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Posted on 03/19/2006 8:56:20 PM PST by Full Court
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Jefferson County judge ordering Hispanics to leave state
Sunday, March 19, 2006
JEFF HANSEN, KELLI HEWETT TAYLOR and DAWN KENT
Illegal Hispanic immigrants booked on minor offenses in Hoover last year were often put in jail without bond and ordered to leave the country by Jefferson County District Judge Robert Cahill, who is not an immigration judge.
Hoover officials call their actions good policing. They and Cahill say they have no arrangement to target Hispanics arrested in Hoover, a city coping with its uneasy role as a hub for Hispanic day labor.
But advocates and other legal experts question the practices that elevate misdemeanor cases like jaywalking to include felony charges and deportation.
Last year Jefferson and Shelby counties had at least 48 cases where Hispanics stopped for misdemeanors were found with false identification cards and charged with felony criminal possession of a forged instrument. In 25 of those cases, county district judges ordered that no bond be allowed, which meant defendants could not leave jail. Twenty-three of those 25 no-bond cases were Hispanics arrested by Hoover police.
Twenty-one of the 25 “no bond” orders came from Cahill, who is also a Hoover resident. The judge, a grandson of Italian and Irish immigrants, speaks his mind from the bench and counts police as his biggest supporters.
Cahill says he works hard to be accessible to officers when they ask him for search warrants or no-bond orders. “You don’t sit and play 20 questions when you have developed a rapport with them; if they have a reason, you accept it,” he said.
Beyond the no-bond orders, Cahill took a further step in 11 cases where a Hispanic defendant pleaded guilty in his courtroom - he banished the defendants from Alabama. Nine of the 11 Hispanics that Cahill ordered out of Alabama had been arrested by Hoover police.
Cahill, for example, ordered Leopoldo Chipahua-Gomez, who was 19 and said he worked at the Bottega Italian restaurant, “to leave Alabama and not return,” a Jefferson County court file shows. He ordered J. Carmen Pacheco-Villa, who was 38 and said he worked at the Birmingham Country Club, to “leave Alabama and USA.” And he ordered Gustavo Flores, 32, no occupation listed, to “leave Alabama and go to Mexico.”
Cahill said for years he has ordered defendants, not just Hispanics, to leave a city or leave the state. He said neither lawyers nor defendants have questioned such orders.
“If I can’t, somebody could appeal it,” Cahill said. “If I can’t do it, then someone should tell me I’m wrong.”
‘Unbelievable’
Legal experts say state judges ordering defendants to leave the country is out of the ordinary.
“That’s unbelievable,” said Judge John Hardwicke, when told of the “leave” orders. Hardwicke is executive director of the National Association of Administrative Law Judges, a nonprofit, professional organization of judges and other legal professionals based at the University of Baltimore’s School of Law. “I just don’t see constitutionally how that could be done,” he said. “A state judge has no authority beyond the territory of that state. Those are federal matters, not state matters.”
Others agree. “The only kind of judges who can order aliens removed from the country are immigration judges,” said Elaine Komis, spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the part of the U.S. Department of Justice that handles immigration cases. In some instances, other federal judges can also become involved in immigrant deportation, she said.
The director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild in Boston, which works on behalf of immigrants, says an Alabama judge enforcing immigration law is as inappropriate as if he were enforcing Mississippi law.
“I’ve never heard of this before,” said Dan Kesselbrenner, of the National Immigration Project. “Most judges realize it’s not their role. Immigration judges decide who can stay and who can go.”
Kesselbrenner said state law doesn’t allow banishment orders, and numerous appeals cases have upheld that position. Cahill said his own ethnic heritage, as well as his status as the first Republican Catholic elected to office in Jefferson County, makes him extremely sensitive to discrimination.
“You are not going to pick on someone intentionally because they are Hispanic - or Italian or Korean,” Cahill said. “But if they are charged with a crime, you don’t get a pass just because you are not a citizen.”
Spurs lawsuit The practices by Hoover police and Judge Cahill have prompted a class action lawsuit against Cahill, the City of Hoover and Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis.
The lead plaintiff is Anel Mancera-Ramirez, 27, an illegal Hispanic deported in 2005 by federal immigration agents. The cleaning worker was put in jail under a no-bond order from Cahill after she had a fender-bender accident in May. Hoover police found her false U.S. identification after she presented her valid Mexican voter ID.
Unable to understand English, Mancera-Ramirez said she had no idea why an officer handcuffed her. “When they put them on, I cried,” she said in a telephone interview from Mexico, speaking through an interpreter. “I’d never been arrested. I thought they were taking me to jail for not having a license and the next day I’d be given a ticket for no license and let go.”
Mancera-Ramirez said she spent two days in jail before learning the charges against her in a courtroom hearing. Her federal class-action lawsuit says her rights under the constitution were violated when police searched her purse without permission, found the forged U.S. identification, and held her without bond.
Mancera-Ramirez, who was held in jail three weeks before pleading guilty, charges that the city unconstitutionally used laws and ordinances to stop, arrest, detain, convict and deport Hispanic immigrants because of their race and ethnic origin.
Derzis declined comment because of the lawsuit. “We’re not responsible for them getting deported,” Hoover Assistant Police Chief A.C. Roper said. “We just make the arrests.”
Attorney George Huddleston III filed the class action lawsuit. He believes Hoover has worked with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to learn the best ways to take misdemeanors and establish the felonies needed for “no bond” orders and deportation.
“I believe they are cracking down on jaywalkers and those who reject seatbelts because they are cracking down on Hispanics, as the mayor and some of the City Council promised to do before taking office,” he said.
Ellis Bingham III, a Bessemer-based lawyer specializing in criminal immigration law, said Hoover police have long overreacted in immigration cases. The number of no-bond cases has declined since the class action lawsuit was filed, he said.
“That practice was really pushed by the City of Hoover,” Bingham said. “The climate has become a little more relaxed. This Latino community, for a period of about six months, was really stressed out over things like the dragnets set up by Hoover police. They did not want to pursue action because they were petrified.”
A jaywalker, a renter Hoover police reports show a variety of minor incidents led to arrests of people who were later charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument and then got “no bond” orders from Cahill at the Jefferson County District Criminal Court.
Many of the police reports said that the Hispanics who were arrested said they had bought their false identification cards for amounts ranging from $50 to $450. One man said he needed the cards to get work.
Targets of police? As a son of Greek immigrants, Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos says Greek was his first language. He bristles at the suggestion that Hoover targets Hispanics, though during his campaign, he stressed his interest in working with federal officials to crack down on Hispanic day laborers on Lorna Road.
In 2005, Hoover ended its lease with the Multicultural Resource Center assistance agency, forcing its relocation. The organization allowed Hispanics to gather and solicit work from the center’s parking lot. Hoover council members also passed an ordinance limiting housing and apartment occupancy to two adults per bedroom to address overcrowding. Opponents, including Hoover councilman Mike Natter, said the measures single out Hispanics.
The police do not target any specific group of people, Petelos said. “What matters is whether you’re violating the law.”
Petelos also said there is no arrangement with Cahill to set up a Hoover municipal immigration agency. The mayor has known the judge for years through his wife, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Teresa Petelos, but said he has not asked for Cahill’s help with Hoover’s Hispanic population. All three are Republicans.
Assistant Chief Roper said Hoover police “have no special arrangement with Judge Cahill beyond a good working relationship with him and various other judges.”
Police sometimes ask a judge for a higher bond amount or no bond, Roper said, and one of the primary factors is whether police can positively identify the defendant.
“If we can’t verify who the defendant is, it’s virtually impossible to have an expectation that that person will show up for court,” he said.
Others say the procedures are inconsistent. “There are U.S. citizens who don’t have birth certificates and they get bond,” said Kesselbrenner, of the National Immigration Project. “Immigration courts set bond all the time.”
Identity can be established through fingerprints, other documents, or the verification of family members, employers, Kesselbrenner said.
In 2003 and 2004, bonds were allowed in every case of Hispanics charged with criminal possession of forged instruments in Jefferson County’s Birmingham district, where Cahill is judge. In 2005, bonds were allowed in 16 of 40 cases in that district. In four of the cases where Cahill ordered no bond, a different judge later allowed bond.
Cahill said numerous legal channels exist for a client’s attorneys to request bond. “If any attorney is worth his salt, he says, ‘Judge, I want a bond hearing,’” he said.
In other Alabama counties with high Hispanic populations, bonds were allowed for those charged with criminal possession of forged instruments in 2005. They were allowed in all 11 cases in Franklin and DeKalb counties, and in both cases in the Bessemer Cutoff district of Jefferson County.
In Shelby County, bonds were allowed in five out of the six cases in 2005. The single no-bond order was an Hispanic arrested by Hoover police. Hoover lies partly in Shelby County.
What caused the sudden surge of Hispanics arrested with false identification in Hoover last year? Assistant Chief Roper said it was the result of ICE agents teaching Hoover police how to spot forged documents. Officers had begun to see more forged documents being presented, Roper said. “This issue is a national problem, but the only difference is our department has decided to do something about it.”
More than 70 officers from the traffic, patrol and investigations divisions had four training sessions with ICE agents in May 2005. Arrests of Hispanics for criminal possession of forged instruments rose sharply after that.
Both Cahill and Watkins said they had heard that ICE agents in North Alabama stepped up efforts in part of 2005 to deport illegal immigrants with false identification.
“I know for a while they were doing it, and then they didn’t have the folks to do it,” Watkins said. ICE officials declined comment. “Since apparently there is now litigation involved surrounding this issue, we will be unable to provide anything additional until the matter is resolved,” said ICE spokesman Temple Black, who is based in New Orleans.
Watkins said he and Cahill, who holds the same position, have never had a conversation about handling forged document cases.
“He does his court, I do my court,” Watkins said. Though Watkins did order three Hispanics held without bond in 2005, he said he is fair to Hispanics.
“I have hundreds and hundreds of traffic tickets with Hispanics,” Watkins said. “I give them time to pay. I dismiss cases. I’m treating them like any other person, whether they have green cards or not.”
Staff writers Jon Anderson and Kent Faulk contributed to this report.
MORE NEWS
• Banished • Cahill says he speaks for society in sternly dispensing justice • State soldier working to rebuild bomb-battered life
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Betcha poor Anel didn't have any car insurance either. I like this judge--we need thousands more like him.
Check out this judge ping.
Shocked to find the Birmingham Country Club listed here...I was raised in that club and never even saw a Hispanic person before moving to California...amazing.
Or does J-school make otherwise normal people despicable?
This kind of slanted reporting just infuriates me.
But they're not "biased". Oh, no! Perish the thought. They're moderate. And objective! Oh so objective.
Friggin' scum, shoveling smarmy abuse on an apparently honorable man, trying to do the job that society entrusted him with.
As you might surmise, I've had it with these unprofessional overeducated ut small-minded peckerwoods.
Count on it.
Wow, I really like this judge! More should follow suit and I think they will, since the Federal Government has abdicated its responsibility in protecting our borders.
These people are sworn to protect their local communities. The Government has boxed them in.
Judge John Hardwicke, previously the Chief Administrative Law Judge for the state of Maryland and now the Executive Director of NAALJ, maintains an office at the law school.
The National Association of Administrative Law Judges (NAALJ) announced it will move its headquarters from Chicago to the University of Baltimore School of Law, coinciding with the appointment of the state's former chief administrative law judge, John Hardwicke, as the nonprofit group's executive director.
Hardwicke will have an office at the school, where he will conduct NAALJ affairs and organize and promote its national conference, which will be held in Baltimore in November. The group has about 850 members.
In Maryland, the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) handles all contested state administrative law cases.
The National Association of Administrative Law Judges (NAALJ) is the largest professional organization devoted exclusively to administrative adjudication devoted to the executive branch of government. It is a non-profit corporation founded in 1974 in the state of Illinois. Its voting members include: state, federal, and local administrative law judges, administrative judges, hearing officers, referees, trial examiners, agency chairs and commissioners, as well as higher appellate authorities, exercising a wide variety of subject matter jurisdiction. Associate members include law professors and attorneys involved in administrative law. As of March 1, 2005 had approximately 850 dues paying members
Sigh...
There's no such thing.
They are illegal aliens.
What we get in return for massive illegal immigration:
Massive pollution on our border from refuse left there.
Closing hospitals that go bankrupt treating illegals.
Increased health care costs for Americans.
Overcrowded prisons....30% are illegal aliens.
Unlicensed, uninsured, often drunk drivers causing havoc on our roads
Diseases we had all but eradicated....multi drug resistant (MDR) TB, Leprosy, Chagas Disease(1 in 3 die), malaria, plague, polio, dengue, head lice, hepatitis A, B, and C.
Each illegal with MDR-TB coughs and infects 10 to 30 people, who will not show symptoms immediately. Latent disease explodes later.
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, was so rare in America that in 40 years only 900 people were afflicted. Suddenly, in the past three years America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy. Leprosy now is endemic to northeastern states because illegal aliens and other immigrants brought leprosy from India, Brazil, the Caribbean and Mexico.
Diesases that illegals are bringing to this country are a problem that will eventually get out of hand.
Increased crime, gang activity, particularly MS-13, identity theft, drug flow. smuggling, humand trafficking and slavery.
Higher taxes to cover costs of schools, police and law enforcement and maintenace of higher prison populations.
Increasing rate of unemployment of Americans who are displaced by illegals.
Depression of wages and a lower standard of living for many Americans
hitting hardest at minority workers and those without high school degrees
Draining off of our social benefits....36 to 42 percent of illegal aliens are on welfare.
Higher housing, food and energy costs.
Increased terrorism risks
Devaluation of our citizenship
Erosion of our national identity.
Lower tax revenues, since much of their work is off the books. Much of the economy is underground.
Illegal immigration also contributes to the dramatic population growth overwhelming communities across America--crowding school classrooms, consuming already limited affordable housing, and straining precious natural resources like water, energy, and forestland.
Illegal immigration causes substantial harm to American citizens and legal immigrants, particularly those in the most vulnerable sectors of our population--the poor, minorities, and children.
The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the average Mexican illegal alien costs U.S. taxpayers a whopping $55,000 each. Some bargain, eh?
To name just a few. Let me know if you can think of any more to add to the list.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
I love it.
Let me sleep on it.
I need to sign off.
I have pinged you back to the George Allen thread.
Answers are requested by a poster!
Felony jay walking? Man they're tough in Alabama.
Thanks....I responded!
And there is something wrong with various law enforcement agencies cooperating?
So9
She ain't got no rights under the constitution, because she ain't no citizen of the United States.
Period.
(And for all you idiots that wish to argue that, please tell me my rights under the Mexican constitution or whatever they call it.)
Why do these people continue to insist on this crap?
Is it because of the bleeding heart liberal kumbayah-chanting, birkenstock-wearing, warm and fuzzy nitwits?
Or is it some ambulance chasing lawyer who sees only a dollar to be extorted from the government?
No matter. We don't need either one in our society.
Nor do we need the illegal crybaby whining "immigrant".
I'm fed up with this crap.
My old neighborhood in Chicago was middle class and above the poverty level, but not anymore according to the US Census. It's now 98% 'Hispanic' (illegal Mexicans) and BELOW the poverty line. The result is that the white people (Poles, Lithuanians, Germans) - and their families, who've stayed have lost tens of thousands of dollars just for staying in an area that was once; neat, nice, quiet and safe.
The sad part is the change was litteraly overnight. It was like a horde of squatters magically appeared. Gone was the Burger King, KFC, the local mom and pop grocery stores, and all the Pizza joints - replaced by filthy taco stands and every freaking store sign in spanish.
A pox on Richie Daley.
"The director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild in Boston, which works on behalf of immigrants, says an Alabama judge enforcing immigration law is as inappropriate as if he were enforcing Mississippi law. "
Does this group find against liberal Supreme Court justices using non-US law to decide cases?
Can't have it both ways.
Not only that, but she was formally deported at least once and I believe that makes her presence here a felony.
The lead plaintiff is Anel Mancera-Ramirez, 27, an illegal Hispanic deported in 2005 by federal immigration agents.
Well, I think this sort of thing ought to happen more often. This is phase three of the solution to the illegal immigration problem.
2. Assess punitive fines on employers who knowingly hire illegals.
3. Detain and deport any illegal who comes in contact with an officer of a local, state, or national government agency.
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