Posted on 01/19/2009 12:03:44 PM PST by AuntB
Cindy Tracy is not impressed with proposed legislation from Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., that would make a third conviction for driving while intoxicated a deportable offense for an immigrant.
The man accused of killing her 16-year-old daughter, Kelly, in a November car crash in Gilbert had one prior DUI conviction. He admitted to police that he had been in the country illegally for 14 years.
"Three is way too many," said Tracy, whose 17-year-old son was also injured in the crash near Guadalupe and Sossaman roads as he and Kelly were on their way to the Gilbert Days Parade as part of Highland High School's marching band.
"You're just waiting for him to kill someone or lots of someones," Tracy said. "It doesn't take much to kill a person in a car. It's a weapon if you're a drunk. I think three strikes and you're out is way too lenient."
Flake's bill would make a third conviction for DUI a deportable offense under federal immigration law. It would apply to both legal and illegal immigrants.
Though the most significant impact of the legislation would be on legal immigrants, Flake couched it as an attempt to toughen laws against people in the country illegally.
"People have a hard time understanding, justifiably so, that this doesn't have immigration consequences and these people keep coming back," Flake said Wednesday of multiple DUI convictions. "On its face, it needs to be corrected. This is one that people are justifiably very upset about, and it should be dealt with."
Being in the country illegally is itself a deportable offense, said Vincent Picard of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Phoenix.
However, a Mexican national caught in the country illegally has the option of taking voluntary deportation rather than going through an administrative hearing process. Voluntary deportations do not go on a person's record. Forced deportations do, and bar that person from legally entering the United States for 10 years, said Picard, stressing he is not familiar with Flake's proposal.
A person who re-enters the country after a forcible deportation also faces felony charges.
3 dui's??? By the third one, the alien will have killed someone driving drunk. He won't be punished for the first two, because what can anyone do to him....probably using false ID and has 3 dui's under each name!
PLEASE, Arizona, get rid of this guy along with McCain!
OK, 3 DUIs is reasonable for deporting an legal resident with foreign citizenship.
ONE ARREST FOR ANYTHING should be a deportable offense for someone who has violated our sovereignty by entering this country illegally.
Why is this so controversial?
Don’t most countries do this? I think that Mexico will imprison repeat offenders who enter its country illegally. Why are we ‘racist’ for expecting the same sovereignty over our territory?
Being here illegally in itself should be a deportable offense.
If Flake is the best the republicans have, boy are they in deep doo doo.
“Being here illegally in itself should be a deportable offense.”
It is. Flake would weaken existing law.
Dick Cheney is an immigrant? Who knew?
Adios!
What's going on is our need to judicially punish offenders. That's fine. But upon release they should automatically be deported. Or let non-violent offenders voluntarily be deported.
Why don't we adopt the same immigration policies and treatment of illegal aliens as Mexico? Fair's fair.
ping
as usual incompetence in legal reporting.
dui’s are generally misdemenors.
they become felonies GENERALLY when there is serious bodily injury (death, broken bones, coma)
up to now the misdemenors did not make the person deportable unless it was trafficing in drugs related or fraud related.
The slimy thing about this reporting is that it gloses over the fact that 100% of ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS are totally deportable for being in the USA ILLEGALLY.
This reporter is confusing legal and illegal and deportation hearings.
“up to now the misdemenors did not make the person deportable unless it was trafficing in drugs related or fraud related.”
Wait a moment. Is not the remedy for entering the country illegally DEPORTATION? Forget the other crimes. The law provides illegal aliens be deported unless you can show me otherwise.
“So, I’ll give a bit of mercy for a recent Green card holder who makes a mistake by having a bit too much to drink at a bar and getting behind the wheel”
One DUI for any immigrant legal or illegal should be a felony, prison term and deportation!
How about if you’re caught being here illegally you’re deported? What kind of madness have we embraced that someone here ILLEAGALLY has to do something ELSE illegal to get deported??????
"In addition to sneaking into the country in violation of the immigration law that requires that aliens be documented for legal entry (referred to as "entry without inspection -- EWI"), others enter with legal documentation and then violate the terms on which they have been admitted by taking jobs that are not authorized or overstaying the authorized period of stay in the country. The INS estimated in 1996 that about 60 percent of the then estimated five million illegal immigrants were EWI and 40 percent were overstayers. Both types of illegal immigrants are deportable under Immigration and Nationality Act Section 237 (a)(1)(B) which says:Mb> "Any alien who is present in the United States in violation of this Act or any other law of the United States is deportable." http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERENCE/isacrime.html
The law hasn't changed. Illegal aliens are to be deported when found.
"The Roman Republic fell, not because of the ambition of Caesar or Augustus, but because it had already long ceased to be in any real sense a republic at all. When the sturdy Roman plebeian, who lived by his own labor, who voted without reward according to his own convictions, and who with his fellows formed in war the terrible Roman legion, had been changed into an idle creature who craved nothing in life save the gratification of a thirst for vapid excitement, who was fed by the state, and who directly or indirectly sold his vote to the highest bidder, then the end of the republic was at hand, and nothing could save it. The laws were the same as they had been, but the people behind the laws had changed, and so the laws counted for nothing." - Teddy Roosevelt
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Jeff Flake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Every crime committed by an illegal is a preventable crime.
“Rep Jeff Flake is an arrogant libertarian. Open borders basically. Why he is sponsoring any bill is beyond me”
Dennisw, his bill makes it easier on the perp. Current law states they are deportable just for coming here...he’s giving them 2 get out of jail free cards by saying ‘hang around until you get 3 dui’s and then we might do something!’
“Every crime committed by an illegal is a preventable crime.”
That used to be my tagline several years ago.
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