An American Mother's Testimony

     The tragic death of Kate Steinle by an illegal immigrant in the sanctuary city of San Francisco, coupled with Presidential Candidate Donald Trump's spotlight on our undefended southern border, has FINALLY forced the U.S. Congress to listen to the American people about the illegal alien problem in this country.  But for Laura Wilkerson, it is nearly 5 years too late.

     Mrs. Wilkerson was one of several Americans who testified of family member's murders by illegal immigrants who have been protected by this administration's immigration policy.  Testifying during a Congressional hearing, which was called “Oversight of the Administration’s Misdirected Immigration Enforcement Policies: Examining the Impact on Public Safety and Honoring the Victims,” Mrs. Wilkerson recalled how executive amnesty for illegal minors cost her the life of her son, Joshua, who was 18 at the time of his death.  On November 16, 2010, near Houston, TX, Joshua was beaten, strangled, and tortured until he died. He was tied up, thrown in a field, and set on fire.
     To be honest, it is hard to listen to Laura Wilkerson's testimony about her son's murder ... I would be unable to recite the details of his death in the same cool, collected manner that she exhibits.  In the background you can see a man, whom I suspect is Joshua's father, break down as she calmly reads the autopsy report: "This body is received in a grey body bag. There’s a tag on his toe that bears the name, Joshua Wilkerson. This is a white male weighing a hundred pounds. He is tied up with braided rope — 13 loops around his neck in a slipknot. It goes behind his back through his back belt loop. It goes to his hands and his feet, behind his body. He has multiple fractures in his face and nasal cavity. His throat and his voicebox are crushed. He was kicked so hard in the stomach that it sent his spleen into his spine, and sliced it in two… The medical examiner said it was torture.  This body has significant skin loss on his buttocks, his abdomen, his penis, his hands, and his face. He has one stick of gum and a tardy slip in his pocket."
     Then her testimony confronts the Congressional panel with a reality they cannot avoid:  "This was our family’s 9/11 terrorist attack by a foreign invader, whether you want to recognize it or whether you do not," Wilkerson said. "This government continues to fail, or even recognize, that we have an issue. Americans are dying daily at the hands of criminals that we don’t even know are here."
     She then goes on to explain that her son's murderer, Hermilio Moralez, qualified as a "Dream Kid", our government's idealized picture of innocent immigrant children who were brought to this country without their permission, but who have lived here for more than five years, adapted to American life, and "belong here".  But on the witness stand during the trial for Joshua's murder, Hermilio kept muttering how it was "in his country" as the reason why he killed Joshua.  Furthermore, he was not some underprivileged immigrant kid; his parents had provided him with martial arts training and he had attained the rank of black belt.  In a 2010 article, shortly after Joshua's murder, it was revealed that Moralez lied about killing Joshua in self-defense, and as he "led police to where he burned Joshua's body, he tried to grab a cop's gun."
     I know that we cannot paint every immigrant child with the evil brush of Hermilio Moralez's actions, but that is just the point ... we do not know where these kids are coming from, or what criminal background they have been raised in, and who they really are.  So, how does it make sense that they are exempt from immigration law?  And because the Dream Act hasn't quite given cover to all the immigrants coming in, we are now asked to accept sanctuary cities, where law enforcement cannot even question their status or ask for proof of citizenship!

Joshua Wilkerson

     Perhaps the saddest part of Mrs. Wilkerson's testimony was the effect this murder has had on her surviving children, especially Joshua's older brother, who was serving in the military at the time of the murder.  "Joshua’s older brother returned from the battlefield fighting to defend our country, only to find no one was defending his younger brother"... just as no one was defending 21-year-old Grant Ronnebeck, who was killed by an illegal immigrant for a pack of cigarettes as he worked the early morning hours at a convenience store in Mesa, AZ ... or 66-year-old Denny McCann, of Chicago, IL who was struck by a hit-and-run driver, and drug underneath the car for several blocks; the car was driven by an illegal immigrant with a blood alcohol level four times the legal limit ... or Sheriff's Deputy Danny Paul Oliver of Sacramento, CA, who was shot point-blank in the forehead by a twice-deported illegal alien from Mexico during a routine traffic stop.
     The testimonies of these American families, along with the family of the latest victim, Katie Steinle, must be heard.  These are Americans who are not being protected by their own country!  Instead, for whatever agenda is being pursued, illegal immigrants -- many of them with criminal histories, or at least with a different cultural standard about following laws -- are allowed to live here without any kind of supervision or expectation of being lawful citizens.  At this point, unless we can be assured that Americans are going to be protected from the anarchy and criminality of illegal immigrants, we must take a stand so that no more families have to suffer the indescribable grief that the Wilkerson, Ronnebeck, McCann, Oliver, Steinle, and countless other American families have endured.
     I join Laura Wilkerson in her closing statement to the Congressional panel:  "You’re officially notified today there’s a problem. You can’t deny it any longer. You cannot stand by and ignore our families — our American families. You’re elected by Americans, not any other country ... Your silence speaks volumes. You’re either for Americans, or you’re not ... I want you to know that our family is broken, forever. We are forever broken. I don’t want the sympathy. I want you to do  something about it. Every one of you sitting here is in a position to do something. Just throw your hat into the ring for Americans. Quit sitting silent because it’s going to help you get a vote. Throw your hat in the ring and take care of American families."
     The last thing I want to say is this:  The Bible tells us to be compassionate and merciful towards the "sojourner" or alien to our land.  But we are also called to obey the governments instituted by God's hand.  There will be those who argue that our immigration laws are unjust and unfair.  But the Bible does not give one permission to violate a law just because it is perceived as unjust.  I recognize that the vast majority of immigrants throughout our country's history have come here for a better life, but I also believe that it is not Biblical to violate a law to achieve a “good.” The solution to unfair immigration law is not to ignore the law, or subvert it -- it is to work through lawful means to change it.  Our current immigration policy -- or lack thereof -- is not solving the problem, and is causing great harm to legal, lawful Americans.  How many more tragic stories such as that of Joshua Wilkerson and the other victims is it going to take before this nation stops the madness?

For more of Laura Wilkerson's testimony and the story of her son, Joshua, please click here.  

1 Peter 2:13-16    "Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.  Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God."