‘Two Bakers Face Trump’s Immigration Wrath’ – NY Times 5-17-2025

 

Sympathy has nothing to do with it. In the words of one Trump supporter, who said: “Sympathy has nothing to do with it. The law is the law.”

Oh, really?

He was commenting on the case of Leonardo Baez and his wife, Nora Alicia Avila, proprietors of a bakery in Los Fresnos, Texas. They have been charged with conspiring to transport and harbor undocumented migrants and face sentences of up to ten years in prison.

See:

‘Whom Shall I Fear?’ In South Texas, Two Bakers Face Trump’s Immigration Wrath.

By Edgar Sandoval

The New York Times

May 17, 2025

“Harboring charges used to be saved for cases where criminal groups would help smuggle undocumented people into the U.S. illegally,” one of the lawyers for the couple, Jaime Diez, said.

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This is another example of cruelty masked as policy

Every law is not enforced. Is not and has not ever been the case. If the law were enforced this way — by Stephen Miller type idealogues totally lacking in humanity — half the population would have criminal records and there would not be enough jails, or personnel to staff them.

I am not a legal scholar or expert, but I know whether to bring criminal prosecutions is a “judgment call” in many cases. Common sense — or whatever one would call it — is required.

The law should not be used as a weapon.

Read the Times article and tell me what you think.

 

— posted by Roger W. Smith

   May 2025