http://charlotte.com/115/story/41175.html

Posted on Mon, Mar. 05, 2007
Rowan town fighting illegal immigration

SHARIF DURHAMS
The mayor of Landis demanded a crackdown on illegal immigrants and drunken driving Monday in the wake of a February wreck that killed a pregnant mother.
At a town board of aldermen meeting, Mayor Mike Mahaley called for voiding town contracts for any company that employs someone in the U.S. illegally. Mahaley also ordered town police to increase traffic checkpoints from monthly to weekly.

Carlos Alfonso Guillen Martinez was being pursued by an officer from Kannapolis when his sport utility vehicle crashed into Leeanna Newman, 20, of Salisbury. The Feb. 6 wreck killed Newman, who was pregnant.

Guillen Martinez, a 33-year-old illegal immigrant, has been charged with second-degree murder and driving while impaired.

"We cannot continue to let people take our families from us and that's what they are doing," Mahaley said.

Alderman James Furr backed the mayor's plan, saying illegal immigration is Landis' worst problem.

The Rowan County town passed a resolution in October, making English the town's official language. Cabarrus County commissioners passed a similar measure in January.