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Editorial: Of murder and migrants
September 24, 2006

Officials are puzzling over an Indian River County murder mystery: The six homicides recorded in the first nine months of this year are double the total of the previous two years combined.

Theories and explanations range from that old bugaboo — growth — to a mere statistical anomaly. But one clue virtually shouts for attention: Illegal aliens have been implicated in three of the killings. Three other Hispanic men lay dead.

Hispanics, who, according to the latest Census figures, account for less than 10 percent of the county's population, allegedly committed at least half of this year's homicides.

(No suspect has been named in the July 15 slaying of Regene Helen McPherson; the other two cases — one white, one black — were husband-wife disputes that turned fatal.)

Initial news accounts glossed over the immigration angle, but Sheriff Roy Raymond's staff has noted an increasing number of crimes committed by undocumented migrants.

"We've seen a rise in Latino gang activity here. It's becoming a major problem," Raymond says. "Unfortunately, it's hard to get the feds to do anything."

The fact that three homicide suspects are known to have resided in this county illegally for years without anyone taking action provides yet more proof that the immigration-enforcement system is in shambles. Local judges repeatedly fine people for driving without licenses, and let them go. Criminals with no proof of legal residency serve time in jail, and then walk free. Wink, wink, nod, nod.

This revolving-door justice is no justice at all.

Davidson County (Tenn.) Sheriff Daron Hall finally got fed up this summer when an illegal immigrant, who had been arrested 14 times in the Nashville area, ended up in a fatal drunken-driving accident that killed a suburban couple. Nashville police arrested more than 4,200 illegal residents last year; just 151 were deported.

Raymond says he wants to follow Hall's lead in implementing a little-used 1996 federal law that empowers local authorities to take action. The Delegation of Authority Program allows officers to "identify, process and, when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement, activity."

Law officers believe that the 15,000 illegal aliens sitting in Florida's jails and prisons are just the tip of the iceberg. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement admits that it checks the legal status of only about six of 10 immigrants who commit crimes serious enough to land them in prison. As in Tennessee, deportations are rare.

With one deputy certified by ICE, the Sheriff's Office can, and should, do more to get criminals off our streets. By definition, immigrants smuggled into this country or overstaying their visas have broken the law.

They shouldn't be allowed to stick around to break even more laws.

3 HOMICIDES, 5 ILLEGAL ALIENS

Undocumented aliens are victims, suspects or charged in half of Indian River County's slayings this year:

April 3: Jose Mateo Ros, an illegal immigrant, is stabbed to death. Marvin Omar Hernandez, an illegal alien living here for the past two years, is sought on a murder warrant.

April 7: Alberto Certa Monroy, an illegal alien living here for five years, is charged in the murder of Raul Perez, a resident alien.

June 11: Heinan Cortez, an illegal resident of at least six years, is charged in the murder of an undocumented, unidentified Hispanic man.

Source: Indian River County Sheriff's Office