Nun’s death sparks outrage

InsideNova.com
By Cheryl Chumley


A nun from the Benedictine Monastery died in a head-on collision in Bristow on Sunday.
The wreck occurred on Bristow Road near the intersection of Wright Lane.

The death of a nun is bad enough. The senseless death of a nun due to an alleged drunken driving accident: even worse.

But what's an abject outrage, said several Prince William lawmakers, is when the suspect is an illegal immigrant with past driving-under-the-influence convictions and no legal driver's license who was out on bail, awaiting a federal deportation hearing.

"I am so mad, I can't see straight," said Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter, a Woodbridge Republican, in reaction to Sunday's wreck on Bristow Road that left Benedictine Sister Denise Mosier, 66, dead and her two colleagues, Sister Charlotte Lange, 75, and Sister Connie Ruth Lupton, 70, injured and receiving critical care at Inova Fairfax hospital.

Arrested was Carlos Martinelly Montano, 23, of Bristow, on charges of drunken driving and involuntary manslaughter. Police also are looking at how Montano obtained a driver's license following two DUI convictions.

"If there is any single example in the nation—underline nation—that is indicative of the federal government's complete negligence and failure to enforce and secure our borders, this is it," Lingamfelter said. "This just brings it home."

Whether the General Assembly, or Congress and the White House, will listen and respond with tight immigration controls, however, is another matter.

"Make no mistake about it," Lingamfelter said. "There'll be plenty of legislation … but our best efforts [at the state level] will always be in the margin as long as the borders are porous. If you don't plug the hole in the boat, all you can do is bail. And what states are doing now is bailing."

Besides, he said, immigration reform has been brought forth in the House of Delegates for years—Lingamfelter said he has sponsored or cosponsored plenty of bills on this issue since 2005, along with his GOP colleagues, Dels. Jackson H. Miller, R-50th, and Robert G. "Bob" Marshall, R-13th.

But what sailed through the House always failed in the Senate, Lingamfelter said.

However, Sen. George Barker, who represents parts of Prince William and Fairfax counties, said that he served on an immigration committee with Marshall in 2008 and that some of the recommendations that followed were implemented, some not.

"I've had legislation in the last three years [on immigration reform]," the Democrat said, referring to a measure that would ensure all government workers and contractors are in the country legally. "But I think with this situation, it's about what can be done at the federal level."

One idea, Barker said, would be to change federal immigration laws so that offenders with multiple drunken-driving convictions—who are "risks to society"—are elevated in the eyes of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to the point of being deported.

Currently, ICE prioritizes their deportations in order of heinous acts, he said.

"Two DUIs, like [Montano] had, that's not insignificant," Barker said.

Miller, in a brief interview, raised the problem of drunken driving as well.

"This is obviously a problem with drunken driving as much as illegal immigration, but the fact of the matter is the federal government should have been willing to deport him after his first DUI," Miller said, adding that Virginia taxpayers will now have to bear the fiscal brunt of imprisoning Montano, if he's proven guilty, "for many years."

In the days before the accident, Marshall sought and received clarification from state Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II about the ability of law enforcement officers to investigate the immigration status of those stopped or arrested.

"It is my opinion that Virginia law enforcement officers, including conservation officers, may, like Arizona police officers, inquire into the immigration status of persons stopped or arrested," Cuccinelli wrote to Marshall in a July 30 opinion. "However, persons tasked with enforcing zoning laws lack the authority to investigate criminal violations of the law, including criminal violations of the immigration laws of the United States."

Marshall said he sought the opinion to see what authority was already vested in law enforcement and local government officials regarding immigration—and if any loopholes necessistate new legislation.

"I just wanted it put on record to state what Virginia law is so I could see, 'Do we have to put in a new statute for this? Or is it already there?'" Marshall said.

Now, he is sending a letter to the Gov. Robert F. "Bob" McDonnell that will hopefully prompt action for tougher immigration laws, or at the very least, clarify how strong a stance McDonnell wants to take on the issue.

In the end, though, the taking of the nun's life was a result of federal failure, Marshall said, not a state one, though "he could have been kept in jail a little longer for the second DUI."

So what can be done to prevent the same happening in the future?

Basically, write to Congress, Lingamfelter said, and petition the White House.

"The federal government is a creature of the state," Lingamfelter said. "It's not the other way around … I am on a warpath. I am angry about this. I am directing my anger at the administration, and I am asking people to do the same."

Staff writer Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at 703-530-3903.

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