Three more young Americans lose their lives to flawed immigration enforcement...whos next?


Wreck suspect may be illegal alien

Jessica Rocha, Staff Writer

Drunken driving is alleged in the accident that killed three people near Sanford
The man charged with driving drunk and causing the accident that killed two N.C. State University students and a 16-year-old outside Sanford last month is in the United States illegally and may be prosecuted for carrying fraudulent identification, an immigration official said.
Pastor Rios Sanchez, 55, is being held in the Lee County jail on $75,000 bail and a 48-hour immigration detainer after being charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter and other offenses related to the head-on collision Oct. 27, according to law enforcement.

Helen Meghan Hughes, 22, and Jennifer Elaine Carter, 18, were pronounced dead at the scene. Hughes' stepbrother, Benjamin Richard Leonard, 16, also was in the wreck and later died at the hospital, N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper K.T. Hill said last month.

Though Sanchez had a residency card, investigators now believe it was a fake, said Tom O'Connell, the resident agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

O'Connell said Sanchez was from the Mexican state of Guerrero, and that immigration officials don't believe he has ever legally been in the United States.

The U.S. attorney could decide to press additional charges against Sanchez for possessing counterfeit immigration papers, O'Connell said.

ICE placed an immigration detainer on Sanchez so that if he posts bond or otherwise faces release, immigration officials would have 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays, to decide whether to take him into federal custody and start immigration proceedings.

But if Sanchez were taken into immigration's custody now, he could be deported within a month, O'Connell said. Prosecution of state charges against Sanchez could take many months.

"We can't just hold [him] for eight months on an immigration charge [while the state continues its case]," O'Connell said.

Instead, ICE usually waits until near the end of a prison sentence or other factor, and then takes the person into custody for deportation proceedings.

Sanchez was convicted of driving without an operators license in 2005, according to court records. He was charged with a similar misdemeanor in March and April. One of the charges was dismissed, but Sanchez failed to appear in Harnett County court in August, records show.

However, it's unlikely that those brushes with law enforcement would have flagged him as a possible illegal immigrant, officials said.

"There are hundreds and hundreds of traffic citations of people who are illegal immigrants, and as a practical matter [ICE] is not notified of each one of these," said Tom Lock, district attorney for Lee, Harnett and Johnston counties.

If law enforcement organizations want to check whether someone is wanted by ICE, they can connect electronically with a Vermont-based service center that handles the queries, said Michael Gilhooly, an ICE spokesman.

A technician runs the name in several Homeland Security databases, and usually within an hour ICE will be able to send back an explanation of what popped up. It could be that a person has legal residency, or that a person is wanted, or that nothing pops up, Gilhooly said. That would happen if a person is a U.S.-born citizen, but also if a person is here illegally but has never had contact with an immigration official, he said.

The results from that search then are forwarded to people working in field offices, who, given limited resources, can choose to further investigate someone's immigration status.

"If the person isn't in our database, it doesn't necessarily mean they are an illegal alien," Gilhooly said. "It takes further investigation to determine that. That's why we notify the local officers."

In the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, 3,478 electronic inquiries were made by law enforcement in North Carolina, resulting in 242 detainers being placed on people.

That compares to 2,877 inquiries in the previous 12-month period, Gilhooly said. The number of detainers was not available Monday.


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