If you want to travel in trendy circles these days – on either side of the Atlantic – there are two absolute requirements. You must stand for the abolition of national borders and the abolition of Israel.
Jamey Carney was the living embodiment of this phenomenon – emphasis on was. She was a well-educated 43-year-old single mom from the upscale suburbs of New York City, living in an upscale housing development in Ireland. There she became romantically involved with a 28-year-old asylum-seeking Jordanian migrant, and spent some of her free time posting social media videos opposing immigration enforcement and attending Free Palestine protests. It was at one of these rallies where she met Ahmad Al-Saqer.
Carney was found dead on July 7 in her bed (by her 13-year-old daughter), having been brutally beaten before being suffocated. The prime suspect in her murder is Al-Saqer.
What is known is that Al-Saqer had spent time in France and Northern Ireland (part of the UK) before crossing into Ireland, where he requested asylum in 2024. His request was denied, but Irish authorities allowed him to remain in the country anyway. The morning following the murder, he was spotted boarding a bus from Killarney, where Carney lived and was murdered, heading to Dublin. From there, he purchased a last- minute ticket on a flight bound for Istanbul. Irish police think he likely crossed from Turkey into Syria, before returning to Jordan (the country he claimed was persecuting him), where he was reportedly arrested by Jordanian authorities. What happens next is unclear, as Jordan does not have an extradition agreement with Ireland.
Also unclear is how Al-Saqer managed to flee Ireland. Asylum seekers in Ireland are required to surrender their passports when they apply for protection. His ability to board an international flight bound for a non-EU member nation suggests that either his passport had been returned to him when he was denied asylum, or he held a second passport. In all likelihood, Al-Saqer was one of millions of economic migrants exploiting the European Union’s humanitarian policies.
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Ireland, like just about every other Western nation, has experienced a spike in asylum seekers and immigration in recent years. Prior to 2019, about 5,000 people a year sought asylum in that country. By 2024, that figure had more than tripled to 18,500, the vast majority having transited through other EU nations.
And, as in just about every other Western democracy attempting to absorb large numbers of migrants who share little in common culturally with the host country, these policies have caused friction, often along class lines. Mass immigration and abuse of asylum are broadly opposed by poorer and working-class citizens. Among economic and political elites, and a network of NGOs and service providers – largely untouched by crime and competition for jobs, housing and other services – support for unfettered immigration is not just a badge of their social consciousness, but an opportunity to scold their less-fortunate countrymen for their perceived selfishness.
Jamey Carney unfortunately found herself at the nexus of the two radical-chic causes sweeping the West: Free Palestine and mass immigration-driven multiculturalism, the latter of which likely cost her her life. When she wasn’t on the streets of Dublin supporting Iranian-backed terror groups with her boyfriend, Carney was making videos celebrating her “multicultural relationship,” decrying ICE enforcement of immigration laws in her home country and mocking the sexual prowess of men who support ICE.
These twin causes, which attract a preening class of people who want to feel as though they are on “the right side of history,” tend to be promoted and financed by interests whose motives are neither benign nor even particularly concerned about the well-being of migrants or people in war zones. Rather, investigative reporting by a congressional committee, Fox News, Commentary magazine, the Federation for American Immigration Reform and others have produced compelling evidence that their true goal is to undermine the social fabric of Western societies.
These dedicated agitators have become adept at exploiting the desire of elitist Westerners who need to feel that they are part of noble causes, even if those causes are anything but. “Radical moralism” is a luxury belief. For those, like Ms. Carney, whose jobs, communities, or security are not threatened by open borders, asylum abuse, the lack of cultural assimilation, or global terrorist groups, taking the side of the perceived underdog can feel exhilarating and expiating. Until it turns tragic.
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