You would think the headline “Illegal Immigrant Tries to Kill Donald Trump” would be a big deal.
The man facing charges for attempting to grab a police officer’s gun, so he could allegedly shoot presidential candidate Donald Trump is in the United States illegally.
He had overstayed his visa from the United Kingdom.
That information came during his arraignment in U.S. District Court Monday afternoon.
Michael Sandford, 20, is charged with an act of violence on restricted grounds. He was arrested Saturday during Trump’s campaign rally in Las Vegas. Police said he grabbed the handle of an officer’s gun in an attempt to remove it.
According to the complaint, Sandford told police he drove from California to Las Vegas to kill Trump.
Thankfully, Sandford didn’t get control of the gun; thankfully, police arrested him before he could hurt anyone. But the recent chaos on the Trump campaign, as big a story as it is, shouldn’t cause this event to disappear from the public’s attention. It illuminates the disconcerting fact that once legal temporary immigrants enter the country, the authorities have no real way to keep track of them. And a lot of them take advantage of that fact:
Nearly half a million foreigners who legally entered the U.S. remained here after their visas expired last year, according to a government study that is the first of its kind.
The report, obtained by USA TODAY, is the first analysis of a population that is largely unknown. The so-called “visa overstays” represent an estimated 40% of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country, but are overshadowed by undocumented immigrants who sneak across the nation’s southwest border with Mexico.
We need border security. But even if you completely sealed the southern border, America would still have a significant number of illegal immigrants walking its streets.