legally in 2004 but never bothered to leave when his authorized stay ended. He was deported three times in 2008 alone, across just four months, then again in 2009 and once more in 2016. The details of exactly how he kept getting back in are not currently known, but you can bet California’s sanctuary policies weren’t exactly slamming the door on him.
For more details on the ICE arrest near Lake Tahoe, the full timeline is as head-scratching as you’d expect from a state that seems to treat deportation orders like suggestions on a sticky note.
Valdez-Flores is now in ICE custody pending removal to Mexico, DHS said. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin didn’t mince words about it. Another criminal illegal alien has been taken off the streets by the brave patriots of ICE,” Mullin said in a statement, adding that “he will be deported so he can never again commit crimes against the people of the United States of America.
That’s the kind of plain talk Americans actually want to hear from their government, not a press release full of bureaucratic mush about “pathways” and “root causes.” ICE did its job, the bad guy is in custody, and he’s heading back to Mexico. Simple.
The real question is how a man deported five times, convicted of violent and drug crimes, kept finding his way back into the country and ending up in one of California’s wealthiest resort communities. Maybe someone should ask Gavin Newsom, who has spent years making California as welcoming as possible for people who have no legal right to be here, while law-abiding residents deal with the consequences. Valdez-Flores will be removed, but the sanctuary policies that rolled out the welcome mat for him are still very much in place.
