DACA ‘Dreamer’ Arrested For Alleged School Shooting Threat On Facebook
A Rochester, New York, student is in custody after allegedly making a school-shooting threat on the East High School Facebook page. According to WHAM and other news outlets, the threat read “I’m coming tomorrow morning and I’m going to shoot all of ya b******.”
Police charged Abigail Hernandez, 21, a former student at the same Rochester high school, with making a “credible” terroristic threat. Cops also found a shotgun in the home. After her arrest, Hernandez was reportedly booked into the Monroe County Jail and then transferred to a Buffalo federal facility, although a judge ruled today that she can go back to Monroe County. She is due back in court on March 15.
According to multiple media accounts, Hernandez is an illegal immigrant “Dreamer” from Mexico who is a beneficiary of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Authorities say that it took them five days to find Hernandez because she allegedly posted the threat from a fake account.
Created by a 2012 Obama executive order, DACA postponed deportation for approximately 800,000 undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before age 16 and prior to June 2007 and granted them work permits renewable on a two-year basis. Most of the so-called Dreamers are now said to be in the mid-20s age range. The Dreamer terminology evolved from the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act that never passed Congress and which prompted former President Obama to invoke an executive action.
Rochester police make an arrest following a credible threat to commit a school shooting. According to officials, Abigail Hernandez, 21, is an undocumented immigrant. Police found a shotgun in her home. https://t.co/PlhYHiWNlc
— Spectrum News 1 BUF (@SPECNews1BUF) February 24, 2018
Abigail Hernandez’s family told USA Today that she is a nonviolent person and “has very low cognitive capability” and is innocent of the charge. Her dad added that he owns the shotgun which was kept in a nearby rental property and that his daughter never had access to it.
Hernandez is a currently a student at Rochester’s Edison Tech High School. “Rochester City School District officials could not answer why Hernandez, 21, was enrolled as a student,” the Daily Caller noted.
Rochester is a sanctuary city, which means it is generally non-compliant with federal immigration law, especially as it relates to cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
[WATCH] RPD announces arrest of a student following a credible threat on social media to commit a mass shooting at East High School. The suspect has been identified as Abigail Hernandez, 21. Police found a shotgun in her home. pic.twitter.com/ZpCvSCSNyE
— Spectrum News 1 ROC (@SPECNews1ROC) February 23, 2018
The East High School Superintendent sent a letter to parents about the incident, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported.
“Sadly, in wake of the recent Parkland, Florida tragedy, schools across the country have been grappling with social media threats intended to instill fear and anxiety. We remain very grateful to the Rochester Police Department for their partnership and for keeping us well informed throughout the entire process. Their presence on campus last week and their guidance on how to best keep staff and students safe during this efficient, successful police investigation, reiterates their ongoing support.”
Parenthetically, if you watched LivePD, the popular ride-along show on the A&E network, over the weekend, you may recall that Texas cops investigated a social media threat of violence against a local high school allegedly made by a student, which she denied when cops questioned her at her home. She agreed to turn over her cell phone to investigators.
In attempting to forge a DACA compromise with Democrats on Capitol Hill, President Trump has said he is willing to sign a law granting a pathway to citizenship to 1.8 million illegal aliens (which is more than double the estimated number of DACA beneficiaries) in exchange for full funding of the border wall, an end to chain migration (which essentially allows unlimited numbers of relatives to enter the country permanently), and abolishing the visa lottery system. The president also wants to move to a skills-based immigration system, similar to what is in effect in Australia.
DACA officially ends on March 5, although several federal courts have blocked the administration from actually concluding the program. The Supreme Court today denied a Trump administration request to expedite the appeal, but the case will reach the high court eventually one way or another.
