This one really makes my blood boil. This guy was in the system 7 times in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. I’m going to make it my mission to drive City Council crazy until they change their policy of dealing with illegals who are involved in ANY criminal activity.
Two beautiful young Americans, full of promise and loved by friends and famly have been killed by a drunk who shouldn't even be in this country. Hell...he should be in jail. He was convicted in January in Chesapeake and given a 90 day sentence...suspended! If he'd been forced to serve his sentence those two girls would still be alive.
By Gillian Gaynair & Jon Frank, The Virginian-Pilot
© April 4, 2007
Last updated: 11:32 PM
Alfredo Ramos – an illegal immigrant accused of killing two teens in a car crash Friday – had previous convictions in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, but his crimes weren’t serious enough to lead to deportation. (let's wait until he kills someone, m'kay?)
Local judges do not routinely inquire about the immigration status of a person charged with misdemeanors, as Ramos had been, said John Gardner, a Virginia Beach immigration attorney.
“It’s not an immigration court,” he said.
Procedures among local police departments appear to vary in cases in which officers suspect someone is in the country illegally.
Ramos is charged with manslaughter in the deaths of Alison Kunhardt, 17, and Tessa Tranchant, 16. On Tuesday, he withdrew his request for a bond hearing. His attorney, Richard Clark, said Ramos’ next court appearance would likely be April 17.
An undocumented immigrant convicted of a felony would serve the imposed sentence in this country and then be deported, said Ernestine Fobbs, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington.
The person would not serve additional time in Mexico for felony offenses in the United States, said Enrique Escorza, consul general for the Mexican Embassy in Washington.
“But we will be aware” of any crimes of which a person is convicted, Escorza said.
The 22-year-old Ramos was convicted earlier this year of driving under the influence in Chesapeake and public intoxication in Virginia Beach. Additional Chesapeake charges of driving without a license and without insurance were dropped.
Local police departments establish their own procedures on arrests for such offenses. In the two cities where Ramos had prior run-ins with the law, the protocols are different.
In Virginia Beach, police officers are not permitted to ask about a person’s birthplace or legal status if the person is charged with a misdemeanor such as public drunkenness, said police spokesman Jimmy Barnes.
“On a felony arrest, in the paperwork process, you’re asked what country you’re from,” Barnes said. “But on a misdemeanor summons for a DUI or public intoxication, those questions are not allowed to be asked because you’re getting into civil rights violations; just because your last name might be different than mine doesn’t mean I have the right to ask” about someone’s immigration status.
Meanwhile, the Chesapeake Police Department does not have a policy in place – although it’s working on one – regarding when it would “be appropriate to contact” immigration authorities, said police spokeswoman Christina Golden.
In general, if police have reasonable suspicion to believe a person is in the country illegally, she said, they may alert federal authorities.
“The majority of time, if it’s very minor, they won’t respond,” Golden said. “They just take the information we give them, and I’m not sure what they do with it afterward.”
Under state law, police may detain someone for 72 hours for being here unlawfully, but only if the person had been previously convicted of a felony and deported and then returned to the United States.
Golden said Ramos presented an international driver’s license to the Chesapeake officer who pulled him over for DUI. It was later found to be false, she said.(Of course it was false! They're lying, thieving bastards !) The car he was driving was legally registered in Virginia under his name, she said.
Given that Ramos’ car was registered, the officer figured he had proper documentation, Golden said.
The circumstances of Friday’s wreck have drawn widespread attention, including that of producers of Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor,” who planned to air a segment on the case this evening.
Gardner, the immigration lawyer, said Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised Ramos’ immigration status apparently didn’t become an issue in his previous cases. State court judges, he said, do not have jurisdiction to make immigration decisions.
That needs to be determined when the defendant is arrested and goes before a magistrate, Gardner said. Police and the magistrate then would contact immigration officials if the defendant were determined to be in the United States unlawfully.
It then would become the responsibility of federal authorities to further investigate the person’s immigration status.
Family, friends remember teens at vigil By Jon Frank, The Virginian-Pilot
© April 4, 2007
Last updated: 12:21 AM
VIRGINIA BEACH — Beatles music filled the air Tuesday night at Mount Trashmore as approximately 300 people huddled together against a chilly spring wind to light candles and remember two teenage girls.
The deaths Friday of 17-year-old Alison Kunhardt and 16-year-old Tessa Tranchant continued to stun the crowd.
“My world has stopped completely,” said Kunhardt’s 22-year-old sister Ashley . “We are all in a daze.”
The girls died when a 1994 Plymouth driven by Kunhardt was slammed from behind by a 1998 Mitsubishi that police said was driven by Alfredo Ramos. The 22-year-old has been charged with manslaughter.
Both girls were wearing seat belts. The crash occurred at Kings Grant Road and Virginia Beach Boulevard. Police said that both alcohol and speed played a role in the wreck.
Ramos had a prior DUI conviction in Chesapeake and two other alcohol-related convictions.
“He should never have been here,” said John Warner, Kunhardt’s stepfather. Ramos has admitted he is an illegal immigrant.
Delores Rowe, Kunhardt’s great aunt and one of three relatives to address the crowd, said Kunhardt loved the Beatles and was reading a book by John Lennon shortly before her death.
“It made me laugh because I’m a Beatles fan,” she said. “That is my generation.”
Don Hedrick encouraged those in attendance to channel their anger by working to combat drunken driving.
“If you are mad about what happened to Ali and Tessa, stay mad,” Hedrick said.
Many of those in attendance were school mates of Kunhardt and Tranchant, who attended First Colonial and Kellam high schools respectively.
Jeremy Tenney, 17, who attended Kellam with Tranchant, said that the hallways of the school have been a sad and quiet place since the crash.
“You can’t cut a joke or smile,” Tenney said. “It’s been depressing.”
He called Tranchant “a beautiful girl” who would “always bring a smile to anyone’s face.”
David Kunhardt, Ali’s father, pledged to turn “an unbelievable tragedy that should never have occurred” into a cause celebre that will change the laws of the state.
He said he plans to promote an “Ali and Tessa” law that will address the problems of drunken driving and illegal immigration.
(Good luck mister, most politicians don't care!)
But first, he said, he has to recover from his loss.
“You have to grieve,” Kunhardt said.
“I’ll be grieving for a long, long, long time.”