“Deport the Criminals First” — Part Four of an Ongoing Series: Danny Sims Killed By Illegal DUI Driver One Week After the Illegal’s Previous DUI Conviction
[“Deport the Criminals First” is a recurring feature on this blog, highlighting crimes committed by illegal immigrants — with a special focus on repeat offenders. I argue that, instead of arresting illegal immigrants who work hard for a living, we should use our limited immigration enforcement resources to target illegal immigrants who commit crimes in this country — especially violent crimes.]
Channel 9 news in Charlotte, North Carolina reports:
An illegal immigrant faces multiple charges after police say he hit and killed a pedestrian in east Charlotte and then left the scene.
Luciano Melendres, 30, is charged with felony hit-and-run, driving while impaired, driving with a revoked license, driving without liability insurance and driving with fictitious tags.
Officers say Melendres, a native of Mexico, hit and killed 32-year-old Danny Sims while he was crossing Albemarle Road near Farm Pond Lane around 10:30 p.m. Sunday. They say Melendres fled the scene in a green Ford Expedition, but a witness called 911 as she followed the sport utility vehicle and directed officers to a home on Jason’s Forest Drive, just two miles from the crash scene. Police arrested Melendres a short time later.
Melendres was just convicted last week on a DWI charge from a March 16, 2006, incident. He was sentenced to probation, alcohol assessment and treatment and community service and was ordered to pay court costs and have a breathalyzer device installed on his vehicle. Police said they didn’t find the device during an initial look inside.
N.C. Rep. Sue Myrick, a proponent of immigration reform, says the only thing that would keep such illegal immigrants off the streets after drinking is to deport them once they’re convicted of DWI.
Deporting illegals who commit crimes — that’s a good idea.
A video accompanying the linked story says that two months after Melendres’s previous DUI arrest, sheriffs in Mecklenberg County started questioning suspected illegal immigrants in jail concerning their immigration status. In 10 months, the report says, over 1600 illegals were identified in the jails.
But it was apparently two months too late to identify and deport Melendres. It’s too bad the program didn’t start two months earlier, when he was first arrested. Danny Sims would probably still be alive now.
I don’t know about the LA Times, but here in the Bay Area, the San Jose Mercury News has had a number of front page feature stories portraying illegal aliens in a sympathetic light. I have yet to see news stories, such as this, that provide another view.
aunursa (08d5dc) — 6/4/2007 @ 4:57 amPatterico, their check wouldn’t have caught him, because obviously he wasn’t in jail to get questioned…
And lets look at the list of this latest round of charges for the man…
The first is, duh, a felony… The next two are, in illinois, a felony in their own right(driving drunk on a suspended/revoked is like a B felony), then a misdomeaner, and then another felony (AFAIK).
Nicely done, state of North Carolina!
Scott Jacobs (90eabe) — 6/4/2007 @ 5:10 amPikes
As a friend who interacts will illegal aliens from all over the world every day at the DHS office in Phoenix opines, the US is not serious about the problem. Compassion, business, multiculturalism, & “meeting departmental metrics” get in the way.
Mitch (55069c) — 6/4/2007 @ 5:19 amNot for his sentence, but I’m talking about his initial arrest.
Patterico (eeb415) — 6/4/2007 @ 6:09 amI added the words “when he was first arrested” to the penultimate sentence to make this more clear.
Patterico (eeb415) — 6/4/2007 @ 6:10 amI’m disappointed to see that Myrick is supporting the amnesty bill. The NY Times is now writing that the bill’s prospects are improved after the Memorial Day recess. Too bad.
Mike K (86bddb) — 6/4/2007 @ 6:33 amIt is sad that our political class is so morally bankrupt they cannot even muster the courage to deport criminals. Why are the politicians so determined to turn America into a third world country subdivided into fiefdoms ruled by criminal gangs?
Perfect Sense (b6ec8c) — 6/4/2007 @ 7:04 amBye, bye social security and medicare. Perhaps this is the only way to privatize social security.
Amnesty for at least 12 million illegal immigrants, not to mention the millions more who will soon replace them, will bankrupt the system within a few years.
This didn’t work in 1986 and it won’t work now. The cowards from both parties who are pushing this farce will all have a wonderful signing ceremony, declare the problem solved and promptly go back to sleep.
Harry Arthur (5af33b) — 6/4/2007 @ 7:32 amSo before this guy ended up a drunk driver in North Caroline, he was a “Native of Mexico.” Apparently he didn’t like Mexico. So he came to this country illegally. The border didn’t stop him, and immigration restrictions didn’t stop him.
How will taking him back to Mexico do anything but cause him to do what he did before — enter the U.S. illegally, again, and live/work without documentation?
He did it once, and was successful. If anyone is likely to do it again, I’d think it’d be the people who have alread figured out how to do it.
It’s like there’s a broken damn, water shooting out a big hole. Instead of fixing the hole (or admitting that the hole is unfixable and the dam is doomed) sombody grabs a bucket and starts hauling water back up and dumping it behind the dam again. The water keeps pouring out through the hole — now it’s just pouring out two or three times, rather than once.
Phil (427875) — 6/4/2007 @ 8:41 amOne of the meme’s supporters of the amnesty push is that we cannot deport illegal aliens. They could start with those who violate the laws but they’d consider that too harsh.
How many Americans will die because of criminals, the infected, and those who don’t give a damn about gringo customs like insurance and obeying the laws?
But before we deport illegals we should hang those Americans who have violated their sworn oaths to defend the constitution and the American people.
Thomas Jackson (bf83e0) — 6/4/2007 @ 9:00 amPhil #9, is right. We need to make illegal entry a crime punishable by at least a minimum sentence of ten years. Prisons, the way we run them here, are expensive but the human and financial cost of criminals free in society is greater.
nk (c66fe9) — 6/4/2007 @ 9:20 ampatterico could do one of these a day and never run out of material.
assistant devil's advocate (4abba3) — 6/4/2007 @ 9:33 amWhy don’t we just have the same immigration policy as Mexico? To be granted citizenship in Mexico, you must fall into one of the following categories:
Retiree – Must be receiving a monthly income of 400 times the daily minimum wage in Mexico (currently MX$48.70), and an additional 200 times that wage for each dependent.
Investors– You can receive an immigration permit if you are willing to invest your capital in Mexico. You investment can be directed at industry or services, and must equal a minimum of 26,000 times the minimum daily wage in Mexico City.
Professionals– If you are a qualified professional, you can have your certificates validated by the Mexican Consulate and apply for an immigration permit to live in Mexico. You must be sponsored by a company who must satisfy the authorities that you are essential to their operative requirements.
Artists and Sports people– These people can apply for an immigration permit. Each case is considered individually and entry is at the Interior Ministry’s discretion.
See, they don’t want you there unless you can take care of yourself. They make sure you are receiving an income so they don’t have to spend a dime on you. As a Mexican immigrant, you will never be granted the right to vote, and you will be immediately detained and deported if you participate in ANY form of dissent against the government. That means no marches down Main street in Mexico City demanding more rights. So while we are taking their tired, their poor, their huddled masses yearning to use our social services and live 15 people to a 1 bedroom apartment, they are getting immigrants that are required to contribute. Let’s get back to the same system. Illegal immigration is destroying wages for working-class people in this country. If we cut it off, companies wouldn’t be able to fall back on cheap immigrant labor. How can that be a bad thing??? They are a variable that upsets the equation.
fngJD (49df46) — 6/4/2007 @ 10:20 am“But before we deport illegals we should hang those Americans who have violated their sworn oaths to defend the constitution and the American people.”
They should be arrested for failing to uphold their oath to protect the nation! Instantly thrown out of office and all govt funded bennies they would have received rescinded! If they are a lawyer they should also be disbarred FOREVER!
Then rules of engagement for the BP should be altered to shoot on sight at will! Amazing how bullets will STOP the encroachment and I’d bet it would take less than a week.
TC (b48fdd) — 6/4/2007 @ 10:47 amThey’re serious
We’re not
‘Nuff said
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/06/for_years_and_y.html
Mitch (a549f7) — 6/4/2007 @ 10:53 amThose who want to defend our borders by shooting border-jumpers are exactly who the Administration is talking about when they chide the Right for not being compassionate.
We can get all up in a huff about being ragged by Bush after 6 years of carrying his water, but the fact exists that a great deal of resistance to comprehensive immigration reform comes from just these types. They are vocal and they are ignorant and they make cloud the discussion over real problems with this reform.
spongeworthy (45b30e) — 6/4/2007 @ 11:23 amAt this point, fuck compassion…
I have no problem with reform, but I have epic levels of problems with reform that gives people who have demonstrated no regard for our laws a free pass.
They have come here illegally. They stay here for years making little to no effort to assimilate into our society. They don’t learn the language. They don’t pay taxes.
They are a drain on our medical system, our prison system.
If shooting them as they try to illegally enter this country is the only way to STOP the influx, then so be it.
Scott Jacobs (90eabe) — 6/4/2007 @ 11:30 amJust outside of Houston in Needville, yet another Illegal alien DUI killed Needville ISD Police Chief Ernie Mendoza. This was his FOURTH DUI.
Rorschach (1bf7ba) — 6/4/2007 @ 12:21 pmhttp://poe.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=57523
[…] Just here to do the jobs Americans won’t do. Ponterrico posts that Channel 9 News in North Carolina is reporting: An illegal immigrant faces multiple charges after police say he hit and killed a pedestrian in east Charlotte and then left the scene. […]
American Pundit » Blog Archive » American Killed by Illegal Alien DUI, One Week After former DUI (b45940) — 6/4/2007 @ 12:35 pmRemove their eyes after they drive drunk and kill someone, and they will never kill again.
Mike Knepley (ca25c3) — 6/4/2007 @ 2:04 pmThis repeat drunk driving story is repeated often. Lots of illegals simply do not fear offending repeatedly. Why should they?
I almost don’t blame law enforcement for this Hands Off policy for illegals–they have been beaten into submission by locals pols who in turn have been beaten into submission by political advocacy groups who raise the “racist” card when it suits their purpose (building political power).
As much as I think O’Reilly is a blowhard, I commend him for sending his producer to question the Cherry Hill Police Chief about his hands off policy of the Duka brothers. 75 run-ins with the law and no action on their illegal status!
Patricia (824fa1) — 6/4/2007 @ 5:36 pmspongeworthy,
Patricia (824fa1) — 6/4/2007 @ 5:37 pmDefine “compassion.”
AT this point I’d say it was “shoot to kill”, since “shoot to wound” just gets messy…
Scott Jacobs (a1de9d) — 6/4/2007 @ 7:04 pmInteresting. When I word-scanned the Constitution of the United States, the word “compassion” failed to appear. Fancy that.
I guess it must be one of those “living breathing document” things…
The Other JD (044292) — 6/4/2007 @ 7:52 pmOld Special Forces saying:
Another Drew (886991) — 6/4/2007 @ 8:41 pm“Kill them all, let God sort it out!”
Show them what america is all about when it come to punishing lawbreakers who committ these crimes send them to prison for life and screw the mexocan goverment
krazy kagu (91408b) — 6/5/2007 @ 6:42 amspongeworthy-
You seemed to “capitulate” over at Ace’s…
But, you choose to bring the same old “racist” namecalling bullshit over here.
The “administration” is not talking about the new John Birch Society- they are referring to people who understand that every illegal is a $5000/yr drain on our emergency med system, and every child is a $12k/yr drain on our education system.(and every immigrant is an unlimited drain on Medicare as currently structured…)
BTW, I thought you needed testicles to actually be “spongeworthy”…
fletch (d228d2) — 6/8/2007 @ 3:46 pm[…] “Deport the Criminals First” — Part Four of an Ongoing Series: Danny Sims Killed By Illegal DU… […]
The Voices of Citizens to the Senate at Traction Control (acd9fb) — 6/11/2007 @ 9:47 pm