Posted on March 7, 2023

Two Suspected Illegal Immigrants Killed a Bald Eagle for Dinner. Federal Authorities Don’t Seem To Care.

Joseph Simonson, Washington Free Beacon, March 3, 2023

Two suspected illegal immigrants shot and killed a bald eagle with the intention of cooking it for dinner, and the town’s sheriff whose department arrested them says federal authorities, who could keep them behind bars, won’t return his calls.

The incident has left Stanton County, Neb., residents “disturbed” and “offended,” county sheriff Mike Unger told the Washington Free Beacon. And as of right now, the two suspects are allowed to roam the country freely. The two men were charged with misdemeanors, and Nebraska law dictates the pair can’t be held in jail before their March 28 trial.

The murder of the once-endangered bald eagle, the national bird of the United States, occurred on Feb. 28 after Stanton County police officers responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle outside of the Wood Duck State Wildlife Management. Officers at the scene discovered two Honduran nationals carrying the dead bird. They spoke no English and carried no form of identification other than documents from the Honduran consulate, Unger said.

Killing a bald eagle is a violation of the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, a federal law that carries a punishment of up to one year in prison. Federal authorities must bring those charges—in this case the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But Unger says he’s reached out repeatedly to the agency and has gotten only silence. {snip}

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“I’m trying to be as politically correct as possible when I say this but I don’t know what kind of third-world life they’re coming from, but it must have been pretty bad,” Unger said, before adding that his office will not release photos of the dead bird because it’s “very graphic” and “contains lots of blood.”

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