By Ray Cardello for August 24, 2025, Season 32 / Post 26

They live among us, usually unnoticed. They are the cashier at the local supermarket. They are the laborer working for the contractor you hired for your home remodel. They are working the fields, picking the fall harvest. They may be driving the car that delivered your pizza last night. Yes, they may even be driving that 18-wheeler on Route 95. They may be blending into the Maine culture seamlessly, until something happens that exposes them doing something they were not prepared or trained to do. Then we have a headline news event as Mainers may have been hurt or worse, killed, by the actions of these illegals in our neighborhoods. The event may be an accident, or the act of a deranged person who should not be walking among us. Both scenarios reared their ugly heads this past week in Maine, exposing a serious issue that we must address in Maine and throughout the land. Who is living among us, and do they have a right to be in our country, and are they doing things that may harm other people?

Lionel Francisco, 31, an illegal immigrant from Angola, was driving on Friday afternoon when he allegedly crashed into and killed a Massachusetts woman in Lewiston’s Kennedy Park. At the time, Francisco was operating under a Maine learner’s permit.

As a result of its continued investigation, Wilson Antonio Pedro, 34, a passenger in the car, held a Maine driver’s license. Pedro has also been taken into ICE custody. He is currently being held in the Strafford County Jail in New Hampshire, which partners with ICE to hold illegal immigrant prisoners awaiting deportation. Francisco is being held in the same facility. Neither of these illegals should have possessed the permit or license, and because they did, and drove a car illegally, an innocent woman is dead.

On Thursday, the DHS revealed that, just one day after Francisco’s driving killed a Massachusetts woman, another Angolan illegal immigrant struck and killed a pedestrian in New Gloucester. Mukendi Mbiya, 49, of Angola, reportedly struck and killed Stacy Strattard, 64, of Gray, as she was crossing the street last Saturday. Another innocent person is dead because illegal immigrants were driving on our roads with no legal right to do so.

Hallowell Police arrested Zuniga Balderas following an alleged sexual assault against a 25-year-old woman that reportedly took place on Front Street outside a former nightclub. After the arrest, federal immigration authorities informed the local police chief that Balderas was a Mexican citizen who had overstayed a work visa and was therefore in the U.S. illegally. Balderas was reportedly living in Augusta and working illegally as a roofer, and he had a temporary driver’s license issued in Georgia. Balderas now faces charges of gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual conduct and was held without bail on the criminal charges. A Maine woman now lives with the trauma of being sexually attacked.

When are Blue State politicians going to concern themselves with the safety of their constituents over the “rights” of illegals? This is not a race issue, for it does not matter where the illegal immigrants came from; they are in this country illegally and are being issued legal documents, like driver’s permits or licenses, without merit. Sanctuary cities or states are putting Americans at risk, and it is time that people responsible for declaring sanctuary environments are held accountable and voted out of office. We are a country of laws, and when rules are circumvented, innocent people pay with their lives.