Thread: Hazelton: ACLU atty reacts to dismissed charges in slaying

ACLU attorney reacts to dismissed charges in Kichline slaying
Staff Report 07/06/2007

Attorney Witold "Vic" Walczak, of the American Civil Liberties Union, is lead co-counsel in the federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Hazleton's illegal immigration ordinance. Mayor Lou Barletta proposed the law in response to the May 10, 2006, murder of 29-year-old Derek Kichline and a string of other violent crimes.

Walczak issued the following statement on behalf of the plaintiffs in response to the dismissal of charges against Joan Romero and Pedro Cabrera, two illegal immigrants:

"Claiming that 'illegal immigrants' killed Kichline has been the lynchpin of Barletta's argument to support his ordinances. This dismissal of charges adds to the long list of discredited claims Barletta has made in the course of demonizing undocumented immigrants for allegedly destroying Hazleton.

"While people may disagree about what to do with undocumented immigrants already in this country, they should recognize that the portrait painted by Barletta, Lou Dobbs and their anti-immigration supporters is inaccurate.

"Most undocumented immigrants come here to make a better life - they work hard, pay taxes, raise their families, and commit crimes at lower rates than citizens or legal immigrants. That's what the national studies show and that's what has happened in Hazleton. Some people may still want to exclude these immigrants, but the public-policy debate should be based on reality, not myths that simply demonize and distort the facts."

http://www.citizensvoice.com/site/news. ... 5154&rfi=6

Obviously this guy does not listen to a police scanner and read the police reports in the local newspapers. Then again maybe no one in his state gets to as he seems to be a lawyer.

Why were the charges dismissed? And, how long before the former defendants go commit another crime?

I would venture that hardly any of the men who cross our borders illegally realize that they are required to be registered with the Selective Service System. They are required--those born after 1960 and over the age of eighteen, are covered by the Federal Act putting this in place. After they reach a certain age they are exempt, but the law is retroactive. In order to register they have to present a valid Social Security number--and just how many would have that?

There is a potential fine of $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years for failing to register. This could be one more effective tool in sending a message that illegal border crossers are not welcome here. American teenagers who attend public and private schools are informed of this requirement and al but a very few comply, People who come in here, iilegitmately, from another country are hardly ever aware of this, but this particular law was drafted to explicitly include illegal aliens.
Please go to this link for info straight from the US gov:
http://www.sss.gov/FSwho.htm

ACLU? How is this the American Civil Liberties Union? They side with EVERY enemy of americans. Every radical crook and sneakthief and terrorist has rights but not americans! And they get tax-payer funding for this???

Sign up for the draft ? In the U.S Military even?

Hey , maybe if they all knew this they would follow in Bill Clinton and Bill Gates footsteps and go to Canada.

ACLU...stands for: anti-American Communist Liberals Union, or another Anti-Christian Leftists Union.

They along with other so called "civil rights" groups are nothing but themselves a bunch of anti-American, anti-Christian sleaze bag lawyers ouf for a quick buck through the courts system, when they cry foul over some imagined civil rights violations, organizations. Does that about sum them and others up?

"Most undocumented immigrants come here to make a better life - they work hard, pay taxes, raise their families, and commit crimes at lower rates than citizens or legal immigrants.

None of which they should be doing here in the United States! As illegal immigrants they shouldn't be working hard HERE, paying taxes HERE (it's well established that many don't), and raising their families HERE! Furthermore, illegal immigration is not a victimless crime as some would have us believe. Every time an illegal uses someone elses SSN there is a victim, each time a drunk illegal kills someone on our highway there is a victim, each time an illegal takes a job there is a victim, each time an illegal raps a young child there is a victim, etc., etc.

I'm sick of these liberal pro-illegal activists telling the rest of us Americans (the majority) what is good for America. Worse than that, I'm especially sick and tired of our elected politicians pandering to illegals, big business, and special interest groups that support illegal immigration!

Captainron wrote:

I would venture that hardly any of the men who cross our borders illegally realize that they are required to be registered with the Selective Service System.

That's just fine with me! I hope to never see our military actively recruiting illegal immigrants.

Related article.


Hazleton mayor loses key argument for illegal immigrant crackdown

MICHAEL RUBINKAM
The Associated Press

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The mayor of Hazleton has long cited the May 2006 shooting death of a 29-year-old city man as the impetus for his widely emulated crackdown on illegal immigrants.

But on Friday, prosecutors dropped homicide charges against the two illegal immigrants accused of shooting Derek Kichline , depriving Mayor Lou Barletta of one of his key arguments for kicking illegal immigrants out of Hazleton.

Luzerne County prosecutors said they abandoned the case against Joan Romero and Pedro Cabrera because key witnesses were either unavailable or unreliable, not because they were convinced of Romero's and Cabrera's innocence.

But Barletta's critics quickly pointed to the decision as evidence that the mayor jumped to conclusions when he accused illegal immigrants of wrecking his northeastern Pennsylvania city of more than 30,000.

"This dismissal of charges adds to the long list of discredited claims Barletta has made in the course of demonizing undocumented immigrants for allegedly destroying Hazleton," said Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.

Barletta called Walczak's statement "repulsive."

"Derek Kichline's family and friends will never see justice for his death," Barletta said. "The fact that the ACLU celebrates this and turns it into a public relations spectacle is disgusting and Mr. Walczak should be ashamed of himself."

Barletta repeatedly said that Kichline's slaying spurred him to propose the Illegal Immigration Relief Act. Though he also said illegal immigrants were caught dealing drugs and committing other crimes, and were a burden to police, schools and hospitals, the slaying was "the one that broke the camel's back," he said.

Prosecutors had accused Juan Romero and Pedro Cabrera of walking up to Kichline in front of his home just before midnight on May 10, 2006, and shooting him in the head as his horrified girlfriend looked on. No motive for the slaying was given.

The illegal immigrant law, approved by City Council last summer and copied by towns and cities around the nation, would penalize landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and businesses that hire them. A companion ordinance would require tenants to register with City Hall and pay for a rental permit.

The ACLU has sued in federal court to overturn the measures, saying they trample on the federal government's exclusive power to regulate immigration. A federal judge presided over a nine-day trial over the laws and is expected to rule on their constitutionality later this summer.

Luzerne County prosecutors said they abandoned the case against Romero and Cabrera because a key witness, Cesar Ariel Jacquez, had been inadvertently deported, and two other important witnesses had credibility issues.

Police found the murder weapon in Jacquez's apartment, and Jacquez would have testified that Cabrera and Romero gave it to him after the homicide, said Assistant District Attorney Mike Vough.

Prosecutors traveled to the Dominican Republic last month, but could not persuade Jacquez to return to the United States to testify.

Prosecutors have the option of refiling homicide charges against Cabrera and Romero if additional evidence comes in.

The pair will continue to be jailed pending their deportation to the Dominican Republic. "They will not be free to walk the streets of Luzerne County," Vough said.




http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_up ... 60412.html