Saturday, April 07, 2007

Border Criminals in court assisted robbery, $100,000

Story: "Two illegal aliens have agreed to a $100,000 out-of-court settlement after threatening a multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuit against a Texas deputy over an incident in which the lawman shot at an alien-smuggling vehicle he said tried to run him down.
Maricela Rodriguez-Garcia and Candido Garcia-Perez, Mexican nationals who were being smuggled into the U.S. in April 2005 when they were injured by fragments of the lawman's bullets, agreed to the amount after a mediation hearing in Austin, Texas. They initially asked for $1.5 million.
...
"It's not any different than paying off a bank robber who happens to get shot on his way out of the bank," he said. "In this case, the two conspired to break the law and when they got caught tried to run down my deputy."
...
Hernandez, 25, was sentenced March 19 by U.S. District Judge Robert T. Dawson in federal court in Del Rio, Texas, to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $5,347 in damages to Mrs. Rodriguez-Garcia. The judge also ordered three years of supervised probation and an additional $5,000 fine."

This is a travesty beyond belief, in a couple of ways.
1. The News outlet reactions:
I didn't hear about this until I received it in an email from a lady who diligently tracks pretty much all things border related. I read the same article, but the link wasn't from source I'd heard of, and after 10 minutes of scouring the net, I finally found this solitary article reporting this story.
Why? This is huge! The only reason to hide this story is to distract from the current news cycle, which as of now is either the Iranian hostage situation, or the 'justice department crisis'.
2. Non-US citizens bringing a suit against a US citizen in a US court system, and the defendants simply giving up because it cost to much to fight it. Simply reprehensible that this could happen, let alone happen by a foreign national in the US.
3. These men are criminals, in a couple of senses. First, and most obviously, they broke through our border and entered, lived, and conducted 'business' while in the US, without being a citizen, or even with a green card or work visa. Secondly, he tried to run a United States Law enforcement officer (ya know, the guys that risk their lives day in and out for you and me) during a routine traffic stop. But still, he can file a suit on the officer, twice in fact.
4. This officer was already convicted of racial profiling (an absurd law in and of itself), and because of this, the criminal was let off the hook. So what happens next? He files a civil suit against the officer.

This entire situation is beyond disgusting. Justice has not been done here, and we have yet another precedent of pandering to illegal immigrants, at the expense of our own service men. It follows in the tradition of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, and their conviction.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yuck!

Kingdom Advancer said...

Hey Palm Boy,

I haven't been on in a while, and just wanted to let you know that I commented on a couple of your old posts.

Hopefully, I'll be able to write a new post myself soon.

RobertDWood said...

Yuck, indeed.

KA, thanks for the notice. :D Welcome back.

Solameanie said...

I am beginning to wish Texas would resume use of the electric chair, beginning with this:

Any violent crime committed by an illegal crossing the border is a capital offense.

RobertDWood said...

Aw, common Sola. I support capital punishments, but only when the sentence is warranted. (ie, you kill someone, you hang)

But your citizenship status shouldn't have anything to do with criminal justice, (the two crimes requiring separate punishments) particularly not to the point of death.

Anonymous said...

Here's the rock and hard place:

Deport them: they come back...easily. And possibly...probably...commit more crimes.

Imprison them: Americans pay for their room and board...then they get deported...then they possibly--probably--come back...easily...and perhaps commit more crimes.

That's why it's essential to secure the border. I.E., deport them, they DON'T come back.

However, I disagree with you, Palm Boy, that citizenship status shouldn't effect punishment of criminals. If you are an illegal, you are INVADING America. If you commit a VIOLENT crime, you are now committing a VIOLENT INVASION.

The key word is "violent." If it's a "violent" crime. I still don't know if I'd say "death penalty" like Sola (perhaps the determining inquiry should be, "Was there intent to kill?"), but I think the logic of my above paragraph should be kept in mind.