Barletta cries foul after feds fail to take arrested illegals
Tuesday, 17 April 2007

By JIM DINO
Local law enforcement personnel should arrest and handle illegal aliens, because the federal government can’t handle the task alone, Hazleton Mayor Louis Barletta says.
The mayor met with the press Monday afternoon to talk about the latest crime involving illegal aliens in the city – which ended up in a high-speed chase around downtown Hazleton early Sunday morning.
Barletta said three of the four suspects were illegal – but the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency that deals with illegal aliens – could not come to Hazleton to take them into custody because they did not have the manpower. Two suspects have been released, because the charges against them were not serious.
The third – the driver of the car, who faced the most serious charges – is still in jail, and Barletta said he is appealing again to ICE to come to get him.
Barletta said despite what officials have told him, he will still enlist city police to arrest and detain illegal aliens who commit crimes in the city.
“I will not sit quietly and allow critics to say that local and state government should not get involved,” Barletta said.
“This incident did not happen in Washington, D.C. It happened on our streets – in our city – risking the lives of our police officers and our citizens.
“The bottom line is that the federal government cannot handle this problem alone.”
Barletta said the incident began around 12:30 a.m. Sunday when a vehicle containing four men failed to stop for police, and the chase ensued at Church and Maple streets.
The chase proceeded east to Broad Street. The speeding vehicle then turned left onto Broad Street to go east, and then made an illegal left turn onto Wyoming before being stopped in the parking lot of Hazle Drugs.
Barletta said the driver, Klever Juanacio, 33, of Brooklyn, N.Y,, was arrested for drunk driving, fleeing and eluding police, false identification to law enforcement authorities and numerous vehicle code violations. He is still being held.
“He admitted to police he bought his fake ID, with fake name, age, and Hazleton address, in New York City for $45,” Barletta said. “He admitted he was illegally in the United States, and is originally from Ecuador.”
The only person in the vehicle who was in the country legally, Juan Fuentes, 32, of Winters Avenue, West Hazleton, was arrested for resisting arrest and public drunkenness. He was taken into custody near Pine and Spruce streets, and is also still in jail.
The other two passengers, Pazual Perez, 29, of East Broad Street, Hazleton, and Jose Alberto-Perez, age unknown, of East Green Street, Hazleton, were arrested on public drunkenness citations, and released.
Failing to deport illegal immigrants when they are arrested just encourages them to break the law over and over, the mayor said.
“This is actor number four’s (Alberto-Perez’s) second time within two weeks of being arrested for the same charge,” Barletta said.
“(Pedro) Cabrera was arrested six times before he was involved in the Kichline shooting,” the mayor said, referring to the murder of Derek Kichline, for which Cabrera and Juan Romero have been charged. “Recently, two young women were killed in Virginia by a drunk driver who was an illegal alien.
“When illegals are caught breaking the law, I expect them to be detained and deported,” the mayor continued. “They are not welcome in Hazleton. I’ve made it known all over the nation.
“We will not have our people injured or killed by people who don’t belong here.”
Barletta said the nearest ICE office is in Philadelphia, and he will continue to lobby to get an office closer to Hazleton.

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