Editorial: Illegal immigrants Criminals should serve time before deportation
Daily News staff
4:40 p.m., Saturday, March 1, 2008

We join what we believe is the majority of Southwest Floridians when we favor deporting people who are in America illegally and are convicted of crimes and serve their punishment.

We understand that the discussion can be a slippery slope, and some people feel anyone here illegally has already broken the law and ought to be kicked out, period. But those who commit separate crimes, especially violent offenses against the most vulnerable of victims, clearly are in a different league.

When we hear Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter say it costs $9 million a year to take care of all the illegals in Collier jails and they should be weeded out, we believe public opinion is behind paying to punish the guilty before their eviction. For that reason, we are concerned when we see cases in which criminals are being processed more quickly because they are bound for deportation.

For example, a Naples-based circuit court judge the other day suspended the three years of probation given to a Mexican man living in Immokalee and adjudicated guilty of rape, a lesser charge than the original sexual battery. Conviction of that can mean a sentence of up to 15 years.

The judge warned the convict he would face those 15 years plus five more, at least, if he returns to this country.

Another example: A 23-year-old illegal from Honduras accused of breaking into two women’s apartments on Christmas 2006 and attempting to rape them has been sentenced to more than five years in a state prison. The suspect pleaded no contest.

He faced up to life imprisonment on each of the first-degree felonies, but was sentenced under a plea agreement that considered his illegal status and impending deportation, officials said.

Given the status of border security these days, this pattern in sentencing could send a wrong signal. What is to stop these and other suspects and criminals from coming back? Does this practice really place top priority on the safety and feelings of victims? Do they feel as safe as they would if the wrongdoers were securely behind bars, in Collier County?

Whether suspects and criminals are Americans or foreigners, here legally or otherwise, we prefer a fundamental approach: Trial and punishment first; freedom later. Otherwise, the message is that the only thing they did wrong was to get caught.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/mar ... mmigrants/