Posted on 07/20/2006 4:18:52 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
Illegal immigrant seeks order against husband. The judge tells her to get out or be deported.
A substitute judge hearing the case of an illegal immigrant seeking a restraining order against her husband threatened to turn her over to immigration officials if she didn't leave his courtroom.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Bruce R. Fink told Aurora Gonzalez during last week's hearing that he was going to count to 20 and that if she was still in his courtroom when he finished, he would have her arrested and deported to Mexico.
In an interview Wednesday, Fink said that the woman had admitted in court that she was in the country illegally and that he didn't want her to get in trouble with immigration officials.
"We have a federal law that says that this status is not allowed," Fink said. "You can't just ignore it. What I really wanted was to not give this woman any problems."
He said he thought the couple "obviously wanted to get back together" and that he was trying to avoid granting a restraining order that would keep them apart for at least a year. He said he also thought the court order might lead to Gonzalez's deportation, because her husband would not be able to continue helping her get legal residency.
Gonzalez could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Allan Parachini, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Superior Court, said the July 14 incident was under review. "We will take appropriate action after a full investigation of the circumstances," he said, adding that Gonzalez was welcome to refile for a restraining order.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"Kudos to the judge. Wish we had more like him."
What? There are plenty like him; it's call the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
We don't need people like him who are willing to turn a blind eye to illegal immigration - We need people who will respect and enforce the laws we have.
This guy should be removed from the bench!
He had his reasons evidently. I'll trust him to make those judgements.
Instead of reporting her husband or boyfriend to immigration. or going to her consul and having her legal system take care of this.
If they were trying to get back together, then why was this woman looking for a restraining order? It's basically telling the woman to go back to the abusive situation you were in and work it out. Do you also believe divorce should not be granted in cases of abuse? After all, the victim and abuser make amends after, at least until the next incident.
Wow. There's a surprise.
Do you see the point I'm making? By threatening her with deportation, which is outside this judge's jurisdiction, he was setting up a situation where a real crime, possibly mortal in nature, could occur. If the logic of illegal status = no criminal protection, then illegals would become less than animals.
How can her consulate help her? You think the police from her country can come up here and arrest someone abusing her or issue a restraining order that could be enforced here? It doesn't matter what your immigration status is, everyopne here has the same basic right to legal protection. It's the job of the police and courts here to take care of criminal matters here. This judge made a potentially grave mistake. You say it's her own free will if she is abused? So do you honestly believe that the victim chooses to be abused. Obviously this woman felt threatened enough to get a restraining order to prevent this guy from hurting her? Or are you of the persuasion that this woman's face just hit this guys fist and it's her fault?
Illegal immigration is a federal matter. It's technicaly outside this judge's jurisdiction. He has no charge to arrest her and all he can do is contact immigration. But he has nothing criminal to hold her and she would be released very quickly.
Our citizens have a right to protection by our law enforcement within our borders at taxpayer expense. Mexican citizens have a right to protection by their law enforcement within their borders at their taxpayer's expense.
Mexican citizens may have a reasonable expectation that we will help them get to Mexico, where their government can help them, but that is as far as it goes.
Actually, after she admitted to being in the country illegally, he had every right and obligation to order her held.
Chillax. You are imputing mindless and sinister purposes to the rulings of the judge when he was just trying to spare the woman other consequences. He undoubtedly has seen many of these cases. Perhaps he's wrong in this instance but there is no way for us to know that from this remove. Absent other information, I'll trust that the judge knew what he was doing.
No, citizenship has nothing to do with this. It is very ignorant to think that the police in a country have an obligation to protect only citizens or enforce laws with respect to citizenship. That is not how this country works. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in this country has a reasonable expectation of law enforement performing their duties. You may feel that only citizens are obligated to protection, but that is not reality and that will not change. The laws of the U.S. apply to everyone in the country, not just citizens. Otherwise, you will have a two tiered justice system. One for citrizens and none for everyone else. If law enforcement has an obligation to enforce laws when citizens are victims but not non-citizens or illegals, then you have created a criminal justice system that will turn a blind eye to crimes committed against illegals. That means barbaric exploitation of illegals can occur with impunity. You need to learn how the legal system actually operates because what you propose is dangerous.
You are imputing mindless and sinister purposes to the rulings of the judge when he was just trying to spare the woman other consequences.
The problem is that this judge doesn't know squat about immigration law. He may genuinely felt that he was doing her a favor or that he could deport her, but only an immigration court can do that. Secondly, absusive spouses don't just stop being abusive. If this woman needed protection, he should have granted the restraining order. Without the restraining order, she may well wind up in an emergency room getting medical care paid for by our tax dollars. I will grant you that the article doens't go into details about why she wanted the order. Lastly, and this is where the judge's knowledge of immigration law is flawed, if he did grant a restraining order, it would be a positive for her immigration status, not a negative. She may well have been there because a restraining order against an abusive spouse acts in her favor for immigration purposes. She becomes eligible for a green card because she is a victim of domestic violence. Here is the link to the government website that describes this:
http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/battered.htm
This woman's problem is that she likely did not have a lawyer competent in both immigration and criminal law.
My whole point here is that there seems to be some people here that feel a) an abused spouse doesn't need protection from their abusers, especially if they are here illegally and b) support state judges who know nothing of immigration law who make ill-informed immigration decisions which are outside their jurisdiction and c) crime is OK in the U.S. if it's against illegals.
He's not a judge in an immigration court. Stop projecting on these proceedings. We don't know what happened in that courtroom--- we weren't there.
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