Well, look who was sneaking into the US with the caravan

When the media was showing all of the pictures of women and children in the caravan and chastising the White House for saying the group contained gang members, I guess the photographers somehow missed this guy. The US Border Patrol picked up one of the “migrants” who had already snuck over the border in California last Friday and the “job opportunities” he was seeking in America probably weren’t listed in any help wanted ads in the local paper. As the Washington Examiner reports, the guy was an admitted member of MS-13 who had come here looking to make a name for himself.

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An active member of the MS-13 gang admitted to U.S. Border Patrol officials that he joined a caravan of migrants in the hopes of reaching the border and crossing into the United States, a U.S. official told the Washington Examiner.

Jose Villalobos-Jobel of Honduras was arrested on Nov. 24, after being spotted standing on the U.S. side of the border east of the port of entry in Calexico, Calif.

Customs and Border Protection said Villalobos-Jobel admitted to being from Honduras and an active gang member of Mara Salvatrucha 13, or MS-13, a transnational criminal organization. He also said he traveled to the U.S. from his home country with one of the caravan groups, which have said they were coming to the U.S. to apply for asylum at the border.

Small wonder Mr. Villalobos-Jobel wasn’t interested in lodging an asylum request. If you’re coming here from Honduras, I’d imagine one of the first things they ask you is whether or not you happen to be on the roster with Mara Salvatrucha 13. They’ll probably also have some questions about your interesting collection of tattoos.

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To be clear, this doesn’t reflect the overall makeup of the caravan and we shouldn’t imply that it does. There is no doubt that a significant majority of the people traveling with that crew are people who truly are looking for legitimate work if they can get asylum or were fleeing people precisely like Villalobos-Jobel. But as long as CNN and the Washington Post want to continue running headlines about the Trump administration’s Phony Claims regarding the caravan, it’s worth keeping in mind that generalizations tend to fall apart no matter which side of the debate you’re on.

And does this really come as a surprise? If you were an aspiring gang-banger hoping to make it to America and you learned that there was a caravan of thousands of people heading that way with the support of many liberal politicians in both Mexico and the United States, why wouldn’t you join in? There’s safety in numbers and plenty of people have been lining up to offer free food and/or rides to the caravan members. It was no doubt too good of an opportunity to pass up.

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Exit question for those who will insist this is an aberration. Jose Villalobos-Jobel was the one guy the USBP managed to catch near that particular border crossing. What do you suppose the odds are that he was the only criminal among the thousands of young men in that caravan? Or that he was the only one that made it over the border?

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