I’ve wrestled with this long article for weeks, and I hope my family actually takes the time to read this one. (HaHa) My commitment to truth—that seventy year old stubborn beacon that guides me—finally drove me to an unsettling conclusion. What follows is the complete account of my research and discoveries, regardless of whose toes get stepped on.
You see, as an Independent who’s spent decades watching the political pendulum swing, I have a diverse circle of friends and relatives spanning the entire ideological landscape. Some friends and relatives share every red-tinted headline that crosses their Facebook feed without so much as glancing at the source. Meanwhile, others with their NPR tote bags, fall into the same trap from the opposite direction, spreading blue-tinged articles with equal abandon. Both extremes hit that share button with trigger-finger reflexes, never pausing to verify. Sure, maybe 75% of what they circulate contains kernels of truth, but that other 25% spreads like poison ivy through our national conversation, inflaming and dividing with falsehoods.
For me, as a father whose hands once held our five children and now use my weathered fingers to grip the hands of my grandchildren and great grandchildren, I believe it is incumbent upon me to strive for the certainty of verifiable truth. I need to know I’m carving a path through the wilderness of media misinformation that future generations can follow toward genuine success. Opinions and lies that agree with your belief systems may glitter, but truth endures. Values matter So Teach Your Children Well, and know the future withers on the vine unless we care enough to nourish young minds with truthful values.
With this said, I constantly see heart-wrenching photographs of grieving families displayed alongside lurid headlines about murders committed by undocumented immigrants— used to justify ICE’s most heavy-handed tactics. Now, don’t get me wrong. The letter of the law is as clear as Kentucky spring water to me, and the mission to remove violent offenders from our streets is as necessary as a good fence on my horse farm. The blood-soaked crime scenes and shattered lives left in the wake of any violent assault demand justice.
I honestly think even the most protest-sign-waving liberals would nod in agreement on that point. What raises their hackles are the dawn raids that leave children screaming, the unmarked vans idling outside schools and community centers, and the handcuffs slapped on tax paying dishwashers and farmhands whose only crime was crossing an invisible line in the desert sand. And guess what? The new head of ICE, with his weathered face and brass-tack pragmatism, has acknowledged this truth!
Yep, Tom Homan—the grizzled, square-jawed ICE director with thirty years of border enforcement etched into the lines of his face—understands that it’s not just what you do but how you do it that matters. He has already begun publicly acknowledging that previous tactics crossed lines, alienated communities, and undermined ICE’s core mission, evidenced by his implementation of several substantive operational changes across multiple states.
His initial 700-person drawdown hinges on local cooperation. Homan’s reforms include mandatory body cameras, a centralized command center, and focus on jail transfers rather than street operations. Legal monitors now oversee all activities. By targeting only violent offenders, ICE needs fewer agents—just two can now handle arrests that previously required eight, even in sensitive locations like schools or businesses.
Now, because I’ve spent decades hammering home the critical importance of understanding statistical variation—those crucial numerical differences that separate truth from exaggeration—I believe we must train ourselves to differentiate between genuine threats and manufactured fears, to determine what truly deserves our national attention and limited resources.
With that said, I’m now going to shock you with some sobering statistics. According to federal databases, in 2024, 29 murders were committed by non-citizens across the entire United States. Each murder was a a tragedy that shattered families and communities. That sounds devastating, doesn’t it? But here’s the gut-wrenching perspective: yesterday alone, while you were going about your daily routine, 37 Americans on average drew their final breaths at the hands of DUI drivers. Yep, 37 murders! Even more heartbreaking, 9 of those victims were children from 0 to 14 years of age. Not annually, not monthly, but daily. Let that sink into your bones.
Criminal Alien Statistics Fiscal Year 2024 | U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Impaired Driving Facts | Impaired Driving | CDC
Now consider this. A DUI conviction in a state like Wisconsin—where beer flows like water through the veins of Friday night fish fries and tailgates—generally treats a standard first-offense OWI (Operating While Intoxicated) as a mere civil forfeiture, not even rising to the level of a criminal misdemeanor. The punishment? No cold steel of handcuffs or concrete walls closing in, just the sting of a financial slap on the wrist: court costs typically bringing penalties to $700–$1,100—less than the price of a decent used riding lawnmower—and driving privileges revoked for a paltry 6 to 9 months, and of course people don’t need a license to operate a vehicle do they?
But here’s the other shoe to drop, approximately one third of all DUI murders are committed by repeat offenders who’ve already faced a judge, paid their paltry fine, and been sent back to their driver’s seats. So, let’s do the cold, brutal math that no politician wants to acknowledge. If 37 innocent Americans—mothers, fathers, teenagers with prom corsages still pinned to their formal wear—are killed by drunk drivers every single day, and 9 or so of those flag-draped caskets contain victims age 0-14, I guess that 6 to 9 month license revocation—a flimsy paper punishment that can be ignored as easily as yesterday’s junk mail—isn’t much of a deterrent when you consider the blood-soaked reality. Yes, over 4,000 American heartbeats are permanently silenced every year by drivers who’ve already been caught once and released back onto our highways!
Our legal system remains riddled with blood-soaked contradictions that would make the Founding Fathers weep. A repeat DUI offender, faces less severe consequences than a sun-baked migrant who crossed an invisible line in desert sand while carrying nothing more lethal than empty water jugs and desperate dreams. Alcohol-impaired drivers slaughter over 13,000 innocent Americans annually in violent collisions that leave twisted metal and shattered families scattered across our highways every year. Four thousand of these preventable tragedies come from the hands of drivers who’ve already faced a judge once before. Meanwhile, the undocumented immigrants that dominate our political nightmares account for exactly 29 homicides per year nationwide. I can’t help but imagine the empty chairs at dinner tables that would still hold laughing children and grandparents if we locked away first-time drunk drivers for three solid years in cold prison cells, and repeat offenders for two decades of hard time.
Right or wrong, the cold, hard numbers force me to lie awake at night when my granddaughter takes her boyfriend’s car to the homecoming dance, or when my Minneapolis daughter works late and drives home, after arguing her way through ICE agents to pick up her 1- and 5-year-old daughter and son from school on a Friday evening. Yet I’ve never once felt my pulse quicken when Jorge, with his weathered hands and halting pronunciation, serves me chile rellenos at their family-owned cantina where three generations work the kitchen and dining room.
Yep, “Teach Your Children Well” and know that ignorant hypocrites and politicians abound in this world. Such is life.
Old Man Pondering 
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