Colorado DA Says Illegal Immigrant Crime Preventable

"The crimes being committed by illegal immigrants are preventable."

"There is a contrast between what's happening in courtrooms and on the streets, and what's happening with policy makers in Washington, D.C. There's a rift. And we need to fill that rift with information. We need more resources to deport dangerous criminals."--Weld County DA Ken Buck

By deportation (video):

There are an estimated 12 million suspected illegal immigrants in the United States. When they enter the country, immigration laws are broken. Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck says some of the illegal immigrants go on to commit violent crimes.

"We have a case here where someone committed six DUIs under three different names in Weld County, and that person wasn't deported. They went out and committed vehicular homicide and killed somebody and that person left behind a wife and children," said Buck.

Buck organized a special forum held Tuesday titled "Illegal immigration: The untold stories."

About 500 people showed up at the meeting.

Untold by the MSM, of course. Freedom Folks, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Lonewacko, and Patterico have all covered these 100% preventable crimes. Colorado doesn't track crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Greeley seeks an ICE office, and Tuesday's forum attendees backed that notion.


Standing room only in Greeley

What types of crimes? Ask Sandy Ross of Weld County:

Sandy Ross, 55, is among a group of people who will talk about how crimes committed by illegal immigrants have damaged their lives.

Ross said she was driving home from church in Weld County on Sept. 2, 2005, when a car driven by Armando Rodriguez Romero slammed into hers. Rodriguez Romero was here illegally from Mexico and had stolen his brother's car.

Ross suffered two broken legs, a broken arm and a crushed right foot in the crash. Her 4-year-old son also was injured and traumatized by the crash.

"For the longest time, he would just break down and cry," Ross said.

Ross lost her apartment trying to pay bills related to the crash and now lives with a friend in Arvada. Rodriguez Romero is serving an eight-year sentence for vehicular assault while under the influence.

But Rodriguez Romero will not pay restitution because he is to be deported as soon as his sentence is complete, Ross said.

"I really don't think about him that much because I'm so busy trying to put our lives back together," said Ross, whose son now attends elementary school.

"Still, these types of things are happening to people like us everyday," Ross said, adding she wants to speak tonight to warn others about the pitfalls of America's immigration policies.

The DA continued, defending the forum:

Buck says the purpose of the forum was to inform the public about the impact of crimes committed by illegal immigrants is having on the community.

"If you were the victim of a crime it's a very big problem and so it's a problem we need to address because the crimes being committed by illegal immigrants are preventable," said Buck.

And lo, the amnesty moonbats howled about "racism":

Some Hispanic leaders condemned the meeting, saying it furthers racism and hate. No one from the pro-immigrant side was invited to speak. Buck says he did not think a debate would be safe or productive. He maintains it was only an informational meeting. Opponents say it was intentionally one-sided to spread false stereotypes.

The exact number of crimes committed by illegal immigrants is hard to pinpoint. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, does not keep that statistic, neither does the Colorado court system, nor Buck himself.

"It's somewhat hard to quantify, but it's also hard to say how many drug dealers there are in Weld County yet we still have a drug task force in Weld County. This doesn't mean the problem isn't real," said Buck.

And the wailing and rending of clothes by the amnesty moonbats continued:

Members of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition say Buck's forum is baseless and is aiming to instill false fear.

"We empathize with victims of crime and want to address crime in our community, but to use government resources to single out one community because of the actions of a few violators, is shameful," said the coalition's director Julien Ross.

Ross says studies have shown that immigrants are often victims of crime. Ross says focusing on a fairly ambiguous issue detracts from the need to have what he calls substantial reform of the current immigration system.

"We know that immigrants are here to work and better their family, not to commit crimes," said Ross.

While ICE does not track crimes by illegal immigrants, it did report that of 197,000 illegal immigrants deported last year, 88,600 had criminal convictions.

So from ICE's own numbers, 45% of the deported illegal immigrants had criminal convictions. Anyone taking a look at the blogs mentioned above would be quickly disabused of the notion that there are few criminals in the illegal immigrant population, and in fact the most heinous perpetrators are often repeat offenders who have been deported several times, only to return and commit similar crimes.

So CIRC's agenda is to hide these criminal convictions first by denying they exist--using the meme that illegal immigrants are all here to work to "better their family" performing jobs "Americans won't do"--or by using the argument that since illegal immigrants are sometimes the victims of crimes, they should be excused from responsibility. Note that citizens, legal and illegal immigrants often fall victim to crimes committed by illegal immigrants:

The meeting closed with a taped interview with Enedina Martinez, a legal permanent resident from Mexico whose husband was killed two years ago by an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk.

Martinez - who was profiled last year in a Rocky Mountain News series about illegal immigration, The Border Within - cried as she was asked about the loss of her husband and her children's father.

"I think people should have their legal documents and identification," she said. "That way, what happened to me won't happen to other people."

Greeley has seen its total immigrant population grow 60% since 2000, and was the site of one of the December 2006 Swift raids.

Buck had more details on the scope of the problem in Weld County:

Buck said the speakers will provide the "nature and scope of what we're dealing with."

For example, he said, two years ago, law enforcement estimated that approximately 10 percent of local gang members were illegal immigrants.

He also said between 18 to 22 percent of inmates in the jail are noncitizens, and that a majority are in the country illegally, based on the number of ICE holds.

Buck said he did not know the overall percentage of crimes in Weld County committed by illegal immigrants.
. . .
Responded Buck: "For the longest time, this town denied we had a gang problem. People said I was being divisive. As a result, we ended up with four gang-related murders in six months. You can try to kill the messenger, but the message is very real."

Aspiring career moonbat and amnesty flack responded:

Chris Garcia, a student at the University of Northern Colorado and co-chair of MEChA, a Chicano student organization, said the event was likely to attract a large number of Hispanics.

"All people talk about at these events is how we're criminals, how we bring disease and other crazy ideas. The bottom line message is Greeley is being overrun by Mexicans," he said.

"We've had enough. This meeting is just more of the same, and there is potential for some serious conflict and divisiveness."

Of course, MEChA itself is a divisive, race-oriented organization--something the moonbats vehemently deny.

Buck concluded:

"There is a contrast between what's happening in courtrooms and on the streets, and what's happening with policy makers in Washington, D.C.," Buck said. "There's a rift. And we need to fill that rift with information. We need more resources to deport dangerous criminals."