Exclusive—Rep. Addison McDowell: Taking Back Our Streets and Sending Criminal Illegal Aliens Where They Belong

Right now in the 6th district of North Carolina, an illegal alien is being held at the Davidson County Jail. Her crime: sexual assault of a minor. Sadly, this story is not unique to my district; we have seen similar cases in states such as Virginia, Texas, Massachusetts, and New York.

This is the crisis we face all across America as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Czar Tom Homan get to work on finally removing criminal illegal aliens from our streets.

This case in my district raises serious questions — how was a known criminal illegal immigrant allowed to freely walk our streets? Why did ICE take her from the custody of local law enforcement only to release her? And most shocking of all, why was she released despite her presence on the Terror Watch List?

For the past four years, woke ideologues in Washington pushed their failed agenda in a desperate attempt to hold on to power. Joe Biden and his administration allowed criminals to live among us, putting American families in danger again and again, going as far as flying illegal aliens across the U.S., embedding them in our communities instead of deporting them on the spot. This was the central issue that motivated the American people to deliver President Donald Trump a historic mandate on November 5th, 2024 — one I hear loud and clear.

I intend to fight every day in Congress to deliver on that mandate. The people back home deserve safe communities—communities they can shape and be proud of.

Mercedesa Paun is a Romanian national who crossed the Southern border into San Diego in 2022. We are still uncovering the full extent of her criminal history, but we know for a fact that she was picked up by ICE at least twice since entering the country, only to be released back into our communities both times, despite being on the terror watch list.

We know that under President Biden’s watch, the United States released over eight million migrants throughout the country; and of that, 1.7 million are known “gotaways.” These illegal immigrants, many of which have criminal backgrounds, have evaded Border Patrol and are now embedded into our population. This raises major national security concerns.

Our law enforcement must know that there is a new Sheriff in town and that under the leadership of Kristi Noem and Tom Homen, the Trump administration has their back, ensuring that they can do their job to the fullest extent of the law.

Paun traveled halfway around the world and from coast to coast within the U.S., committing crime after crime. Her rap sheet places her in Minnesota, where she was arrested for grand larceny. There are serious questions to be asked about how she was funding this travel.

From Minnesota, she traveled south to North Carolina, where she was picked up in November 2024 on another grand larceny charge. Local authorities did their job—they filed the proper federal paperwork with ICE, and ICE took her into custody.

Two days later, she was released back into the public.

As the father of two daughters, I find this infuriating. My district spoke loud and clear on Election Day. The country voted for change. Yet the broken policies of Biden’s DOJ still allowed this criminal back onto our streets.

The Biden administration’s woke bureaucrats undermined public safety in favor of an ideology that was rejected by the American people. Under President Trump, Mercedesa Paun will be deported, but sadly we cannot restore a child’s innocence.

Weak Democrat leadership failed our country. They failed to uphold law and order. That ends now. Congress is working to codify President Trump’s executive order on immigration and deliver results for the American people.

I was sworn into Congress on January 3, 2025. Seventeen days later, President Trump took office for his second term. Under his leadership—with the will of the American people behind us—the federal government will restore order.

In just two weeks, President Trump has already taken decisive action to protect our border, forcing Mexico and Canada to commit to securing their sides of the border with troops and technology to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigrants into our country.

In my first month in Congress, I supported the Laken Riley Act, which President Trump signed into law on January 29. This was the first of many steps that the Republican Study Committee and House Republicans, at large, have taken to fix the Biden border crisis.

I truly believe we are entering a new era—one where law and order will be upheld — a time where the federal government prioritizes protecting Americans over appeasing globalists and coddling criminals. To ensure the previous administration’s mistakes never happened again, we need the answers to why exactly incidents like Mercedesa Paun’s happened in the first place.

Kristi Noem and Tom Homan, I’ve got one for you: come and deport Mercedesa Paun.

Rep. Addison McDowell is a freshman congressman from North Carolina’s 6th congressional district.

Breitbart