A Student's Perspective on Illegal Immigration

By Ryan Welch On Jan. 16, 2019 my Aunt Sharon David (80) And Uncle Gerald David (81) were murdered in their home in southern Reno Nevada by Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, a 19-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador and their murder has not changed my position on securing our southern border in the slightest.

I had already learned from serving on the border with the Texas Army National Guard for two years the dangers and threats to Americans that resulted from our porous border and lax enforcement of immigration laws.

During President Trump’s State of the Union Address the President talked about my Aunt Sherri (Sharon) and Uncle Jerry (Gerald) David as the focal point of his push to secure our southern border with Mexico and three of my cousins were invited to attend.

This is what President Trump said about my aunt and uncle during his speech. “Year after year countless Americans are murdered by criminal illegal aliens. I’ve gotten to know many wonderful angel mom’s and dad’s and families. No one should ever have to suffer the horrible heartache that they have had to endure. Here tonight is Debora Bissel. Just three weeks ago Debora’s parents Gerald and Sharon were burglarized and shot to death in their Reno Nevada home by an illegal alien." '

"They were in their 80s, and are survived by four children, 11 grandchildren, and 20 great grandchildren. Also here tonight are Gerald and Sharon’s Granddaughter Heather and great granddaughter Madison. To Debora, Heather, Madison, please stand, few can understand your pain, thank you and thank you for being here. I will never forget, and I will fight for the memory of Gerald and Sharon, that it should never happen again. Not one more American life should be lost because our nation failed to control its very dangerous border.” On Jan. 17 , 2019 my Aunt Sherri and Uncle Jerry were found murdered in their home. Investigations by police revealed information that led to Guzman’s arrest on Jan 19, 2019. Guzman was found in possession of my uncle’s inscribed Elk’s Club ring and the 22-pistol that my uncle kept in the barn which Guzman used in four murders.

Guzman had worked with a groundskeeping company that hired illegal aliens and had been to my aunt and uncle’s house dozens of times. At some point Guzman had stolen the 22 pistol my uncle kept in the barn to shoot rattlesnakes and on Jan. 10, 2019 Connie Koontz (56) was found dead in her Gardnerville home. Sophia Renken (74) was found dead three days later in her home about a mile away from Koontz’s house on Jan 13, 2019. Just three days later (Jan. 16) my Aunt Sherri and Uncle Jerry were also found murdered.

Guzman has confessed to all four murders and multiple counts of armed burglary according to an affidavit obtained by the Reno Gazette Journal. Even with the murder of my aunt and uncle, and President Trump talking about their murder during his State of the Union address, my position on border security has remained unchanged, because of my experience.

I’m not a typical Sam Houston State University student, I am 53, and a Veteran of two wars. I was a biology major student here at SHSU on September 11, 2001 and was in class when Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of The World Trade Center, and I was in the SHSU ROTC dayroom watching TV when I saw Flight 175 crash into the South Tower. That night I went home to my family and asked them if they would support me going back into the army after 10 years because, “I think my country needs me.”

Two days later I was in the Texas Army National Guard recruiting office. I quit school because I was selected for Officer Candidate School (OCS) and couldn’t do both. I graduated from OCS in September 2003, was commissioned, and after serving a year each in Iraq and at Ft Hood I was selected to serve in Operation Jump Start in 2006 as part of 6,000 National Guardsmen ordered to the border by President George W. Bush. The mission called on National Guardsmen to augment the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency by providing both ground and aerial personnel and intelligence analysts to help curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

I also served on the border with Mexico in 2010 as part of Operation Phalanx were 1,200 Soldiers and Airmen along the 1,933-mile southwest border in support of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency. As a Junior Officer I served in several areas including Operations, Personnel, and Intelligence. I prepared a daily intelligence brief compiled from every agency, unit, and section serving on the border with Mexico. My position required that I read every intelligence report submitted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Border Patrol, Customs and Border Patrol, the Coast Guard, local Law Enforcement, and every military unit serving on our southern border.

If all Americans had read what I read in those intelligence reports and saw with their eyes the pictures of thousands of bodies killed in the most gruesome ways along our border, and saw our unsecured border and how understaffed and ill-equipped our border agencies are, I am certain that more than 90% of Americans would see the need to secure our border and enforce our immigration laws. This explains why my position has remained unchanged despite the murder of my aunt and uncle and two other

innocent people at the hands of an illegal alien.