As Dems Trash ICE, Border Patrol Agent Makes and Distributes Hundreds of Masks
Protective masks are some of the most difficult things to come by in the present situation.
Thankfully, a Border Patrol agent and his wife are doing their best to make and distribute them to hundreds of those who need them most — at a time when Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol are under constant attack from liberal politicians.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Ricardo Ruedas and his wife are producing the masks for essential personnel in order to help protect against the coronavirus crisis.
A Border Patrol agent from El Centro Sector and his wife, a nursing school graduate, donated over 200 handmade masks to those in need…and they’re still going. @USBPChiefELC
For the full story: https://t.co/YcRNCfm1mU#AllinThisTogether #USBP #HonorFirst pic.twitter.com/xIRwGXut9H
— CBP El Centro (@CBPElCentro) April 17, 2020
“Ricardo, a Border Patrol agent out of El Centro Sector, and his wife, Alejandra, a nursing school graduate who owns and operates an online cake business, combined their passion for helping others and their sewing skillset in order to make masks for the community during this pandemic crisis,” CBP reported in a news release last week.
“We have family and friends that work in the local hospitals and we coordinated with them to find out who was in need,” Ricardo Ruedas said in the release.
“We felt the necessity to help those who help others. I learned to sew out of necessity when I was younger, and my wife just recently taught herself from online videos.”
According to the release, the masks are made of “three different layers of material including Halyard H600 two-ply spun polypropylene.”
The much-needed masks are designed to prevent water, bacteria and particles from getting through. It’s worth noting that the largest virus is smaller than the smallest bacteria, according to WebMD, but any mask is still better than no mask in terms of preventing the spread of coronavirus.
“The couple began by making masks for their immediate family and quickly realized they could continue constructing them to donate to help combat the spread of the coronavirus,” the news release stated.
“Alejandra explained that their mission is to provide masks to essential personnel like nurses, doctors, pharmacies, local retail personnel and individuals that are at high risk. Their inspiration came from similar stories from across the nation and the generosity of the local community in lending them sewing equipment and donating fabric to the cause. The Ruedas family strongly believes that everyone has a responsibility in protecting the community from this pandemic.”
“Agent Ruedas and his wife are doing a wonderful service for the first responders as well as the local communities here in the Imperial Valley,” Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino said in the release.
“I commend them both for their selfless contribution in the fight against the spread of this dangerous virus.”
Sounds like a pretty selfless task to me — even though I had been led to believe ICE agents and Border Patrol personnel were supposed to be heartless, last I checked. Nevertheless, heartless though they may be, Ruedas and his wife plan to keep on producing the masks.
“The couple have made and handed out over two hundred masks free of charge. The couple work on the masks on their off time,” the media release states.
“Ricardo helps after his long shift and Alejandra has put a hold on her online cake business to make the masks. They plan to continue to manufacture the mask for as long as they can.”
Meanwhile, Democrats are — quelle surprise — continuing to trash ICE operations.
The Trump administration has continued deportations during the coronavirus pandemic, and officials in Guatemala say some deportees arriving on Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights have tested positive for the virus https://t.co/a32M0AvR0L
— NYT National News (@NYTNational) April 21, 2020
“Deportations to Honduras and El Salvador have also continued, despite the concerns of migrants’ advocates and some government officials in Central America,” The Times reported last week.
“Those countries, like neighboring Guatemala, are beset by widespread poverty and weak public health systems, making them particularly vulnerable to the impacts of the pandemic.”
Much further down in the story: “Even as the coronavirus pandemic has posed serious new threats to those held in crowded custodial settings, ICE officials have said the agency is continuing with ‘mission critical’ arrests of immigrants without legal status.”
But that is too much for Democrats. Both the ICE and the Border Patrol are agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, and that department is a target for some of the country’s top liberals.
“Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter this month accusing the Department of Homeland Security of ‘exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic by claiming new, sweeping powers to summarily expel large, unknown numbers of individuals arriving at our border in clear contravention of existing federal laws,'” The Times reported.
“The senators, led by Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said the department was ‘blatantly misinterpreting its limited authorities’ in enforcing the border closure.”
As an 80-year-old senior senator from Vermont, who has been a senator since 1974, it’s safe to say Leahy’s attitude about the department reflects mainstream Democratic thinking about homeland security.
And in an era when former Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders made dismantling ICE, the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection part of his presidential campaign, it’s clear that Democrats as a party don’t offer a lot of support to ICE or the agencies charged with protecting the country’s borders.
The Times story isn’t particularly explicit in terms of what was involved in the deportations it described.
One could extrapolate that the adults include serious criminals. Given the history of these repatriations, “mission critical” deportations generally involve individuals who have been accused or convicted of crimes — but again, given the paucity of detail here, I’m not in a position to judge.
If I turn out to be correct, however, these are people who deserve to be in custody — and, given the risk of exposure in jail, deportation actually seems to be an effective way to stop them from being infected with coronavirus, albeit not in a way liberals might approve of.
However, there is one clue as to who else is being deported: The Times notes Immigration and Customs Enforcement is pushing for the deportation of “detained migrant children who were already in the United States when the border restrictions came down.”
So, “the coronavirus pandemic has posed serious new threats to those held in crowded custodial settings,” but The Times is also tacitly frowning upon the deportation of “detained migrant children who were already in the United States when the border restrictions came down” — even though deportation would remove them from the “crowded custodial settings” that make them prone to coronavirus infection.
In short, The Times would seem to prefer no one get deported and that anyone in custody at the moment should be released.
Well, as the kids like to say, “whatever.”
ICE is doing its job and a Border Patrol agent is making masks for mission-critical staff in places like hospitals, pharmacies and the retail outlets that remain open to keep daily necessities available.
Liberals might not like anything border protection personnel do, but I’m fine with that arrangement.
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