Illegal aliens and crime are illegals getting breaks Americans don't ?

Question

Being an illegal alien can have its advantages -- if you're a criminal.

In our court system, it can lead to the dismissal of criminal charges against you, charges that would result in a penalty for the average American citizen.

Mecklenburg County Assistant District Attorney Stephen Ward says he regularly wastes time preparing cases only to show up to court and find out that the defendant he was prosecuting was an illegal alien and has been deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"They swoop them up without so much as a 'Do you folks mind?'" Ward says. "They take them and never tell us about it while I keep preparing for court."

Because the deportations are triggered by bond proceedings and occur before conviction, many illegal alien criminals are being deported from the country without being tried on the criminal charges that led to their arrests or serving time for their crimes.

That might be okay if they couldn't easily return to the country, but they often do. By then, the charges against them have often been dismissed and they return with a clean -- or cleaner -- criminal record.

It's what was in the process of happening in the case of Jose C. Rivera, an illegal immigrant who is accused of raping three Charlotte women. Rivera was charged with felony breaking and entering, felony larceny and resisting a public official in June. By July, with the charges still pending, he was in a federal deportation facility in Atlanta, on his way out of the country, when authorities discovered an apparent DNA match in the Charlotte rape cases.

Ward says he's "horribly frustrated" with the situation. While the district attorney's office doesn't keep statistics on how often it happens, Ward says it's "often."

"There are so many illegal immigrants," Ward says. "We see it with DWIs and all sorts of crimes."

When illegal alien criminals are whisked away by ICE, judges are unwilling to issue orders for arrest for failure to appear, since it wasn't technically the defendant's fault that he was unable to appear.

Ward says the district attorney could reinstate the charges if an illegal alien returned after deportation -- but he has no way of knowing that illegal aliens have reappeared in the Charlotte area after deportation. The overwhelmed county court system lacks a mechanism to catch new charges and restart the dismissed ones.

"That's what would have happened in this case," Ward says of the felony breaking and entering charges against Rivera.

ICE spokesman Richard Rocha says ICE deports illegal aliens like Rivera before they face the charges against them "in the interest of public safety."

Rocha says the agency does this because it fears that illegal alien criminals will disappear once they are released on bond. Judges, prosecutors and court officials are apparently often unaware of the residency status of illegal aliens when they make bond decisions, another gaping gap in the court system.

"If he got out on bond and re-offended, imagine the public outcry," says Rocha. "Who knows if he would show up for his court date? You don't want them out roaming the streets."

Rocha says that ICE decides whether or not to deport illegal alien criminals before they can be tried on their current charges on a case-by-case basis. If the charges were more serious, ICE would wait until after the illegal alien had served their sentence.

Unlike ICE, most people would probably consider the felony breaking and entering and larceny charges Rivera had racked up to be serious ones.

And as Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office Spokesperson Julia Rush points out, deporting illegal alien criminals before they can be tried and convicted on the charges against them leads to shorter criminal records. This in turn decreases the likelihood that they will be tried federally for the next batch of felonies they commit when they return from their deportation. While the plea deals and resulting sentences handed out for felonies in Mecklenburg County are often light, federal sentences are usually steep.

The situation has become more of a problem since the Sheriff's office launched a program that automatically checks the residency status of foreigners in the jail. ICE often deports those the sheriff catches. Before the sheriff launched the new program, illegal aliens were simply churned back on the streets because no one could determine their residency status.

Rocha says that the district attorney's office has the option to retain any illegal alien it wants to try. He questioned why the district attorney's office hasn't done so, saying the district attorney is made aware of the residency status of those they try. But Ward insists that district attorneys don't find out the status of inmates until they are long gone. If there is a breakdown in the system, Rush also couldn't point to exactly where it was.

So even pinning down who exactly is at fault for this hole in the system is difficult.

But what's clear is that the system favors those who return to this country after being deported to find felony charges against them wiped off their records. When you consider that American criminals may be serving jail time on similar charges, the situation is maddening.
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Answer 1

This is the sickest web of injustice ever perpetrated against law and decency in any country, at any time in history.

The opportunities and wealth at our disposal are here ONLY because of LAW and order. Illegal immigration has become a battle of reason vs "compassion". But the compassion is, in this case, a temporary comfort at best.

With the breakdown of law will come a return of the very cruel hand of nature unlike anything the modern world has seen. Warfare is definable. It is limited by the corruption of humankind. Nature's fury has no such limits.

Try wrestling infant mortality without pharmaceuticals and trained physicians backed by a massive system of communications, distribution, automated grain-farming, etc. In a word, it would be futile.

Law is the fabric on which our wealth and comforts are mere print. God forbid the decline we've effected in the name of "compassion". If we feel any concern for our fellow man - and especially for posterity - we'll opt for reason FIRST. Sustain and defend laws or face the tyrannies that law has sheltered us from for generations.




"Where there is no law but each man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the LEAST of real liberties."
Gen HM Roberts, "Roberts' Rules of Order" 1915

Answer 2

Thank you! You give very good points here. We can certainly blame the people for entering here illegally, etc, but the main concern it would seem, is our government. Right now, they may be so overwhelmed with this issue, not knowing which way to turn. In which case, take a cookie break, and afterward, just like cleaning up your room when you were a kid, they should begin sorting things, and tossing unwanted things out. It will take time, but will be well worth it in the long run. Mom, in this case - the people of the United States - will be pleased. I know this sounds harsh to many, and I am sorry. Were you, as a child, allowed to break your parents rules. Are you allowed to break the laws, so you can do what you want, when you want to. Both answers should be no. So why should we allow other people to break our laws, and then, pat them on the back by saying, oh honey, it's alright.. here, have a free ride and accept amnesty. Or, perhaps our government now merely wishes to play the little kid whose afraid of what might be out there, and hide their head beneath the blanket. After all, if you don't see it, it's not there. To our political officials: Please, GROW UP!!! Take responsibility, and do the right thing! To the illegals, I am sorry, but you all need to go home now. Fun time is over. Ask permission next time.

Answer 3

I prosecute cases in California. We deal with many illegals. We treat them the same was as any other criminal. If the INS places a hold on the defendant, then obviously they can not be given work release and so must do straight time, then the INS takes them and many times deports them. If not, then they have to follow the rules of their probation. Reporting, etc. If they get deported and then reenter the country illegally, and get arrested, then unlike their American counter-parts, they get no chance at reinstatement of probation, they go to prison and then are deported. They are worse off here not better off. Now, for those who think we are being vindictive against the illegal criminal, the fact is that we just cannot keep them on probation or we just go through the system time and time again, on the same case. If a witness to a crime is illegal, it is not a problem. We are not the INS, we don't report our case to the INS. As County prosecutors we deal with crimes and criminals and not with the issues of whether the defendant of victim is in the country with proper papers. We are here to try to make the streets safe.

Answer 4

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY STUPID I mean being part of the law system that's it's NOT true I'm from another country which make me a ALIEN that's mean that I would I have discount on traffic tickets,.. our warrens,.. or if I have to go to jail ? please let's me more smart about the only who can provide the sentence are the judges and now if the judge was a Latino well I'm sorry for you Buddy we're are winning you need to go to law school then,... this questions are like the school system on the ground.... lol

Oh by the way so if really you all want punishment for all well I'll make sure apply a law in Mexico for all Americans where if they commit a crime they would pay full sentence there with death penalty if it's up the level because if you want the same justice for all can be done,... so then they're not star crying that "I want my mammy"

and the law said that if you commit a crime where ever part in the US doesn't matter who did it they have to pay so of course would apply the sentence after that would be deport to there country because not all immigrants are from Mexico like a bunch of monkeys talk about it....

Answer 5

I think Americans are getting a few breaks as well. Just ask Paris, Nicole, and Lindsey.

Answer 6

Yes, it's true, if you are an illegal and you commit a crime, you are free to do it again. Crimes committed by illegals are preventable. Enforce our laws!

Answer 7

Absolutely sickening and maddening! Lets do something about it and keep holding rallies and being loud as hell to get our point across!

Answer 8

Maybe we need the death penalty for illegal aliens who commit violent crimes.

Answer 9

All the Americans have to stand together and fight it - not complain about it.
Most people don't like it but no nothing to stop it.

Something needs to be done.

Answer 10

We all have access to the news online. YA isn't meant to post news articles.