Thread: MN: Illegal Immigrant Charged With Criminal Vehicular Homicide

Illegal Immigrant Charged With Criminal Vehicular Homicide

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Clarisse Grime's family doesn't have money for her funeral and a fund has been set up for them, said Jessica Vazquez, Grime's boyfriend's aunt. It's the Clarisse Grime Fund at any Wells Fargo Bank.


The high school sweethearts saw the SUV barreling toward them as they sat under a tree outside St. Paul's Harding High School. The boy tried to pull the girl out of the way, but it was too late.


Eduardo Vazquez-Torres, 17, carried Clarisse Grime, 16, away after the vehicle hit her, hoping to keep her alive, said his aunt, Jessica Vazquez.


"She couldn't talk," Vazquez said of what her nephew told her about Grime. "She was unconscious, coughing and then just gasping for air and just died."


The Ramsey County attorney's office charged Carlos Viveros-Colorado, 50, on Friday, July 6, with criminal vehicular homicide. The St. Paul man has never had a Minnesota driver's license, was convicted of DWI in 2001, and has a series of recent speeding tickets.

His sister told police that Viveros-Colorado is undocumented and in the United States illegally.


Two witnesses estimated Viveros-Colorado was travelling over 50 mph Thursday when he lost control of his sport-utility vehicle and careened about 50 feet down an embankment near the sign for Harding High School on Third Street, by Hazelwood Street.


Large groups of students gathered near the sign Friday, crying; they left mementos and remembered Grime. She was a bright girl, who earned almost all A's and B's during her freshman and sophomore year at Harding, her family and the district said. She would have been a junior in the fall.


English was Grime's third language --- she was born in Ethiopia and spoke Amharic, then lived in Italy for about 10 years, said Terri Martin, a Harding English Language Learner teacher.


"I could see her as secretary of state or who knows? She could have run for governor," Martin said of Grime's promising future.
Grime and her family moved to the United States 2-1/2 years ago.


"We have always dreamed of living in the United States and living out the American dream of working hard and giving our daughter the same opportunities that other American teenage students have," stepfather Yoseph Yimam and mother Martha Tamene Woldegiorgis said in a statement Friday. "That dream has now been broken. Our daughter's dream has ended."


Grime, an only child, liked to sew, draw and paint. Harding "was like a second home for her," her parents said.


She was attending summer school to get extra help with tests required for graduation, said Jackie Turner, St. Paul Public Schools chief engagement officer.


On Thursday, as they did every day after school, Grime and Vazquez-Torres were waiting outside the school for a Metro Transit bus, said Vazquez, the boy's aunt. After they met at Harding, the couple had been dating for about two years, she said.


Carlos Viveros-Colorado, 50, of St. Paul was arrested Thursday, July 5, 2012, on suspicion of criminal vehicle operation. (Photo courtesy of Ramsey County sheriff's office)



"They were so much in love," Vazquez said.


The teens, sitting in the grass, were facing the football field and track when they heard a crash behind them, she said of what her nephew told her.


Viveros-Colorado, heading east on Third Street and turning left onto Hazelwood, had hit a fire hydrant. It was about 1 p.m. He lost control of the vehicle, headed across Hazelwood and plowed into a "No Parking" sign.


Vazquez-Torres thought the sign would stop the vehicle from continuing on, but it didn't, Vazquez said.


The 2001 maroon Ford Expedition drove "straight at the couple," according to the criminal complaint filed Friday. Vazquez-Torres tried to jump out of the way but was struck in the hip, the complaint said.


The driver got out and the only thing he said was that his brakes had failed, Vazquez said.


The complaint also contains these allegations:


Viveros-Colorado told police after they approached him that his left leg and right arm went numb while he was driving.


"Viveros-Colorado then said both legs and his left arm went numb while he was driving," the complaint said. He swerved to avoid a parked car and that's when his truck went over a curb, hit a sign and headed down the hill where he hit the two teens, he told police.


Then he said his foot was stuck on the accelerator. He estimated he was going at least 40 mph.


Students and friends gather in front of Harding High School before 9:30 a.m. during an impromptu memorial for Clarisse Grime on Friday, July 6, 2012. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)



Viveros-Colorado further told police that the numbness began three or four months ago, and that his legs would go to sleep and feel heavy, as if they were in a cast. He sought help at HealthPartners but doctors were not able to find anything wrong, he said.


He said feeling lasted about 15 minutes, and said he has to rub his legs to regain function.


"Viveros-Colorado admitted it was dangerous for him to drive with his condition, but he said he was hoping to make it home from work," the complaint said.


A witness driving behind Viveros-Colorado said that the Expedition was driving "real fast -- like 50 or 60 mph," that he saw it make a wide left and hit a fire hydrant, causing dirt to fly, before it hit the girl. The witness got out of his car and saw Vazquez-Torres try to move Grime.


Another witness estimated that the speed was at least 50 mph when it came down Third Street and that she never heard the SUV hit its brakes. She was driving in the opposite direction on Third Street, and had planned to turn into Hazelwood but changed her mind, fearing the Expedition might hit her, she told police.


She said the SUV "gradually crossed the center lane and crossed into the oncoming traffic lane ... then barreled through the fire hydrant and over onto the grass," the complaint said.


She believed Viveros-Colorado was actually trying to get away from the scene afterwards because he put the Expedition in reverse and the tires were spinning.


When police arrived, a witness ran to a squad car and yelled, "A girl got hit by a car and she is dying."


The officer saw Grime with what appeared to be severe head injuries and internal injuries. She was unresponsive and gasping for air. Shortly before an ambulance arrived, she no longer had a pulse. She was pronounced dead at the scene.


Blood was drawn from Viveros-Colorado, for toxicology tests, and results are pending, said Howie Padilla, police spokesman.


Viveros-Colorado's sister approached officers at the scene. She inquired about the Expedition and was told that it would be held pending an investigation. She said Viveros-Colorado called her after the crash and she came to the site to find out what happened.


Viveros-Colorado was talking on a cell phone when police approached him. Officers took the phone and put him in the back of a squad car.


At the jail, he gave police various street addresses.

When they found a check stub in the name of another man in his pocket, he said that he used the name and Social Security number of another person so that he could get paid from work.


Viveros-Colorado is being held at the Ramsey County jail. He will make his first court appearance Monday.


Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed an immigration detainer on Viveros-Colorado, a spokesman said. If released from local custody, he will be immediately released to ICE.


State records show Viveros-Colorado has never been issued a Minnesota driver's license.

Padilla said he has no information about whether Viveros-Colorado has a driver's license in another state.


Back at Harding, the school offered counseling Friday and there has been an "overwhelming response," Turner said. At least 100 students sought help, said Darlene Fry, the district's director of the office of college and career readiness.


Many students were outside at the time of the accident, Fry said, but she didn't know how many witnessed it. Counselors will be back at the school Monday, she said.


Martin, Grime's teacher, said she was an energetic, outgoing student who enjoyed learning.


"I can see her face and she's smiling at me -- big, bright smile," said Martin, who added she couldn't stop talking about the teen in the present tense. "Her smile would just light up a room."


Sobbing teenagers also remembered Grime mostly for her smile. They described her as friendly, outgoing and a very "sweet girl" who made only friends, not enemies.


"She was there. Just right there" said Araceli Perez, pointing at the tree where Grime was killed. "I don't even know how this could happen. I keep saying to myself that is not her."


Perez, 17, had known Grime for about a year. She said she spoke with Grime about noon the day of the accident, an hour before she was killed. She described her last moments with Grime as playful, and said she looked very happy with her boyfriend.


"He was the love of her life," Perez said. "I'm just glad she died happy and next to him."


Several students who also knew Vasquez-Torres said they saw him at a school memorial earlier Friday, but he refused to talk to anyone about what happened.


Vazquez said it was hard to believe that the day before the accident, on the Fourth of July, she and her family had spent all day with her nephew and Grime, having fun at Valleyfair Amusement Park. They went out to eat afterward and talked about the teens' futures, she said.


Grime wanted three children -- two boys and a girl, and thought it would be great if Vazquez-Torres would stay home with the kids while she worked, Vazquez said.


Vazquez-Torres, who was released from the hospital Thursday night, was resting Friday afternoon and in shock, his aunt said. He has bruises and scrapes, she said.


"It's going to be really hard, I can tell you that much, because his life revolved around her," she said.


Danya P. Hernandez contributed to this report.


St. Paul: Victim in fatal Harding High crash was 'gasping for air;' driver charged with criminal vehicular homicide (w/ video) - TwinCities.com

St. Paul teen killed by unlicensed driver remembered at her funeral

By Mara H. Gottfried
July 12, 2012
Updated: 07/12/2012 10:12:34 AM CDT
TwinCities.com

She waited a day and a half to go to the spot where her daughter was killed, until it was quiet there -- the 16-year-old's high school classmates and the media were gone. She kneeled, touching the ground with both hands, touching the place where her girl was taken from her.

Clarisse Grime, run over by an out-of-control sport utility vehicle, was Martha Tamene Woldegiorgis' only child. She says she gave up everything for Grime, moving her from her homeland in Ethiopia to two continents, in search of a better life for her daughter.

As hard as it was to go to the East Side, where Grime died Thursday, July 5, about 50 feet from the street, near the sign for St. Paul's Harding High School, Woldegiorgis said she had to.

"It was the last place where she was," she said.

On Wednesday, July 11, Woldegiorgis and her family laid Grime to rest. The packed Minneapolis church where the funeral was held was filled with the sound of sobbing, perhaps greatest when Harding teacher Yeugeniya Malikin spoke.

Malikin recalled Grime as being quick to say to her, "I'm sorry, Ms." She continued, "I want to say today, 'I'm sorry, Clarisse.' ... I'm trying to make sense of it, but I can't." Then the teacher turned to the teen's casket and said, "I'm so sorry."

After the funeral, Malikin said she was apologizing to Grime for not being able to protect her.

"I thought I loved her so much that I could protect her, but it didn't work out that way," said the English Language
Learner teacher who knew Grime for two years.

The driver charged in the case remains jailed and his attorney repeated his apologies Wednesday.

Police said the accident happened about 1 p.m. July 5 when Carlos Viveros-Colorado, 50, was driving east on Third Street and trying to turn left onto Hazelwood Street. He hit a fire hydrant, careened across Hazelwood Street, struck a "no parking" sign and barreled about 50 feet down an embankment.

Grime and her boyfriend, 17-year-old Eduardo Vazquez-Torres, were sitting under a tree when Viveros-Colorado's SUV struck them. Grime died at the scene; Vazquez-Torres suffered minor injuries.

Grime's stepfather and mother both work at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport -- Yoseph Yimam, who is studying to be a nurse, is a sales associate at an airport gift shop, and Woldegiorgis works for the sanitation department.

When police came to Woldegiorgis at work last Thursday, she said she immediately sensed why they were there and asked them, "What is wrong with my daughter?"

Yimam said he can't believe Grime was so far off the road, in a place where she should have been safe, when she was killed.

Alberto Miera, Viveros-Colorado's attorney, has said his client was not turning left but heading straight on Third Street. He was going home from his job at a bakery. His arm and leg went numb, he couldn't move his leg to step on the brake and he panicked, hitting the gas, Miera said.

Viveros-Colorado is undocumented and in the United States illegally, Miera said, and state records show he has never had a Minnesota driver's license.

Grime's family is less concerned about his status as an illegal immigrant, saying that's something officials will deal with. But they are angry that he was driving.

"This is America and if you don't have a driving license, you have another opportunity to catch a bus," Grime's aunt, Meseret Semeani, said.

Grime's family doesn't know whether to believe the story Viveros-Colorado told police about numbness in his leg, but if true, that was more reason he should not have been driving, they said.

"That's why we need justice," Yimam said. "We don't need other people to be hurt again. This is a lesson, not just for him. This is a lesson for anybody who hurts kids, who hurts people who have a dream."

Miera said Wednesday: "On the sad day of her funeral is probably not the time to talk about whatever pain, sorrow and angst he (Viveros-Colorado) is obviously going through because he well recognizes it can't compare to the suffering and sorrow that Clarisse's family is enduring. It's all he can do at this stage is offer his humble prayers and repeat his sorrow, and trust in God's grace first for her family and ultimately to hope for understanding and reconciliation."

THE JOURNEY TO ST. PAUL

Woldegiorgis and other family members told the story of Grime's life in an interview Tuesday.

Grime was born in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, on Nov. 11, 1995. Her father died when she was young, her family said. She and her mother were surrounded by family in Ethiopia, and followed Woldegiorgis' mother to Italy when Grime was 4 years old. The girl picked up Italian quickly and they lived in Sicily until she was 10.

From ages 10 to 14, Grime lived in Milan with her mother. It had been hard for Woldegiorgis to find a job and she moved to Milan to do so, where she did housecleaning and cooking.

"She tried to change her little girl's life, to get more money to raise her," said Woldgiorgis' sister, Semeani. But it was difficult for Woldegiorgis to be without her family, who helped the single mother care for Grime.

Semeani was already living in Minnesota and knew Yimam. Yimam and Woldgiorgis had been friends in Ethiopia, and Semeani thought they would be a good match. Yimam went to Italy in 2008, and he and Woldgiorgis were married.

Yimam, who has lived in Minnesota since 2001 and said he is a U.S. citizen, returned to St. Paul, but Woldegiorgis and Grime couldn't legally come here until 2010, Yimam said. They are legal permanent residents and Grime was becoming a citizen, a process her mother will continue, her family said.

Grime was 14 when they moved to St. Paul, and learning English and a new culture was hard for her at first, said her stepfather and aunt. Semeani remembered bringing Grime to school for her first meeting and having to translate for her. But the teen, whom Semeani described as always being brilliant, worked hard and excelled. She earned A's and B's in her freshman and sophomore years at Harding, and would have been a junior in the fall.

At school, Grime helped other transplants from Ethiopia, translating in their native Amharic, Semeani said.

Grime's first friends were students who could speak Spanish, Yimam said. Because the Italian and Spanish languages are similar, Grime could pick up Spanish, he said. That was how she met Vazquez-Torres, a classmate who became her first boyfriend, Woldegiorgis said.

They'd been dating for about two years. The couple, who always rode the city bus together, were waiting for the bus when the accident happened.

At first, Grime's family was wary of her being in a relationship.

"In our culture, we don't want our kids to have boyfriends because we want them to focus on education," Yimam said. But they found Vazquez-Torres to be a nice young man and accepted him, Yimam said. Grime told her family she wanted to marry him.

Grime was attending summer school to get extra help with tests required for graduation. She planned to go to college. Sometimes she said she wanted to be a veterinarian, other times a medical doctor, or to do some kind of work with elderly people. "She was a kid, she changed her mind often," Yimam said.

Friends have described Grime's big, bright smile. She always had that smile, which came "from the bottom of her heart," Yimam said.

At Grime's funeral at Debreselam Medhanealem Ethiopian Orthodox Church, a friend read a statement that students had written.

"Clary was a beautiful girl inside and out," she began and ended by saying, "We lost a sister but now we got an angel watching over us."

Yimam extended his thanks to people who contributed to a fund set up to cover funeral expenses, saying they should have enough money.

On Saturday, when Woldegiorgis went to see the place where Grime was killed, Yimam put his arms around her. He knows his wife is devastated and he is worried about what will happen next.

"When I go to work and she goes back herself and everybody who has been visiting us goes about their business, she will be by herself and how is she going to cope?" he asked.

St. Paul teen killed by unlicensed driver remembered at her funeral - TwinCities.com

Would immigration status questions have stopped fatal St. Paul crash?

By Mara H. Gottfried
Posted: 07/21/2012 12:01:00 AM CDT
Updated: 07/22/2012 05:07:08 PM CDT
TwinCities.com


Carlos Viveros-Colorado, 50, of St. Paul was arrested Thursday, July 5, 2012, on suspicion of criminal vehicle operation after his SUV allegedly struck and killed a teenage girl outside Harding High School in St. Paul. (Photo courtesy Ramsey County sheriff's office.)

If witness accounts are true about Carlos Viveros-Colorado's speed before he struck and killed a girl outside a St. Paul high school, it wouldn't be the first time he'd been driving fast.

In the year leading up to the accident that killed Clarisse Grime, 16, near Harding High School this month, police stopped Viveros-Colorado three times, citing him for speeding and not having a Minnesota driver's license.

Viveros-Colorado, who turns 51 on Sunday, July 22, is in the U.S. illegally for the second time. He was undocumented when convicted of DWI in 2001 and left the country, but he returned about two years later.

Now, some question how three law enforcement agencies handled Viveros-Colorado's traffic stops in the past year: Should they have suspected him of being an illegal immigrant and done more than give him citations?

Yoseph Yimam, Grime's stepfather, wishes they had.

"They should have to find out whether he's illegal or not and have taken action on him before he killed my daughter," Yimam said.

But he also said he doesn't know how officials should do that or how he, as an immigrant himself, would feel about being questioned about his right to be in the country. Yimam and his family are from Ethiopia and said they came to the U.S. legally.

QUESTIONS RENEWED

As much as Grime's family would have wanted to prevent the accident, others say immigration status does not predict future criminal behavior.

Perhaps Viveros-Colorado was a problematic driver, as evidenced by his past speeding and DWI convictions, said Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union-Minnesota, but that's not connected to his being in the country illegally, he said.

"For every guy like this, how many guys are there who are of Norwegian heritage who are drinking and driving, or texting and driving?" Samuelson asked.

Some of these questions about illegal immigration came up in 2008, when Olga Franco drove through a stop sign near rural Cottonwood, Minn., and killed four children on a school bus. The Guatemalan national, who was in the country illegally, was convicted of four counts of criminal vehicular homicide and other charges.


Clarisse Grime at 16 in March 2012. Grime was killed when a sport utility vehicle struck her outside Harding High School in St. Paul on July 5, 2012. (Photo courtesy of Grime's family)

The lesson that should have arisen from the Franco case was to enforce immigration laws, said Ruthie Hendrycks, president of Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform.

"Unfortunately, that lesson falls on deaf ears for those in upper management of law enforcement and city administration," she said. "One must wonder what it will take for our voices to be heard, to end the pandering and to have such unnecessary and preventable tragedies addressed."

Local police departments say it's not their job to determine whether someone is an illegal immigrant and that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wouldn't have the resources to take every case.

ICE asks local police departments to contact it if they suspect someone they've encountered is violating immigration laws, said Shawn Neudauer, spokesman for the agency.

"With limited resources, ICE must prioritize those resources on the following cases: criminal aliens, recent border crossers, previously removed aliens, and fugitive aliens," he said.

When law enforcement officers in Minnesota make a traffic stop and query police databases, they don't get information about an individual's immigration status, said Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mona Dohman. That information could come up if ICE has issued a warrant for the person's arrest or the person is booked into jail.

HURTLED 50 FEET

Grime died July 5, waiting with her boyfriend for a city bus outside Harding on the city's East Side.

Viveros-Colorado struck a fire hydrant, careened across a street, hit a "no parking" sign, and headed down a small embankment by the high school sign. Sitting under a tree about 50 feet from the curb, Grime was struck and killed by Viveros-Colorado's SUV, according to a complaint charging him with criminal vehicular homicide. The charge alleges he was driving in a grossly negligent manner, something his attorney disputes, saying what happened was "provoked by a medical event."

Viveros-Colorado told police his leg and arm went numb while he was driving. He couldn't lift his leg to step on the brake, panicked and accidentally hit the gas, leading him to hit the hydrant and lose control of his vehicle, said Alberto Miera, Viveros-Colorado's attorney.


Friends of Clarisse Grime watches as dirt is shoveled on her casket at Elmhurst Cemetery in St. Paul on Wednesday, July 11, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

Miera said his client's driving record isn't a bad one. "I would think, if you looked at most people's driving record in the last 10 years, two speeding tickets in total would be pretty minimal," he said.

Driving without a license is a common problem for illegal immigrants, Miera said. Viveros-Colorado tried to be responsible by carrying car insurance and not driving more than necessary, he said.

"The date of this incident, as I suspect in the other (times he was ticketed), he was not joyriding or partying," Miera said. "He was coming from work, meeting his responsibilities."

Viveros-Colorado knows there will be consequences for the crash, his attorney said.

"All we can do is continue to express our sincere sorrow, sadness and just have the expectation that ultimately people judge things fairly and put them in perspective because these are real human beings on all sides of this issue," Miera said.

After the accident, Viveros-Colorado's sister told police that he is undocumented and in the country illegally. Viveros-Colorado remains in the Ramsey County Jail. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed an immigration detainer on Viveros-Colorado. If released from local custody, he would be released to the immigration agency.

When Viveros-Colorado was convicted in 2001 of DWI, the federal agency then known as Immigration and Naturalization Service ordered him to leave the country and he did so, Miera said. Viveros-Colorado returned to the U.S. to work and support his family, his attorney said.

NO IMMIGRATION CHECK

Court records show St. Paul police cited Viveros-Colorado at 3:55 p.m. July 19, 2011, for driving without a valid license and speeding 1 to 10 mph over the limit at Seventh Street and Johnson Parkway. Newport police and the Minnesota State Patrol have also cited him in the past year.

St. Paul and Minneapolis have ordinances that bar city employees from asking about someone's immigration status, "except when immigration status is an element of the crime" or when enforcing federal law on document fraud.

Stopping someone for a traffic violation would not be a reason to ask about the driver's immigration status under the St. Paul ordinance, said City Attorney Sara Grewing.

If officers inquire about immigration status, it undermines residents' trust in police, making them less likely to report being a victim or witness, said Bill Martinez, assistant St. Paul police chief.

When the St. Paul ordinance passed in 2004, council member Dan Bostrom cast the lone opposing vote. "Maybe a situation like this begs us to review that (ordinance)," he said Tuesday.

"We have a responsibility to protect our citizens," Bostrom said. "One of our citizens was killed in a situation like this, and that is a tragedy. That is totally unacceptable."

Martinez demurred.

"What happened is gut-wrenching to any parent," he said. "I don't know if other action had been taken what could have happened, but I don't want to get into that 'what if' game because it's not realistic."

People who oppose policies like those in St. Paul and Minneapolis call them "sanctuary cities."

"Quite frankly, I would like to see those pushing and enforcing sanctuary policy publicly, for all to witness, explain to the parents of Clarisse Grime, an only child, why immigration laws are not enforced in Minnesota and instead we reward illegal behavior with a pass," said Hendrycks, the Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform president.

2 STOPS, NO WARRANT

At 3:50 a.m. March 8, a Newport police officer driving on U.S. 61 near 70th Street looked up the license plate of a vehicle in front of him and saw that the registered owner had no Minnesota driver's license, according to a police report.

He stopped the vehicle, identifying the driver as Viveros-Colorado through his Mexican identification card, the report said. He cited him for driving without a valid Minnesota driver's license and allowed him to call for a driver with a license to bring the vehicle home, the report said.

There must have been no warrant from Immigration and Customs Enforcement for his arrest, or the officer wouldn't have let him go, said Newport Police Chief Curt Montgomery.

People stopped by police use all kinds of identification and having ID from another country shouldn't lead officers to conclude a person is in the country illegally, Montgomery said.

At 8:45 a.m. April 19, a state trooper pulled Viveros-Colorado over on U.S. 61 at Lower Afton Road. He was cited then for driving without a valid license and speeding. A court record said he was travelling 71 mph in a 60-mph zone.

No law or policy directs a trooper to verify the immigration status of a person during a routine traffic stop, said Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesman Bruce Gordon.

ARIZONA'S APPROACH

State Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, has sponsored a bill in the Minnesota Legislature largely patterned after Arizona's tough immigration law. The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the provision in that law that requires state law enforcement officials to determine immigration status of anyone they stop if they have reason to suspect the person might be an illegal immigrant. Drazkowski said he anticipates authoring a similar bill again.

State Sen. John Harrington, DFL-St. Paul, doesn't support a "show your papers" approach. The former St. Paul police chief, who represents the area where Grime was killed, said, "Immigrant enforcement is a federal law enforcement responsibility, and I believe that's where the responsibility is."

Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, a retired Lake Crystal police chief, has a different view. He says local officers should investigate a person's immigration status if there are red flags. But not having a driver's license and speaking a different language should not be enough to trigger those questions, Cornish said.

"That wouldn't be much on its own, and you couldn't go just on that, because that would smell of profiling," he said. "But when there are other factors -- nervousness, no permanent address, can't answer certain questions -- and the cop's collective experience leads him to believe there's something going on, he should be able to ask more questions."

Bruce Nestor, a Minneapolis immigration and criminal defense attorney, said he can think of about a dozen clients in the past year whom police booked into jail for the misdemeanor offense of not having a driver's license. Once they were in jail, ICE became aware of them and started removal proceedings, Nestor said.

For misdemeanor offenses in Minnesota, state law says officers can cite and release people, as long as the officer can establish someone's identity and doesn't believe they pose a threat to public safety, Nestor said. What officers accept as proof of identification depends on the department and sometimes the officer, he said.

Nestor said officers who book someone into jail on a misdemeanor might do it as a backhanded way to turn someone over to ICE.

The victim's stepfather said he is less concerned about Viveros-Colorado's immigration status and more troubled by what he calls the driver's excuses after hitting and killing his daughter.

"I'm angry that he says he has numbness," Yimam said. "I don't accept it. If you have numbness, why are you driving the car?"

One Old Vet

Would immigration status questions have stopped fatal St. Paul crash? - TwinCities.com

In the year leading up to the accident that killed Clarisse Grime, 16, near Harding High School this month, police stopped Viveros-Colorado three times, citing him for speeding and not having a Minnesota driver's license.

Viveros-Colorado, who turns 51 on Sunday, July 22, is in the U.S. illegally for the second time. He was undocumented when convicted of DWI in 2001 and left the country, but he returned about two years later.

Why was he still here and on the street? They need to confiscate the cars of people with no license, and probably no insurance either!


[QUOTE]As much as Grime's family would have wanted to prevent the accident, others say immigration status does not predict future criminal behavior.[QUOTE]

Uh yea it does! He's an illegal invader!

"For every guy like this, how many guys are there who are of Norwegian heritage who are drinking and driving, or texting and driving?" Samuelson asked.

If they are here LEGALLY it makes a HUGE difference!

Local police departments say it's not their job to determine whether someone is an illegal immigrant and that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wouldn't have the resources to take every case.

What a freakin' tired excuse! This guy has been picked up time and time again! When entered into the computer this guy would have come up as being ticketed for this same reason before. How stupid do you think WE THE PEOPLE are? This was unforgivable! My heart goes out to the family...

"With limited resources, ICE must prioritize those resources on the following cases: criminal aliens, recent border crossers, previously removed aliens, and fugitive aliens," he said.

Well duh... this was a guy on record as being all of the above!

Miera said. Viveros-Colorado tried to be responsible by carrying car insurance and not driving more than necessary, he said.

How about being responsible by coming here LEGALLY? And really, if some invaders took a member of YOUR family, would you be satisfied with crappy excuses like this? I think not!

I'm going to quit here before my head explodes!