Thread: ICE issues immigration detainers for L.A. arson suspect Burkhart and his mother

January 3, 2012 | 4:52 PM
By Leslie Berestein Rojas

ICE issues immigration detainers for L.A. arson suspect Burkhart and his mother

Not only was the mother of Los Angeles arson suspect Harry Burkhart not in deportation proceedings, but it seems immigration authorities until recently had no record of her being in the United States since her last recorded exit almost five years ago.

According to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement statement released late this afternoon, 24-year-old Harry Burkhart was in the country legally on a visa. But his mother, considered a fugitive from Germany and facing extradition, was not. From the ICE statement:

At the time of his arrest, Harry Burkhart was in the country lawfully on a non-immigrant visa, which expires Jan. 18.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged an immigration detainer against Mr. Burkhart, indicating ICE will seek to take him into custody upon his release by local authorities to pursue any appropriate follow-up immigration enforcement action.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records indicate his mother, Dorothee Burkhart, currently has no lawful immigration status.

According to DHS databases, Ms. Burkhart last entered the United States lawfully in January 2007 and departed the country four months later. Given Ms. Burkhart’s lack of status, ICE has also lodged an immigration detainer against her.

ICE also noted that the information contained in a federal complaint against the elder Burkhart, arrested last week on a provisional warrant related to fraud charges in her native Germany, was incorrect. The complaint states that Dorothee Burkhart flew from Frankfurt to Las Vegas in October; according to ICE, this flight information pertained to her son.

It’s assumed that the elder Burkhart may have re-entered the country unlawfully, according to ICE. It was initially reported, incorrectly, that she’d been in deportation proceedings.

Dorothee Burkhart appeared in federal court this afternoon. Her son has been arrested on suspicion of starting more than 50 arson fires over the weekend.

http://multiamerican.scpr.org/2012/0...nd-his-mother/

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Torching cars called common crime in Germany

By Jabeen Bhatti, Special for USA TODAYUpdated 36m ago Comments

A German man whose mother was threatened with deportation is accused of a crime that has become a popular way in Germany for young people to express anger: burning cars.

Harry Burkhart, 24, watched as his mother was arrested last week on a warrant from their native Germany on fraud charges that include not paying for breast-augmentation surgery.

Two days later, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck alleges, Burkhart began a nighttime rampage of arson attacks that terrorized the city.

STORY: Man arrested in connection with L.A. car fires

Authorities have yet to disclose why they believe Burkhart, whom Sheriff Lee Baca called the "most dangerous arsonist in Los Angeles County," set the fires over four days.

"He loved his mom, the way every son loves his mom," said Shlomo Elady, a hair stylist who cut Burkhart's hair.

In court Tuesday, Dorothee Burkhart repeatedly asked a magistrate judge where her son was and wondered aloud whether he was dead or had disappeared.

Harry Burkhart was being held without bail.

"What did you do to my son?" she asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Nagle.

The burning of cars is a common phenomenon in Berlin and also other northern German cities such as Hamburg, which are magnets for young, "left-wing" idealists protesting the establishment, gentrification of their neighborhoods and globalization.

On May 1, Labor Day in Europe, residents with especially flashy cars move them to paid garages or to neighborhoods deemed safer.

For example, in October, a man in Berlin was arrested for torching 100 luxury cars, and 470 cars had been set on fire in the city by that time last year, the BBC reported.

"He wasn't motivated by politics but rather social envy," senior police official Oliver Stepien said. "He said in essence: 'I've got debts, my life stinks, and others with fancy cars are better off and they deserve this.' "

Websites such as http://www.brennende-autos.de/ mark where cars in Berlin have been torched as well as the models — nearly all high-end cars.

Recently, certain bookstores in Berlin were threatened by police with closure for carrying "seditious" literature that contained information on how to burn cars, according to pamphlets in the stores reading "Solidarity with Leftist Bookstores."

Hamburg criminologist Ingeborg Legge, 56, told weekly German magazine Der Spiegel that she believes many arsonists are part of groups with certain things in common: a fundamentally aggressive position toward the state, too much strength for their own good, dissatisfaction with their current situation and a vague feeling of rage that they sometimes direct toward themselves and sometimes against external objects — such as cars.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...ger/52369164/1

LA arson suspect's captor patrols for $1 a year

By ROBERT JABLON | AP – 11 mins ago...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The reserve sheriff's deputy who captured a man suspected of being the city's most dangerous arsonist is a volunteer who earns $1 a year and only recently qualified to patrol alone, authorities said Tuesday.

Shervin Lalezary, a 30-year-old Beverly Hills real estate attorney, was patrolling at 3 a.m. Monday — three hours after the official end of his 4 p.m.-to-midnight shift — when he pulled over a Dodge van in Hollywood.

He and hundreds of other law enforcement officers had been hunting nonstop for the arsonist, a man described as a white man with a short ponytail and a receding hairline.

"That was very distinctive information about a person, and as I pulled next to him and shined my spotlight at the car, I saw a male, white, receding hairline and short ponytail and that was ... a big key," said Lalezary at a news conference Tuesday before flashing a broad smile.

The department had received countless suspicious person calls that night, and like many in law enforcement, Lalezary said he was inspired to work long after his shift ended to try and catch the suspect.

"Having gone to the different fire calls the nights before and seeing residents flee from their homes and basically run for their lives, the second I realized this may be the individual, I just felt a big sense of relief," Lalezary said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Lalezary quickly notified the entire network of officers searching for the arsonist. "Immediately he had backup ... and two (Los Angeles police) officers were right behind him," Whitmore said.

The driver, Harry Burkhart, was arrested on suspicion of setting more than 50 fires since last week, burning cars in apartment buildings in Hollywood and nearby areas.

Lalezary helped make the collar on what was his third solo patrol shift.

"I can tell you this is a lot more exciting than my day job," Lalezary said after the arrest.

He declined to speak further to The Associated Press by phone and at the news conference Tuesday, referring questions to the Sheriff's Department.

"He believes in the community service aspects of the reserve deputy," Whitmore said. "This is part of the job for him and he doesn't want to talk about himself because he believes he's part and parcel of a larger effort."

Lalezary was born in Tehran and moved to the U.S. with his family about 25 years ago.

He has a law degree from the University of Southern California and was admitted to the California bar in 2008.

He became interested in law enforcement in college, said his 35-year-old brother, Dr. Arash Lalezary.

"He was fascinated by it," Arash Lalezary said. "I've always been worried about him. ... Every time he goes out I say, 'Be careful, be careful.'"

Lalezary became a reserve deputy in 2007 and after training was certified as a Level 3 reservist, allowing him to perform traffic duties and work with sworn deputies, Whitmore said.

Several weeks of additional training made him a Level 2 reservist who could ride along with a deputy on patrol. In December, he became a Level 1 and was permitted to patrol alone.

Equipped with a department-issued gun and patrol car, Lalezary is attached to the West Hollywood sheriff's station and works at least 20 hours a month, Whitmore said.

Another brother, Shawn, also is a reserve deputy.

Despite the acclaim, Lalezary has no plans to take further training and become a full-time deputy, Whitmore said.

Sheriff Lee Baca has said Lalezary's reserve status takes nothing away from his achievement.

"This is one of the most significant arrests anyone can make — regular or reserve," the sheriff said Monday. "And this will follow him for the rest of his life."

http://news.yahoo.com/la-arson-suspe...WE2ZQ--;_ylv=3