Thread: VA-Court levies heavy hand amid crimes from illegal immigran

Thursday, January 14, 2010
Court levies heavy hand amid crimes from illegal immigrant
Prosecutors hope that illegal immigrants who won't follow other laws will learn to move on.
By Mike Gangloff

A federal prosecutor called Wednesday's sentencing of Floyd County laborer Abel De La Cruz Sanchez part of an effort to send a message to people who sneak into the country, then misbehave: Stay out of the Western District of Virginia.

De La Cruz's case is one of about a dozen that the U.S. attorney's office has pressed in the past year targeting illegal immigrants who commit other crimes while here.

A Pew Research Center study in 2008 put the number of illegal immigrants in the United States at 11.9 million, three-fourths of them Hispanic. In 2006, community leaders in Roanoke estimated there were as many as 16,000 undocumented Hispanic residents in the Roanoke Valley alone.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Hogeboom said he and his colleagues know they can't stem that tide by themselves, but hope that illegal immigrants not inclined to follow other laws will get the word to go elsewhere.

De La Cruz's sentencing Wednesday in Roanoke was part of the federal effort to spread the word.

De La Cruz, 29, said he left Mexico in 2002 for Floyd County. By the time he was deported last year, De La Cruz had a long U.S. rap sheet including convictions of domestic violence, drunken driving and more, according to an account read by U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Wilson.

He had returned to Floyd from Mexico in a week. Speaking through a translator Wednesday, De La Cruz said that while in custody, he had met other immigrants who didn't draw prison sentences despite repeated entries and thought he would fare no worse.

De La Cruz said he had two daughters in Floyd County and wanted to be with them and to help support them.

"This wasn't just defiance," De La Cruz's attorney, Randy Cargill of the federal public defender's office, said of his client's quick return. "This was a man who established a life here."

Arrested after the mother of his children complained of being beaten, De La Cruz pleaded guilty in October to a federal charge of illegally re-entering the country.

Before sentencing him to four years and three months in prison -- probably to be followed by deportation -- Wilson said he did not know the circumstances of other illegal immigrants De La Cruz had met, but thought his case stood out because of the flagrant disregard for U.S. laws.

Wilson told De La Cruz that when De La Cruz drinks, "there must be a meanness to you, because it results in the assault of those around you."

De La Cruz said he had worked full time for gardening and landscaping companies throughout his time in Floyd County. He said the mother of his children would call police when they argued and accuse him of beating her.

Hogeboom noted that officers reported seeing blood and bruises during those incidents and that the outcome could have been far worse.

In the courtroom was De La Cruz's fiancee, who is not the mother of his children. A former Floyd County resident, Tanya Gibson said she drove from Richmond to watch the hearing. Afterward, she hugged De La Cruz before U.S. marshals led him away.

Gibson said De La Cruz had done bad things but had already paid a sufficient price. She said she planned to stand by her man and seek some sort of visa for him.

Gibson's mother accompanied her. Belinda Stagg said she thought it would cost taxpayers more to imprison De La Cruz than to let him stay in the country and continue working.

Hogeboom called cases like De La Cruz's tough but necessary.

"No one likes doing these cases because they're trying to find a better life," Hogeboom said of illegal immigrants. "But if they're coming here to commit crimes -- we've got enough homegrown people to commit crimes."



http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/232938

Permitting illegals to go into society to reproduce doesn't make them a legal resident.

Dumbass says ""This was a man who established a life here"

Yeah, a life of CRIME <---Long rap sheet

He shoulda been removed the first time he was arrested. Complete failure by Government to protect citizens as he was allowed to stay and commit even more crimes against U S citizens...