Las Vegas City Wire

A man in the country illegally has been arrested after going on a stabbing spree on Las Vegas Strip.

Yoni Barrios, a Guatemalan who entered the country illegally, is accused of stabbing and killing two people on Oct. 6. Barrios allegedly stabbed a total of eight people near the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel, according to Fox News. The names of the victims were Brent Allan Hallett, 47, and Maris Mareen DiGiovanni, 30.

The other six remain hospitalized from their injuries. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Barrios has a criminal record in California. Barrios will be charged with two counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder.

According to KTNV Las Vegas, Barrios is being held without bail but is being assessed for competency, according to his public defender. Barrios is expected to be given a competency test to decide if he will go to a state facility for psychological evaluation.

Andrew Surabian, a Republican strategist, tweeted about the incident and blamed what he considers a soft border to be the catalyst for the crime.

Surabian wrote, “This is what the open border/soft on crime policies of Dems like Gov. Sisolak & Sen. Cortez-Masto has led to in NV. Only way to clean up the streets is to fire them both.”

The southern border has been portrayed as a national security crisis as well as a humanitarian crisis with a Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) report from Aug. 16 reporting that 4.9 million migrants have crossed the border illegally since President Biden took office. Of that total,3.4 million have come from the southern border.

In 2019, in Nevada, the FBI Crime Data Explorer lists 309 violent crime incidents and 326 offenses reported by three Nevada law enforcement agencies. In 2021, the number increased to 11,872 violent crime incidents and 13,369 offenses reported by 56 Nevada law enforcement agencies.

Over the past two months, the Las Vegas Police Department has reported a 77% increase in its murder rate, along with a rise in rape, firearm cases and shooting victim reports.

Republicans on Homeland Security released a statement on the border that includes the number of encounters as well as this stat: "As of July 31, 66 people whose names appear on the terror watch list were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry this fiscal year."

They added, "In FY 2022, CBP has already arrested 23,264 individuals attempting to cross the border with criminal convictions and 627 known gang members, including 256 members of MS-13." Republicans said the Biden Administration and the federal government have a responsibility to secure the border.

Additionally, Sen. Cortez Masto voted against Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) motion to hire 18,000 new border patrol agents.

According to the Nevada Globe, Sen. Cortez Masto chaired the Nevada Board of Pardons Commissioners and served as state attorney general from 2007 through 2014 and voted “more than 75 times to minimize the sentences of violent criminals" according to a Senate Republicans ad.

Cortez Masto's campaign told the Nevada Independent this claim was "demonstrably false" instead claiming Cortez Masto "voted to commute the sentences of violent criminals 35 times, roughly 11% of the 321 votes she cast.”  "Numerous police groups" have switched their endorsement from Cortez Masto to her opponent, Adam Laxalt, according to the Nevada Globe.

It is a sentiment that Cortez Mastro does not share as attorney general, “she worked closely with local law enforcement to keep Nevada’s communities safe.” She pushed against sex trafficking rings in Nevada including passing a law making sex trafficking illegal. In a recent news release, she said she spearheaded an effort to secure $21 million for local law enforcement efforts in Nevada.

Cortez Masto also introduced the Fairness to Immigrant Families Act to the Senate on May 31. The bill would repeal “various admissions bars against aliens who were unlawfully present in the United States for certain amounts of time.”