Thread: deportation

And do not let the door hit you on the way out

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Crime was serious, and punishment very heavy
By Scott Sexton
JOURNAL COLUMNIST
Sunday, August 13, 2006


At some point in the next few months, six teenagers will climb off a battered bus somewhere in Mexico and begin fending for themselves in a country they barely know.

All six are newly minted felons. Each entered Forsyth County District Court Thursday afternoon shackled at the wrists and ankles, stood next to an interpreter none of them really needed and pleaded guilty to a boatload of felonies connected to hundreds of acts of vandalism and auto break-ins.

Their behavior caused more than $26,000 in damage to hundreds of cars and businesses in Forsyth County.

That's not chump change, nor can their handiwork be filed under "boys-will-be-boys" vandalism. It wasn't a single act of tomfoolery or a one-night rampage; it was a three-month crime spree that demanded punishment.

Thanks to a loophole in North Carolina's structured-sentencing law, the gang of six was not eligible for active prison time. So the Forsyth District Attorney's Office notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that the six teens were illegal immigrants and, as new felons, subject to immediate deportation.

"The victims were never going to be compensated, and these defendants were not going to be punished," prosecutor David Hall said. "This is as close to justice as we could come."

Death sentence?

None of the six - Jose Avarca-Barrientos, Oscar Gallardo Jimenez, Jose Luis Barrientos Gallardo, Christian Ramirez Navidad, Oscar Omar Dominguez Parral or Mario Jhamager Tapia - has turned 18 yet.

According to their attorneys, only one of the teenagers has immediate family in Mexico and has made arrangements for a place to stay. The five others basically will be left to their own devices for survival in a country not particularly noted for law and order.

"The DA's office doesn't know what these kids will be walking into down there," said Chris Beechler, Barrientos' attorney. "One of those six kids will get mixed up in something they shouldn't and get killed down there. It's a death sentence."

Hall, for one, isn't convinced. He dismissed the suggestion that politics played a role in the decision to deport, and subscribed to the theory that defense counsel was dialing up the rhetoric in an emotional case.

"You're asking a not very well-traveled public servant," Hall said. "I don't know what they'll face."

What we do know is this: Kernersville police got a break when they arrested Gallardo on March 5. He rolled on the other five, giving up their names and even showing investigators where the crimes had been committed.

Hall recognized that and wanted to intervene on his behalf.

"If ICE had afforded me any discretion, I would have used it," Hall said. "Even if I could have helped, it would have been an act of mercy, not justice."

Play by the rules

The cynics among us will say (and have said in casual conversation) that the deportation won't amount to much because most, if not all, of our new felons will reappear here with new names and Social Security cards.

"There's no way to know for sure, but if they go back to a place with no running water, no electricity and no jobs, why wouldn't they try?" said Beechler, who has handled other cases involving immigration law.

The parents of the teenagers - more so than their sons - are paying a heavy price.

Did the parents legally enter the United States? It doesn't matter, not in this case. They're here, and herding every illegal immigrant onto a bus bound for Mexico just isn't practical.

But their sons screwed up, and they did it in a big way. Judge Denise Hartsfield of Forsyth District Court summed it up best Thursday afternoon.

"No matter how you got here, there are rules you must follow," Hartsfield said. "You can't just break the rules. It's a hard lesson."

• Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com.

This story can be found at: http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satel ... 9189958565

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