Los Angeles man Jamiel Shaw offered a heart wrenching personal story while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Shaw told lawmakers about how a young illegal alien gang member who would qualify for legalization under the DREAM Act provisions of the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill–and currently qualifies for legalization under President Barack Obama’s deferred action program–murdered his son on his front lawn in 2008.
“In 2008 on March the 2nd, the American dream came to a screeching halt for my son, Jamiel Shaw the 2nd, also known as Jamiel Shaw, Jr.,” Shaw testified. “Jamiel was just 17 years young and a football superstar destined for greatness when he was gunned down three doors from our home while his mother was serving in Iraq.”
Shaw, Jr., his father testified, “was a junior at Los Angeles High School and already being looked at by universities such as Rutgers and Stanford.”
“The last time I spoke to my son he was on his way home from the mall,” Shaw said. “I can still hear his voice, ‘Be right home dad, I’m right around the corner!’ He never made it home and our lives are permanently separated.”
Shaw said that when he next saw his son, he was “lying on the ground dead.”
“According to the coroner who testified at the trial, Jamiel was shot in the stomach first and while he was lying on the ground with his hands covering his head pleading for his life, he was shot again,” Shaw said. “The bullet went through his hand and straight into his head.”
At his son’s funeral a few days later, Shaw said the Los Angeles Police Department visited his home to inform him they believed they had captured his son’s killer. “We also learned that he was executed by an illegal alien gang member from Mexico with a history of violence,” Shaw said.
“We often hear supporters of people who are here illegally say that the children were brought to the USA ‘by no fault of their own’ as if that makes everything right. But many people overlook the fact that their parents made a choice to violate our laws,” Shaw explained. “The parents made a choice to leave their country illegally and entered America illegally, and their illegal immigrant son made the choice to join the gang.”
“The illegal alien charged with murdering my son was arrested in November, 2007 on a prior arrest of assault with a deadly weapon and battery on a police officer,” he continued. “Yet he was given early release from jail on March 1st (a Saturday night). The very next day, he executed my son and left him for dead like he was a piece of trash on the streets.”
Shaw noted that the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office said the illegal alien murdered his son because he was black and because his Spider Man backpack was red.
“To this day, we still don’t know why LACSD negligently released him from jail and why was he given a 6 month early release,” Shaw said. “We still don’t know why Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) didn’t pick him up from jail or if ICE was even called by LACSD for pickup. They refuse to tell us what happened.”
In the Gang of Eight immigration bill in the U.S. Senate, there is a provision that would allow gang members to simply verbally state they are no longer members if gangs and still receive legalized status. The National Review’s Andrew Stiles detailed recently how that loophole would apply to people who have been convicted of gang-related crimes and were involved in other criminal activities.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) National Council president Chris Crane testified about those provisions during Thursday’s hearing as well, warning that more tragedies like those that happened to Shaw’s son are likely to happen if interior immigration enforcement conditions are not improved. Currently, the bill does nothing to improve them and in many cases makes them worse.
Crane testified that the “Gang of Eight legislation currently before the Senate reflects an absence of law enforcement input as it contains no tangible plan for border security and for the most part ignores interior enforcement altogether, while simultaneously creating a path to citizenship for members of criminal street gangs as well as a majority of criminal aliens currently residing in the United States illegally.”
“In short, we are shocked by the lack of border security and interior enforcement measures as well as the level of criminality permitted by the Gang of Eight legislation,” he declared.
Even though the bill provides protections and loopholes for criminal gang members like the one who killed his son, Shaw noted in his congressional testimony that his own senator from his home state, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), still supports the bill. Shaw said Feinstein also supports the provisions protecting gang members.
“According to a report conducted by Senator Dianne Feinstein several years ago, the majority of all gangs in the USA consist of illegal alien gang members,” Shaw said. “In spite of this report by Feinstein, she still supports the useless gang provision from the gang of 8 illegal immigration bill, which rewards illegal alien gangs with a path to citizenship.”
“Why?” he asked. “Why would an elected official reward gangbangers who are in the country illegally?”
Shaw urges lawmakers to support House Republicans’ approach to immigration reform, like the plan being offered by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). He also supports a proposal called “Jamiel’s Law,” which, like Gowdy’s bill (The Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement (SAFE) Act HR 2278), would “deport illegal alien gang members from the USA” instead of “wait[ing] for them to commit other crimes.”
It would also deport illegal aliens who are criminal gang members even if they would qualify for DREAM Act provisions of various pieces of legislation or President Obama’s deferred action program.
Jamiel Shaw, Jr.’s killer was convicted of murder and is currently on death row awaiting execution.
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