NYT Minimizes Illegals’ Brutal Crimes, Blames GOP For Noticing

New York Times reporter J. David Goodman in a recent report accused Republicans of having “seized on” the brutal murder of Jocelyn Nungaray in order to politicize border security.

Goodman included quotes that framed Nungaray’s alleged killers as “remorseful” and criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for supposedly not caring that young women “were raped.”

The June 25 report comes after two illegal aliens from Venezuela allegedly lured 12-year-old Nungaray under a bridge, stripped her naked to the waist, bound her, sexually assaulted her for two hours, strangled her to death, and dumped her body into shallow water nearby, according to the Houston Police Department and local news reports. The accused killers, Jose Pena Ramos, 26, and Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 21, were caught and released by Border Patrol agents after illegally crossing the southern border this year. They are both charged with capital murder.

Goodman referred to the alleged killers as “migrants” and inexplicably included the detail that Pena regretted sexually assaulting and killing a child. 

“Daniel Werlinger, one of two defense lawyers appointed to represent Mr. Pena, described his client as ‘remorseful,’ saying that he ‘understands the gravity of the situation’ that he is in,” Goodman wrote. Goodman went on to criticize Republicans’ focus on the multiple child rapes and murders that have taken place as a result of the Biden administration’s open border policies. 

The Times report centered Democrat political operative Matt Angle’s claim that Abbott is not sincerely concerned over child rape but is instead using the issue for political gain.

“It’s all a performance for them,” Angle told the Times regarding Abbott’s call for law and order. “These guys don’t care about this 12-year-old or any 12-year-old.” Angle also claimed that Texans are “not threatened” by the border crisis. His comments stood in stark contrast to the reaction from Nungaray’s family.

“She was amazing, I still see her face in the back of my head every day, all day. I keep getting little signs about her throughout the days, and it’s been a very, very hard time for me and my family,” Nungaray’s mother said in a news conference.

Goodman, still, neglected to acknowledge that even one preventable child murder is too many.

“[D]espite a number of high-profile cases, studies have found that migrants commit fewer crimes than legal residents,” Goodman wrote. But the report contains no information regarding the “studies” cited, and Goodman did not return a request for comment.

A previous report from the Times cited data from 1970 to 2010 that made no distinction between legal and illegal immigrants. A report from the Cato Institute reveals Goodman’s claim is misleading, stating, “[T]here is little data available about illegal immigrant criminality to answer this question. Most state governments do not record the immigration statuses of those who are convicted of crimes and federal census data on the incarcerated population do not identify illegal immigrants.”

Goodman’s focus on the overall crime rate failed to address concern over specific crimes committed by individuals whose entry into the United States was illegal in the first place. Republicans continue to argue these crimes are inherently preventable and Nungaray would not be dead if her killers had been detained by Border Patrol.

“Every single crime committed by an illegal alien invader is preventable,” former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli said in a recent statement to Congress. “Crime rates do not matter. Only the raw number of crimes and the harm caused by those crimes matter. Over 10 million illegal alien invaders have entered America since Joe Biden became our President and opened our borders.”

Cuccinelli continued, “[I]t is the individual human cost that remains most alarming. The ever-growing number of American victims of illegal immigration, including Brandon Michael, Kate Steinle, Mollie Tibbetts, Sarah Root, Brandon Mendoza, Ronald da Silva, Kayla Hamilton, and, of course, Laken Riley. … These are the human casualties that are preventable with a secure border.”

Monroe Harless is a summer intern at The Federalist. She is a recent graduate of the University of Georgia with degrees in journalism and political science.