Obama still trying to meddle in Texas execution

The case of Humberto Leal Garcia should be straightforward: He raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl when he was 21 years old. He was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death. He is scheduled to meet his end Thursday, but there’s a hitch: He’s an illegal alien from Mexico. He has lived in the US since he was two years old, thanks to his parents’ decision to enter our country illegally. During his decades in the US (he is 38 years old now), Leal never bothered to get right with the law, and in fact became a violent criminal. If the Democrats got their way and passed the DREAM Act, Leal could probably apply for classes at the nearest community college and earn himself a path to citizenship. But as things stand, the Obama administration is intervening on Leal’s behalf, on the notion that his execution could somehow jeopardize Americans arrested abroad because when he was arrested, he wasn’t offered consular services. Lawyers feel free to weigh in, but this rationale strikes me as weak for the simple reason that Americans tend not to do what Leal has done in living illegally in other countries for decades on end. The consular gambit strikes me as just that: A gambit to knock this case down despite the condemned having been convicted of terrible crimes on the evidence, years ago.

Question: If police aren’t allowed to ask about citizenship status when they make arrests, how were they supposed to know Leal was in the US illegally when they arrested him? Could the consular services angle become a kind of Get Out Of Jail Free card for illegal aliens caught committing other crimes, if it succeeds in this case?

Another question: For every DREAM Act dream story that the open borders types drum up to generate sympathy, how many Humberto Leal Garcias are out there committing crimes and crowding US jails on the taxpayers’ dime?

As for this particular case, the question of illegal aliens facing American justice was litigated a few years ago, in the Medellin vs Texas case. Justice was served then, and should be served tomorrow.

(h/t the Ted Cruz campaign blog)