CO: Longmont mother convicted of using false social security
Longmont mother convicted of using false social security number
Mexican immigrant could be deported
By Vanessa Miller Camera Staff Writer
Posted: 12/08/2009 08:34:59 PM MST
A Longmont woman who came to Colorado from Mexico in 2000, graduated from Fairview High in 2001 and was working two jobs under a false social security number was found guilty Tuesday of two felonies.
Estrella Jaquez-Quiroz, 26, was sentenced to 90 days of probation after a 12-person jury returned guilty verdicts Tuesday on counts of criminal impersonation and possession of a forged instrument. She was not sentenced to jail time because she was given credit for the 105 days she has already served behind bars.
Her case will now be handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which will probably deport her, her defense attorney Matthew Connell said.
Authorities began investigating Jaquez-Quiroz earlier this year after someone reported her to police for suspected child abuse when they saw her 8-year-old son walking to school, Connell said. Police determined Jaquez-Quiroz wasn't abusing her third-grade son by allowing him to walk a few blocks to class, but -- while looking into the allegation -- they found Jaquez-Quiroz was in the country illegally and working two jobs under another person's social security number.
Jaquez-Quiroz was arrested Aug. 26, and her trial on the felony charges began Monday. Jurors deliberated just a few hours Tuesday before returning guilty verdicts.
Connell told jurors that Jaquez-Quiroz would face federal authorities regardless of their verdict, but he asked them to send her to them without a felony on her record.
"The Statue of Liberty has a plaque that says, 'Give (me) your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,'" Connell said. "Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at it."
Jaquez-Quiroz had no intent to defraud anyone by using a fake social security number to find work, Connell said.
"She came here with the intent to work and provide a better life for her baby," he said.
Jaquez-Quiroz came to the United States with family members in 2000 and then became pregnant. She testified on Tuesday -- choking back tears -- that her son, who is an American citizen, has been sent to Mexico to live with family. Had he stayed here, Connell said, social services would have taken him.
Jaquez-Quiroz told jurors Tuesday that she didn't have enough money to go through the proper avenues to become an American citizen. She testified that she obtained a social security number that she thought was fake and didn't know it belonged to another person.
Regardless of intent, Deputy District Attorney Tim Johnson said Jaquez-Quiroz lied on applications and stole someone's identity.
"When the law is on your side, you argue the law. When facts are on your side, you argue the facts. When neither is on your side, you pound the table -- and that is what Mr. Connell is doing," Johnson said. "There is no real argument to the fact that she obtained a false social security card and knew it was false and intended to use it to defraud."
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said there's a distinction between someone who comes to the United States illegally, and is therefore guilty of a federal crime, and someone who uses a false identity for personal gain and is guilty of a state crime.
"We don't concern ourselves greatly with a person's immigration status unless they're arrested for a state crime," Pelle said. "We are obligated to enforce those things, regardless of how we feel about it."
If a victim or a witness of a crime -- or any person who is not suspected of a crime -- contacts the Sheriff's Office, Pelle said, deputies wouldn't investigate his or her immigration status.
"We don't have authority to do that or jurisdiction to do that," he said.
But, Pelle said, authorities ask for identifying information as part of any investigation of a suspect in a crime, and if investigators find that someone is in violation of a state or federal law related to their immigration status, "We're compelled to report them."
Laurel Herndon, an attorney with the Immigrant Legal Center of Boulder County, said cases like Jaquez-Quiroz's are common.
"This would not surprise any immigration attorney," she said. "We have a client right now who was arrested for riding her bike on the Pearl Street Mall."
She said it seems like more minor cases are being referred to immigration authorities, and it's having an effect on relations between the immigrant community and law enforcement.
"The level of trust is eroding," she said.
Herndon said the bigger problem is that some officers may be engaging in profiling and using flimsy pretexts to request information, but those officers aren't facing scrutiny because of the immigration aspect of the cases.
http://www.dailycamera.com/longmont-news/ci_13956180
