Posted on 07/21/2005 3:54:20 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak
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Prosecutors and law enforcement officials blame an understaffed, underfunded immigration system for failing to deport an illegal immigrant charged three times with driving while impaired -- before being charged again Saturday in the death of a Gaston County teacher.
Ramiro Gallegos, an illegal Mexican immigrant, remained in the Brunswick County jail Tuesday on charges that include second-degree murder and DWI following the crash in coastal Brunswick County.
Gallegos' truck slammed into a Subaru station wagon driven by Scott Gardner of Mount Holly. Gardner died. His wife, Tina, remains in critical condition. Their two children suffered minor injuries.
The case raises questions: why Gallegos was never deported, and why the stiffest sentence he got for DWI was 30 days in jail, after his third charge.
Lee Bollinger, an assistant district attorney in Brunswick County, said law enforcement officials rarely notify immigration officials when undocumented residents are charged.
"Law enforcement officers ... will tell you it does no good to report cases to (immigration officials) because they have so few agents that nobody shows up," he said. "Common sense tells you when you look at the number of illegal immigrants here in North Carolina, it's pretty clear that we don't have the resources to keep these people out."
North Carolina has about 300,000 illegal immigrants, one of the highest populations in the country, according to one recent study.
North Carolina has a single deportation officer. He's among fewer than 10 people in North Carolina who work for the Department of Homeland Security's Detention and Removal Operations.
Sue Brown, a spokeswoman for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said immigration authorities arrested Gallegos in 1998. But neither the reason nor the result of the arrest were available.
"We have finite resources like everybody else," Brown said. "And with 100 counties in North Carolina and the DWI cases that come every week, it's kind of staggering. So we're constantly reassessing where to put our resources."
According to records, Gallegos was first charged in early 2002. But prosecutors dismissed the case when he failed to appear in court. His first DWI conviction came in 2002 in Duplin County. His sentence: probation.
In April 2004, Gallegos faced a third DWI charge, in Brunswick County, when he registered a blood alcohol level of 0.16 percent, twice the legal limit. The Supply resident was found guilty of DWI Level 1, the most serious level.
Records show that Judge Tom Aldridge ordered a two-year prison sentence, the maximum. But he suspended that sentence and allowed Gallegos to spend 30 days in jail, serving those days over a period of 15 weekends. He also ordered 30 months probation, $600 in fines and $740 in restitution.
On Tuesday, Aldridge refused to accept blame for the lighter sentence or for not addressing the suspect's immigration status. In fact, he said he can't recall the suspect's name and doesn't like to discuss his judgments.
He said in 10 years on the bench, no officer or prosecutor has ever mentioned a drunken driver's immigration status.
"Nobody has ever told me that any of the Hispanic people that are through here are legal or illegal," he said. "It just has never been an issue that has been raised or addressed." -- STAFF WRITER MELISSA MANWARE CONTRIBUTED.
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© 2005 Charlotte Observer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.charlotte.com
Just killin' the americans ordinary americans refuse to kill!
Yeah, that's about right. $740 for killing the father and severely injuring the mother of some kids.
North Carolina has a single deportation officer.
How many agents are in NC looking to bust pot smokers?
...an illegal Mexican immigrant, remained in the Brunswick County jail Tuesday on charges that include second-degree murder and DWI following the crash in coastal Brunswick County...
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Just another illegal doing a job American's don't want to do...
Seems to me North Carolina officials would have been justified in just rowing this guy out to the state line on the East Coast and dropping him off to make his way back home.
One judge lets off a convicted sex offender to commit again, another lets off a drunk-driving illegal alien to commit again...
WTF???
Scott Gardner's blood is on the hands of our politicians who refuse to enforce the immigration laws of America, and that includes GWBush, who has had over four years to address this invasion of criminals and hasn't.
Oh, we have the resources. We're dropping a billion per day in Iraq. We have the resources, we simply lack the will. One party is too busy courting the votes of illegal immigrants, and the other party is too busy courting the contributions of the corporations that employ them. In the middle are people like Scott Gardner and his family, totally screwed by a system that could care less.
Send a link to this article to all our leaders who refuse to address this problem. Ask them to justify this man's death.
Quite honestly, this article says as much about our pathetic response to repeat DWI offenders as it does about our pathetic response to illegal immigration.
The case raises questions: why Gallegos was never deported
For me, it raises a much different question: Why have we allowed 20,000,000 or so just like him to come here illegally?
This stuff happens every day...
Go back and read the first sentence of this article again. This was his 4th offense.
Illegal aliens and their fans and enablers are a danger to this country.
Exactly, and every time it happens we I'll send the article to Frist, DeLay, and anybody else in a position of power who allows this to happen. I hope everybody else will do the same.
If the authorities cannot or will not remove the illegals, then the citizenry must intervene.
bump
Scott Gardner's blood is on the hands of our politicians who refuse to enforce the immigration laws of America, and that includes GWBush, who has had over four years to address this invasion of criminals and hasn't."
I doubt if Bush or any other politician will lose any sleep over Scott.
Now, if Jenna was killed by a DUI illegal........
ping
What ever happened to issuing an arrest warrant? This is unbelievable, so if I commit a crime in NC, the best way to get off isn't to hire a lawyer, it's to just not show up in court?!?
While I don't think we should ignore drugs, I agree that we should put more emphasis on illegal aliens than drugs, if it's an either or thing.
susie
This will be a LANDMARK case.
Or... what in the hell was this guy thinking? I mean... putting your family in a Subaru?
Sorry, I feel for the guy's family but if the illegal alien Mexican didn't get him, the next "legal American" drunk would have caused just as much damage.
Any bets on how it'll go?
Judges, politicians, celebrities, are,as a rule, not held responsible for the consequences of their actions.
The refusal to enforce immigration laws by our elected officials has caused too many deaths of American citizens!"
Don't you know that the ends justify the means.
We're too stupid to know that world government is good for us and we resist losing our soverinity, so they have to lie to us,trick us, and commit unconstitutional,criminal acts to save us from our selves.
The U.S. is still a great place to live, but it's not as great as it was 20, 50, or 100 years ago, unless you are one of the privaledged elite.
"How many agents are in NC looking to bust pot smokers?"
You can bet that they have into the hundreds going after drugs and things like seat belts enforcement and whether your child is in a car seat or code enforcement or speeding traps. They seem to have plenty of cops to harrass the common citizen but can't find enough people to enforce immigration laws.
One of your drunken murduring illegal alien brothers need some support on this thread!!
I just started doing this a little while back, so I have not received any responses. I'd like to see what happens though if everybody on this forum who thinks this is disgraceful started doing the same thing.
Again, nothing but insults from the Antis.
It sounds like an excellent idea. I was just hoping to hear that they actually responded to you! I sent out some faxes during the Terri thing, and never heard one single response.
susie
As is the blood of a buddy of mine's twelve year old daughter, killed while roller skating through a crosswalk by an illegal alien right in front of her father.
The illegal ran from the scene and ended up in Mexico. Like so many other illegal alien criminals, he had such contempt for US law that he snuck back in later and luckily was collared.
I will read the article and give you a serious reply.
You supporting and enabling criminals is an insult to me and my country.
Are you going to come to his aid or not?
My aunt was run down in a crosswalk by an illegal alien and almost died. She spent a year in the hospital and rehab learning how to walk again. She never did find out what happened to him.
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
1. The act of invading; the act of encroaching upon the rights or possessions of another; encroachment; trespass.
Hopefully I will get a response. I was actually hoping to get the message out there, maybe through creating a website, that gathers all of these trajic stories and allows people to send them to their congress men and women. I really want to get this message out. Tragedies such as these are always tough to deal with, but knowing that they are entirely preventable makes it even worse. Anybody who has any ideas just let me know.
It's not an uncommon story, and each time it happens the citizenry expresses its outrage at the judge and prosecutors who repeatedly return drunk drivers to the streets to drive drunk again.
But wait! Something is different this time. The citizenry on FR is not outraged at the behavior of the Judge and prosecutors. Not one word of condemnation of the Judge and prosecutors comes from the Antis.
To a three year old with a hammer, everything looks like a nail, to an Anti every problem looks like an immigration problem. Crowded hospitals; seal the border. Crime; seal the borders. Welfare abuse; seal the borders. High real estate prices; seal the border. Repeat DWI offenders; seal the border. Terrorism; seal the border.
You see. the Antis don't really care about DWI deaths, or crime, or welfare abuse, or crowded ERs; they care only about one thing: "illegal" aliens. (that's giving them a great deal of the benefit of the doubt)
He's here.
Declaring illegals as residents now.
Such a needless tragedy! I see that you're in California too, where we read stories about the crimes of illegal aliens here on a daily basis, and yes, most of them end up in Mexico, only to cross back over with new identities.
I'll never understand why that filthy border wasn't closed tight after 9/11/01, yet it's still virtually open. Our politicians are definitely to blame. I wonder how they sleep at night.
If he had been deported per existing law he would not have committed murder in America.
Dispute this fact.
To a three year old with a hammer....
He's a cartoon character fancying himself some kind of martyr to some noble cause - a parody of himself.
Cops in Nashville (a safe haven according to illegales) routinely let them go for vehicular citations that you or I would have to post bond for.
Why?
They claim it's too expensive to hold them for INS that may or may not come for them.
My own brother has witnessed this first hand downtown in the "party district" of Broadway and Second Ave.
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