Thread: CA: County & US Atty Join Forces Against IAs w/ Gang Tie

http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=7929527&nav=9qrx

County, US Atty.'s Office Join Forces to Go After Illegals with Gang Ties
Posted: Feb 26, 2008 03:04 PM PST

Riverside County law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney's Office will combine forces to catch and prosecute illegal immigrants with gang ties who are "slipping through the cracks" and returning to the country in violation of federal -- but not state -- law, it was announced Tuesday.

"Now we don't have to let them stay in our community," said Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco. "By grabbing federal authority and connecting it up with our (local law enforcement) resources ... when we see that guy in the community who's a known gang member, we don't just identify him, take his name and say, `OK, see you later.' We say, `You're under arrest."'

Pacheco joined with U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien, head of the Justice Department's Central District of California office, and Riverside County Sheriff Stan Smith Jr. at sheriff's headquarters in Riverside to announce an initiative that promises increased efforts to find and prosecute criminal street gang members with felony convictions who have been previously deported.

"This initiative shows the dedication of the district attorney and sheriff to add another arrow in the law enforcement quiver to tackle this gang problem," said O'Brien. "The simple fact that a criminal alien is sitting back here and has re-entered the country illegally is a federal felony.... If we can identify these individuals, we can slap them hard with a federal sentence."

Under the agreement, a Riverside County deputy district attorney will be designated "special assistant U.S. attorney" and authorized to prosecute illegal immigrant street gang members under federal law, according to O'Brien.

State law makes no provision for charging a previously convicted felon with a crime for re-entering the country after being deported, O'Brien said, but federal law calls for a maximum 20-year prison sentence for violations.

He said most of the time violators plead guilty to a lesser offense and receive a few months to two years in federal prison.

According to Pacheco, using a local deputy district attorney with a background prosecuting gang-related crimes for the new initiative was like finding the "missing piece" in the overall effort to expel illegal immigrant street gang members from local communities.

"This is another piece in the process -- the missing piece -- to get those gang members who are slipping through the cracks," Pacheco said. "Before, if they didn't commit a local crime -- robbery, rape, murder -- we couldn't do much. The feds can 'arrest' them, but the feds are overwhelmed for lack of resources. We can take the county's 80-plus gang task force officers and ... concentrate on these gang members."

It's too late for California to save themselves unless global warming makes them have an average temp of zero degrees from now on. Maybe an Earthquake, the big one? But then the people against Illegal immigration would be hurt too. Their leaders want the IA's and they sure do have them. NOW they want more Federal Funding. They should be cut off from any of it and then they will smarten up.

Imagine if less gasoline was used and less smog was there, when all the IA's left......... It's just a fantasy for those folks besides the business people love bringing back 21st century slavery.