There were so many interesting headlines in today’s news that it has been difficult for me to choose just one on which to write.
But, as always, there is the newspaper that I frequently refer to as The Philadelphia Enquirer, which is not actually spelled that way. RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but, reminiscent of the National Enquirer as it is, I think it very apt. And this morning, it was opinion columnist Jenice Armstrong, one of the Usual Suspects:
Her husband was outside, yelling for her when ICE grabbed him. She hasn’t seen him in person since.
Jesreel Chimilio is among an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants who live in the U.S. Many have been here for years, pay taxes, own residences, and raise families.
by Jenice Armstrong | Friday, April 4, 2025 | 6:00 AM EDT
Jesreel Chimilio is a family man.
Daily News and Inquirer columnist Jenice Armstrong. Illustration by Andy Friedman. From Philadelphia magazine.
He’s also hardworking, God-fearing, and a respected member of his community. When neighbors need help, he’s the guy they go to. Philly needs more men like him. Chimilio shouldn’t be locked up like a common criminal, arrested in front of his house by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.His family’s nightmare started as a typical Saturday in February. Charlene Maddox Chimilio was inside her home in Germantown preparing for a trip to the Please Touch Museum. Chimilio was on his way to work at a property management firm.
That’s when a phone rang. It was a neighbor calling to tell Maddox Chimilio that her husband was outside yelling her name.
There follow several paragraphs telling readers what a great guy Mr Chimilio is, and how his wife and he met. At age 17, his mother and he moved to the United States from Belize, in 2002. It would seem that Mr Chimilio has had plenty of time to become a legal resident, including twelve of those years under Democrat Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The younger President George Bush was more concerned about illegal immigration, but wasn’t openly hostile. And while Mr Chimilio managed to make it through Donald Trump’s first term, he apparently didn’t try to get right with the law during Mr Biden’s term, or, if he did, the columnist didn’t tell us.
We are supposed to believe that the now-apprehended Mr Chimilio was a perfect guy . . . until we get to the tenth paragraph:
In 2011, he was arrested on DUI and drug charges and served an 11-month prison sentence. But he had no further run-ins with the law until earlier this year, when Montgomery County police pulled him over on Feb. 2 and discovered he was driving without a license. (Like most states, Pennsylvania doesn’t permit undocumented immigrants to obtain licenses, which is a failing of the system that needs to be corrected.)
If Mr Chimilio has no driver’s license, what else does he not have? We are not told, but the obvious question is: how can someone who does not have a driver’s license carry insurance? If he doesn’t have insurance, and he gets into an accident — and if he doesn’t have a license, he’s automatically at fault — how does his victim get compensated?
If the vehicle is insured under his wife’s name, does that even count if she allowed someone without a license to drive it?
We were told that Mr Chimilio had a job, “work(ing) at a property management firm.” Being an illegal immigrant, it has to be asked: how can he have a job, without a green card, and without legal documents noting his status to work legally in this country. Did the property management firm know he was here illegally? Did he present forged documents to get the job?
In a “21 questions” interview article by Victor Fiorillo in Philadelphia magazine, Mrs Armstrong responded to the question, “One thing about Philly that really pisses me off is . . . the crime. The crime. The nonstop crime.” Doesn’t the columnist realize that if Mr Chimilio has a job in the United States, he is committing a “nonstop crime” every single day he goes to work?
Maddox Chimilio, who is a schoolteacher, is in the process of applying for asylum for her husband.
She shouldn’t have to navigate this alone. We must rally around her. Politicians should reach out to the appropriate federal agencies on Chimilio’s behalf. He needs to be at home while his situation gets sorted out.
Perhaps his “situation” should have been “sorted out” long before this. He has been here for 23 years; shouldn’t that have been enough time? Shouldn’t his wife, who is a “schoolteacher,” and therefore should have a college degree, have realized this long ago?
It is possible that Mr Chimilio has tried to regularize his status, and that it was denied due to his criminal record. Under Pennsylvania law, a first offense DUI is an enhanced misdemeanor, but then there are those unspecified “drug charges.” What drug charges? Is Mr Chimilio actually a convicted felon? Mrs Armstrong didn’t tell us.
But something directed Immigration and Customes Enforcement to Mr Chimilio’s doorstep. I wonder what it was.