Venezuelan undocumented immigrant arrest becomes campaign fodder for Van Orden

At a virtual press conference Monday afternoon, U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden used the arrest of a Venezuelan immigrant for a violent attack on a woman and child as a symbol of what he claimed is rampant criminality among immigrants across the country, which he blamed on the policies of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Last week, Prairie du Chien police arrested 26-year-old Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate after reports of a physical altercation. Zarate was charged with domestic disorderly conduct, two counts of domestic battery, strangulation/suffocation, physical abuse to a child, disorderly conduct and two counts of seconddegree sexual assault. He also had warrants out for his arrest in Dane County for strangulation/suffocation, false imprisonment, battery and disorderly conduct. He is also suspected of having gang ties. 

At the press conference, Prairie du Chien Police Chief Kyle Teynor said the incident’s “brutality” was shocking. 

Van Orden focused in his remarks on Zarate’s tattoos signifying his membership in the gang, “Tren de Aragua,” questioning how he could be allowed into the country at the border with the tattoos, saying “this isn’t a Harley Davidson tattoo.” 

“Why is the Biden administration allowing known members of violent criminal gangs from foreign nations into the country and essentially paroling them to allow them to wander around the nation at their leisure?” he asked.  “So that is unforgivable.” 

Van Orden’s press conference about the crime — which took place less than two miles from his home — continues Republican attacks against immigration and border enforcement that have become a central theme of this fall’s election. 

Former President Donald Trump is running on a platform that includes a plan to deport 20 million undocumented immigrants while Republican officials and candidates across the country highlight crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. 

Unauthorized border crossings had previously hit a record high in 2023, leading to an agreement between Republicans in Congress and the Biden administration to increase enforcement spending while working to address long backlogs in the federal courts that handle asylum cases. That deal fell apart after Trump weighed in, telling Republicans not to support it since he hoped to campaign on the issue in this year’s election. 

But in recent months, border crossings have fallen. In July, illegal border crossings were at their lowest level since Biden took office in 2021. 

At the press conference, Van Orden said he was not opposed to legal immigration, but that illegal border crossings need to stop. 

“I don’t care what your political affiliation is,” he said. “This is not a Democrat issue. It’s not a Republican issue. It’s not an independent or libertarian issue. This is a human rights issue. So American citizens’ human rights are being violated. They’re being kidnapped, raped and murdered by criminal, illegal aliens, and it’s just got to stop.” 

Van Orden, who sits on the House Committee on Agriculture, said he wants to differentiate between migrant workers on western Wisconsin farms and the Biden administration allowing “known criminals” into the country. 

“There’s a difference between immigration, immigrant labor, illegal immigration,” he said. “Someone wants to come to the United States and become a United States citizen, they’re an immigrant, and that’s fantastic. We’re a nation of immigrants.” 

He went on to discuss his support of the H-2A visa program which gives temporary visas to migrant workers to come to the United States to work on farms, adding that those types of visas are important for many industries. 

Year-round workers, including the immigrant workers who make up 70% of the labor force on Wisconsin dairy farms, are not eligible for H-2A visas. 

“Do our farmers need immigrant labor? You bet,” he said. “Does the hospitality industry need folks coming here? You bet. The construction industry, you bet. We want as many people as possible to come into the country lawfully to support our industries, just throughout Wisconsin, but throughout the country. So I’m 100% behind making sure that we get as many people into the country lawfully to help support our industries. I’m absolutely, adamantly opposed to letting a single known criminal enter this country, because this is what happens.” 

But John Rosenow, a Buffalo County dairy farmer, says earlier this month he attended an event in which local farmers could meet a member of Van Orden’s staff. At the event, Rosenow, who has frequently spoken about the Wisconsin dairy industry’s reliance on migrant labor, told the staffer that farmers needed less divisiveness surrounding the issue. 

“If there’s one thing you can do to help us is tone down the rhetoric,” Rosenow told the Wisconsin Examiner, recounting what he said to the staffer. “They’re doing all the work and why do we select one person that does something wrong that’s an immigrant and make it like all immigrants are like that person? We don’t do that for Americans. We’ve got plenty of bad white people around here that do bad things and we don’t extrapolate that to everyone else. We do it for votes, I guess.” 

Rosenow added that Van Orden’s focus on the H-2A program is useless for the dairy farmers in his district because dairy farmers are specifically excluded from using it. The H-2A program is for temporary seasonal work at operations such as vegetable farms, but because dairy farming is year round, those farms can’t use those workers. 

“It means nothing to dairy farmers,” he said.