(file photo)
Posted on 04/03/2009 4:12:18 AM PDT by Man50D
In emotional testimony before a House joint panel this week, a Virginia man recalled the death of his teenage daughter in 2007 – a death caused by an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk and who had been arrested twice before the crime, but was not deported.
“Two years ago this week, my 16-year-old daughter, Tessa, and her best friend Allison were killed as they were sitting at in intersection waiting for a red light to change,” Ray Tranchant said, as friends placed a photograph of Tessa Tranchant on an easel behind him.
Since his daughter’s death, Tranchant, a professor from VIrginia Beach, has become an advocate for the enforcement of immigration law.
On Thursday, as Tranchant applauded local law enforcement in Virginia for its increased efforts to work with federal immigration authorities since his daughter’s death, he referred to individuals listed on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s database of illegal aliens with criminal backgrounds as “banditos.”
That comment drew a rebuff from Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.).
“Mr. Tranchant, can I share with you as the father of two daughters, I thank you for bringing your testimony here, but I suggest to you that if we refer to people as banditos, as you referred to them in your testimony, it does not help to solve the problem,” Gutierrez said.
Witnesses on the first panel were called to testify about ICE’s ACCESS program, the 287(g) law passed by Congress in 1996 that allows state and local law enforcement agencies to voluntarily sign up for training to enforce federal immigration law in their jurisdictions.
Some on the subcommittee charged that the law has led to widespread racial profiling and other abuses.
In other testimony before a joint hearing of subcommittees on immigration, border security, the Constitution, and civil rights, Julio Cesar Mora, a 19-year-old American citizen who lives in Maricopa County, Arizona, told the committee that he and his father, who is a legal resident, were detained and harassed by sheriff officers while driving to his father’s workplace.
Antonia Ramirez, a community activist from Frederick, Maryland, said that even though he and many of his fellow Hispanics are citizens, they are often the victims of discrimination. He said illegal aliens often refuse to report crimes and even suffer abuse because they fear their families will be separated by deportation.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said he was surprised by the contrast of the witnesses’ testimony.
“I think I’m seeing the embodiment of a great big problem we have in this country and the result of it is the loss of lives, the loss of innocent human lives,” King said. “And I listen to professor Tranchant’s testimony. You have to know that he’s here to tell you today that if we had enforced local immigration law, his daughter would still be alive. Tessa and Ali would still be alive. And that’s true for hundreds, perhaps thousands of Americans who go about their lives every day, seeking to make the world a better place.”
Rep. King said the testimony by Ramirez and Mora seemed designed to persuade lawmakers that enforcing immigration laws is not a good policy.
“The message I get from you is that we shouldn’t enforce local immigration law because there are some examples of discrimination,” King said. “I don’t argue that it never happens. But I ask you, can you look at this on balance? Can you see the difference between the plea that you have made to this committee and the plea that Mr. Tranchant has made to this committee? Can you look him in the eye and say we should pass everybody over?”
“The comparison to what looks like an inconvenience to either one of you compared to the very sacred life of this man’s daughter,” King said.
Tranchant, whose mother immigrated to the United States from Ireland, told the committee he was shocked to learn the facts about the man who killed his daughter when the man was tried for vehicular manslaughter.
“I heard at the trial that Alfredo Ramos should have been and could have been deported long before he killed my daughter,” Tranchant said. “In fact, this wasn’t the first time he’d been involved in this kind of an incident. It wasn’t even the second time. Ramos had been arrested twice before.”
“Instead of being deported to his home country, he stayed on the streets of Virginia Beach to drink, drive, and kill these two beautiful girls in a way that showed wanton disrespect for the laws of our land,” he said.
Ramos, whose blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit, was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
But Rep. Gutierrez said he thought the committee was “missing the point.”
“I think we’re missing the point of the testimony here this morning and just so we have it very clear, no one ever has debated, promoted law that does not deport drunks, that does not deport rapists and murderers,” Gutierrez said. “Part of the problem is, it’s been said here by some of my colleagues on the other side -- enforce the law.”
“This Congress and the government of the United States has not shown the political will nor committed the requisite resources to enforce the immigration law,” he said. “The only way to really do that is to have comprehensive immigration reform. You either sweep millions and millions of people off the streets of the United States of America, which no one is going to propose. So it’s always a little disingenuous to me when people say only enforce the law.”
“What I have seen, unfortunately, is the will to target and to victimize and to scapegoat a community of people,” Gutierrez said. “I have seen that readily here. It makes for great political points but it doesn’t solve the problem and would not have saved your daughter’s life."
Gutierrez said anti-immigrant sentiment is not new in this country.
“The Irish [were] the dirty, filthy element that was coming here to undermine America. Well, it gave us a President Kennedy,” he said.
Rep. Gutierrez recently embarked on a five-week tour, visiting 16 American cities, to “document the harm” caused by the lack of “comprehensive immigration reform.” As part of his Family Unity Immigration Outreach Tour, Gutierrez held community meetings for U.S. citizens whose families are at risk of “being torn apart by a broken immigration system.”
Gutierrez’ critics, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform, say he is “promoting amnesty for millions of illegal aliens and the dismantling of immigration law enforcement programs.”
“I think I’m seeing the embodiment of a great big problem we have in this country and the result of it is the loss of lives, the loss of innocent human lives,” King said.
And, the solution is vigorous enforcement of existing immigration law and the removal of the incentives bringing illegals to the US.
It’s time to take back the country.
Luis Gutierrez ought to know a bandito, or a punk when he sees one. That little prick was a Latin King in his day. I know this from PERSONAL run ins with him in my old Chicago neighborhood near Humboldt Park.
Hmmm "a-c-t-i-v-i-s-t" What the hell is an activist? If he was a white man would he instead be a r-a-c-i-s-t?
Excuse Me!
Rep. Gutierrez let me be the first to step forward.
The fat SOBs that don’t represent me refuse to show their Marxist faces in my district. When was the last time Lenin and Stabmecow sgowed up at town hall meeting near you?
I’m in. When do we start?
How about right now.
Votes? Votes? We don't need no stinkin votes
Ted, the killer.
Old man Joe, stock swindler, booze runner, serial adulterer, tried to sell out England to the Nazis.
Joe Kennedy, Jr. friend of Chavez, had his firs Catholic wife’s marriage declared never married. Crippled a girl in a jeep.
Michael Kennedy with his teenage babysitter.
As a green card carrying immigrant, I was a legal guest of the U.S. Every January I reported my whereabouts to the government. Failure to do so would have violated my agreement that I had with the U.S. government. I respected the laws of this country and had the firm conviction that if I did not do what was expected of me, the U. S. government had every right to deport me.
It galls me that illegals (law breakers) can demand rights that they are NOT entitled to.
Where I live, drunk driving is a FELONY!
Enforce the laws and deport anyone who is breaking the LAW. If people will not report crime for fear of being deported, then they shouldn't be here in the first place. They need to stay in their own countries where it is safer for them.
My heart goes out to this poor father. Guiterrez is a heartless racist.
My response would have been: "I'll refer them any way I please."
I would have got up and walked out if he had said that to me...
Deport Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.).
Eh, I didn't know the Kennedys came here as illegal aliens. I do know the Irish race gave us not only Pres. Kennedy but his whole family, including some notorious drunk drivers and one killer drunk driver.
But you can't blame the Irish collectively. (Unless you're a collectivist.)
Gutierrez is a despicable arrogant prick. When he buries a child he will understand why Tranchant has the right to use a Mexican phrase to describe lawless Mexicans.
“Deport Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.)”
I second that. And require him to learn to speak English before they let him back in. Does he even have a valid work permit?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.