Posted on 10/22/2005 12:06:44 AM PDT by dennisw
Murders of immigrants help prompt lawsuit against Homeland Security By ROSA RAMIREZ Hispanic Link News Service October 20, 2005
- The recent murders of six Mexican workers in Georgia underline various social issues facing immigrants, including inadequate housing and a lack of trust of financial institutions and local authorities.
Responding to these and other atrocities, a class action lawsuit was filed Oct 18 in Los Angeles on behalf of hundreds of undocumented immigrants living throughout the United States. The suit was directed at Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, pressing them to issue visas to immigrant victims of violent crimes who have cooperated with investigations or prosecutions of such crimes.
Five years ago, congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, which permits some undocumented immigrants who were crime victims to remain lawfully in the United States for humanitarian reasons.
To date, Chertoff has "flouted and violated this important law," according to the suit.
Gabriela Lemus, policy analyst for the League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington, says there is increasing evidence that crimes against immigrants are not being reported, particularly in emerging communities where a Hispanic infrastructure has not developed.
"The overarching immigration policy is very confusing. People don't know what their rights are," Lemus contends.
According to Luz Marti, a Hispanic advocate in Georgia's Tift County, where the latest killings occurred, inadequate housing likely contributed to the immigrants' vulnerability.
"The doors (of the trailers where the victims lived) were not strong. There were no working windows. In some trailers, windows were (covered) with towels or sheets," she says.
Marti says the crimes, which police maintain are not racially motivated, should serve as a wake-up call to Hispanics, law enforcement and the public about the challenges facing immigrants.
A series of mobile home invasions at four Tift County trailer parks Sept. 30 resulted in the six Mexican men being beaten to death, one woman raped and six other men wounded.
The victims have been identified as Mateo Gomez, 54; Jose Luis Tias, 20; Felipe Mauricio Esparza, 32; Armando Perez Martinez, 25; Mauricio Florindo and Guadalupe Sanchez. The ages of the latter two are unknown.
"We think these people were targeted because they carry a lot of cash," Marti says, adding that some immigrants keep their savings at home and usually pay with cash.
Four people have been charged with six counts of murder each, according to David Haire, public information officer with the sheriff's office in Tift County.
While the murders have shocked the local immigrant community, the Southern Poverty Law Center has produced several intelligence reports detailing attacks against Mexican immigrants throughout the country.
Is this the case where the Sheriff's response was to raise the Mexican flag along side the American flag outside the courthouse?
Are these people here legally?........
My guess is 90% are illegal aliens
Until then, they are just another liberal criminal enabling group that so very much needs to STFU.
Tifton mayor takes heat for flying Mexican flag Display at City Hall in memory of slain immigrants The Associated Press Published on: 10/07/05 TIFTON — Saddened by the killings of six Mexican immigrants in his town, Mayor Paul Johnson flew their country's flag outside his City Hall in their honor. Foreign flags weren't a first for the south Georgia city — Canadian flags routinely fly outside motels there in honor of snowbirds who drive through to spend their winters in Florida. Johnson didn't expect to be criticized for flying a Mexican flag. But a local radio station received seven back-to-back callers Thursday who said the U.S. and Mexican flags should not fly together. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/1005/07mexicanflag.html
Yeah they are blaming it all on Bill O'Reily.
Hmm. The article talks a lot about the crimes and the victims, but then at the end it only mentions that six people have been arrested, with no other information..... Um. The killers wouldn't ALSO happen to be illegal aliens, would they?
It's Bush's fault..... No, NO, wait- It's Bill O'Reilly's fault!
Well, the column (weakly disguised as reporting) refers to illegal aliens (er, "undocumented immigrants") twice in the beginning but then uses the lone word "immigrants" after that. So my guess is that the whole thing is about illegal aliens, and all the vics and perps mentioned are also illegal aliens.
The author's agenda appears to be 1. gain sympathy for illegal aliens, and 2. spend tax dollars which have been confiscated from U.S. taxpayers to buy split level houses for those illegal aliens.
Responding to these and other atrocities, a class action lawsuit was filed Oct 18 in Los Angeles on behalf of hundreds of undocumented immigrants living throughout the United States.
Five years ago, congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, which permits some undocumented immigrants who were crime victims to remain lawfully in the United States for humanitarian reasons.
Okay. It's no wonder then that the (obviously liberal) author didn't want to go there.
A good judge would toss this the fudge out of court. Are there any good judges though?
How about, "Go home to Mexico, where you will be both safer and happier."
If those immigrants are here illegally, then they should be deported now. There are laws on the books that prohibit anyone injured in the commission of a crime from profiting from their conduct.
The solution is so simple and obvious. Why the hell the US doesn't provide registration centers at the border to process these people as they come in is beyond me. Any number of ideas would certainly work better than the lack of system in place now. Such as granting temporary 6 month work visa's. For crying out loud what is so hard about this ?. Issue special social security numbers to each one, setup a special tax, setup a registration process. Put some of our own people back to work registering these people. Makes better sense to me rather than erecting a Multi Billion dollar concrete "Berlin Wall" at our southern border. But alas the real problem isn't that we actually want these people to be registered or paying their share of taxes or any of the other lame excuses we apply to these people. The real problem we have in this country about these people is that we don't want them here in the first place because we all know they are willing to work and produce for wages significantly less than what we are willing to accept. Perhaps now would be a good time to take a close look in the mirror and ask ourselves: (how much longer can I expect to suck my employer out of $25.00 per hour sweeping floors ?). Delphi seems to have a grip on the situation and I suspect General Motors and Ford are close behind.
How about the Americans that are murdered by illegals, other than 9/11 there have been many.
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