Thread: After crash, fury over illegal immigration

Locally, the horrifying crash in Brewster is unleashing a wave of rage over illegal immigration. Police identified the drunken-driving suspect as an illegal immigrant who worked on a local horse farm. Apparently the horse farms are yet another industry that relies on undocumented labor, as we reported in The Journal News on Sunday.

The reader forums on our web site are boiling with comments about illegal immigrants, their employers, Hispanics and “Mayan savagesâ€

A personal note from NY Assemblyman Greg Ball ....................


BALL COMMENTS ON BREWSTER TRAGEDY
A Statement f rom Assemblyman Greg Ball (R, C, I – Patterson)


My heart pours out to the Donohue family. On behalf of a loving community, I extend my absolute and unending support to the family. This horrific tragedy, not only an issue of illegal immigration, but of drunken driving, has rocked our community to the core. In recent days, I have fielded hundreds of calls from constituents on the issues of drunken driving and illegal immigration. This tragedy, and these conversations, have affected me personally and deeply. Rightfully so, many residents are outraged and are furious over a heartbreaking and tragic loss that could have been avoided. I am asking my constituents to channel this hurt and pain into making every effort to ease the incomprehensible loss of this beautiful family. Moving forward I will work with my fellow elected officials to do the same, while addressing the pressing issues of drunken driving and illegal immigration in our community. As a public body we must take immediate steps to ensure that such a mindless tragedy will never happen again.

Mr. Hall seems to be tiptoeing on both sides of the fence.

Girl, mom killed in Brewster crash

Kathy Moore and Hoa Nguyen
kjmoore@lohud.com

BREWSTER - A drunken driver struck and killed a mother and her young daughter as they were walking to the child's dance class yesterday, authorities said.

Kayla Donohue, a second-grader at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Southeast, was pronounced dead at the scene about 6:45 p.m., Brewster fire officials said.

Her mother, Lori Donohue, was taken by Brewster ambulance to Putnam Hospital Center and then by helicopter to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where she reportedly died later in the evening.

A white Ford F-350 pickup truck apparently failed to make the left-hand turn onto routes 6 and 22 from Main Street in the village and drove into the parking lot next to Seven Stars School of Performing Arts, pinning the little girl against the building and her mother beneath the truck.

The pickup's driver was taken into custody and arraigned early this morning on a felony charge of first-degree vehicluar manslaughter. The suspect was identified this morning by a Putnam County corrections official as Zacariah Conses-Garcia, 35. His address was not immediately available. Conses-Garcia was being held on $150,000 bail.

The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement department has also filed a detainer against the suspect as an illegal immigrant, the Putnam County corrections department said. Further details were not available.

An impromptu memorial was set up this morning at the site of the accident.

Police released few details on the accident last night. They have scheduled a news conference for 11:30 a.m. today at the Brewster state police barracks.

But bystanders and friends of the Donohue family were able to provide more information about the tragedy.

Southeast Councilman Dwight Yee, whose daughter was in a Seven Stars dance class at the time, said he arrived on the scene quickly enough to see the driver of the truck sitting in the back of a police cruiser. Yee said state troopers told him the driver registered a 0.19 percent blood-alcohol level on a breath-based test, more than twice the legal threshold for driving while intoxicated.

"The community is very upset," said Yee, a former New York City police lieutenant. "A DWI at 6:30 in the evening."

Several bystanders, along with the teachers at the popular dance school, tried to calm other students inside, who were crying and frightened after the violent crash.

Jillian Bierce, 24, who lives nearby, said she heard tires screeching and a loud crash, and saw a woman lying underneath the truck. She ran inside the dance school to comfort the children.

"The teachers were devastated," she said.

Santos Argueta, 29, who works at Norm's, a bar and restaurant across the street, said he also heard tires screeching and a horn blaring. "The tires were going crazy," said Argueta, who was visibly shaken by the crash two hours later.

Debbie Wood, another Norm's employee, also saw the aftermath.

"If it did that damage to the building, you know what it did to the person," she said, referring the the splintered facade.

Yee said local police knew the driver, a village resident, familiar to them because of his large truck with Florida license plates.

Omeka Krongelb, a Sherman, Conn., resident who teaches hip-hop at Seven Stars, was approaching the dance studio when she found out what happened. Krongelb's teenage daughter also takes classes there.

"My daughter is 14, but she wouldn't have survived that either," Krongelb said, looking at the massive truck and the impact that crushed wooden shingles on the building. "It's so awful. I'm just heartbroken."

Yee said parents never let their daughters walk back and forth to the studio entrance by themselves because the traffic at routes 6 and 22 and Main Street is so busy and the paved area between the building, which also houses Stark Communication, and the road so narrow.

"Everyone does the same thing. We all walk along the building with our daughters who are running along laughing in their leotards," Yee said.

Bob Donohue, the father, was coaching a softball game at JFK school when he was notified of the crash and fled the field, parents said. Word spread quickly by cell phone and text messages that there had been a terrible accident at Seven Stars and distraught parents converged on the school to pick up their shaken children.

Yee noted that it is the second tragedy to hit Brewster within weeks. Richard Grasso, a retired New York City police officer known throughout the community for coaching and supporting his children's sporting and musical theater activities, was killed in a head-on collision on Route 22 on May 7. Yee said his daughter is in the same class as Grasso's daughter at C.V. Starr Intermediate School.

"How can I explain this to my daughter?" he said. "First Grasso (was killed) and now this."

http://www.lohud.com/article/2009906090368

Lots of very angry Americans posting on that site!

I see this in Arizona all the time. Illegal immigrants have a whole different perspective on our laws. Here, we are so close to the border that when they get in these accidents they just get out and run. There is usually someone that will keep them safe until they can just cross the border back into Mexico until things cool down. Yes, you can say it's not about illegal, it's about alcohol and as Americans we can do the same thing. The difference is we have been educated for years about drunk driving and more and more Americans are concerned about the consequences. Illegals don't really care about our laws or they would follow them before they even came in illegally.

In Arizona they do what they want. Sheriff Joe is concerned about enforcing our laws, thank goodness. And, now our legislature is actually doing something about this issue.

I think lot of these people should be able to get (green) cards easier. Not easy, but easier. It is so expensive and so difficult to be legal that they just can’t do it.

It's less expensive than paying some to smuggle you into the US legally. People who enter illegally usually have something in their background that will bar them from entering legally and they know it! So what do they do? They break and disrespect our laws and come anyway.
There is nothing wrong with our immigration vetting process, the illegal aliens just refuse to abide by other country's laws. This has GOT to stop! ALL illegals MUST be found and deported! NO excuses!

Originally Posted by miguelina

It's less expensive than paying some to smuggle you into the US legally. People who enter illegally usually have something in their background that will bar them from entering legally and they know it! So what do they do? They break and disrespect our laws and come anyway.
There is nothing wrong with our immigration vetting process, the illegal aliens just refuse to abide by other country's laws.

Also some US businesses want illegals because they are cheaper than American workers or foreign guest workers. Both parties are to blame.

Apparently the horse farms are yet another industry that relies on undocumented labor, as we reported in The Journal News on Sunday.

Really? I know of someone on this forum that works on a horse farm. On top of that, my wife's family did as well. An ex-coworker's husband worked on one as well. Yet ANOTHER job taken away from Americans!!!

Horse farms and the horse industry, in general, employee illegals. It's not news to me. I muck my own stalls BTW.