Lawmakers call for immigration review
By Judi Villa

Originally published 06:04 p.m., September 11, 2008
Updated 06:04 p.m., September 11, 2008

Three Aurora legislators today called for a comprehensive audit of the state's immigration laws and how they are being enforced by police and federal immigration authorities.

Their request comes a week after an illegal immigrant allegedly broadsided a pickup truck in Aurora, killing two women and a 3-year-old boy in an ice-cream shop.

The suspect, Francis Hernandez, 23, had been arrested nearly 20 times in the past five years but had never been deported, despite a 2006 state law that requires police to report foreign born suspects to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Hernandez was formally charged Thursday with three counts of leaving the scene of an accident involving death, three counts of vehicular homicide, one count of vehicular assault, one count of leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury and one count of driving under restraint. If convicted, he could face up to 78 years in prison. His bail was increased to $350,000.

Representatives Morgan Carroll and Karen Middleton and Senator Suzanne Williams are seeking an audit of all of Hernandez's contacts with police. They also want an analysis of "every crack or gap" in legislation and the enforcement of existing laws.

"And while the federal government has primary jurisdiction over immigration law, we have primary responsibility for the existence and enforcement of our traffic laws," the legislators wrote in a joint letter to the legislative audit committee. "Had the current laws and enforcement worked properly, these citizens would not be dead."

Debra Serecky, 51, of Aurora, and Patricia Guntharp, 49, of Centennial, were killed Sept. 4 when their pickup truck was broadsided. Marten Kudlis, 3, of Aurora, was inside the Baskin-Robbins ice-cream shop with his mother when he was snared by the careening wreckage and dragged to his death.

The deaths became a lightning rod for increased immigration reform when it was determined that Hernandez was born in Guatemela and was in the United States illegally.

However, his lawyer said Thursday that Hernandez's father had established residency for him during his childhood. Hernandez obtained a social security card, but his immigration status reverted to illegal after he became an adult, said Kallman Elinoff.

Immigration attorneys say that if a petition for legal residency isn't processed by age 21, then a person could become ineligible and would have to return to their home country.

Hernandez's father is a legal resident and his sister has become a U.S. citizen, Elinoff said.

After graduating from high school in California, Hernandez tried to enlist in the Army but he was turned away because of his immigration status, Elinoff said.

Hernandez quickly began racking up arrests, mainly for misdemeanor traffic offenses, but largely avoided scrutiny of his legal status.

Aurora police say Hernandez was referred to ICE after he was arrested in April for speeding and driving without a license. ICE officials say they have no record of Hernandez ever being referred to them before last week's crash.

Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers said prosecutors are looking at the possibility of filing additional, "even more serious" charges. She would not elaborate.

"We have three people who are dead and one of them is a 3-year-old child," Chambers said. "It's a heartbreaking case and so unnecessary."

After the hearing, Guntharp's son, Richard Gagne, 32, said he went to court hoping for a little bit of closure before he heads to Iraq. Gagne is in the Army.

"It's a piece of me that is now gone. It hurts," Gagne said of losing his mother. "Hopefully, someday that emptiness will be filled."

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