Hispanics wary of fallout from deadly crash in Virginia Beach
By GILLIAN GAYNAIR, The Virginian-Pilot
© April 7, 2007

VIRGINIA BEACH - Because one Hispanic person is accused of causing a tragic accident, Monica Restrepo said, she now frets that many will be judged and be the brunt of insults.

"We're very worried about what's going to happen to all of us in the community," said Restrepo, who owns the decade-old La Tapatia, believed to be one of the first Latin American grocery stores in the city.

Restrepo and other local Hispanics this week expressed their sympathy for the families of two Virginia Beach girls killed in a car crash March 30. But they also couldn't mask their concern over a possible backlash against both legal and illegal immigrants.

They fear that because of Alfredo Ramos, people will categorize all Hispanics as drunken drivers and unauthorized immigrants. Ramos, 22, is charged with aggravated involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of Alison Kunhardt, 17, and Tessa Tranchant, 16. He had a record of three alcohol-related convictions in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake and had entered the country from Mexico illegally.

Many Hispanics said the public response to the incident has been incorrectly centered on Ramos' immigration status instead of on drunken-driving laws and penalties.

"When someone has committed a crime, it doesn't matter what legal status they have, what ethnic group - you've committed a crime," said Mavel Velasco Muñoz, chairwoman of the Hispanic Leadership Forum of Hampton Roads. "We are not condoning it," but, she said, the public is wrongly lumping together immigration issues and DUI laws.

Beatriz Amberman, a Virginia Beach resident and vice chairwoman of the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, agreed.

"I wonder how many people are driving under the influence of alcohol and have been let go with a slap on the hand... and whether the system is actually working in that regard," she said. "Rather than that... because of this one individual, we're judging all undocumented workers."

The tragedy gained national attention Wednesday through Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," when host Bill O'Reilly blamed the city of Virginia Beach and accused local officials of providing sanctuary to illegal immigrants. O'Reilly and TV personality Geraldo Rivera traded verbal punches on Thursday (video).

Locally, rumors swirled Friday among some Hispanics that federal immigration authorities were coming to Virginia Beach to raid establishments that employ illegal immigrants.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington said that such rumors are no t surprising, given the amount of attention the Ramos case has received.

"I can't tell you that no investigation is going on, because that's something we do on a daily basis," Ernestine Fobbs said. "I can't confirm or deny whether we have an active investigation going on at this time. It's not something that we'd reveal."

Ramos had worked briefly at Mi Casita restaurant on Bonney Road, according to Gary C. Byler, an attorney representing El Toro Loco Inc., the corporation that owns Mi Casita. Byler said Ramos was told not to come back to work when his documents appeared to be invalid. He was not working at the restaurant at the time of the car crash, Byler said.

It wasn't unusual to see Ramos and other employees walking along Bonney Road and visiting establishments in Thalia Village Shoppes, business owners there said.

In the week after the car crash, there has been less foot traffic overall, said Junior Garcia, who owns La Tienda International Foods and Mi Tierra Restaurant.

Garcia said that since the incident, he has also noticed more police in the area and suspected that "we'll probably have more police officers stopping Latinos on looks."

Like others, Garcia was concerned about the response to the tragedy.

"I haven't heard once that it was an accident," he said. "White people also drink. I feel people have blown out of proportion his status and where he's from. It could have been anybody."

While he and his friends talked about the Ramos case at Mi Orgullo Latin Accessories in the same plaza, Jonathan Rodriguez wondered whether there would be such a public outcry had an intoxicated white citizen been accused in the girls' deaths.

"Now they want to punish every Latin person out there," he said. "Now it's going to be harder for us.... You could be a citizen, but they're still going to hate you."

Local Hispanic leaders say they hope to turn the tragedy into an opportunity to educate more people about the dangers of drunken driving, push for tougher penalties for it and work for immigration laws that can be respected as fair.

Amberman, of the Coalition of Latino Organizations, said she is worried that "people want to look at only one side of the picture."

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.c ... 97&tref=po