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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Criminals set sights on illegal immigrants

    http://www.orlandosentinel.com

    Criminals set sights on illegal immigrants
    Henry Pierson Curtis
    Sentinel Staff Writer

    July 22, 2006

    Antonio Hernandez bought a ticket recently for his first airplane trip.

    But instead of flying back to Mexico to bring his daughters to the United States, the short-order cook's coffin arrived last week from Orlando in the cargo hold.

    Orange County sheriff's detectives say Hernandez -- who was stabbed to death July 3 during an armed robbery -- made a deadly mistake by going to a bar the night before his trip with pockets full of cash.

    It was the second murder of an illegal immigrant in Orange County in the past month. Police say that as the number of immigrants in Central Florida grows, so do the numbers of crimes against them. Advocates for illegal immigrants say that mirrors what is happening across the nation.

    Criminals target immigrants for the simplest of reasons: The victims almost never dial 911.

    While there are no firm statistics, Chris Newman, legal-affairs coordinator for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network in Los Angeles, said he has seen evidence of increases in violent attacks in Florida, Texas, California and other areas of the country.

    "The bad guys get the idea they can attack with impunity," he said. Like many law-enforcement agencies, the Orlando Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff's Office do not track crimes by immigration status. And because the crimes are rarely reported, it is impossible to know how often immigrants are being victimized.

    "It does appear there has been a spike or increase in robberies of Mexican males," said Sgt. Bill Hinkey, head of the sheriff's robbery squad.

    Tirso Moreno of the Farmworker Association of Florida in Apopka said many illegal immigrants fear that a call to law enforcement is a shortcut to deportation.

    Their fears are not unfounded: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say that if called, they will arrest crime victims for deportation.

    "There are police agencies that notify us. And they're agencies that don't, saying for years immigration [officials] wouldn't respond," said Pam McCullough, ICE spokeswoman in Tampa. "We are under current marching orders to respond to all state and local notifications."

    Two communities in Florida -- the cities of Palm Bay and Avon Park -- are looking into local enforcement of immigration by penalizing employers or landlords.

    As a result, some advocates say, many of the state's estimated 880,000 foreign residents -- who have overstayed visas or entered the country illegally -- consider being a victim of crime the cost of living in the United States.

    Thugs are exploiting the fear of deportation in the midst of stepped-up federal enforcement in the view of the League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington.

    "It's a double whammy," said Gabriela Lemus, LULAC's director of policy and legislation, who included Orlando in a study of three U.S. cities with emerging Hispanic populations.

    "It's getting more and more violent, and we're starting to see an increase in loss of life," Lemus said.

    While advocates understand immigrants' unwillingness to report crimes, it consistently frustrates law enforcement.

    "We don't ask if someone's legal or illegal. We try to put people at ease," said sheriff's Detective Mark Hussey, who is trying to catch Hernandez's killers. "I'm working on a homicide here."

    Other local agencies follow the same "don't-ask, don't-tell" approach to solve crimes, despite growing pressure on them to enforce federal immigration laws.

    Central Florida is home to illegal Haitian, Russian and Chinese newcomers, but Mexicans represent the largest group of undocumented residents. The Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington-based research organization, estimates Florida has the third-largest population of illegal immigrants in the country.

    Mexicans converging every weekend at discount supermarkets and Latin food stores are human ATMs for local thugs, investigators say.

    "They all know if you want to make money, you rob a Mexican on a Friday or Saturday night," said Orange County sheriff's Detective Yuri Melich. That's when illegal immigrants typically get paid in cash, pay their bills in cash and wire what's left to their families in Mexico, police say.

    Sergio Riva de Neyra, head of legal affairs for the Consulate of Mexico in Orlando, encourages immigrants without legal papers to get a consular ID card, which "provides identification for Mexicans to open a bank account so that they do not have to carry wallets full of money," he said.

    As many as two dozen Mexican nationals are killed during robberies in Florida each year, mostly around Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville, said Riva de Neyra, who ships the bodies home.

    In a rare reported home invasion, Sheriff's Office records show five Mexicans were robbed on a Saturday night in April at their apartment near Lake Orlando.

    "When do you get paid again?" one of the suspects asked after stripping the men of cash and gold jewelry at gunpoint. The report said the victims declined to provide written statements.

    "I believe the victims were targeted because they are Mexican," wrote Deputy Randall Pennington.

    Hernandez, whose body was shipped to Mexico City, prospered in the underground economy.

    His job as a cook at Beto's restaurant on South Orange Blossom Trail was the last stop on a journey that began years ago on a small ranch in the mountains of the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, according to family members.

    He saved for his trip to Mexico by working at the 24-hour restaurant where Mexican laborers pay for meals with bankrolls thick enough for an all-night poker game.

    On the night of July 2, he and his brother-in-law stepped out to have a couple of beers before the next day's flight.

    While walking home hours later, the pair was jumped by four robbers masquerading as cops and driving a dark police-style sedan, said the brother-in law, who asked not to be identified out of fear of being tracked down by Hernandez's killers or ICE agents.

    "Policia," shouted the Spanish-speaking killers with distinct Puerto Rican accents moments before one of them stabbed Hernandez, according to the Sheriff's Office.

    In 2003, on the same corner, home invaders who broke into an apartment killed a Mexican construction worker and shot and wounded a second before escaping with thousands in cash.

    Four weeks before Hernandez died, Fernando Gonzalez, 23, was stabbed to death during a robbery on South Texas Avenue. The crimes show strong similarities, but detectives have not determined whether the two cases are linked.

    Gonzalez's body -- unlike Hernandez's -- lies in a pauper's grave in Orange County because no one knew his hometown in Mexico.

    Victor Manuel Ramos of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5257.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    While walking home hours later,
    Any chance they weren't jumped because they were drunk? It doesn't say if they were on the Orange Blossom Trail at a bar but anyone from there knows you don't hang out on the trail with cash.

    Secondly isn't it just astonishing that you can just fly out and bring more illegals back and there's nothing happening?

    Thirdly.....how would anyone know for sure they were ILLEGAL and not simply 2 drunk Mexicans with a roll of cash?
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