Who commits crime in Eagle County?
Vail CO, Colorado
October 4, 2007
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20071004/NEWS/71004053
EAGLE COUNTY — Manuel Pilas sympathizes with illegal immigrants who want to follow the law. But he acknowledges that a criminal element exists in the valley.
“We live in a different world there,” Pilas said about his former home country, Mexico. “People have a hard time adjusting to the rules of the new country.”
Several illegal immigrants have been arrested for serious crimes in the valley recently, but residents say that most illegal immigrants are good people trying to make a living.
On Aug. 29, Jorge Valdez, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping his girlfriend at knifepoint in May 2006 at a Westlake Village apartment in Avon. Valdez terrorized the woman with a knife over a two-day period.
On Aug. 1, Gustavo Adolfo Aparicio Romero, 19, of Honduras, allegedly tried to strangle his 21-year-old ex-girlfriend in Nottingham Park, Avon police said. Included in his charges is attempted first-degree murder, police said.
Josue Roberto Delgado was arrested on suspicion of cocaine possession in January and re-entering the country illegally. Then on July 5, Delgado was arrested on suspicion for selling cocaine to undercover police in Gypsum, the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office said. Delgado sold the most drugs in western Eagle County of any other drug dealer, investigators said.
A bike path mugging around midnight July 30 in Avon netted arrests of brothers Bacilio Felipe Pacheco and Felipe Pacheco, of Mexico, Avon police said.
Colorado Senate Bill 90, approved May 1, 2006:
“A peace officer who has probable cause that an arrestee for a criminal offense is not legally present in the United States shall report such arrestee to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement office if the arrestee is not held at a detention facility.
“If the arrestee is held at a detention facility and the county sheriff reasonably believes that the arrestee is not legally present in the United States, the sheriff shall report such arrestee to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.”
Getting things ‘right’
Pilas first immigrated to the United States in 1980 and has never been arrested, he said. He went back and forth to Mexico and even overstayed his visa. Eight years later, he became a legal resident through an amnesty program.
Now he owns Santa Fe Furniture in Gypsum and has four children and a wife, Yolanda.
Violence is more prevalent in certain parts of Mexico than in the United States, said Pilas, originally of Puerto Vallarta. And drunk driving is not as taboo in some parts of Mexico, he said.
“They somehow tend to believe they are living in that same world,” he said.
Extensive background checks should be used for people who want to immigrate to the United States, Pilas said. And if Mexicans are willing to follow the law, the government should let them live in the United States, he added.
Many have families who and have to go back and forth to see them, which shouldn’t be a crime, he said.
“They want to get things right,” he said. “And the only thing they will never get right is their legal status and I sympathize.”
Most illegal immigrants follow the law, said Lydia Morales, manager of Aspens Mobile Home Village. Many are Hispanic and are good people trying to make a living.
“I don’t think their legal status has anything to do with whether they are committing crimes,” she said. “There are a lot of American-born people who commit crimes, too.”
Morales grew up in western Nebraska with 12 brothers and sisters. Morales’ parents punished all of the children if one did something wrong, she said. So the Morales children would pressure each other not to get into trouble, she said.
She sees the same kind of discipline in Hispanic families she knows, she said.
“Being Hispanic myself, I know how we’re raised,” she said. “We’re taught respect and to abide the law.”
Feds must prosecute
It’s unclear whether illegal immigrants are committing more or less crime each year. State law began requiring police departments to report the number of suspected illegal immigrants arrested to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement at the end of 2006, said Avon Police Chief Brian Kozak.
Avon police reported 30 suspected illegal immigrants they arrested to Immigrations and Customs from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31; Vail police reported six suspected illegal immigrants, authorities said.
“Avon P.D. notifies [Immigration and Customs] when we arrest a person and the officers have probable cause to believe the person is an illegal alien,” Kozak said.
The Eagle County Sheriff’s Office reported 102 people born outside the country jailed between July 31, 2006, and June 30, authorities said. That number includes those jailed by Avon and Vail police, but makes no distinction between those who are here illegally and those who are not, said Spokeswoman Sara Cross. The Sheriff’s Office reports suspected illegal immigrants differently, so it could not provide the same statistics as Vail and Avon, Cross said.
Immigration and Customs did not provide statistics for this article.
Last week, the Eagle County jail reported 15 out of 47 inmates to Immigration and Customs, said Jail Administrator Bill Kaufman. Most weeks, 30 to 35 percent of inmates are reported to Immigration and Customs no matter if they get a misdemeanor or felony charge, he said.
Jail staffers report people to Immigration and Customs if they say they are from a foreign country. Immigration and Customs then determines whether a person is an illegal immigrant, Kaufman said.
There’s no state law that bars people for entering the country illegally or remaining in Colorado illegally, so the Eagle County District Attorney’s Office does not prosecute, said District Attorney Mark Hurlbert.
“The feds do have a law like that so it’s up to them to prosecute,” Hurlbert said.
I'd say follow common decency and respect for your fellow man, but it seems as if even THAT'S too hard to figure out for some people....
and then....
On Aug. 29, Jorge Valdez, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping his girlfriend at knifepoint in May 2006 at a Westlake Village apartment in Avon. Valdez terrorized the woman with a knife over a two-day period.
Do I understand this person to be saying that the actions in the second quote is within the rules of the OLD country?
susie