The answer to the title question is, well… maybe? But only briefly, and not the way you’re thinking. If recent reports are accurate, New York City Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio may have been an illegal immigrant to Mexico recently, if only for an hour or so. While attempting to tour some migrant detention facilities on the border, de Blasio apparently became impatient and loaded up his motorcade, taking off to get a better look at the facility from the southern side.

It was quite a way on the southern side as it turns out. It looks as if they may have just driven to an entry point for access to Mexico, but then backtracked along the border to where the detention center, crossing back over into the United States. And that crossing was not at an authorized entry point. (Associated Press)

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio City and his security detail violated both Mexican and U.S. immigration laws by crossing the border on foot during a visit near El Paso, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection alleges in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The mayor’s office flatly denied the allegation.

De Blasio, a fierce critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, went to the Texas border with about 20 other mayors from around the country on June 21, the day after President Donald Trump signed an order stopping family separations at the border…

De Blasio went to a holding facility for immigrant children but was denied entry. He then went to Mexico and crossed into the U.S. to get a view of the facility. The New York Police Department runs de Blasio’s security detail.

This has turned into a he said/she said situation, though I’m not entirely sure how. I’m sure the CBP officers know where the border is and which side of it they are on. When Border Patrol saw the Mayor’s group on the floodplain south of Tornillo, Texas, they asked them if anyone from the CBP was with them or had authorized their presence. According to the CBP letter obtained by the AP, a New York Police official who was part of de Blasio’s entourage said they didn’t have any such permission.

When the officer asked them how they’d gotten there they indicated that they’d come up from Mexico. At that point, the CBP officer asked them to stay put while he contacted his supervisors as required by law. The Mayor’s group ignored his orders and simply went back over the border into Mexico before returning to the United States through the normal port of entry.

De Blasio is denying it and saying he had the permission of the CBP supervisor to enter Mexico, but the statement specifically says, “at this port of entry.” That sounds like a denial of a different charge. I seriously doubt the Mayor’s motorcade just showed up and rammed the gates at the border crossing. Of course he had permission to go through. But that’s not what the CBP is alleging. They’re saying that after entering Mexico, the Mayor’s group traveled along the border to reach the area south of the detention center and then crossed over again there.

Sure, we’re talking about a technicality and I rather doubt that the Mexican government is issuing an extradition request for de Blasio, but that’s not the point He either made the proper arrangements or he jumped the border in violation of the law. You can’t have it both ways.