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On March 31, 1927, Cesar Estrada Chavez was born in Yuma, Ariz., to parents who had come north from Mexico as children in the 1890s. He went on to found the United Farm Workers union, and by his death in 1993 had become an icon for Hispanic activist groups and the Left in general.

And his views on border control would be a perfect fit in the Trump administration.

As a child working with his family in the California fields, Cesar quickly learned the reason farmworkers were paid so little and treated so poorly: As his biographer Miriam Pawel writes, a surplus of labor enabled growers to treat workers as little more that interchangeable parts, cheaper and easier to replace than machines.

Chavez acolytes today try to explain away his hawkish pro-border views as coming from a different historical context, applicable only to specific strikes and the strike-breakers that farmers tried to import. But this is false.

In fact, even before he started the union and fought against illegal immigration, he was opposed to the bracero program, which legally imported cheap, disposable labor from Mexico at the expense of American citizens (of Mexican and other origins) who had been working in the fields. Pawel quotes Chavez as saying, It looks almost impossible to start some effective program to get these people their jobs back from the braceros.

Congress ended the bracero program in 1964, and the next 15 years were the salad days, as it were, for farmworkers until illegal immigration became so pervasive (despite Chavezs efforts) that workers lost all bargaining power.

But during those 15 years, Chavez fought illegal immigration tenaciously. In 1969, he marched to the Mexican border to protest farmers use of illegal aliens as strikebreakers. He was joined by Reverend Ralph Abernathy and Senator Walter Mondale.

In the mid 1970s, he conducted the Illegals Campaign to identify and report illegal workers, an effort he deemed second in importance only to the boycott (of produce from non-unionized farms), according to Pawel. She quotes a memo from Chavez that said, If we can get the illegals out of California, we will win the strike overnight.

The Illegals Campaign didnt just report illegals to the (unresponsive) federal authorities. Cesar sent his cousin, ex-con Manuel Chavez, down to the border to set up a wet line (as in wetbacks) to do the job the Border Patrol wasnt being allowed to do. Unlike the Minutemen of a few years ago, who arrived at the border with no more than lawn chairs and binoculars, the United Farm Workers patrols were willing to use direct methods when persuasion failed. Housed in a series of tents along the Arizona border, the crews in the wet line sometimes beat up illegals, the cesarchavistas employing violence even more widely on the Mexican side of the border to prevent crossings.

None of this was unknown to or opposed by Cesar Chavez. As Pawel notes, As always, Cesar protected Manuel at all costs....Manuel was willing to do the dirty work, Cesar acknowledged. At one UFW meeting, Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the union with Chavez and always a more conventional leftist than he, foreshadowed todays anti-borders agitators, objecting to the words wetback and illegal: The people themselves arent illegal. The action of being in this country maybe is illegal. Pawel relates Chavezs response, from a tape recording of the meeting: Chavez turned on Huerta angrily. No, a spades a spade, he said. You guys get these hang-ups. Goddamn it, how do we build a union? Theyre wets, you know. Theyre wets, and lets go after them.

Chavezs vigilantism is unacceptable in a country ruled by law; in any case, the Border Patrol is both able and permitted (since January 20, anyway) to do its job. But neither Chavezs occasional use of violence against illegals nor his later descent into cultism and paranoia detract from one of the core messages of his professional life: Flooding the labor market with people from abroad undermines American workers trying to improve their lot in life. For this we should honor his memory by celebrating his birthday as National Border Control Day.

Hail Cesar!

Mark Krikorian is the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

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Hail Cesar! - National Review

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday evening said the Justice Department does not intend to go after illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes in addition to illegally entering the U.S.

"That is not where we - ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is focusing its efforts at all," Sessions told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly after being asked if he planned to target "chamber maids" and farm workers. "We are doing a lot of good things, for example ... as we continue to build a wall and beef up our forces and bring in more judges, we'll be even more successful."

Sessions, a former national security adviser to President Trump's campaign, credited the administration's enhanced enforcement of immigration policies for a 60 percent decrease in the number of illegal aliens apprehended by Customs and Border Protection in February.

"That's the way to solve this problem. If we stay at it, we can create a lawful system of immigration, one that admits 1.1 million people lawfully right now every year," Sessions added.

Advocates and organizations representing illegal aliens have warned in recent weeks that Trump plans to deport the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

Trump signed multiple executive orders in late January, ordering the Department of Homeland Security to fully carry out immigration laws, including building a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and deporting all aliens with any criminal record, not just the worst offenders as the Obama administration had gone after.

Sessions also said he hopes sanctuary cities and counties will cooperate, given the federal government's threat to hold funding if they do not stop assisting illegal immigrants.

"It is not going to devastate their budgets. We don't have that much money that will be controlled, but it is a signal," Sessions said.

The top U.S. attorney said his department is looking into other possibilities more "detrimental" ones - that could make it tougher for cities and counties not to cooperate with ICE.

Also from the Washington Examiner

Bannon received a $191,000 salary for his work as Breitbart's chairman, a role he left in August.

03/31/17 8:31 PM

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Jeff Sessions: US is not going after non-criminal illegal immigrants - Washington Examiner

When Salvador Vitervo-Ortiz was sentenced recently to five years for the mob beating and stabbing of a Chesterfield County man, prosecutor Juan Vega said there should be little debate about whether the illegal immigrant from Mexico is a danger to the community and should be deported for his crimes.

The case illustrates what Vega said has become relatively commonplace in the locality with the Richmond areas largest number of Latino residents: the arrest, detention and prosecution of illegal immigrants for violent crimes and other serious offenses.

The Chesterfield Jail ranks third in Virginia in the number of illegal immigrants detained on criminal charges or convictions. The facility reported housing 2,012 illegals, including 649 who were set to be deported, in the eight years since a 2008 law took effect that mandates the identification of illegal immigrants being housed in state jails.

But jail officials said that figure assuredly is much higher, because they do not include hundreds of other inmates whose immigration or citizenship status could not be definitively established. The number of those being held for violent offenses could not be determined.

Vega, a naturalized citizen who legally immigrated to the U.S. from Nicaragua with his family as a young boy, said he sees firsthand a problem that many national politicians, big city mayors and other civic leaders dont see or willfully ignore even as some defy federal immigration authorities, push for open borders, and defend so-called sanctuary cities with large illegal immigrant constituencies, including criminals and gang members.

Many politicians and other people in the community throughout the nation are really going out on a limb for these violent individuals, to keep them here, and I thought, this is kind of disturbing from where Im coming from, with what I see here in the courtroom every week, said Vega, the only prosecutor in the Chesterfield Commonwealths Attorneys Office who speaks Spanish fluently and routinely talks with non-English-speaking victims of crime.

Local attorney Paul Fantl, who like Vega is a naturalized citizen who legally immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina as a young boy, agrees that violent illegal immigrants should be removed. But he differs from Vega in that he believes too much emphasis is being placed on the criminal element in immigrant communities to the detriment of those who live and work here peacefully.

When one focuses only on the crimes they commit, in doing so, youre displacing all of the good that they do, said Fantl, whose clients are overwhelmingly illegal immigrants. We shouldnt vilify all of them by emphasizing criminal illegal aliens.

Vega said his focus is on the violent immigrants who are here illegally, and as a Latino, he feels a certain responsibility to speak out about the problem. Because if it was somebody else, a non-Latino, a lot of times theyre labeled racist, he said.

People dont know that there are some pretty violent illegal immigrants in Chesterfield that were putting away, Vega added. And I coordinate with ICE to make sure these folks are picked up and deported. And sometimes ICE tells me yeah weve already deported them twice.

What many seem to overlook, Vega said, is that when immigrants with a propensity for violence or criminality enter the country illegally, they go to these Latino communities where there are a lot of legal Latinos, who they prey upon.

Its confounding, Vega added, that not everybody is on board with deporting these violent criminals.

While Fantl said he welcomes the deportation of violent offenders and believes U.S. borders should be secured, he subscribes strongly to the belief held by many pro-immigration advocates that crime within the undocumented population is markedly lower as a percentage (than) within the U.S. citizen population.

Fantl said his belief is largely based on his personal experience and anecdotal evidence, although he said many astute commonwealths attorneys are in agreement.

But there are no hard data to support it, and critics question whether that makes any difference since immigrants committing offenses in the U.S. are adding to the nations overall crime burden and victimizing citizens.

Yes, within the community there are criminals rapists, pedophiles, murderers any kind of crime youre going to find in any other (non-immigrant) community, Fantl said. But most of the undocumented people here are very, very demur, very afraid, hard-working, non-complaining, and they dont ask for anything. They just want to work, save money and send it back. Thats been my experience, over and over and over.

Fantl asserts that politicians and certain segments of the news media engage in fear mongering in an effort gain votes or attract viewers to boost ratings.

The Center for Immigration Studies, a self-described independent, non-partisan and nonprofit research center that examines immigration issues, found the question of immigrant crime to be conflicted in a 2009 study it conducted that examined academic and government research on the topic.

Researchers said new government data indicate that immigrants have high rates of criminality, while older academic research found low rates.

The overall picture of immigrants and crime remains confused due to a lack of good data and contrary information, the reports authors said. However, the newer government data indicate that there are legitimate public safety reasons for law enforcement to work with federal immigration authorities.

Chesterfield attorney Charles Phelps, who speaks Spanish and whose clientele include legal and illegal immigrants, said its difficult to say from his perspective whether serious crime committed by illegal residents is on the rise. It may seem more prevalent because its become a hot-button issue and the immigration status of offenders is more widely reported than in the past, he said.

However, I think theres a lot more gang activity here among Latinos than is really being reported, said Phelps, who represented one of two Guatemalan natives who pleaded guilty last year to killing a Chesterfield used car dealer in a murder-for-hire plot.

I think the police are aware of it but (not) the general public. And certainly you get a lot more violent crime with them. And theres a lot of drug trafficking by illegals, and that also leads to some of the violent crime that I think the general public probably doesnt realize.

Although no record is kept of the number of illegal immigrants arrested on criminal charges, perhaps the best available gauge can be found in data collected by the State Compensation Board of Virginia, which collects inmate immigration queries that all local and state regional jails are required by law to submit to the state.

That data show that the Chesterfield Jail consistently has ranked third in Virginia in the number of illegal immigrants detained on criminal charges or convictions. The facility in 2016 held at least 248 inmates identified as illegal, non-citizens, including 105 who were set for deportation, according to the compensation board.

In 2012, Chesterfield reported holding 328 illegal immigrants, including 56 set for deportation the largest number for the jail since the 2008 law was passed mandating the identification of illegal immigrants in Virginia jails.

U.S. immigration agents in 2016 picked up 28 illegal immigrants from the Chesterfield Jail after they served their time for various offenses, and another 32 inmates for whom ICE had placed a detainer were transferred to other jails, according to the Chesterfield Sheriffs Office.

Chesterfield had an estimated 27,399 Latino residents, both legal and illegal, in 2015, or 8.2 percent of the countys population of 333,687, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But demographers say the number is likely much higher because illegal immigrants dont usually participate in census surveys.

Some of the more publicized criminal cases involving illegal immigrants that Chesterfield has prosecuted in recent years include:

Vega said he has prosecuted nine illegal immigrants for violent crimes and perhaps another 10 for non-violent felonies since he joined the prosecutors office in August 2012.

One of the more egregious cases involved the Oct. 4, 2015, mob-like attack on Salvador Garcia-Cruz, a legal immigrant, who was viciously punched and kicked and also stabbed above one of his eyes with a box cutter outside the El Tropicabana restaurant and nightclub on Jefferson Davis Highway.

The unprovoked assault was set into motion after of one of the suspects, while intoxicated, mistakenly got into the victims van and dragged his wife out by her neck. The couple just had arrived to pick up a friend.

A Chesterfield jury convicted the ringleader, Vitervo-Ortiz, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, who was the first man to attack Garcia-Cruz as eight to 10 other men encircled the victim and beat him, Vega said.

The assault had devastating effects on Garcia-Cruzs family. His wife suffered an emotional breakdown that required treatment for the better part of a year, and the stress caused the couple to divorce, with their son dropping out of high school to help support the family, Vega said.

Vega also prosecuted two Guatemalan immigrant brothers, Henry Manolo Mejia-Bobadillo and Osben Noel Mejia-Bobadillo, who in a coordinated attack punched and beat a man with a lead pipe after a wedding reception on Sept. 27, 2014. The defendants broke the victims nose and wrist, the latter of which required surgery and the insertion of pins.

And in another recent case, Vega prosecuted Jorge Leonado Borja Mendez, an illegal Guatemalan immigrant, who was charged with attacking a man and a pregnant woman with a broken beer bottle, cutting both on New Years Day 2016.

An MS-13 gang member from Mexico who gave police a fictitious name in a traffic stop, and an accused drug trafficker from Mexico charged with transporting 2.5 ounces of packaged cocaine in his car, are among some of the other serious cases Vega has handled in the courtroom.

Vega also has prosecuted another 20 to 30 cases involving illegal immigrants for driving while intoxicated, and some of those involved injuries and property damage. One of those defendants, Juan Guadalupe Martinez-Hernandez, a Mexican immigrant, pleaded guilty to his third drunken driving offense in 10 years, a felony.

Every single victim of mine whether theyre here illegally, or are citizens or have work permits has said its a good idea to deport other violent illegal immigrants, Vega said. Theyre scared theres going to be some kind of retribution (after the felons) serve their time and leave prison.

To help alleviate their fear, Vega ensures the victims that he has contacted immigration authorities to have the perpetrators deported.

And the victims say, well, they always come back, Vega said. But at least they can take a little bit of solace knowing that were making the effort to kick them out of the country.

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Latino prosecutor in Chesterfield: Violent illegal immigrants should be deported, not protected - Richmond.com

Ten years after his daughter and another young girl were murdered by an illegal immigrant drunk driver, Ray Tranchant thinks justice might finally be coming to Virginia Beach, Va.

SANCTUARY CITIES: SEATTLE SUES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVER EXECUTIVE ORDER

Alfredo Ramos had been arrested at least twice for alcohol issues before killing Tessa Tranchant, 16, and Allison Kunhardt, 17, but Ramos was not turned over to immigration officers and deported. Now, with President Trump in office, and Mondays announcement from Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatening sanctions for cities that shield illegal immigrants, Tranchant sees a new era dawning.

This isnt hard, Tranchant toldFox & Friends.If youre in a city and you could have a criminal and he doesnt speak English and haul him off to jail, it isnt hard to dial the number to ICE and get a background check, and it eventually takes you off the sanctuary city list. I dont know why the larger cities like Chicago that have 30,000 illegal aliens think that that makes their city better and safer. I just cant, for the life of me, figure that out.

CITIES, FEDS TRY TO FIND 'COMMON GROUND' IN SANCTUARY DEBATE

Tranchant met during the presidential campaign with Trump, who often pointed to Angel parents who had lost children due to the actions of illegal immigrants.

I think its his number one priority and why he got elected, Tranchant said. People see that these sanctuary cities as being unsafe.

It was ten years ago on Thursday that Tessa and Allison, wearing seatbelts and stopped at a stoplight, were rear-ended and killed by Ramos, who was sentenced to a 24-year prison term with a suspended portion. Ramos will be shipped back to Mexico at the end of the sentence and, if he returns to the U.S. again, would be forced to serve an additional 16 years behind bars.

Tranchant said he doesnt understand why sanctuary cities are tolerated for illegal immigrants when other illegal behavior would never inspire a city to shield criminals.

If they had sanctuary, the Arabs could do their Sharia Law, Tranchant said. South of Chicago there was 700-800 murders and they could be anonymous and we wouldnt know whether theyre in the city or not. It doesnt make sense.

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'Angel dad' slams sanctuary cities 10 years after illegal immigrant ... - Fox News

Welcome to Immigrations Human Cost, a website that focuses on the fact that illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.

You can view archives from our original site by following the link in the navigation panel to the right.

Houston mother of five, Tina Davila (picured), was stabbed to death in 2008 when Timoteo Rios tried to hijack her SUV, but she refused to give up the keys because her 4-month-old baby was in the vehicle. The killer was identified by the surveillance tapes from the store near the crime and he quickly fled to Mexico.

He had been arrested earlier for marijuana possession but had not been deported. See my blog from the time, Whyd They Let Him Go? Previously Arrested Illegal Alien Kills Woman In Carjacking Attempt.

Now, more than two years later, the Mexican government has extradited Rios to be tried in Houston. Unfortunately, the extradition come with the usual Mexican requirement that the death penalty not be pursued by the prosecution.

The murder deprived five children of their loving mom, and that kind of pain never goes away. The kids are relieved that some justice may be at hand, but terrible memories are returning. The clip following is from KIAH-TV in Houston, Murder Suspect Faces Extradition.

Illegal immigrant extradited in Houston moms death, Houston Chronicle Blog, December 13, 2010

Tina Davilas youngest child, Kaylynn, was just 4 months old, a chubby-cheeked baby strapped snugly into a car seat, when her mother was stabbed to death fighting off a carjacker in the spring of 2008.

On Saturday, Davilas family will get together to celebrate Kaylynns third birthday. For Davilas older children, the birthday is a reminder of how much time has passed since their mother was buried at a cemetery on the citys east side.

Finally this weekend, her family members saw the main suspect in her murder, 26-year-old Timoteo Rios, extradited to Houston. And as grateful as they are that Rios will have to answer for Davilas death, the extradition has reopened old wounds.

I guess it just brings back too much pain and memories. I think my kids were having a hard time, said Eric Matt, 43, Davilas ex-husband and father of her three eldest children. Each one of them, it makes them angry. It makes them wonder why. With the holidays and everything, it just makes it really hard.

Davilas eldest daughter, 20-year-old Patricia Matt, said the extradition one year and four months after Rios arrest in Mexico brings some relief, but also has dredged up difficult memories. She said she recently saw the video of her mothers April 2008 murder, captured on a surveillance camera outside a Harris County cell phone store, on the news again.

The video shows Davila struggling with a suspect for her car keys before shes stabbed. Witnesses said she screamed, My baby, my baby! before stumbling into the store and collapsing. The carjackers left without taking the SUV, and Kaylynn was unharmed.

We have to go through all of these feelings again, said Patricia Matt, a nursing student who attends San Jacinto Community College. Were pretty much reliving what we first felt.

After Rios was charged with capital murder and fled to Mexico, his case became a high-profile example of problems with Immigration and Customs Enforcement screening at Harris Countys jails.

Rios, an illegal immigrant with a criminal record, had admitted to local law enforcement twice before the slaying that he was in the country illegally, but had not been deported, according to arrest and immigration records.

I just dont think its fair that you can come here without papers and get all of these tickets but not be deported, Eric Matt said. I dont understand why they didnt do anything way back then.

Since spring 2008, the Harris County Sheriffs Office and ICE have taken steps to increase screening at the local jail, which was the first site in the nation to participate in Secure Communities, a federal program that automatically checks inmates fingerprints against an immigration database. The county also participates in ICEs controversial 287(g) program, which deputizes local law enforcement to help ICE agents identify and detain suspected illegal immigrants in detention. Continue reading this article

In August 2007, three college students who were hanging out in a schoolyard were brutally attacked and shot to death by six MS-13 gangsters. Another young woman managed to survive, despite her terrible injuries, which have left her with facial paralysis to this day. The two women were raped and hacked with machetes.

See my report on the first trial First Newark Schoolyard Trial Gets Conviction.

One man, Melvin Jovel, confessed to being the only shooter, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Admitted triggerman in Newark schoolyard slayings receives three consecutive life terms plus 20 years, Newark Star-Ledger, November 4, 2010

Of the six young men who authorities say set upon a group of college friends behind a Newark schoolyard, fatally shooting three execution-style and leaving the fourth badly hurt, only one pulled the trigger.

The admitted gunman, Melvin Jovel, 21, was sentenced this morning to three consecutive life terms in prison plus 20 years.

Jovel had pleaded guilty in September to three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and weapons charges in the Aug. 4, 2007 attack behind Mount Vernon School.

Jovel said he alone shot in the head Terrance Aeriel, Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harve. Moments later, he walked over to Natasha Aeriel, Terrances sister, and shot her in the head. Only Natasha Aeriel survived.

He tried to take my life. I dont even know what to say, Natasha Aeriel said in court, before Superior Court Judge Michael L. Ravin imposed his sentence. Aeriel, now 22, made several prayer readings and said she even thanked Jovel for allowing me to get closer to Christ.

She added, he tried to take my life. I dont even know what to say.

Jovel, who listened through a Spanish translator, said little except to tell the judge that one of the other co-defendants, Rodolfo Godinez, sentenced in July to identical counts, had nothing to do with the killings.

While noting that by pleading guilty Jovel spared the victims families another trial, Judge Ravin said he did not believe that was the defendants motivation. Ravin said of the defendant, He was the slaughterer. He was the executioner.

The brutality of the killings Hightower and Natasha Aeriel were sexually assaulted and attacked with a machete shocked the city and became a rallying cry for community groups and Mayor Cory Booker to end the gun violence that has plagued Newark for years.

The six defendants are said to be affiliated with MS 13, a violent Central American street gang.

Jovel is the second defendant to be convicted in the killing. Ravin had sentenced Godinez on the same counts, which under New Jersey law, adds up to 245 years in prison. A jury found Godinez guilty on all charges at his trial in May.

The remaining defendants, Jose Carranza, 31, Shahid Baskerville, 18, Gerardo Gomez, 18, and 20-year-old Alexander Alfaro who is Godinezs half-brother will be tried separately.

The current AP story about the sentencing notes that Jovel is an illegal alien, a fact that was strongly hinted in his first court appearance where he swore innocence:

Newark slay suspect pleads not guilty, Newark Star-Ledger, August 21, 2007

Jovel, who is from Honduras, told the judge he does not have a Social Security number or a green card, but his immigration status remains unclear, prosecutors said. A U.S. passport was found among his belongings when he was arrested Sunday night, but officials are still trying to determine whether the passport is valid, Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Thomas A. McTigue said. Federal authorities have placed a detainer on Jovel because his status is uncertain, McTigue said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials participated in Jovels arrest, and a spokesman for the agency said it becomes involved when they suspect a person is in the county illegally.

Below, criminals Melvin Jovel, Jose Carranza and Rodolfo Godinez.

There are many tragic stories about the victims of illegal alien criminals, but it doesnt get much worse than the deaths of Leigh Anna Jimmerson, 16, and her boyfriend, Tad Mattle, 19. The couple died in a fiery crash in April 2009 when their car burst into flames after being struck by illegal alien Felix Ortega, who was drunk at three times the legal limit for Alabama.

The prosecutor put together a deal where Ortega pleaded guilty to two murders in return for a 15 year sentence and eligibility for parole in 12.5 years. It was acceptable to both families who presumably didnt want to go through a trial where the horrific details of their kids deaths would be brought out. Even so, the plea agreement seems weak punishment indeed for the preventable deaths of two young people with their whole lives ahead of them.

Tad Mattles mother to Felix Ortega: I hope every day you will think about them, Huntsville Times Blog, August 30, 2010

HUNTSVILLE, AL The mother of one of two Huntsville teens killed when illegal immigrant Felix Ortega slammed into their car in 2009 told him in court today that she hopes he thinks about their deaths every day.

Felix Ortega pleaded guilty this morning to two counts of murder for the traffic deaths of Tad Mattle and Leigh Anna Jimmerson and received a 15-year sentence as part of a plea agreement. Ortega entered the plea before Circuit Judge Dennis ODell for the April 17, 2009, crash that killed Grissom High School sophomore Leigh Anna Jimmerson, 16, and her boyfriend, Tad Mattle, 19, a 2008 Grissom graduate.

The accident occurred at the intersection of Whitesburg Drive and Airport Road, after Ortega had fled in his truck from a Huntsville police officer whod been called after Ortega hit another car in his apartment building parking lot.

Mattles Toyota burst into flames after the accident, but police have said the collision caused their deaths before the fire started. Prosecutors said Ortegas blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit at the time of the crash.

After he was sentenced, Ortega, who had an interpreter in court helping translate the proceedings from English to Spanish, asked to address the teens families. The parents of both teens were in the courtroom and Ortega spoke to them in English.

I just want to say I never meant for this to happen, he said. I am really sorry for the pain I caused your family and my family. I just pray to God that you find it in your heart, so you can forgive me. I wish I could change it. Thats all.

Tad Mattles mother, Terri Mattle, then addressed Ortega, questioning whether he was breathing a sigh of relief when the teens parents would never see their children breathe again. She told him that both teens were beautiful and had their whole lives in front of them when he took them away. She questioned whether when he took that first drink that day he realized what would happen.

I hope everyday you will think about them, she said. Its not fair. We hurt everyday. It doesnt bring them back and it never will. [. . .]

[District Attorney Rob] Broussard said hes not concerned about public criticism of the plea agreement, given that the difference in Alabama law between reckless murder and reckless manslaughter can be a somewhat fuzzy standard for juries.

I dont worry about that as long as I know Im doing my duty and the most competent job I can in this county, Broussard said. With a guy like Felix Ortega, under these facts, its my duty to keep him off the streets for as long as I am able.

Broussard was asked how the sentence might affect the families and their suffering.

It is my experience that the families will always suffer the loss, no matter what the sentence, even if the defendant gets the death penalty, which was not an option in this case, he said. They will always have a hole in their hearts for that lost loved one. The plea agreement allowed us to avoid having to relive the horrible facts in this case.

Below is a remembrance video of Tad and Leigh Anna, celebrating their brief lives. Why didnt their country protect them from foreign criminals?

A stiff sentence was handed down to Jaime Alvarado, a serial drunk-driving twice-deported illegal alien, who killed Nashville businessman Robert Benn shortly after he arrived in Austin for a new job.

Benn was driving from the airport when his car was struck by the inebriated Alvarado as the Guatemalan was fleeing police because he feared being deported.

In a cruel coincidence for the family, Benns granddaughter was born a few hours before he was killed, so he never got to meet her. Robert Benn was 64 and had three children.

Repeat drunken driver gets 50 years for fatal wreck , Austin Statesman, September 15, 2010

A drunken driver who caused a fatal accident while fleeing police in East Austin last year was sentenced to 50 years in prison Wednesday by a Travis County jury.

Jaime Bonilla Alvarado, 24, had pleaded guilty earlier in the week to murder in the death of Robert Benn, 64, an information technology consultant from Nashville, Tenn., who was in Austin on business.

Alvarado is a construction worker from Honduras who prior to the Aug. 31, 2009, crash had been convicted of drunken driving three times and deported twice. Some of Alvarados family members cried when the verdict was read in state District Judge Jim Coronados court.

After the verdict, Benns daughter Andrea McKee took the witness stand and told Alvarado that she often thinks of her fathers last moments, alone in a strange city. She told Alvarado that her daughter was born earlier the day of Benns death.

Benns wife, Sherrie Benn, said: I wanted justice for Bob. I think we got justice.

Alvarado faced from five years to life in prison. During closing arguments, his lawyer, Brad Urrutia, asked for 25 years.

He is remorseful, and he is repentant.

Prosecutor Erika Sipiora asked for 50 years. She noted that according to Alvarados testimony, he was warned four times the night of the crash not to drive drunk: by two store clerks, a friend and his wife.

For the second time in the trial, she showed video of the smoky crash, taken by a police officers dashboard camera.

Where on this video does it show that Jaime Alvarado was taking into consideration anyone but himself? she asked.

Earlier in the day, Alvarado took the stand and told the jury about his life. He said he grew up poor and received only an elementary school education in the small Honduran town of Santa Rita Yoro.

He said he first came to the United States in 2005, when he was 19, but was caught on his way to Houston and deported. He said he returned soon after and settled with his twin sister and two brothers in Austin.

All three of his DWI arrests were in East Austin in 2006 and 2007. He did not show up for court each time, and when he was finally arrested, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 80 days in jail. He was later convicted in federal court of illegal re-entry by a deported alien and was deported again.

Alvarado said he returned to the U.S. within a month of his deportation and worked as a construction worker. He testified that he worked on a house near Loop 360 on the day of the crash a Monday. He said that after work, he bought a 24-ounce Dos Equis beer, a 12-pack of Corona beer and a six-pack of Dos Equis. He drank most of the beer, he said, in a park and in his Lincoln Navigator near a disco on East Riverside Drive.

He was heading home when he drove north on Pleasant Valley Road past a police car and the officer noticed him speeding and playing loud music, according to testimony.

Alvarado did not stop, even though officer Christopher Geck turned on his lights and sirens attempting to make a traffic stop. Alvarado said he was afraid of being deported and ultimately decided he would try to drive home before being arrested so his SUV would not be impounded. [. . .]

Alvarado, who had a 0.20 blood alcohol level, 21/2 times the legal limit, suffered only minor injuries.

On August 1, a previously arrested drunk-driving illegal alien killed a nun, Denise Mosier (pictured left), and seriously injured two others. The alien, Carlos Martinelly Montano (pictured right), had twice been handed over to ICE for deportation, but had instead been released into the community pending a deportation hearing (occasions which have notably poor attendance among those invited).

A few days later, the Chairman of the Prince William County board of supervisors, Corey Stewart requested information from ICE that would reveal how many illegal aliens are being released by the agency into the county and their crimes.

The rather surprising news is that ICE has agreed:

ICE Agrees to Release Illegal Immigrant Data to Virginia Official, Fox News, August 7, 2010

ICE contacted me this morning, with great news for Prince William County citizens. They have agreed to release to Prince William County the identities and final disposition of every convicted criminal illegal alien apprehended in Prince William County, Virginia and turned over to ICE through the countys 287(g) partnership, Stewart said in a statement.

Stewart said his countys police referred Carlos Martinelly Montano for deportation twice in the past after he served sentences for drunk driving convictions. But immigration officials released Montano, who allegedly killed Sister Denise Mosier and injured two other nuns in the Aug. 1 accident, on his own recognizance pending a deportation hearing.

Regardless of which side of the aisle youre on, or on this issue, we can all agree that if you are an illegal alien and youve committed a crime, that you should be deported afterward, Stewart told Fox News on Friday. But this guy had been twice handed over to immigration officials and twice released back into the community even though there was an immigration detainer on him. And of course hes gone right back out and committed the same crime and killed a nun.

This is good news if true. Dependable illegal alien crime statistics are normally hard to find and squishy. The government has routinely covered up, lied about and obfuscated the degree to which predatory foreign criminals have had their way in easy-going America. Authorities like to say they are pursuing the real bad guys, but recent history is replete with multiple cases of dangerous aliens arrested and released without being deported, with tragic results. (One crime that comes to mind is the preventable deaths of Tennesseeans Sean and Donna Wilson at the hands of a drunk-driving illegal who had been arrested 14 times without being deported.)

Some information about illegal alien crime is available, but mostly in limited quantities for local jurisdictions. For example in 2008 the Houston Chronicle did a fine investigative series on alien crime from researching the Harris County records of arrests and releases. The use of 287(g) which checks the status of arrested persons makes the number of aliens arrested available.

A recently released stat from ICEs home office is that 120,000 criminal aliens have been deported in the last three years,/a>. That number is only 40,000 per year, and doesnt count the crimes or classify them regarding violence and deaths. Whats needed is a true picture of the mayhem resulting from open borders and inadequate immigration law enforcement. Of course, all working aliens are job thieves (and may use a stolen Social Security number, a felony), which is not an insignificant crime during this employment depression.

Statistics are lifeless artifacts, which is why I have focused on the individual stories of crime victims for ImmigrationsHumanCost.org, but numeric information is required to develop adequate enforcement policy.

Anyway, the video below has more about Supervisor Stewarts success in getting ICE to reveal local statistics, particularly the number of dangerous foreigners released instead of deported. Obviously the death of Sister Denise Mosier indicates the Obama gang is no more serious about criminal alien enforcement than previous administrations.

From the sanctuary city of Houston: Shatavia Anderson, a 14-year-old girl, was shot in the back and killed by a Salvadoran illegal alien and his Honduran associate, apparently just to rob her.

Suspect in fatal shooting of teen was deported twice, Houston Chronicle, August 12, 2010

The suspect in the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old Houston girl was an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who previously was deported twice by immigration officials, authorities said.

Melvin Alvarado, 22, was convicted of two separate intoxicated driving offenses in Harris County in 2006 and 2007, criminal records show. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail in connection with the last arrest in November 2007.

Gregory Palmore, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said immigration officials removed Alvarado from the country in April 2008 and again in May 2009.

Palmore said it was unclear from his records whether Alvarado was picked up directly from Harris County Jail after the last intoxicated driving conviction.

The second suspect in the fatal shooting of Shatavia Anderson on Saturday, Jonathan Lopez-Torres, 18, was a lawful permanent resident from Honduras, Palmore said. Harris County records show Lopez-Torres was arrested and accused of auto theft in February 2009. That charge was later dismissed.

The two suspects allegedly saw Anderson as merely a target of opportunity for an armed robbery, Houston police homicide detectives said Wednesday.

Read the original here:
Immigration's Human Cost - human consequences of open ...