Thread: NC Family searches for answers

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/432466.html

Published: Apr 25, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Apr 25, 2006 03:12 AM
Family searches for answers
'Whose mom is it going to take to make a difference?'

Lisa Hoppenjans, Staff Writer
HILLSBOROUGH - Isael Medrano wasn't supposed to be on the road.

But on Jan. 21, according to the state Highway Patrol, Medrano was driving drunk on N.C. 86 when he swerved into the oncoming lane and hit Hester "Faye" Coleman as she drove home from a dinner celebrating her birthday the next week.

The collision killed the 62-year-old grandmother instantly.

Her daughters, Stacy Koon and Jill Woody, can't understand why Medrano, 28, a Salvadoran immigrant who had twice entered the country illegally, wasn't deported after pleading guilty to a DWI less than three weeks earlier.

"I felt like her country, they failed my mom, like they had a hand in her death," Koon said. "Had they done their job, he wouldn't have been here to do it.

"Whose mom is it going to take to make a difference?"

The issue has been gaining attention statewide.

Hispanics make up about 7 percent of the state's population but accounted for nearly 19 percent of the charges of driving while impaired last fiscal year, according to the state's Administrative Office of the Courts. There's no way to tell how many of those charged might be illegal immigrants, but about half of the state's 600,000 Hispanic residents are thought to be here illegally.

Last July, Gaston County teacher Scott Gardner was killed by an illegal immigrant who had four previous impaired driving convictions and had been returned to his native Mexico twice.

When Ramiro Gallegos pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in February, the judge blamed Gardner's death in part on the failures of the legal and immigration system.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte has proposed a law bearing Gardner's name that would require deporting any illegal immigrant convicted of driving while impaired.

Medrano's legal status at the time of the accident is murky.

According to Tom O'Connell, resident agent in charge of the Cary office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Medrano entered the country illegally in 2001 but received temporary protected status because earthquakes had devastated parts of his native El Salvador.

About a year later, he was caught illegally crossing into Texas. He didn't tell officials he had protected status, so a new immigration file was mistakenly started, O'Connell said. Medrano was ordered deported after he didn't show up for court hearings.

The judge didn't know about Medrano's protected status, and it's not clear whether that or the deportation order determines his current status here.

"He didn't really come up on the radar screen because he wasn't an aggravated felon," O'Connell said. "We have such greater priorities, like the national security stuff, and the guys who have been convicted of felonies like rape, robbery, murder and everything else. We need to get to those people first."

Two things helped Medrano skirt possible deportation after he was arrested in January 2005 on charges of driving while impaired, hit and run, reckless driving, and damage to public property.

First, he reached an agreement to plead guilty to just one of the charges -- all misdemeanors. Had he been convicted of two misdemeanors, he would have voided his protected status.

Second, no court officials contacted immigration. If they had and Medrano had been convicted of two of the charges, instead of being allowed to plead guilty to one, he likely would have been deported, O'Connell said. That doesn't happen in most drunken driving cases, he said, but the previous deportation order makes this one different.

Local district attorneys don't routinely check defendants' immigration status, and federal agents don't have the manpower to track every suspected illegal immigrant charged with a crime.

Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall said his office checks immigration status in serious felonies or when attorneys have been notified the defendant may be here illegally.

Last year, local law enforcement officials in North Carolina made 2,877 inquiries to the Law Enforcement Support Center, a national center that tracks information on immigrant status, resulting in 195 detainers being placed on individuals.

But the center's database includes only illegal immigrants after they have had a run-in with the law, said Jeff Jordan, a Charlotte-based assistant special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Coleman's daughters said the system lacks accountability.

"They pass the ball back and forth," Koon began.

"And they dropped it," Woody finished.

Medrano is scheduled to appear in court today on involuntary manslaughter and other charges related to Coleman's death.

On Monday night, Coleman's family and friends held a vigil outside the Hillsborough courthouse.

"Eventually, we know we're going to have to forgive him because we don't want him in our lives forever," Koon said. "However, we do not want this to happen to anyone else."

Staff writer Lisa Hoppenjans can be reached at 932-2014 or lisa.hoppenjans@newsobserver.com.

I guess if someone of "prominense" gets killed by an illegal, they might take notice

Ya, it will suddenly be a NEW crisis when it finally hits the family of an "important" person.

Local district attorneys don't routinely check defendants' immigration status, and federal agents don't have the manpower to track every suspected illegal immigrant charged with a crime.

But, if you're an American citizen, they'll hound you to your grave.