TV news investigation calls Georgia a 'border state' for violent illegal aliens

Brett T. | 9:20 PM on October 29, 2015

WSB-TV in Atlanta tonight aired the results of its investigation into violent crimes committed by illegal aliens, declaring Georgia to be a “border state” for repeat offenders.

2 Investigates: Georgia becomes 'border state' for violent illegal immigrants https://t.co/ru9NhtMext

— WSB-TV (@wsbtv) October 29, 2015

The human face at the center of WSB’s report belongs to Manju Poonmagar, who emigrated legally from Nepal. Illegal alien Sergio Vera-Lula recently pleaded guilty to murdering Poonmagar outside her apartment in 2013 and was given a life sentence.

Reporting for WSB-TV, Aaron Diamant interviewed Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds about the case.

Most concerning for Reynolds is the fact Vera-Lula was in the United States illegally. Federal authorities had already sent him back to Mexico three times, but he kept coming back through what Reynolds and other critics call our southern border’s revolving door.

“I’m confident we could go to any of the courtrooms that we service day in and day out and find representatives of this same circumstance,” Reynolds stated.

Diamant analyzed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removal records and took the results to Jessica Vaughn with the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C. The records showed that of 42,116 unauthorized immigrants deported in 2013 had been convicted of an aggravated felony, and 27,159 of those had been removed before.

The data showed Georgia ranked first in deportations among all non-border states, and fourth overall behind only Texas, Arizona and California.

In Georgia, federal authorities deported 7120 unauthorized immigrants in fiscal year 2013. 1173 of them had aggravated felony convictions. Of those, 513 (44%) had at least one prior removal.

“Georgia has effectively become a border state, certainly for illegal alien criminals,” Vaughn said.