Thread: UPDATE ON THE MN BUS CRASH & VICTIMS STATUS:

By CHAO XIONG, PAM LOUWAGIE and CURT BROWN, Star Tribune

Last update: February 26, 2008 - 9:49 AM

MARSHALL, MINN. - The woman in the Lyon County jail facing charges in last week's deaths of four children is a 24-year-old from Guatemala who is in the United States illegally and had been using an alias, according to immigration officials.

Olga Marina Franco has been using the fake name of Alianiss Nunez Morales, they said Monday.

She was charged Friday in Lyon County District Court with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide, driving without a license and running a stop sign.

Franco's fingerprints didn't show up in U.S. immigration databases, which "would indicate she had not yet in any way been encountered by immigration officials," ICE agents or citizenship workers, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok in a telephone interview from Dallas.

Immigration authorities wouldn't say precisely how they figured out Franco's identity.

During their investigation after last Tuesday's crash, ICE officials showed a photograph to relatives of an Alianiss Morales in Puerto Rico. The people there said she wasn't the same person as the woman jailed in Marshall.

Franco initially told investigators she was from Mexico.

Customs officials have placed a detainer on Franco, meaning that if she is released from the Lyon County jail for any reason, she will be turned over to federal authorities to face deportation.

A Marshall resident who said he is a cousin of Franco's said family members don't know how Franco ended up with a false identity.

Relatives said Franco looked shocked and scared in the hospital and in the courthouse after the crash, the cousin said.

He added that Franco was "goodhearted."

"Just like everybody else, she came to this country for the American dream ... all those dreams are shattered with this," the cousin said.

He said that neither he nor other relatives wanted to identify themselves for fear their children might be harassed.

Franco moved to the United States three or four years ago, briefly living in Virginia before coming to live with friends in Montevideo, and then moving in with cousins in Marshall, the cousin said.

But Franco left Marshall to live in Willmar and "ended up hanging out with the wrong people," the cousin said. She worked for several months at the Jennie-O plant in Willmar before taking a job in Cottonwood, which is about 140 miles west of the Twin Cities. Franco had told relatives that she'd recently moved to the town of Minneota with her boyfriend, whom they didn't know, to be closer to her job with a cabinet maker in Cottonwood.

Franco said the boyfriend was in the van when the crash took place but fled the scene, leaving her pinned inside with a broken leg, according to the cousin.

Investigators have heard rumors that a man was in the van with Franco, but the investigation and interviews so far have not supported that, said Lt. Brian West of the Minnesota State Patrol.

Funerals and politics

Lakeview School in Cottonwood was closed Monday as brothers Jesse and Hunter Javens were buried. Jesse was 13, and Hunter, who had a twin sister, would have turned 10 Monday.

Services were held Sunday for Emilee Olson, 9, and are scheduled at 2 p.m. Thursday at the school for Reed Stevens, 12.

"We keep praying for those families," Franco's cousin said. "I've got my own kids, too. They ride buses to school, too."

Of the 14 people injured in the crash, five remain hospitalized, including pickup driver James Hancock, who has been upgraded to good condition at a Sioux Falls, S.D., hospital. Hancock said he saw Franco's van go through the stop sign and strike the bus, which tipped over on his pickup.

Two other children are listed in good condition and two others are in fair condition.

Public outcry from around the state and country thrust the accident into the heated national debate over illegal immigration.

In Washington, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., sent a letter to immigration officials asking why no action was taken when Franco (using Morales as an alias) was convicted in 2006 of driving without a license. She was driving erratically and wound up on the lawn of a Montevideo home.

Calls for community 'outrage'

E-mails and phone calls from across the state and country began pouring into the offices of area officials and of the Marshall Independent, the area's daily newspaper,.

"It's a brewing firestorm," said Minnesota House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall. "The immigration issue has heated enormously over this."

The Independent ran a letter to the editor Monday from a city council member in South Carolina. She wrote: "I hope your community gets outraged. ... As long as we cater and pander to these people the more tragedies we are going to continue to read about throughout this country."

Editor Dana Yost said his newspaper has received 100 or so e-mails and some have been "very mean-spirited. There hasn't been a middle ground."

Seifert said his office has received up to four dozen e-mails and calls about immigration since the accident. Sen. Dennis Frederickson, R-New Ulm, said he has received about two dozen e-mails.

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman's office received a number of calls and e-mails from Minnesotans who want the government to "get serious about addressing our immigration system," according to his press secretary, LeRoy Coleman.

Lawmakers have so far concentrated on offering their condolences to family members of the dead and injured, and reiterating the need to enforce existing immigration laws.

Residents of Marshall and Cottonwood, where many residents are close to the victims, have offered differing views about Franco's immigrant status.

"Boy, I was mad," said Randy Seiler, a lifelong Marshall resident. "I was mad, honestly. There is no control anymore on what's going on. There's going to be some tension."

As she left the memorial service for the Javens brothers at Lakeview School, Lisa Coil of Montevideo said: "It doesn't matter who [Franco] is, whether she's illegal or not. She still killed four kids."

At Mike's Cafe in Marshall on Monday, the morning's discussion turned philosophical among a circle of old friends.

Franco's immigrant status is a topic of conversation, they said, adding that local reactions seemed less heated than those from outside the area.

"If she was an American citizen without a license -- we have a lot of those -- would it be more tragic?" said Tom Wyffels of Marshall. "It doesn't make any difference to me if you're killed by an American with a license or a non-American without a license."

cxiong@startribune.com • 612-673-4391 plouwagie@stsrtribune.com • 612-673-7102 curt.brown@startribune.com • 612-673-4767

http://www.startribune.com/local/15942767.html

Of the 14 people injured in the crash, five remain hospitalized, including pickup driver James Hancock, who has been upgraded to good condition at a Sioux Falls, S.D., hospital. Hancock said he saw Franco's van go through the stop sign and strike the bus, which tipped over on his pickup.

Two other children are listed in good condition and two others are in fair condition.

This is about all there is for now.

She should be deported, why suppert her in jail at our costs. We should empty our jails of illegals and put GPS devices in their body so they can be monitored as to where they are. If the go where they shouldn't send them a shock till they call-in! LOL
The people that hired the bus driver should be put in jail. She had NO license! Or was there a fake one used?

I watch too much TV........

Franco said the boyfriend was in the van when the crash took place but fled the scene, leaving her pinned inside with a broken leg, according to the cousin.

Wow, why am I not surprised? Sounds like a real piece of "work" to me...

Sent the following email to the authors of the above posted article:

plouwagie@stsrtribune.com; curt.brown@startribune.com; cxiong@startribune.com;

Let them Know how you feel, it could have been any of our families!!

"I do not understand the logic of the following quote in your article, the answer is simple, if the ILLEGAL was not in the United States the four children would still be alive. But if you are an elitist politician or an elitist political contributor or maybe a member of the Chamber of Commerce these four lives would just the be the "cost of doing business". I suppose "our" President of "our" Congressional leadership could determine if it was just another "business expense".

("If she was an American citizen without a license -- we have a lot of those -- would it be more tragic?" said Tom Wyffels of Marshall. "It doesn't make any difference to me if you're killed by an American with a license or a non-American without a license." )

Again, I do not understand how our President and our congress can send our young men and women half way around the world in defense of the United States and refuse to defend our National Borders and Enforce our Immigration Laws while at the same time warning our military, for their own safety, not to wear their uniforms when traveling to “ourâ€

Good job lccat

I've been busy writing letters, too, and giving people my opinion.

ksfy tv just reported there are only 2 children remaining in the hosptial here in Sioux Falls. One child and the pickup driver were released today. No word on the person transfered to Rochester, MN.

"If she was an American citizen without a license -- we have a lot of those -- would it be more tragic?" said Tom Wyffels of Marshall. "It doesn't make any difference to me if you're killed by an American with a license or a non-American without a license."

This is a one of the dumbest questions yet! She was pulled over several times for driving without a license, if she had been an American; she would not have been let go. I don't know many Americans who will get behind the wheel of a car they cannot drive either.

If she had been deported the last time she was "let go", these kids would certainly still be alive, so yes it matters, because the answer is no one else was drove into the bus, SHE did.