Feds Declined To Detain Illegal Alien Charged In Hammer Attack And Rape Of California

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Feds Declined To Detain Illegal Alien Charged In Hammer Attack And Rape Of California Woman

CHUCK ROSS
Reporter

10:07 PM 08/08/2015

A 29-year-old illegal alien who is accused of rape and murder in a July 24 hammer attack avoided deportation twice in the past 15 months.

First, in May 2014, because a local sheriff’s department declined to honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detainer request and again July 16 after ICE determined that the Mexican national was no longer a priority for deportation under the Obama administration’s new immigration policies.

Victor Aureliano Hernandez Ramirez and an accomplice, Jose Fernando Villagomez, allegedly broke into the Santa Maria home of Marilyn Pharis on the early morning of July 24. Pharis, 64, was bludgeoned with a hammer and sexually assaulted. She died eight days after the attack, prompting murder charges against Ramirez. He is being held on $1 million bond.

But Ramirez’s mere presence in the U.S. raises questions given that last month’s brutal attack wasn’t his first act of violence. Nor was it his first time in law enforcement custody. He’s been arrested several times for battery, drugs and for violating probation.

Ramirez was incarcerated by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department for a May 22, 2014 battery charge against a woman. At that time, ICE placed a detainer request asking the sheriff’s office to be notified of Ramirez’s release so that the agency could take custody to explore whether to deport him. But records show that Ramirez was released by local authorities a week after without ICE having ever received notification regarding the detainer.

(RELATED: Illegal Alien Arrested Four Times In Two Years Allegedly Beat California Woman With A Hammer, Raped Her)

Ramirez was rearrested July 16 of this year on an unrelated charge. But by then, ICE had changed its outlook towards Ramirez. The agency declined to issue a detainer at that time because Ramirez’s case history showed he had no prior deportations or felony criminal convictions.

So what explains ICE’s change of heart on filing a detainer for Ramirez?

The culprit seems to be President Obama’s new immigration enforcement priority policies. In November, he announced that his administration would focus only on deporting illegal aliens deemed to be violent criminal felons and national security threats. The new schedule put a low priority on illegal aliens who committed misdemeanors, even those that involved violent acts.

The case is similar to several others that have received national attention of late, including the July 1 murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco. The difference in the Ramirez case is that it shows the failure of immigration policy at both the local and federal level.
In Steinle’s case, local policies were to blame for her killer, Juan Lopez-Sanchez, for still being in the U.S. Lopez-Sanchez is an illegal alien from Mexico who had been deported five times. He was in the custody of the San Francisco sheriff’s department in April. At that time ICE placed a detainer request for him. But the sheriff’s department ignored the request because the city is a sanctuary city.

ICE directly blamed the city and the sheriff, Ross Mirkarimi, for Lopez-Sanchez’s release.

In the Ramirez case, ICE released a statement to The Daily Caller:

“Given the seriousness of the allegations associated with this individual’s arrest, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is monitoring the case closely and has lodged a formal request with the custodial law enforcement agency seeking notification in advance of his release or transfer from local custody.”

Santa Maria police chief Ralph Martin had strong words for the Obama administration and others he says are to blame for policies that allowed Ramirez to remain in the U.S.

“I think this is a national issue – it starts with administration and their policies,” Martin said after Pharis’ attack. “You can draw a direct line to this governor and Legislature.”

“I am not remiss to say that from Washington DC to Sacramento, there is a blood trail to Marilyn Pharis’ bedroom,” he added.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/08/fe...#ixzz3iJbhQx1e

Illegal immigrants accused of raping, murdering U.S. military veteran
Dan Taylor, MorningTicker | August 08, 2015


The police chief who is overseeing the investigation lashed out at state and federal authorities, who he feels have turned a blind eye to an illegal alien with a long criminal rap sheet.Share on

In a shocking crime that is sure to become a big part of the heated illegal immigration issue, two men who were in the country illegally from Mexico raped and murdered a 64-year-old Air Force veteran with a hammer after breaking into her home in California as she slept — and one of the men accused has a long criminal rap sheet but was never deported.

Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin placed the blame squarely at the door of the Obama Administration as well as state and U.S. legislatures for failing to adequately enforce immigration policies on those with criminal records, according to a Fox News report.

Marilyn Pharis, a 64-year-old veteran of the Air Force was working at a satellite office for Vandenberg Air Force Base, died back on July 24 from the attack. She was supposedly asleep in her home after working the night shift when two men broke in at around 9:45 a.m. They then used a claw hammer to attack her and then strangled her while raping her with a “foreign object,” the report states, before abandoning her to let her die. She was able to call 911, but died later in the hospital.

Police arrested two men: one was 20-year-old Joe Fernando Villagomez, but the one attracting most of the outrage is 29-year-old Victor Aureliano Martinez Ramirez, who is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who had been arrested six times in just the last 15 months — including just eight days prior to the attack.

Despite his rap sheet, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office (ICE) had declined to seek Ramirez deportation in the past, arguing that he had no prior deportations or felony convictions. But ICE did attempt to deport him in May 2014, and they said they had asked police to notify them before releasing them, which they did not do.

http://www.morningticker.com/2015/08...sing-a-hammer/

Here is the real WAR ON WOMEN!

Murder, Torture, Rape Charges Filed in Death of Santa Maria Woman

Marilyn Pharis allegedly attacked by two men with hammer inside her home

Keith Carls, KEYT - KCOY - KKFX Reporter, KeithCarls@kcoy.com

POSTED: 01:48 AM PDT Aug 08, 2015 UPDATED: 02:39 AM PDT Aug 08, 2015 http://www.keyt.com/image/view/-/346...tion-2-jpg.jpg


SANTA MARIA, Calif. -Two men will face murder, torture and rape charges in the death of a Santa Maria woman in a case that has attracted national attention because of the undocumented, illegal immigrant status of one of the accused.

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64 year old Marilyn Pharis died August 1 in the hospital while recovering from injuries she suffered after police say she was brutally attacked while sleeping inside her home on July 24.

Speaking at a press conference on the case at Santa Maria Police Department headquarters Friday afternoon, Police Chief Ralph Martin says Pharis fought back while she was sexually assaulted, strangled and repeatedly beaten in the head with a hammer.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley says 29 year old Victor Aureliano Martinez Ramirez and 20 year old Jose Villagomez are charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances of burglary, mayhem and rape during a felony murder.

Dudley says Martinez Ramirez faces a special circumstance of torture.

"These charges carry the possibility of the death penalty or life without possibility of parole", Dudley said at the Friday press conference.

Dudley says its too early in the prosecution of the case for a decision to be made on whether the death penalty will be pursued.

Chief Martin says Martinez Ramirez is an undocumented, illegal immigrant who's been arrested six times in 15 months including just before the alleged attack on Pharis.

"Two weeks before this murder Santa Maria Police officers arrested him for possession of meth (methamphetamine)", said SMPD Chief Ralph Martin at the Friday press conference, "you know what we had to do? We had to cite him out, that’s the problem with this system, this is not just in Santa Maria, this is all over the state of California and all over the United States."

Martin expressed frustration at existing law that allowed Martinez Ramirez to remain out of custody and in the country despite his prior arrests and convictions.

"This is a national issue, I think it starts in Washington DC with this administration that we see and these policies, I think you can draw a direct line over to Sacramento with the policies I'm going to say with this Governor and the Legislature", Chief Martin said, "we've seen AB 109 passed, we've seen Prop 47 passed, I am not remiss to say that from Washington DC to Sacramento there's a blood trail leading to the bedroom of Marilyn Pharis."

Martin says his department does not have the authority to hold suspects in custody because of their illegal immigration status.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department says Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, never provided a federal order to keep Martinez Ramirez in custody on an immigration hold as required by current law.

Both Martinez Ramirez and Villagomez, who is a legal resident, remain in county jail and are expected to appear in Santa Maria court on the charges against them next week.

http://www.keyt.com/news/murder-tort...woman/34609634