Thread: IA Pursued better life in U.S > Crime & Nightmare.

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager ... 2&a=330345

Man pursued illegal path in search of a better life in the U.S.
2/26/2008 10:05:42 AM
(3) Comments
By Christina Killion Valdez

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

When Alejandro Aguilar found out he was going to be a father, he worried about how he would support a family. So at age 22, with no college education or prospects of finding a good-paying job in Guadalajara, Mexico, Aguilar convinced his wife to come with him to the United States. There he would find work and they could start a new life, he told her, even if they couldn't do it legally.

Aguilar's path to Rochester and now to prison illustrates one man's life and the decisions he made to cross into the United State illegally.

While Aguilar has good memories of growing up one of six children in Guadalajara, life had become more difficult.

"I had everything I needed as a kid," he said. "My brothers and sisters too."

His family owned a house, albeit a small one. Aguilar even studied karate and played soccer, he said.

Then his father lost his job after 23 years with the company, Aguilar said. After a year and a half of struggling to find work, a friend offered to help Aguilar's father and older brother find work in the United States. In 2000, when Aguilar was 17, he followed in their footsteps. He crossed the border illegally to go to school and work with his brother in the Twin Cities. He returned to the United States a few years later and again found a job.

This time, for his family's sake, he hoped to find the same success. So in July 2006 he and his pregnant wife followed a guide through the desert to El Paso, Texas. While he'd made the journey successfully twice before, he'd also been caught twice and deported by the U.S. Border Patrol, he said.

He and his wife did make it safely across the border, yet the couple never reached their American dream.

After several weeks of searching, Aguilar found a job cleaning a restaurant in Minneapolis. His new boss also sold him a car, he said.

Yet life still wasn't easy. The couple started having problems with Aguilar's cousin, who they were living with. Again his boss offered to help by renting them an apartment.

Everything seemed to be going well until the restaurant where Aguilar worked closed, he said. Although his boss said he'd find Aguilar another job it never happened.

"Three weeks later he told me to leave the apartment," Aguilar said.

Aguilar called his mother in Mexico, who offered one more option. She had the phone number for Aguilar's childhood friend who had also moved to Minnesota.

His friend had a trailer in Rochester and welcomed Aguilar and his wife to stay there while Aguilar looked for work. On April 16, soon after they moved in, the couple celebrated the birth of their first child, a girl.

They received assistance through the Women, Infants and Children supplemental nutrition program, but Aguilar was still without work. And after a month, his friend's hospitality had worn out.

"My wife told me she was hungry," Aguilar said. "I told her I would bring her food."

He returned home with a loaf of bread and a pack of ham, which stole by hiding it under his coat at a grocery store. That was the first time Aguilar, who said his only prior infractions were driving without a license or car insurance and his immigration violations, had turned to stealing, he said.

"That night we ate," he said. "The next day I knew it would be a problem."

The next day, June 9, was even worse than he'd imagined.

On his way back to Rochester after applying for a job at Lakeside Foods in Plainview, Aguilar said he had car trouble. With that he found himself at a crossroads standing in front of a stranger's home.

He'd already knocked on the door, gone inside and seen a woman's purse on the table before his nerves got to him.

Unwilling to go home empty handed again, Aguilar went back inside. The house was quiet, except for the sound of a television. He walked down a hallway and into a bedroom where he found some jewelry in a dresser and slipped it in his pocket.

On his way out an 18-year-old woman saw him and asked what he was doing.

"I said I was looking for Brian Kelly," he said, repeating the name that he'd made up.

"She kept looking at me," he said. "I pushed her to get out of my way and took off. I heard her start to scream for her mom and I realized more people were in the house."

In the police report, the 18-year-old woman stated she had been in the basement with her mother when she heard someone upstairs. She also stated that Aguilar punched her in the left shoulder and in the back of the head.

"I didn't mean to hurt anyone," said Aguilar, during an interview at the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center.

He hadn't gotten far when the police pulled him over. They found his cousin's wallet in the car and the jewelry in his pocket and he was taken into custody.

Aguilar pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and aggravated robber, both felonies, and fifth-degree assault, a misdemeanor. On Monday he was sentenced to 41 months in prison for the crimes.

A month after his arrest, Aguilar's wife sold his car and returned to Guadalajara with their daughter. He is worried about them and also about his mother, he said. She has bone cancer and is getting sicker, he said. Aguilar blames himself, thinking her turn for the worse has to do with what he did.

While in custody, Aguilar said he has also asked to see a doctor. As the final chapter of his American dream plays out, he said he is unable to sleep.
--------------------
(3) Comments
PB's worst nightmare wrote: February 26, 2008 12:00PM
Hard to feel sorry for someone who committed multiple law violations prior to his burglary and assault of a young woman.

Steve wrote: February 26, 2008 12:18PM
At least the girlfriend got the heck out of here. He got what he deserves.

Thelen wrote: February 26, 2008 12:47PM
We are the only industrialized country which has lost control of our borders.

We have cities, including Minneapolis, which are sanctuary cities. Their police, which we help pay for, refuse to enforce immigration laws.

Government funds are used to provide support for people who are here illegally.

If you take a stand and demand that we secure our borders, you are automatically branded as a racist.

Something is wrong with this picture.

Illegal path every step of the way!

This guy broke into our nation, stole an American job, you can bet he worked either under the table for for lower than market wages further harming American taxpayers and workers.

He got on our 1st world roads with 3rd world driving experience and expectations without a license and without insurance putting American lives and finances at risk. If he had hit someone, he probably would have hit an d run like most illegal aliens do.

Then he and his wife stole from American taxpayers to get welfare!

Then he shoplifts! Then he engages in burglary and assaults a young innocent American girl! I guess we are supposed to feel sorry for him because he was able to make a baby and drop it like an anchor here in the US. Funny how the story did not ask about why he was having a baby here.

This guy had the same rape and pillage mentality many illegal aliens have. He had no reservations about breaking law after law to get what he wanted.

The people in the media and politics that defend criminals like this are absolutely insane and I will be damned if they are going to keep putting me and my family at risk over crooks like this they are helping.

I catch someone in my house like this and that will be either the end of us or the end of them.

W

Then his father lost his job after 23 years with the company, Aguilar said. After a year and a half of struggling to find work, a friend offered to help Aguilar's father and older brother find work in the United States. In 2000, when Aguilar was 17, he followed in their footsteps. He crossed the border illegally to go to school and work with his brother in the Twin Cities. He returned to the United States a few years later and again found a job





And how many American citizens and legal immigrants have had the same thing happen thanks to people like Aguilar's family?

Is this job loss and inability to find new work supposed to make us feel sorry for them? Understand their plight? Make us think about showing a little forgiveness for their coming here illegally?

If sympathy was the target, they missed the mark.



Aguilar pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and aggravated robber, both felonies, and fifth-degree assault, a misdemeanor. On Monday he was sentenced to 41 months in prison for the crimes.


For somebody supposedly new to the burglary game he sure seemed to know what he was doing in terms of planning it out so I don't believe for one minute that this was an abberation, some desperate act carried out because his wife was "hungry". Minnesota is a known sanctuary for illegals and just like every other illegal out there these two knew exactly where to go for benefits, food, and every other freebie they could get their hands on so he can save the line of crap for someone who will believe it.

The guy is a criminal, simple as that. The only difference was that he got caught this time out.

If we charged the Mexican government the bill for all the fraud there people have bilk Americans they wouldn't receive a dime from us but a bill. Why do we sent American tax payer money to these corrupt governments, they owe us!