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A look back at the immigration debate
12/29/2005 2:15 PM
By: Lisa Reyes, News 14 Carolina


CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Thousands of immigrants call North Carolina home. And while some go through years of paperwork to make their status legal, others do not.

In 2005, a series of traffic accidents involving illegal immigrants accused of driving drunk prompted some – including a North Carolina congresswoman – to ask for stiffer immigration laws.

Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., says there are loopholes in the system that were brought to the forefront earlier this year.

In July, Mount Holly resident Scott Gardner was on his way to the beach with his family when his car collided with another. That car was driven by Ramiro Gallegos, an illegal immigrant who was found to be drunk.

Gardner died, his wife was critically injured and it was revealed that Gallegos had three prior convictions for driving while impaired.

A month later, Amy Milligan, a 15-year-old from Richmond County, was involved in a near-deadly crash. The other driver, Marin Gomez, ran a red light. His blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit and police could not find proof that he was in the country legally.

Milligan survived and eventually emerged from a coma with severe brain damage.

Myrick had enough. She introduced the Scott Gardner Act which would require local law-enforcement groups to file every immigration matter into an FBI database.

The law is still in the works, and in November, another life was lost

Min Soon Chang, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was killed when an SUV traveling in excess of 100 mph on the wrong side of the interstate collided with his car.

Jorge Hernandez Soto, the driver of the SUV, now faces DWI and murder charges. Officials say he had been deported 17 times and has prior DWI convictions.

In December, Republicans on the Mecklenburg County Commission proposed cutting government services to illegal immigrants but that measure was shot down.

In response to growing animosity, the Latino community became proactive and launched a campaign to stop drunken driving. They hope to educate the community by targeting media outlets, places of worship and supermarkets.

All three drunken driving suspects are awaiting trial.