Tuesday, July 12, 2005

I'm not liberal on immigration...

The fact that Rodrigo Cervantes Zavala, is an undocumented immigrant (yeah okay he is an illegal immigrant) matters in the case of his two children missing and three family members killed is an issue for one very important reason. It could have been prevented.

From the Azcentral article:

Rustenburg said Cervantes Zavala has a criminal record and Child Protective Services had been out to the home at least once in the past. She said Cervantes Zavala had made abuse charges against the grandparents, but CPS determined them unfounded.

Cervantes Zavala was scheduled for a visit with the children Saturday."He's made threats to the family in the past," Rustenburg said, adding that investigators were unsure at this point whether the threats were to Acosta, the grandparents or the children.

County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he was frustrated that Cervantes Zavala was still in the country illegally because he'd had several previous run-ins with law enforcement. Maricopa County Attorney's Office spokesman Bill FitzGerald said the courts have no authority to deport people.

Cervantes Zavala was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence assault in Glendale in 1995 and 1998 against an ex-wife, not Acosta. He and Acosta were never married, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Last year, Cervantes Zavala pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary, a class-four felony. He was sentenced to two years of supervised probation, along with 120 hours of community service, restitution payments and the forfeiture of his shotgun.

Employees at Mesa Insulation Specialists told police Cervantes Zavala stole $3,298 worth of materials from the company, according to court documents. Cervantes Zavala had been fired about 18 months before the burglary after he was suspected of stealing from the business, documents said. Cervantes Zavala told police he worked for Mesa Insulation Specialists for 10 years.

How can it be that County Sheriff's and the legal system have no ability to deport people? Could they not have notified immigration while he was under arrest before? Notified them when he was showing up to court? Do something? Couldn't CPS have reported this to immigration? Did anyone? Had something been done there is a chance that two small children, one aged 18 months and one 3 years old would not be missing and possibly already over the border into Mexico, and their grandparents and uncle could be alive today.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The case is bad, that's for sure. I would support changing the law to allow local law enforcement to identify Undocumented aliens who are caught in regular criminal sweeps, etc....

However, in my opinion we don't need to support GOP legislation like the stuff Sensebrenner is co-sponsoring to make local law enforcement responsible for immigration round ups. That should be up to the INS, which should be beefed up and improved.

For example, here in rural Georgia, we have lots and lots of undocumented aliens, most of whom are fine people. I would rather see the law enforcement people doing something about meth (a rural problem) than rounding up cabbage choppers.

As always, I love your insightful posts.

Unknown said...

Thank you Steve

:-)

I don't think the local authorities should be responsible for rounding up all illegals, however once they are arrested, and it's obvious they are not here legally then there should be a way to have them deported.

Anonymous said...

I agree!

Dad gum it, you and I should running the country! ;-)