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
Another conservative who blames everyone but the drunk driver. "Scott Gardner's blood is on the President's hands"...LOL you sound like a liberal dramacrat again Janet.
Difference is, if the federal government did their job, they wouldn't have more drunk drivers and criminals in the country.
You got to be kidding me
North Carolina most wanted list has 6 guys on it.
Hey Bubba it's time to get out of the doenut shop and back to the office - there must be a line back there by now.
That drunk driver wouldn't have even been here if the immigration laws of this country had been enforced and if the judges weren't so liberal. He came back how many times to commit crimes??
Of course this scum is to blame, but there's lots of blame to go around, and GWBush and his buddies have had over four years to do something about this mess, and he (and they) haven't done squat.
Impaired?
So you've given up holding your breath and now you are making childish threats. Good luck.
Actually if the local Charlotte officials had done their job this guy would still be in jail for the first 3 DWIs. The "job" you expect the Federal Gov to do has been an on going problem since before Nixon. The difference is that Dubya has offered a possible solution and promoted debate on the issue unlike most of his predecessors.
'Dubya's solution is meaningless. It's a 'guest worker' program... which is nice, but it does NOTHING to secure our borders and deport peope here illegally. The only thing that will be solved by it is that more people will be here legally. It doesn't, and will not, judging by his track record, do ANYTHING about the ones here illegally.
WTF???
Yesterday it was about illegal alien gangs in Alabama, now this about North Carolina. It seems this has spread to just about everwhere.
So now liberal judges are Dubya's fault? You keep on diggin that hole.
GWBush and his buddies have had over four years to do something about this mess, and he (and they) haven't done squat.
Owen, Pryor, Brown, Roberts. Your propaganda has no resemblance to reality.
That's open to debate, but so far I haven't seen any other credible solutions. Where are the other plans?
You deny reality. GWBush IS a liberal, no better than the liberal judges who came before him.
I have lurked here and read about hundreds of good credible solutions, yet none as far as I know have ever been implemented. I am sure if you look back, you'll see many ideas and very good solutions.
The problem it seems, is that our government is not interested.
Thank you.
Politicians are always interested in what a majority of voters want. It does beg the question why defenders of the border have few political leaders to take up the cause.
I could not disagree more.
It's entirely possible you and I will never agree. Your home page is a tribute to Freeper personalities and lacks any substance on the issue of immigration. If your looking to fight with me I'm fine with that, but I thought perhaps you might know of a "conservative" solution I had not considered or heard of.
WTF???
If the prosecutors knew he was an illegal, they probably assumed that he had fled back to Mexico. It was probably just too much trouble for them to try to find him.
Nope. He has a valid viewpoint. He's wrong, of course, but we need to read his take.
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