He had been told to leave this country. In 2023, the border patrol caught him crossing illegally. They had him. They let him go. Six weeks later, Chicago police arrested him for stealing from a downtown store. They had him too. Chicago let him go. By law. Illinois forbids local police from cooperating with federal immigration. Then he didn’t even show up to his own court hearing. A warrant was issued. Nothing happened. For almost three years, nothing happened. Three years later, he put on a black ski mask, picked up a forty caliber pistol, and waited at the end of a pier in the middle of the night. An 18-year-old college freshman walked out to see the skyline. She didn’t make it home. This is not a story about an immigrant. This is a story about a country that, by written policy, decided not to look. Read that again. By policy. Not by accident. Signed. Defended. Defended even now while her parents bury her in New York. She should be alive. God bless every American still fighting to make sure the next 18-year-old gets to come home.