Thread: CO: Ritter orders immigration audit

9/14/2008 8:49:00 PM Email this article • Print this article
Ritter orders immigration audit
Coalition of Aurora legislators helps to prompt inquiry

By Brandon Johansson
The Aurora Sentinel

AURORA | Two recent crimes by suspected illegal immigrants - including a hit-and-run crash that killed a toddler in an ice cream shop - have state lawmakers demanding a review of how local police deal with federal immigration authorities.

In both crimes - the Sept. 4 crash near South Havana Street and East Mississippi Avenue and a shooting Sept. 10 near Tower Road and East 32nd Avenue - police say the suspects were in the country illegally and had previously been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But each time, police say that despite turning the men into federal authorities, the men were back on Aurora streets.

Gov. Bill Ritter on Sept. 11 asked Colorado Department of Public Safety Executive Director Peter Weir to conduct a thorough review of the system.

Ritter said the two cases "tragically highlight the need to constantly review gaps and make changes to close them.

"Immigration enforcement is ultimately the responsibility of the federal government," Ritter said. "And clearly, Washington has failed to fix a broken system. But at the local and state levels where we are on the front lines, we have a responsibility to identify and help solve problems.

Ritter's call for an audit came a day after three Aurora politicians - Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, Rep. Karen Middleton, D-Aurora and Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, sent a joint letter to the legislative audit committee asking for an audit of all inter-agency involvement in traffic law and immigration enforcement.

"Rather than engage in finger-pointing through the press, we want a thorough top-to-bottom investigation of every that happened, everything that didn't happen as it should and what we can do to prevent this from ever happening again." Carroll said.

In the first case, police say Francis Hernandez, 23, was speeding down Havana when he slammed into a pickup truck, killing Patricia Gunthrap, 49, of Centennial, and Debra Serecky, 51, of Aurora. The impact sent both vehicles crashing into a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop, pulling 2-year-old Marten Kudlis out of the store and into the street. He later died.

Hernandez, who authorities say is a Guatemalan national in the country illegally, is being held on $350,000 bond at the Arapahoe County Jail.

In the second case, police say Hipolito Rojas Vazquez, 19, fired a handgun at a man who tried to stop Rojas Vazquez and a friend from breaking into a car near East 32nd Avenue and Tower Road.

The bullet passed through the victim's clothes and he was not injured.

Aurora police arrested Rojas Vazquez in January on an auto theft charge. At the time, police believed he was in the country illegally and referred him to federal immigration authorities, who took him into custody in April after he served a four-month sentence on the auto theft charge.

According to ICE, federal agents deported Vazquez in April, but he came back to the country.

http://www.aurorasentinel.com/main.asp? ... =983084110

Smoke and mirrors from Ritter, an enabler for the illegal invasion, who gave a heroin dealing illegal a plea deal, allowing him to plead guilty to "agricultural trespass", when Ritter was Denver's DA. The illegal in question went on to molest a little girl in California, whose parents were illegals.

Ritter's call for an audit came a day after three Aurora politicians - Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, Rep. Karen Middleton, D-Aurora and Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, sent a joint letter to the legislative audit committee asking for an audit of all inter-agency involvement in traffic law and immigration enforcement.

"Rather than engage in finger-pointing through the press, we want a thorough top-to-bottom investigation of every that happened, everything that didn't happen as it should and what we can do to prevent this from ever happening again." Carroll said.

In the first case, police say Francis Hernandez, 23, was speeding down Havana when he slammed into a pickup truck, killing Patricia Gunthrap, 49, of Centennial, and Debra Serecky, 51, of Aurora. The impact sent both vehicles crashing into a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop, pulling 2-year-old Marten Kudlis out of the store and into the street. He later died.

I-9s and I-9s makes it seem legal to employers! But the illegal criminal aliens are using the same green card to fill out many illegals I-9s that are NEVER Verified by any government.

Related Post On I-9s abuse and no verifying:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-131673.html