I have a problem with police assisting illegals in setting up bank accounts. When a police officer or deputy gets sworn in then they have an oath which includes upholding the law.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... 5682.story

Trial begins for 2 men accused of robbing murdering day laborer in Pompano
By Tonya Alanez | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 9, 2007
A Broward trial that began Wednesday, in which two men are accused of killing an immigrant day laborer in a robbery attempt, is the first of four Broward homicide cases in which laborers were targeted as being sure to have cash in their pockets and unlikely to resist, prosecutors say.

Santos Salgado, 38, a Honduran native, was gunned down in a friend's Pompano Beach driveway on a Saturday night nearly three years ago.

The father of four was "a vulnerable target," Broward Assistant State Attorney David Frankel said Wednesday during his opening statement.



"Chicos have some money," Frankel said, repeating the words of defendant Benjamin Sanders to detectives. "The money just sounded good."

It was the enticement of easy money, Frankel said, that drew Sanders and Rufus Emmanuel Young to the 200 block of Northeast 47th Street and the fatal encounter Dec. 11, 2004.

Immigrant day laborers have long been attacked for money, but Salgado's death is one in a growing trend of those robberies turning deadly, prosecutors and advocates say. The Broward State Attorney's office has three other pending murder cases with similar circumstances. All happened in the last year and a half.

Broward prosecutors say that although they can't specify how many strong-arm robbery cases involve victims who are foreign day laborers, they file about three such cases a month, said Ron Ishoy, the office's spokesman.

Typically, the victims are here illegally, do not have bank accounts and are afraid to notify police for fear of deportation. They usually don't resist when confronted because they don't want to draw attention to themselves or risk injury and a hospital visit, say law enforcement officials.

The assaults spike on paydays, typically Fridays and Saturdays.

"This is nothing new," said Marlon Gonzalez, of the Miami-based Guatemalan Unity Information Agency. "We are receiving more and more reports that people are being stabbed, shot and hospitalized."

Community outreach by police, social service agencies and churches helps stem the tide of assaults. But it hasn't been considered a Broward problem, Gonzalez said. Most of the efforts have been south of Miami, in Palm Beach County and farther north, he said.

Robbers targeting day laborers has been a growing trend in Palm Beach County for some time. West Palm Beach police assigned a Spanish-speaking officer to the northern end of the city to cultivate trust. And police there have teamed up with the Guatemalan Consulate and banks to allow immigrants to open accounts using either a consular identification card or a consulate-issued passport.

Law enforcement officials urge immigrant victims to come forward.

"It doesn't matter if you're here illegally or not," said Veda Coleman-Wright, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff's Office. "If you have been victimized, then we need to hear from you, because everybody wants to live in a safe community."

Salgado was shot in the stomach and head when Sanders and Young demanded money from him and five of his buddies, prosecutor Frankel said. One of the men scuffled with Sanders, who fired five shots, he said. Another man, Oscar Mayorgos, was wounded.

Two of the men described Sanders, 20, of Lauderhill, and Young, 21, of Fort Lauderdale, for a composite sketch and later picked them out of a photo line-up, Frankel said.

Salgado was there that night to give money for holiday gifts to a friend who had fallen on hard times, Frankel said. "The last day of his life, the very last thing that Mr. Salgado did was go to his friend's house to do a selfless, good deed," he said.