Posted on 10/08/2005 2:44:36 AM PDT by Crackingham
From the Little League fields to the Habitat for Humanity boardroom, everyone in this central Missouri town seemed to know Manuel "Paco" Lopez. A devoted father and civic volunteer, the Mexican immigrant served as a translator at the local hospital, schools, crime scenes and anywhere else people asked. So when police asked for help interrogating a Spanish-speaking murder suspect, he dutifully agreed — even though it meant revealing he was actually an illegal immigrant named Francisco Xavier Inzunza.
Once Marshall police reported him, immigration officers made the 43-year-old an offer: work as a confidential informant for the federal immigration agency in exchange for an annual work permit. But his informant career was a spectacular flop. Drug dealers and fake identification peddlers didn't want much to do with a church leader and school volunteer. Soon after the murder suspect's conviction in 2002, Inzunza was informed he faced deportation from the place he has called home for a dozen years.
The Marshall mayor, police chief, school superintendent — even the prosecutor who Inzunza helped — pledged to support a man who for years hid his true identity.
"Most of the illegal aliens stay in the background. They don't get out," said Chuck Hird, a retired Marshall meatpacking plant manager. "Paco was different. That's what got him in trouble."
Sixteen supporters appeared at a Kansas City immigration hearing in September, prepared to ask a federal judge to let Inzunza stay. The judge instead postponed the hearing until February 2007 because of a case backlog, but Inzunza's supporters suspect judicial sympathy played a role.
Even Gregory Gagne, spokesman for the Justice Department's executive office for immigration review in Washington, reacted with surprise. He said the delay was longer than normal.
In an interview in the cramped apartment he shares with his wife, Suzy, and sons Francisco Javier, 17, and Anthony, 10, Inzunza said he has no regrets about helping Saline County prosecutors convict Juan Antonio Rodriguez of stabbing a housemate to death.
"I did it because it was the right thing to do," he said. "They needed me."
Depends on how you do it. I brought my wife from Mexico and it was easy, if a bit tedious.
Of course, she came over on a K1 visa, so that made it much easier. MUI it is much tougher if you get married out of counytry and then try to bring them in.'
You want to make it so easy to come here legally (for Mexicans anyway) that nobody would want to jump the border. What you propose is a massive preference for mexicans in our immigration policy. I oppose that.
Thank you Angkor. My wife immigrated from China,legally. It took about 10 years. She acquired her green card, started working one week after arriving, learned to speak English and never asked the gov't for a penny. All she wanted was a chance. She now runs a business from home, with a little help from me, and is about to take a real estate license test. It is an insult and a slap in the face of all who immigrated legally. I would like to hear the chronic loser explain to her why illegals, who are breaking the law, should be allowed to stay without going through the same process she did. Then I would like to watch her wipe the floor with the chronic loser. My wife is on the small side but she is a chiwauwa-pitbull when she is pissed.
No there are economic forces at work here that are pushing them out of Mexico and to the US.
Like NAFTA which throws Mexican corn farmers off their land because USA corn is cheaper. The disposed rural Mestizo Mexicans then head north and bust across our border
Saying "well it's illegal" is just shutting your eyes to the problem.
No it isn't. The United States is a sovereign nation with defined borders. Get used to it. It's in The Constitution and one function of the Federal government is to defend this nation against invasion. Immigration invasions included
My Irish ancestors came to the US because of a potato famine and no immigration quota would have held them back
How do you know? Ireland is an ocean apart. So is China which sends us plenty of illegal aliens but nearly as many than if they were on our border
I believe what has to happen is that Mexico (And all the South American countries) have to improve there quality of life so it's citizens want to stay home.
What kind of LSD are you on? Mexico never gets better, same for the rest of Latin America. Brazil gets worse and worse so now they send us loads of illegal aliens who fly to Mexico then try to enter via the Mexico border same as the wetbacks
GWBush could give a crap about this immigration invasion. We get more illegal aliens than we did under Bill Clinton. The Republicans are controlled by the cheap labor lobby
You are reading things into what I said. In fact, if you go back and read what I said, you will find that I did say I want the borders to be upheld and that illegal immigration is bad for the government and the constitution.
Untrue. US law is very protective of illegal aliens. They have won countless lawsuits and collected big money in some of them. They have the rat bastard immigration lawyers on their side. They have collected workman's comp claims too
Ouch! How true.
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