Enforcing borders might've saved life
Did immigrant shot in December flee police for fear of deportation?

By Kevin Leininger
of The News-Sentinel

Only one man knows why Jose Baudilio Lemus-Rodriguez fled from police on Dec. 23, and he's dead - shot by an officer cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent report released this week.

But surely the question must be asked: Did Lemus-Rodriguez's status as an illegal immigrant contribute to his fateful decision? Might he be alive today - and a young officer still blissfully ignorant of what it feels like to fatally shoot someone - if this nation had been more serious about enforcing its borders and laws?

As insensitive as such questions may seem, the refusal even to ask them would be downright cruel.

Did Guatemala native Lemus-Rodriguez refuse to stop his car for James Arnold and other Fort Wayne Police officers because he feared deportation for violation of immigration laws? Police Chief Rusty York says it's possible. So does the attorney for Lemus-Rodriguez's family.

“Who knows?â€