We have noted, many times, that the Lexington Herald-Leader is out-of-touch with its potential audience. I say potential audience because what used to be the newspaper for much of central and eastern Kentucky is barely a shadow of its former self, publishing only thrice a week, and a day early so it can be delivered not in the morning, but by the United States Postal Service, at whatever time the mailman gets to your house.
What my best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal has been all-in on the Democrats, but in 2024, Kentuckians gave 64.47% of their votes to Donald Trump, not just a landslide margin, but Mr Trump’s highest percentage total in three campaigns. When Mr Trump ran on deporting illegal immigrants, Kentuckians said, “Yes!”
As a witness, I can say our immigration reform is the ‘worst of the worst’ | Opinion
By Mary Cobb | Monday, January 19, 2026 | 5:30 AM EST
In the fluorescent haze of the ICE office lobby, an agent hands the plane ticket back to me. Outside in the rain, a man peers in through the glass door, watching his son with an ankle monitor do a check-in with officers. A gnome dressed as Santa dangles from the metal detector, and laughter from “The Price is Right” studio audience bounces from the lobby TV. I try not to get distracted by the mix of frivolity and stress around me.
“But, the judge’s written order says to deliver this ticket to you….” I can feel right away that my words don’t matter. Neither, apparently, does the court order.
I am there on a cruel errand: deliver someone’s passport and plane ticket to ICE, so that they can deport him. It is a favor to a friend, because the deportee’s family finds the thought of the ICE office too intimidating, and they wanted someone else to go. I said yes.
The “criminal” to be deported — I’ll call him Cesar — is an average guy in our part of the world. Early 20s, loves his family, grew up in Appalachia attending church and public schools and playing sports, eventually married a young woman he had met in high school. His “crime?” Being brought across the border from Mexico when he was 3 years old. Like the majority of ICE detainees, Cesar has no criminal record. What he does have is a decent job, a loving family, and a baby due in April.
Really? He has no prior criminal record, we are told, but how can he have “a decent job” when it is illegal for non-citizens without a green card to work in the United States? Every employer — not every employer beyond a certain size, but every employer — must complete an Immigration Form I-9 on every employee, which demonstrates his legal ability to work in the US, whether by being a citizen or by having a valid work permit, generally known as a green card. How is it that “Cesar” has that “good job” if he doesn’t have those documents? How is it that “Cesar’s” employer, who is obligated under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 to discharge any employee he discovers is an illegal immigrant, let him stay employed?
Under the Handbook for Employers M-274, Section 11.8, it is specified that:
Unlawful Employment Criminal Penalties
Engaging in a Pattern or Practice of Knowingly Hiring or Continuing to Employ Unauthorized AliensIf you or your business are convicted of having engaged in a pattern or practice of knowingly hiring unauthorized aliens (or continuing to employ aliens knowing they are or have become unauthorized to work in the United States) after Nov. 6, 1986, you may face fines and/or six months imprisonment.
Engaging in Fraud or False Statements, or Otherwise Misusing Visas, Immigration Permits, and Identity Documents
You may be fined and/or imprisoned for up to five years if you:
- Make a false statement or attestation to satisfy the employment eligibility verification requirements;
- Use fraudulent identification or employment authorization documents; or
- Use documents that were lawfully issued to another person.
Other federal criminal statutes may provide higher penalties in certain fraud cases.
This is what the author, Mary Cobb, “a ninth-generation Kentuckian, and . . . the Director of Kentucky Refugee Ministries/Lexington,” fails to address. Rather, her OpEd tells us what a good person, what a great guy, “Cesar” is, and how he’s an asset to the community. While I have no doubt that he’s everything she said about him, he’s still here illegally, and was apparently working here illegally as well. The IRCA does not have any particular “great guy” exceptions.
“Cesar’s” wife is expecting their baby in April, we are told. Well, good for them, but if she is due in April of 2026, that means she became pregnant around August of 2025, seven months after Donald Trump became President again, and months after he showed that his intention to deport all of the illegals, “anchor babies” notwithstanding. Surely “Cesar” and his wife knew about that, but they decided to reproduce anyway.
“No one is above the law” our good friends on the left, including then-President Joe Biden, several state governors, senators and congressmen, constantly told us, when they were trying to throw Donald Trump in jail. Well, “Cesar” is not above the law either, he was here illegally, and he had to go.
