On Friday, a Hispanic named Alejandro Avila was sentenced to death for the kidnap, rape and murder of Samantha Runnion, who was five years old. Since immigration status is the kind of thing that's deliberately suppressed by the mainstream media, you can't tell from press reports if he was an illegal immigrant or not, and you have to be your own Sherlock Holmes. Answer: Hispanic yes, immigrant no.

Acting on the Sherlock Holmes principle of looking for the dog that doesn't bark, we can assume that if Avila were a Mexican national, the Mexican Consul would be trying to save his life.

In a note I wrote to a Sam Francis column 3 years ago, I said:

[VDARE.COM note: It's impossible to say at this time what Alejandro Avila's citizenship status is, but he comes from a family of Mexican criminals. Avila's father, Rafael Avila, was deported to Mexico in 2000 after serving time in Chino and Lancaster state prisons for killing a neighbor during an argument. His brother, Juan, was shot to death in Rosarito , Mexico, possibly by members of his own gang. Ron Unz take note: despite many years in the US, including 11 years in state custody, the elder Avila “only speaks Spanish”, which his son, the suspect doesn’t, much. "A disturbing picture of the suspect emerges Man in slaying is no stranger to violence," Los Angeles Times Service, Jul. 21, 2002] ["Bring Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Criminals…", July 22, 2002]

As to where this crime fits in with what we've written about crime and immigration, you can read what I wrote, also in 2002, about a incredibly violent bank robbery in Norfolk Nebraska, where aWashington Post story had reported that

"But Norfolk Mayor Gordon Adams said the heritage of the men is unimportant. "There has been a lot of concern about American and Hispanic relations," he said. "But these were just bad people. They weren't immigrants. They grew up here."The Nebraska Bank Killers: Were They Or Weren’t They?

At the time I wrote "Immigration, over time, has the effect of boosting the crime rate among the native-born by changing the demographic character of the population. "

It's simply denial for immigration enthusiasts to say that it's not about immigration because the killers were born in the USA.

The first question is how did they get born in the USA, and the second question is, what kind of society did they grow up in? American society? I doubt it.

And are even Americans going to be able to grow up in American society in the future? Samantha Runnion won't get to grow up at all.