Massachusetts Released Him After He Nearly Killed a Cop

A state trooper is recovering at home after an illegal alien from Brazil nearly killed him in a wrong-way drunk driving crash on Route 1. That trooper should never have been in danger. Lucas Gustavo Dibenedetto shouldn’t have been on our roads. He shouldn’t have been in our country. But thanks to Massachusetts and its sanctuary policies, he was free to get behind the wheel drunk and drive the wrong direction into oncoming traffic.

The crash happened on May 31. Dibenedetto was allegedly intoxicated when he started driving the wrong way down Route 1 and slammed into a state trooper’s cruiser. The impact was severe enough to send the trooper to the hospital. Think about that for a second. A man who had no legal right to be here put someone’s husband, father, or son in a hospital bed because Massachusetts decided federal immigration law doesn’t apply within its borders.

Here’s where it gets worse. After charging Dibenedetto with drunk driving, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and driving the wrong way, Massachusetts officials released him. Just let him go. Never mind that he nearly killed a law enforcement officer. Never mind that he was in the country illegally. The sanctuary policy mattered more than public safety, more than the trooper lying in a hospital bed, more than common sense.

ICE had to step in on June 2 to arrest him. Federal agents did the job that state officials refused to do. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bis put it plainly enough: “This criminal illegal alien has been charged with driving under the influence after he drove the wrong way and crashed into a Massachusetts State Trooper’s cruiser.”

You know what drives me crazy about this? We’ve seen this pattern repeat itself across sanctuary jurisdictions for years now. Local officials grandstand about compassion and inclusion, then release criminal aliens back onto the streets where they hurt Americans. Real people. People with families and futures. The ideology matters more than the consequences, apparently.

This isn’t about immigration broadly. Plenty of immigrants come here legally, work hard, follow our laws, and contribute to their communities. This is about a state actively choosing not to cooperate with federal authorities when they’ve got someone in custody who’s both here illegally and charged with serious crimes. That’s not compassion. That’s recklessness dressed up in progressive language.

The trooper is recovering at home now, which is something to be grateful for. But he shouldn’t have needed to recover from anything. He was doing his job, protecting the public on a Massachusetts highway, when someone who should have been deported long ago crashed into him going the wrong direction while drunk.

Massachusetts lawmakers will probably issue some statement about how sanctuary policies make communities safer. They’ll talk about trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement. They won’t mention the trooper. They won’t address why protecting someone here illegally who nearly killed a cop makes anyone safer. Because they can’t. There’s no good answer.

Limited government is a core conservative principle, but even limited government has basic responsibilities. Protecting citizens from criminal aliens is about as fundamental as it gets. When states abdicate that responsibility in favor of political posturing, people get hurt. Sometimes they end up in hospitals. Sometimes worse.

The question Massachusetts needs to answer is simple: How many more troopers, how many more citizens, need to be put in danger before sanctuary policies get reconsidered? One would think a state trooper hospitalized by a drunk illegal alien driving the wrong way would be enough. Apparently not.