Thread: MA: Deportation trick lets illegals skip trial

If this has been posted previously, my apology:
-------------

The Salem News
Published: April 14, 2008 12:07 am
Deportation trick lets illegals skip trial

By Julie Manganis
Staff writer

SALEM — Some illegal immigrants facing serious criminal charges are avoiding prosecution — with the help of the government — thanks to what prosecutors say is a gaping hole in the state's bail law.

A small but growing number of immigrants charged with crimes are being deported prior to their trials, avoiding any penalty for their actions while in the United States. And once deported, authorities fear, they can return under a new alias and continue their activities.

Until the law changes, however, there's little to stop them.

"I think it's become a strategic option for some defendants," said Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, who has lost a number of defendants to deportation before their cases could be tried. "It's a game now, and I really think it affects public safety."

Take the case of Carlos Enrique Lugo, also known as Albert Varga, who was charged with heroin trafficking on the North Shore. If convicted, he faced a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison.

A judge ordered him held on $50,000 bail, and he sat in Middleton Jail for several months.

Then, last November, a Dorchester woman walked into the jail with a bag of cash and posted Lugo's bail — even though Lugo was also wanted by immigration authorities for being in the country illegally, and would immediately be turned over to them.

That's exactly what Lugo wanted, prosecutor Michael Patten told a judge earlier this year.

Once in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, Lugo was brought before an immigration judge. He immediately waived his right to challenge his deportation and asked for immediate removal — something immigration officials were legally bound to carry out.

A week after Lugo was sent back to the Dominican Republic, the woman who posted his bail showed up at Salem Superior Court looking for the $50,000 she had posted.

And she got it back — because even though by posting bail she had made a legal promise to ensure that Lugo would make all court appearances, the bail law allows someone to get his or her money back if a person cannot appear in court due to an act of God or the government.

Prosecutors believe the money may not have belonged to the woman, who is listed in court papers as a telemarketer, and that it will simply be used to help Lugo re-enter the country under a new identity.

Revolving door?

A simple cost-benefit analysis might lead some to conclude that deporting criminals is cheaper than housing them in a prison for years.

But authorities say many criminals who are deported simply return under a new identity — despite harsh penalties that include up to a decade in federal prison if caught.

Last year, for example, Salem and Danvers police repeatedly arrested a man named Jose Valdivia on heroin distribution charges and traffic offenses. In one of those arrests, Valdivia was found to have five bags of heroin in his car.

That case was ultimately dropped because a judge found that police didn't have a legal basis to stop the car, but in the meantime police learned that Valdivia wasn't who he claimed to be.

While his cases were pending, Valdivia had allegedly filled out a passport application at the Salem post office in the name of Jose Reyes.

The State Department began an investigation and, after comparing photos and fingerprints, learned that the applicant was actually Jose de los Reyes Batista, 25, a Dominican who had been arrested by Border Patrol agents in Puerto Rico for illegally entering the United States. Batista was released and told to go home — but instead ended up in Salem as Valdivia.

Investigators believe he was trying to create a third identity, as Reyes, to make it easier to flee before trial.

He was charged with multiple counts of giving a false name — one for each of his arrests in the past year.

Valdivia sat in jail for several months, held on bail. Then, on Feb. 6, a Lynn woman walked into the jail with $5,000 — even though, just like Lugo, Vadivia was wanted by immigration and wouldn't be walking free.

Sure enough, within days, Valdivia was awaiting deportation at a facility in Rhode Island.

Valdivia's lawyer, John Morris, said he's lost several other clients to deportation before trial.

Jim Martin, the deputy field office director for Customs and Immigration Enforcement, said his agency has no control over a defendant's choice to post bail or ask for deportation.

"If there is a removal order in place, we have to enforce it," Martin said.

There's no provision in the law for Customs and Immigration Enforcement to hold someone on state charges if the defendant has posted bail in the case.

"We do not hold people for other agencies," Martin said.

Increase the bail?

The only option for prosecutors at that point is to try to have the bail increased or revoked.

That's what happened in one high-profile North Shore case.

In the spring of 2005, a woman who told police she was a teenager named Leila Lopes struck and seriously injured a police officer working a traffic detail in Peabody.

The woman turned out to be 22-year-old Nilma Goncalves Figueredo, and she was in the country illegally after ignoring an order to leave.

After her arrest, a judge set bail at $10,000, confident that she wasn't going anywhere. Then a group of fellow Brazilian immigrants took up a collection and posted the bail. She was turned over to immigration officials.

At a deportation hearing, Figueredo asked to be deported immediately. Prosecutors got wind of the request and immediately moved to have her bail increased to $100,000, an amount that was beyond the ability of her friends to raise. A Peabody District Court judge granted the request, and Figueredo remained in jail until her trial.

She ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in jail.

But while Figueredo was stopped from leaving the country, Alberico Gomez of Lawrence was not.

Gomez was awaiting trial on heroin and cocaine trafficking charges — in a case in which he allegedly used his 14-year-old daughter as a "drug mule" to carry 600 bags of heroin. But after posting bail, Gomez was deported and never stood trial.

It's not just an Essex County problem.

In Middlesex County, a woman died while undergoing liposuction in the basement of a Framingham condo, where a Brazilian doctor, unlicensed in the United States, and his wife were accused of treating patients. But even the high-profile nature of the case wasn't enough to prevent the owner of the condo from being deported before trial.

Looking for answers

Blodgett said he believes the public would be "outraged" to learn what's happening.

"You have a victim. Try to explain to them why a defendant is gone," Blodgett said.

Part of the problem is the law. Under the current bail law, judges are allowed to consider a variety of factors in setting bail, including a suspect's ties outside of the community. But they are not allowed to consider whether someone is in the country illegally and facing deportation.

Blodgett says part of the answer would be a revision of the state's bail law to allow judges to consider someone's legal status in the country when setting bail.

"To me," he said, "that's pretty much common sense.

"We owe it to the people of this county that we try (defendants) before a deportation order issues."

http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_s ... 00710.html

Duplicate Post

http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-111721-0.html

How can we be so naive, we are being played with and we are so stupid and so politically correct that we don't stop all this nonsense because a lot of the time we don't want to offend anybody. This is unbelievable! I really believe that our prosperity and standard of living has made us weaklings and those who wish us harm know that and exploit that to death! And we fall for it all the time.