Police act on illegal status
Area law enforcement agencies increase efforts despite uphill battle

By Joseph Gidjunis
Staff Writer


FRUITLAND -- Maryland State Police have charged Silas Soto with manslaughter by vehicle, automobile homicide while under the influence and homicide by vehicle while impaired in connection with the high-speed accident May 26 that caused the death of a still unidentified passenger and injured six others.

Soto, 22, who offered police several different names and birth dates, admitted to his and his passenger's illegal immigration status, police said. Soto's identity was confirmed from previous run-ins with police.


He remained in state protective custody Sunday at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. His injuries are not life threatening, and he is expected to be transported to Wicomico County Detention Center to await a court date once he is released from the hospital, said state police 1st Sgt. Mark Darby.

Soto's passenger died at the scene of the accident near Route 13 and Hayward Avenue and remains listed as "John Doe.'' Officials continue to search for records of him, or kin who need to be notified, police said.

Law enforcement officials and others fear the publicity surrounding the Fruitland accident could stir increasing resentment and legal action against the region's growing Hispanic population.

The multi-vehicle wreck occurred at the height of agricultural growing season when migrant labor is most needed. A national immigration reform debate has returned to Congress. The accident also has similar characteristics to a Virginia Beach, Va., tragedy March 30 when an illegal immigrant, under the influence of alcohol, killed two high school girls and received national criticism from conservative critics such as FOX News' Bill O'Reilly.

These factors are encouraging area law enforcement, who regularly receive demands for action, to aggressively enforce laws that impede illegal immigrants habits and loopholes.

"Members of the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office and Maryland State Police are planning a joint operation in the near future to address the concerns of Wicomico County residents regarding illegal immigration," said Sheriff Mike Lewis. "We recognize it to be a problem and we are dealing with it."

The trouble that the Sheriff's Office, as well as other local or state agencies face, is two-fold. The first is jurisdiction because immigration laws used to detain and arrest a suspect are federal ones enforced by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The second is that this agency, which has an office and detention center in Salisbury, is short personnel and acknowledges it can't attend to all of its service calls.

ICE has more than 15,000 employees, and is the largest investigative branch within the Department of Homeland Security.

"We certainly do prioritize our resources. We have to. We don't have unlimited resources," said Scott Rittenberg, assistant special agent in Charge at ICE's Baltimore Office. "We look at every individual case. Every call that comes in. There is no blanket, 'yes' this, or 'no' to these. Based on what's going on at that time, we make a determination on what our response is going to be."

Despite increases in money and personnel, ICE's fugitive-apprehension units are unable to keep up with demand for its service.

"The fugitive alien population is growing at a rate that exceeds the teams' ability to apprehend," according to a report released in March showing more than 600,000 fugitive aliens in agency backlog.

While ICE's most experienced officers investigate higher-priority crimes and spend most of their time on felony fugitives, the impression from area law enforcement is that traffic and misdemeanor offenses are so low on the priority, that they are ignored.

"Quite honestly because it's been our experience in dozens of times that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not come out for an illegal immigrant or two. If it is vehicle load or van load, then they will respond," Lewis said. "But we keep in mind that they are much too busy. If we have criminal charges that accompany traffic charges, we will arrest them and charge them accordingly."

A Virginia Beach Police Department official said they face the identical problem.

Double-fatality

On Friday, March 30, at 10:27 p.m., a 22-year-old illegal immigrant who allegedly was driving too fast and with too much alcohol in his system struck a 1994 Plymouth Duster stopped at a red light carrying a driver, Alison Kunhardt, 17, and her 16-year-old passenger, Tessa Tranchant, the force of the crash pinned them both. One died at the scene. The other at the hospital, according to a VBPD statement.

The driver, Alfredo Ramos, was charged with two counts of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and remains in police custody. Ramos' vehicle was properly registered in his name.

Before the accident, ICE informed the Virginia Beach police chief that they would not respond to misdemeanors, and the police set a policy not to contact ICE about these low-level suspects.

"There were so many of those, they don't have the manpower or resources to stop for everyone believed to be an immigrant. We set this policy two years ago," said VBPD spokesman Jimmy Barnes.

In April, O'Reilly heavily attacked Virginia Beach for its position, calling the resort a "a sanctuary city."

Within the last six weeks, however, ICE has shifted its attitude.

"ICE had a change. I don't know what caused it. Maybe the national attention or pressure. But they will now respond to any case we have involving illegal immigration, in our custody. We've made a policy change," Barnes said.


Wicomico authority
Lewis cheered the news about the new relationship between ICE and the Virginia Beach Police Department, but he does not expect ICE to voluntarily make the same decision here. He'll have to demand it.

"Once we start this enforcement initiative in the near future, I will not accept that they will not respond," Lewis said. "My deputies will do their job, and I expect ICE to do its job."

The local powers that Lewis and his deputies can pursue are limited, and he would not detail the cooperative operation he and state police are mounting. But one law he intends to enforce is a vehicle registration rule allowing the targeting of out-of-state vehicles.

Illegal immigrants often possess out-of-state registrations, particularly from Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina, and by law, Maryland residents must update their registration within 30 days, Lewis said. College students and U.S. military personnel are exempt, but others can be fined $310 for the offense. A registration inquiry gives his office authority to determine legal status.

His deputies may not arrest a suspected illegal immigrant but may keep them in custody through an ICE detainer document that may be obtained by a deputy. The individual would be held at Wicomico County Detention Center until he or she could be transferred into ICE's custody for immigration proceedings, an ICE spokesperson said.

"There are residents asking the Sheriff's Office to take some measures to bring these vehicles into compliance with the law," Lewis said. "We're working with the state police now to do just that."

Cry for help
As Delmarva's share of the estimated 12 million to 18 million illegal immigrants in the United States grows, so do the people hoping for a method for them to enter the United State's legal rolls.

"It's very difficult for someone who is here undocumented to function in our system legally. Regardless of whether you or not you cross the border illegally, once you're here, you want to function legally," said Amy Liebman, an area immigration advocate.

"Ideally, it would be really nice if immigrants could have access to driver's licenses and driver safety courses and purchase insurance," she said. "They want to purchase insurance but there are enormous barriers. You have a lot of immigrants coming to work. They want to follow the law."

Liebman, who describes immigration as a social justice right of the oppressed that should be advocated for by moral and religious conscience individuals, said a heightened law enforcement presence will only succeed in forcing more illegals into hiding.

"More sweeps are going to isolate this community and scare this community. If you want to address public safety, it would opening the doorways to immigrants getting a driver's license," she said. "We should look at it as a cry for help. Why would someone go on a high-speed chase? Is enforcement the answer or are other policy changes needed to avoid that?"

Detaining and removing every illegal immigrant isn't realistic either, she said.

The U.S. Senate's Comprehensive Immigration Reform of 2007, is also under scrutiny from both immigration opponents and supporters. The sponsor, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the bill allows practical solutions such as one-time fines for immigrants already in the country to pay to start legal status paperwork. Opponents criticize the effort as an amnesty not punishing immigrants who broke the law.

jgidjunis@dmg.gannett.com

410-845-4630






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