Thread: Murders of immigrants help prompt lawsuit against Homeland S

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cf ... -05&cat=AA


Murders of immigrants help prompt lawsuit against Homeland Security
By ROSA RAMIREZ
Hispanic Link News Service
October 20, 2005

- The recent murders of six Mexican workers in Georgia underline various social issues facing immigrants, including inadequate housing and a lack of trust of financial institutions and local authorities.

Responding to these and other atrocities, a class action lawsuit was filed Oct 18 in Los Angeles on behalf of hundreds of undocumented immigrants living throughout the United States. The suit was directed at Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, pressing them to issue visas to immigrant victims of violent crimes who have cooperated with investigations or prosecutions of such crimes.

Five years ago, congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, which permits some undocumented immigrants who were crime victims to remain lawfully in the United States for humanitarian reasons.

To date, Chertoff has "flouted and violated this important law," according to the suit.

Gabriela Lemus, policy analyst for the League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington, says there is increasing evidence that crimes against immigrants are not being reported, particularly in emerging communities where a Hispanic infrastructure has not developed.

"The overarching immigration policy is very confusing. People don't know what their rights are," Lemus contends.

According to Luz Marti, a Hispanic advocate in Georgia's Tift County, where the latest killings occurred, inadequate housing likely contributed to the immigrants' vulnerability.

"The doors (of the trailers where the victims lived) were not strong. There were no working windows. In some trailers, windows were (covered) with towels or sheets," she says.

Marti says the crimes, which police maintain are not racially motivated, should serve as a wake-up call to Hispanics, law enforcement and the public about the challenges facing immigrants.

A series of mobile home invasions at four Tift County trailer parks Sept. 30 resulted in the six Mexican men being beaten to death, one woman raped and six other men wounded.

The victims have been identified as Mateo Gomez, 54; Jose Luis Tias, 20; Felipe Mauricio Esparza, 32; Armando Perez Martinez, 25; Mauricio Florindo and Guadalupe Sanchez. The ages of the latter two are unknown.

"We think these people were targeted because they carry a lot of cash," Marti says, adding that some immigrants keep their savings at home and usually pay with cash.

Four people have been charged with six counts of murder each, according to David Haire, public information officer with the sheriff's office in Tift County.

While the murders have shocked the local immigrant community, the Southern Poverty Law Center has produced several intelligence reports detailing attacks against Mexican immigrants throughout the country.

While the murders have shocked the local immigrant community, the Southern Poverty Law Center has produced several intelligence reports detailing attacks against Mexican immigrants throughout the country.

Oh i am sure that the SPLC hasn't even found any Intelligence of American Citizens being attacked.

Oh i am sure that the SPLC hasn't even found any Intelligence of American Citizens being attacked.

Yep. Lets get the ACLU to sue Homeland Security on behalf of every American victim of a crime committed by an illegal immigrant.

Originally Posted by JohnB2012

Oh i am sure that the SPLC hasn't even found any Intelligence of American Citizens being attacked.

Yep. Lets get the ACLU to sue Homeland Security on behalf of every American victim of a crime committed by an illegal immigrant.

Oh yeah that will happen.

We should incorporate the services of that one group Judical Watch who is sueing the city of Herndon over spending tax dollars to create a day laborer site for invaders. We should get them to file a law suit like the one you are suggesting.

No one forced them to rent or buy those mobile homes or stay in this country!

Mobile homes are built worth a flip! Heck my children can get into the locked front door for crying out loud!

Did they deserve to die, no. The only ones to blame for the deaths are the ones that committed the murders. PERIOD!

Oh for Christs sake. Man here I am a hard-working tax paying legal citizen and nobody gives a damn if I have "adequate housing" nor does anyone wring their hands over whether a financial institution "trusts" me. This is pandering, sniveling liberalism at its most disgusting.