Thread: Loopholes still open for immigrant repeat offenders

Oct. 13, 2006, 10:10AM

Slayings show new HPD rules, even deportation offer no guarantee

By ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

A restraining order against Leon Hugo Andrade did little to prevent the illegal immigrant from stalking his ex-wife. Even a subsequent removal to Mexico by immigration agents did not stop him from returning to Houston.

The slaying of a 61-year-old ordained minister finally removed Andrade from the streets this year, police and court records show. The illegal immigrant, police said, hacked the Rev. William Huang to death with a machete in March after the minister tried to protect Andrade's ex-wife, an employee at the victim's north Houston restaurant.

Houston police recently revised procedures to detain some illegal immigrants in the wake of officer Rodney Johnson's Sept. 21 shooting death, allegedly by an illegal immigrant who had been deported. HPD will model its policy after a partnership between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Harris County Sheriff's Office. The process helped ICE find Andrade in the Harris County Jail in July 2005, eight months before Huang's death, but it didn't guarantee his deportation.

"That's extremely frustrating," said Huang's 28-year-old daughter, Jade Huang Wang.

Huang's death shows how repeat criminals like Andrade evade deportation through loopholes in federal immigration law. HPD might be able to detain some criminals, but a number of factors — including complex immigration laws — won't necessarily guarantee deportation, which can't prevent a criminal's return to Houston.

Access to jail given
Houston police, long criticized for not enforcing federal immigration laws, began allowing immigration officials unlimited access to the city's two jails after the death of Johnson, allegedly by Juan Quintero, who had been deported in 1999. The Houston Police Department will hold people arrested for Class C misdemeanors for federal immigration officials if they have immigration warrants.

ICE and immigration courts, however, don't typically deport criminals with only misdemeanor convictions, though three misdemeanors warrant deportation. An illegal immigrant typically has to commit an aggravated felony to be formally deported, said Luisa Deason, a Houston ICE spokeswoman.

Houston police Capt. Dwayne Ready, a department spokesman, said HPD officers will detain criminals for immigration officials and make the jail available to ICE, but the feds will ultimately decide who is deported.

"If we find out (someone is not a U.S. citizen) it would be up to (ICE) whether or not they'll accept a deportation hold," Ready said.

Federal officials said they will deport criminals detained by HPD on a case-by-case basis.

'Voluntary departure'

Charged with murder, Andrade, 36, is in the Harris County Jail awaiting trial. Eight months before Huang's death, records show, immigration officials ordered Andrade to leave the country after he was jailed in Harris County for assaulting a family member.

Andrade had racked up a list of misdemeanors in 15 years that included assault, weapons possession and driving while intoxicated — as well as a murder charge that was no-billed. But he was never convicted of a felony.

Because he did not have a felony conviction and his jail sentences were all less than a year, ICE ruled that he did not qualify for formal deportation, said San Antonio ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda. Instead, ICE ordered Andrade to leave the country through "voluntary departure," an order originally designed to give noncriminals a second chance at applying for legal status. He was transported by bus back to Mexico, ICE officials said.

Critics have nicknamed voluntary departure a "catch and release" loophole because there are no criminal penalties for returning. Some say automatic deportation is the best option for criminals because harsher penalties and prison sentences are imposed for re-entering the country.

"The bottom line is that people end up back out on the street," said Rosemary Jenks, director of NumbersUSA, a Washington D.C.-based group seeking to reduce illegal immigration. "And, there are few consequences."

The National Sheriff's Association is studying whether voluntary departure perpetuates crime among repeat criminals.

"Some sheriffs believe that voluntary departure really doesn't do its job in closing a loophole," said Ann Yom, director of government affairs for the sheriff's association. "This is a complex issue that shows we really need to strengthen our borders."

'They have an incentive'
Some experts worry that the attention given to a relatively few sensational crimes is distorting perceptions about illegal immigrants.

"The vast majority (of illegal immigrants) obey the law," said Kathleen Newland, director of the Migration Policy Institute. "They have an incentive to stay out of trouble because they are at risk of deportation if convicted of a felony."

Through ICE's Criminal Alien Program at the Harris County Jail, the agency processed 1,373 inmates for removal in 2005. Since January, the agency has processed 745 inmates.

HPD's partnership with ICE might not initially deport all criminals, HPD's Ready said, but it could help police identify those in the country illegally, increasing chances that repeat offenders will ultimately be deported.

"Normally, prior offenses have a tendency to aggravate," Ready said. "Now that they are in the system ... if they're caught later on ... we can start developing a charge on somebody."

The day Huang died

It's unknown just when Andrade returned to the U.S. But on March 12 this year, police said, Andrade showed up outside Huang's Lucky Seafood restaurant at 74 E. Crosstimbers to confront his ex-wife, a U.S. citizen, in violation of a restraining order related to the earlier assault charge.

Huang, an engineer, Christian missionary, entrepreneur and community activist, immigrated to this country legally in 1970 before settling in Houston, where he and his wife raised four children, his daughter said. Three months before his death, Huang had opened Lucky Seafood.

He hired a woman who said she had been forced to move repeatedly to hide from her jealous and violent ex-husband, Andrade, police said.

After celebrating his youngest son's 10th birthday, Huang left his home to help close his restaurant. As Huang was locking up, Andrade arrived and began arguing with his ex-wife.

Police said that when Huang tried to calm the situation, Andrade began to ask if Huang and his ex-wife were romantically involved.

Andrade retrieved a machete from his car and chased Huang around a parking lot before Huang fell. Andrade then hacked the elder man's head open after cutting huge gashes into his face and arms, they said.

Andrade then disappeared for nearly five months before a tip helped the Houston-based U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Violent Offenders & Fugitive Task Force track him down in August. He was working at a lumber yard in Randolph County, W.Va.

Wang hopes something positive will come from the tragedy.

"Our family will never be the same, but we do hope that ... new criminal deportation policies may prevent more innocent lives from being lost," she said.

robert.crowe@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4256022.html

Andrade had racked up a list of misdemeanors in 15 years that included assault, weapons possession and driving while intoxicated — as well as a murder charge that was no-billed. But he was never convicted of a felony.

Because he did not have a felony conviction and his jail sentences were all less than a year, ICE ruled that he did not qualify for formal deportation, said San Antonio ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda.

Are we playing the word game now? Formal deportation, forced deportation, required deportation, voluntary deportation, etc. IMO, volunatry deportation is nothing more than a watered down version of amnesty. Anything that offers forgiveness vice prosecution of a crime should be considered an amnesty. For example, when a police officers gives you a warning for a busted tail light, he is giving you an amnesty for your crime. Voluntary deportation is an AMNESTY in the true since of the word.

Formal deportation on the other hand is basically a probation, not an amnesty. In the case of formal deportation the crime of illegal immigration has been acknowledged and well documented and the guilty part is physical removed from the country. Furthermore, the individual is not allowed to apply for legal re-entry for 10 years.

I am of the opinion all illegal immigrants should receive formal (their word) deportation. There should be no such thing as "voluntary deportation" in the legal sense. The only time the term "voluntary deportation" should come into play is when the individual deports his or herself without being directed to do so by law enforcement officials.