This fellow was charged for driving without a license. The business had been opened 3 weeks. I'm sure his insurance will cover the damages. This happened Saturday in Dalton, GA. Photo courtesy of Daily-Citizen News.
Posted on 05/08/2006 4:18:15 AM PDT by Man50D
VERO BEACH — Every Tuesday morning, about two dozen men and women, sometimes more, huddle quietly in an alcove on the second floor of the Indian River County Courthouse. An interpreter speaks to them briefly before they file into a courtroom to answer criminal charges they have little power to contest.
They are illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico, who have been charged with driving a vehicle without a valid driver's license. The courtroom scenes are repeated each week in courthouses in St. Lucie and Martin counties as well.
The defendants are non-English speaking citrus harvesters, construction workers, landscapers or manual laborers who exist in Florida's shadows and have virtually no understanding of the American legal system.
But when police pull them over and they can't produce a driver's license, they find themselves ticketed and given a court date, or even jailed and their vehicles impounded.
Supporters of illegal immigrants say they should be granted driving privileges to enable them to maintain jobs, and some claim the immigrants are unfairly profiled by law enforcement.
But judges, prosecutors, police officers and jail officials say they are following laws intended to keep Florida's roadways safe.
"Close-minded people want to make criminals of the people working in the fields, in hotels and restaurants," Fellsmere restaurant owner David Almanza said. "Giving them a driver's license would clear up a lot of problems because they'd have to pass driving tests, become more educated about our laws and they'd be able to insure their cars."
Indian River County Judges David Morgan and Joe Wild say they issue standard penalties of $415 for driving without a license.
'Extremely frustrated' In Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County Judge Philip J. Yacucci Jr. said he is "extremely frustrated" by the lack of a coherent federal policy on immigration because he sees 30 to 40 unlicensed immigrants in his courtroom each week.
"The federal government is hypocritical because it has zero policy to remedy illegal immigration," Yacucci said. "We're left at the state level to deal with the problem."
Thomas Genung, trial court administrator for the 19th Judicial Circuit, said determining a defendant's citizenship in traffic court "is not an element of the law." In fact, as the number of illegal immigrants grows, the 19th Circuit has "an increasing need for Spanish-speaking interpreters," Genung said.
Assistant State Attorney Ed Taylor of Indian River County said immigrants can be deported if they accumulate three misdemeanor offenses, but he does not recall such a mandate being carried out.
'Their problem' Morgan said the citizenship issue doesn't come up in his misdemeanor court hearings.
"If they are here illegally, that's their problem," Morgan said. "If someone appears before me for driving without a license, whether they're a gringo or an immigrant, I don't have a problem with punishing them.
"But if I went to Mexico, Peru, Spain, Russia or someplace else, it would be prudent for me to check out their rules before I went there."
Police throughout the Treasure Coast do not ask traffic offenders for proof of citizenship.
Vero Beach Police Lt. Kevin Martin said when a driver has no license or identification, the offender's thumbprint is put on the citation, which is filed with the national Automated Fingerprint Identification System.
"It's up to immigration to contact them at that point," Martin said.
Scott Melanson, police chief of Fellsmere, where the population is 73 percent Hispanic, says: "Whether they are citizens or not has nothing to do with the job we are doing during a traffic stop."
But Melanson added: "If a guy says he's Hector Gonzalez and he has no ID, he could be a mass murderer who is wanted in Texas. So he needs to be booked and fingerprinted."
Fellsmere City Manager Jason R. Nunemaker said a recent study showed that of 552 traffic stops in Fellsmere during a five-month period ending in February, 102 drivers did not have a driver's license.
Legally flimsy Vero Beach attorney Stephen Fromang said he believes some traffic stops are legally flimsy, but he says immigrants don't fight citations for fear of being deported.
"If these people contested the charges, 90 percent of the time the state would drop the case because there was no probable cause for the stop," Fromang said.
But Wild said: "Any attorney who says these cases can't be contested is full of baloney. The immigration service wouldn't know if a defendant requested a jury trial or filed a motion to suppress. The reason these tickets are not contested is because they know they are guilty of the offense."
Barbara Gonzalez, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami, said all illegal aliens are subject to deportation.
But Gonzalez added: "We do have our priorities, and we focus on people who pose a public safety and national security threat."
Captain Bill McMullen, director of Indian River County Jail, said detainees are asked their place of birth at booking. He said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Fort Pierce are notified if a detainee appears to be illegal.
"Of course, people have the opportunity to not tell us the truth about where they were born," McMullen said.
And then motor-voter laws register them to vote.
On Fox yesterday they showed "day laborers" loitering and someone asked them to leave and they are now being represented by major socialist law firms because they have "rights".
Where this is all headed is that the whiny employers who are giving them jobs will soon discover that they will be sued for not paying a fair wage etc etc etc. They will get all they deserve for being greedy and above the law.
NOW what needs to happen is to get them all off of welfare and medicaid immediately at the very least ENFORCE those laws!
IF there would be a major crackdown and all welfare benefits were taken away they would leave.
But stop this breaking and entering "misdemeaner" and stealing of welfare benefits start enforcing the law because what happens when lawlessness in a country is allowed and encouraged???
And they can vote socialist liberal.
"Supporters of illegal immigrants say they should have licenses..."
Boo-fricking-hoo! Get out of my country!
"Giving them a driver's license would clear up a lot of problems because they'd have to pass driving tests, become more educated about our laws and they'd be able to insure their cars."
Insure their cars?! ROTFL! Like that will ever happen...
This fellow was charged for driving without a license. The business had been opened 3 weeks. I'm sure his insurance will cover the damages. This happened Saturday in Dalton, GA. Photo courtesy of Daily-Citizen News.
They will never leave they now have law firms protecting their "rights".
Socialism has now reared its ugly head and it's here to stay.
It boggles the mind:
They are not supposed to be here but we authorize them to drive here. Huh?
"Close-minded people want to make criminals of the people working in the fields, in hotels and restaurants," Fellsmere restaurant owner David Almanza said.
Don't you just love the nasty way people who disagree with cretins like Dave Almanza describe are described.
Tell Dave to pay a living wage and have him send his country men home to try immigration the legal way.
Adios Davey!!
For "Thunder on the Border," click the picture:
Seems to me that providing a DL to someone who cannot prove *legal* residence in the United States is violating federal law.
Federal Immigration and Nationality Act
Section 8 USC 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv)(b)(iii)
"Any person who . . . encourages or induces an alien to . . . reside . . . knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such . . . residence is . . . in violation of law, shall be punished as provided . . . for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs . . . fined under title 18 . . . imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both."
One of those renegade SUV's again. Just can't control them.
They should! And after each pays the fine for not having a license to drive, they should be TRUCKED en masse to the nearest border.
Why not just give them the whole country.
They are special, they don't have to obey laws because they work cheap.
Hell, why not give them each a car to get them started and pay for their first year of insurance, we pay for everything else. /sarc
As my mother used to say, "You can tell just by looking at them."
""If they are here illegally, that's their problem," Morgan said. "If someone appears before me for driving without a license, whether they're a gringo or an immigrant, I don't have a problem with punishing them."
"Indian River County Judges David Morgan..."
Nice parsing of language here..."gringo" substituted for United States Citizen...
ping
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