Four young Americans are dead because a man who should never have been in this country got behind the wheel drunk, drove the wrong way down an Oklahoma highway, and slammed into them head-on. Michael Rosario-Cruz, an illegal immigrant, has been charged with four counts of second-degree murder after the early Friday morning crash that killed Haliegh Salazar, 18, Brad Palmer, 18, Quincy Jones, 19, and Kiercey Hickson, 20.
Four names. Four families destroyed. One crash that never should have happened. Which border policy would have saved these four kids? All of them.
According to American Wire News, Rosario-Cruz wasn't just driving drunk the wrong way — he was also packing. On top of the four murder charges, he faces two counts of DUI causing great bodily injury, transporting an open container, firearm possession, carrying a firearm while under the influence, and driving the wrong way on a one-way road. That's not a rap sheet. That's a greatest hits album of everything that happens when we pretend border security doesn't matter.
The vehicle caught fire on impact. Let that sit with you for a second. These kids — teenagers and barely out of their teens — died in a fiery head-on collision caused by a guy who had no legal right to be on that road, in that state, or in this country.
ICE has filed a detainer on Rosario-Cruz, and deportation proceedings are pending upon his release. Deportation proceedings. After four kids are dead. That's like locking the barn door after the horses have been cremated.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said it plainly: "Driving impaired is a reckless, life-changing decision. The loss of these young lives will have a lasting impact on countless family members, friends, and communities." They're right. But they left out the part where this particular life-changing decision was made possible by a government that spent years treating the southern border like a suggestion box.
We're not supposed to talk about immigration status when crimes like this happen. The polite media will call him an "undocumented motorist" or whatever sanitized term tests well in focus groups this week. But Haliegh Salazar's family doesn't care about your preferred terminology. Brad Palmer's parents aren't comforted by the knowledge that we were being "inclusive." Quincy Jones and Kiercey Hickson didn't die so some editorial board could feel morally superior about not mentioning the obvious.
Every single one of these tragedies is preventable. Not theoretically preventable. Not "in a perfect world" preventable. Preventable at the border. With a wall. With enforcement. With deportation before the drunk driving, not after the funerals.
But sure. Tell us again how border security is "racist." Tell it to four families in Oklahoma who are planning funerals this week instead of summer vacations.
Michael Rosario-Cruz is alive. Haliegh, Brad, Quincy, and Kiercey are not. That's the only policy debate that matters.