A Juxtaposition of Tragedies

The juxtaposition of two tragedies involving aliens struck me with particular force today. 

The first case will almost certainly be familiar to readers: that of Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman, now under arrest on a multiplicity of terrorism and hate crime charges after an incident in Boulder, Colo., in which he used a crude homemade “flamethrower” and Molotov cocktails to seriously wound several people participating in a rally in support of the hostages still held captive by the Hamas. 

Soliman came to the United States on a visitor’s visa (apparently with his family), overstayed, filed an application for asylum, was granted work authorization, and apparently was awaiting adjudication of the asylum claim when he undertook his violent actions while shouting “Free Palestine”. News reports indicate that before resorting to the incendiary devices, Soliman attempted to buy a gun, but was denied because he was not lawfully in the country.

The second case is not so well-known: Felipe Gomes, a Belmont, Calif., police officer has been arrested and charged with rape. As if this were not shocking enough, it turns out that this police officer is a Brazilian national who entered the U.S. on a nonimmigrant visa, was granted a work permit. Worse, he had been charged previously with domestic abuse (although not convicted), which led other police agencies to reject his application. One of the rejecting police chiefs went so far as to alert Chief Stenquist of the Belmont Police, who proceeded to hire him anyway. 

While the news stories don’t say, it’s not a stretch to conclude that, like Soliman, he too had filed an application for asylum, and while awaiting adjudication, was granted employment authorization; one can discern few other reasons why he might have been permitted to remain in the U.S. long past his authorized period of admission, while also being given a work permit. 

How is it, you ask, that an alien who has overstayed his visa gains employment as a police officer sworn to uphold the law? That situation is courtesy of the California legislature and governor, who sagely enacted a statute permitting aliens with as little as a work permit to become police. ABC 7 News tells us, “SB 960 sponsored by former State Senator Nancy Skinner allows immigrants to be officers if they have a green card, visa or permanent residency…Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill in September 2022”.

You might also be wondering what these two cases have in common. Nothing – and everything. 

Indulge me in a moment of alternate reality and imagine that Soliman lived in California instead of Colorado. He could have applied for a job as a police officer in Belmont, and on acceptance (apparently their standards are depressingly low), he would have been able to sidestep the bureaucratic necessity of proving he was lawfully in the U.S. in order to purchase a gun. Instead, it would have been given to him by the Belmont Police Department. Instead of third-degree burns, as horrific as they are with the real possibility of lifelong scarring and months or years of surgeries and rehabilitation, he might have inflicted deadly carnage on many more victims while wearing the uniform of an officer of the law. That is the sheer insanity of a law like SB 960.

It seems to me that the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives might spend a little time investigating this matter, and consider charging Belmont Police Chief Stenquist, because federal law, at 18 U.S. Code Section 922(d)(5), prohibits any individual from providing firearms to a nonimmigrant alien, or an alien unlawfully in the United States.

Perhaps even a little lawfare is in order, because the California statute on its face authorizes the hiring of aliens into positions that require the carrying of a weapon, despite the clear prohibitions embedded in federal law. An injunction should be sought to invalidate the statute, and prevent repeats of the sadly preventable tragedy in Belmont, or something many times worse such as I described in my “alternate reality” thought experiment.