Thread: MO - ICE answers immigration questions

ICE answers immigration questions
Stories of interest
Double murder in Hannibal

Police release more details about double murder


Police reveal more about Hannibal murder suspect



Many voice concerns after Hannibal murders

Friday, March 06, 2009 at 5:24 p.m.


Last weekend's Hannibal murders have left many family and friends with unanswered questions.

The suspect, 32-year-old Manuel Cazares accused of killing 27-year-old Amanda Thomas of Hannibal and her high school friend 25-year-old Patrick Epley of Monroe City is an illegal immigrant. Many of you have asked the question, how can an illegal immigrant slip through the cracks?

We talked to Hannibal Police Department earlier this week. The department told us that Cazares had all the identification to prove he was in the country legally. There was no reason to think that he was here illegally. Police say further questioning about a person's legal status when valid identification has been provided could result in civil penalties. That's where federal entities such as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement or ICE come into play.

"ICE has a very active criminal alien program. We work in partnership with local law enforcement agencies, they don't have to do anything special to participate other than refer the people that they arrest who they suspect might be in the country illegally or deportable," said ICE spokesman Cark Rusnok.

The ICE spokesman told us most local law enforcement agencies don't have immigration law enforcement authority, but there's a way to get it. There's a program that gives local police authorization if properly trained.

You can report suspicious activity by calling (866) DHS-2-ICE

http://www.connecttristates.com/news/ne ... ?id=269846

The suspect, 32-year-old Manuel Cazares accused of killing 27-year-old Amanda Thomas of Hannibal and her high school friend 25-year-old Patrick Epley of Monroe City is an illegal immigrant.

I am sorry but some editor has fallen down on the job. That sentence sounds like both victims, in their 20's are still in high school. It would have been clearer to say her "friend from high school years" or just "her friend". My editors would have beaten me for that confusion.
The point of the story is that a horrible double murder occured at the hands of an illegal, who should not have slipped through the cracks. Another point of the story is the apparent lack of 287(g) training for local law enforcement, which perhaps could have prevented this.

We talked to Hannibal Police Department earlier this week. The department told us that Cazares had all the identification to prove he was in the country legally. There was no reason to think that he was here illegally. Police say further questioning about a person's legal status when valid identification has been provided could result in civil penalties.

I see...are any civil penalties going to result when two American citizens are slaughtered at the hands of an illegal invader because our Federal government chooses not to enforce our immigration laws or secure our borders? What about those civil penalties?

How come I never hear of any official worry about civil penalties for those acts?

He did not have valid MO Drivers License because illegal aliens can't get it.

Hannibal can partner with ICE, start using the Criminal Alien Program and it wont cost them a lot either.

Dixie

Often times it is when people get arrested and taken to jail they get the person's immigration status. That is why if someone gets arrested and you have reason to believe that they are illegal check the jail booking info. If there is an immigration hold on them there is an over 95% chance that they are illegal. There are a few crimes that if they are a legal resident they may put a hold on them but that does not occur that often.

March 18, 2009
Northeast Mo. town outraged over killings, allegedly by illegal immigrant

By JIM SALTER

Associated Press Writer

HANNIBAL, Mo. —
The Hannibal police officer was finishing up mundane paperwork on a quiet Saturday morning when Manuel Cazares walked into the station, blood splattered on his hands and shoes.

Cazares put his hands out, crossed them, and told the officer to arrest him.

"I killed two people," he allegedly said.

Details surrounding the allegations are far too common: an abusive relationship, a jilted lover, a sudden attack. But some in this Mississippi River community of 17,000 best known as Mark Twain's hometown aren't just outraged by the violence. They also question why Cazares was in Hannibal at all.

Cazares admitted after his arrest that he is an illegal immigrant. He had several run-ins with law enforcement before the homicides, but officials had never questioned his legal status.

Now he is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Feb. 28 deaths of his ex-girlfriend, 27-year-old Amanda Thomas, and 25-year-old Carl Patrick Epley.

During his three years in Hannibal, Cazares, 32, managed to avoid detection, despite a few arrests on traffic charges and a property damage conviction after an arrest for allegedly beating up Thomas and tearing up her home. Thomas also had sought three restraining orders against Cazares.

"I don't know how this happens," said Tina White-Masengill, Thomas' sister. "My stepdad told police many times, 'I don't even think the guy's a legal citizen.'"

But police say his name wasn't in a database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Police and Cazares' boss at the Gran Rio Mexican Restaurant also say he had authentic-looking identification, including a Social Security card. And police noted that Cazares speaks fluent English.

Cazares' attorney did not return phone messages seeking comment. Cazares is being held on $1 million bond.

Hannibal police declined several interview requests from The Associated Press for this story, but said soon after the killing that they had received several angry calls, some with racial overtones.

At a news conference, police Capt. James Hark told reporters that tracking illegal immigrants is a federal responsibility and "not within the authority" of his department.



The department is sympathetic to the families of the victims, Hark said, "but, in retrospect, there's nothing in the system that would have prevented this from happening."

ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok refused to lay blame, saying the agency seeks to work closely with local police to uncover illegal immigrants.

"When local law enforcement suspect that they have arrested an illegal alien on criminal charges, we encourage them to forward those suspicions to ICE, where we will make the appropriate determination whether that person is in the country legally or illegally, and whether he is deportable," Rusnok said.

Of 368,000 people deported from the U.S. last year, about 113,000 had criminal convictions, Rusnok said.

Sgt. Jason Clark of the Missouri State Highway Patrol's criminal division said he could recall only a couple of cases in the state in which an illegal immigrant was suspected of murder: one in Maryville in 2007 and one in Kansas City last year.

The relationship between Cazares and Thomas had long been rocky, with Thomas seeking restraining orders in 2007 and again early last year. Marion County prosecutor Tom Redington said the first order was dismissed when Thomas failed to appear at a court hearing; the second was dismissed at her request.

Finally, around Thanksgiving, Thomas followed through and obtained a restraining order that was supposed to keep Cazares away from the small brick duplex where she lived with their 20-month-old son and a 7-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Yet neighbors said they often saw Cazares in the area.

"We pulled up one night and he drives up the street with his car lights off and just sits there watching her house," said neighbor Charles Thomas, who is not related to the victim.

He wasn't just watching, according to family and friends. White-Masengill said Cazares attacked Thomas many times, even when she slept.

In early February, Thomas told police she thought Cazares was stalking her. White-Masengill said Thomas played cell phone messages for police, including one in which he said, "No one can love you like I do."

Redington said he didn't have Cazares arrested immediately because of the "on-again, off-again nature of their relationship." He asked Thomas to obtain records that would show Cazares had been calling her, violating the protection order. She never obtained the records.

According to court records, Cazares offered the following account of the killings in his confession:

Despite the restraining order, he and Thomas had spent the night of Feb. 26 together after she called him, "saying that she loved me and wanted me to come to her house." He thought they would be together again the next night.

Instead, Thomas went out. At some point she met up with Epley, a friend from her nearby hometown of Monroe City.

Cazares fumed when a friend told him he saw Thomas outside of a bar. He stayed up late drinking beer, then awoke at 6 a.m. Unable to fall back to sleep, he went to Thomas' home.

There, he found Thomas with Epley.

Cazares then went to the kitchen, found a knife and started stabbing Epley, before turning the knife on Thomas.

He then drove around in Thomas' car for a couple of hours before using her cell phone to call his mother. He told her "that I loved her and that I did something that was not right and for her to take care of herself."

He considered killing himself, but instead drove to the police station and quietly turned himself in.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com