The issues of illegal immigration and enforcing the law are personal to me.
I was born and raised in Mexico, and I’m a career lawman. I came to America legally when I was 17 and joined the Atlanta Police Department to pay for college. It turned into a career. I spent years on high crime and drug task forces, and eventually, I served 17 years as chief of police in Doraville, a city just northeast of Atlanta.
Prior to becoming chief, I was a captain in the Doraville Police Department. We had a young officer murdered in the line of duty. He was a good kid. His family had come to America from Colombia, he’d grown up in Doraville, and all he ever wanted was to serve as a police officer.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
At the time, the hunt for his killer was the largest manhunt in Georgia history, and I served as the lead investigator. We made an arrest and got the confession.
The perpetrator was 18-year-old Bautista Ramirez — an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He was given a life sentence, but he’s still eligible for parole.
That heinous killing shook our community. Now, another heinous killing shook Athens. A 22-year-old nursing student was killed while on a run Thursday morning, a “crime of opportunity.”
Her accused killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, is a Venezuelan. ICE officials confirmed Sunday that Ibarra unlawfully entered the country in 2022 and was paroled and released for further processing.
There’s always going to be evil on the streets, but these crimes were preventable.
Unfortunately, too many so-called “leaders,” at every level of government, keep supporting policies that allow criminals to come into our country, commit crimes, stay here and repeat the cycle.
Let’s start with the federal government. In addition to my time as a lawman, I spent 40 years in the Army National Guard, enlisting as a private and retiring last year as a major general. I deployed to the border numerous times under multiple administrations.
I can tell you from experience, President Joe Biden’s border policies have made things worse. He halted construction on the wall, ended Remain in Mexico, the policy requiring asylum seekers remain in Mexico until their U.S. immigration court date, and reinstituted catch and release. We’ve all seen the results. More than 7 million unvetted illegal immigrants have crossed our border since he took office.
The president’s response? He’s done more to crackdown on states trying to act than to secure our border. Despite what politicians may tell you, there’s no bumper sticker slogan that will secure the border once and for all, but there are obvious starting points. End catch and release, bust up the cartels, reinstate Remain in Mexico and resume construction of the wall, for starters.
It also goes without saying that we must do more to end sanctuary cities, and we must vote out the lunatics who support them.
I’m calling on the Georgia Legislature to immediately pass a bill stating that any illegal immigrant arrested in our state for a violent crime should not get bond under any circumstances. And any illegal immigrant convicted of a crime should not be eligible for parole or early release; they should be immediately deported when their complete sentence is served.
I’m also calling on our state’s U.S. senators — Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock — to introduce this legislation at the federal level. How many more innocent lives must be lost? How many more families and communities must have their world turned upside down?
This is a logical, long overdue step that will keep criminal aliens behind bars where they belong and save lives. The time to act is now, before another tragedy strikes another family, and we must get it done.
Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King is the first Hispanic elected to statewide office in Georgia. He is a former Doraville police chief and retired major general in the Army National Guard.
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