Posted on 11/09/2006 4:50:24 AM PST by ruination
The man charged with driving drunk and causing the accident that killed two N.C. State University students and a 16-year-old outside Sanford last month is in the United States illegally and may be prosecuted for carrying fraudulent identification, an immigration official said.
Pastor Rios Sanchez, 55, is being held in the Lee County jail on $75,000 bail and a 48-hour immigration detainer after being charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter and other offenses related to the head-on collision Oct. 27, according to law enforcement.
Helen Meghan Hughes, 22, and Jennifer Elaine Carter, 18, were pronounced dead at the scene. Hughes' stepbrother, Benjamin Richard Leonard, 16, also was in the wreck and later died at the hospital, N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper K.T. Hill said last month.
Though Sanchez had a residency card, investigators say they now believe it was a fake, said Tom O'Connell, the resident agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
O'Connell said Sanchez was from the Mexican state of Guerrero and that immigration officials don't believe he has ever legally been in the United States.
The U.S. attorney could decide to press additional charges against Sanchez for possessing counterfeit immigration papers, O'Connell said.
ICE placed an immigration detainer on Sanchez so that if he posts bond or otherwise faces release, immigration officials would have 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays, to decide whether to take him into federal custody and start immigration proceedings.
If Sanchez were taken into immigration's custody now, he could be deported within a month, O'Connell said. Prosecution of state charges against Sanchez could take many months.
"We can't just hold him for eight months on an immigration charge while the state continues its case," O'Connell said. Instead, ICE usually waits until near the end of a prison sentence or other factor, and then takes the person into custody for deportation proceedings.
Sanchez was convicted of driving without an operators license in 2005, according to court records. He was charged with a similar misdemeanor in March and April. One of the charges was dismissed.
However, it's unlikely that those brushes with law enforcement would have flagged him as a possible illegal immigrant, officials said.
"There are hundreds and hundreds of traffic citations of people who are illegal immigrants, and as a practical matter ICE is not notified of each one of these," said Tom Lock, district attorney for Lee, Harnett and Johnston counties.
He's only here to do the drunk driving Americans refuse to do.
Your political correctness will kill us all!
Oh, and another thing: Illegal Irish immigrants are not the problem.
Thank you...saved me the time of making the same reply. I would add that often the car being driven is a good indicator as well.
All illegals are part of the problem. I say 2 month amnesty to settle affairs and go home. Then apply for some sort of worker status and work on the books. Illegals caught after amnesty should be deportd and NEVER allowed legal status.
And as for the illegal Irish not being part of "the problem" tell it to Carlene Joseph. Oh wait, I guess you can't because she is dead. Tell her husband and three children.
http://www.da.westchester.ny.us/pressreleases/2006/0103yonkersvehmanslaughtersent.htm
Good thing is he will be deported when he gets out of jail.
Oh, I don't know if he was dirty or not. I believe he worked (illegally) in construction. Maybe not as "dirty" as the Mexican roofers and landscapers, or not as "clean" as the south American dishwashers.
Article didn't say what kind of car he was driving. May have had invalid registration, and inspection sticker to go with probable forged license.
I am not being "politically correct". Illegals come in every flavor and color. They should ALL be treated the same. Out.
ping
This is called a Non Sequitor logical fallacy.
To be honest most jurisdictions see illegals as "not my problem" and quickly release them in hopes they will disappear. In some places, like Maricopa County, AZ they have a seperate DWI court system for certain "minorities" that is clogged with illegals where they are treated very differently. Those that go to the minority DWI court are given lessor fines, lower sentences- usually a slap on the wrist. This is true in most of the US with or without a seperate system. Illegals are allowed a pass on many violations you and I would be in serious trouble for if we committed the same offense- no DL, registration, insurance, repeated DWI.
BTW if they are deported at some point in the process they simply return in hours or days through the unsecured border. Until the border is really secured there is really no point to deportation.
Woolly Liberal or Hispanic Activist: "But the illegals aren't hurting anyone. They're law-abiding. They're just trying to find work, trying to find a better life."
IMHO this man is a MURDERER and there isn't a cliff high enough to throw him off of. He is worthless SCUM.
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