County Criminal Records

A Channel 4 I-Team investigation has found 1,231 illegal immigrants on the run after they had already been found by the government or arrested by police.The 1,231 illegal immigrants, found in the mid-south between April 2007 and August 2009, were initially identified as being in the country illegally, were released and then vanished, the I-Team discovered.

Records obtained by the I-Team from the Executive Office for Immigration Review show between April 16, 2007, to Aug. 26, 2009, 1,231 illegal immigrants failed to show up for court to appear before an immigration judge and could not be found.

Davidson County Sheriff Darron Hall believes many of the 1,231 were released due to an mandate by the Department of Homeland Security to local sheriff’s departments. That order states illegal immigrants charged with minor offenses and without criminal history should be released on recognizance.

Released on recognizance means they get out of jail, without a bond, on the promise that they will appear before an immigration judge, a process that requires them to travel to Memphis. It can take up to six months after their arrest to appear in court.

Hall believes that gives them plenty of time to vanish.

“Why in the world would the federal government not see that as a setup for failure?” Hall said.

Hall also said in June that he received an e-mail from Homeland Security that directed him to release even more illegal immigrants on recognizance if they were arrested on misdemeanor charges, as long as they didn’t have a lengthy criminal history.

The sheriff believes many released on recognizance from Davidson County feared they would be deported and simply never made the 212-mile trek from Nashville to Memphis. Illegal immigrants from Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee are all sent to Memphis for federal immigration court.

Often times, Hall said, it can take up to six months from the time an illegal is arrested to get a court date in Memphis.

“At least 1,200 in two years, just gone, vanished. Many of them, you caught. What does that tell you?” I-Team reporter Jeremy Finley asked Hall.

“It tells me that we’re picking sand up with a fork,” Hall said.

A spokesman for Immigration Customs Enforcement, a component of the Department of Homeland Security, said the federal government hasn’t determined how many of the 1,231 illegal immigrants were released on recognizance. He said illegal immigrants can be brought before a judge for several reasons, including asylum referrals and citizenship and immigration services benefit denials.

The spokesman also said they will not release illegal immigrants on recognizance if they commit felony offenses or have a lengthy criminal history.

Read the full Immigrant Customs Enforcement’s statement here.

The I-Team filed several Freedom of Information Act requests to determine who the 1,231 illegal immigrants were, how many federal agents had searched for and how many were released on recognizance.

But agencies within the Department of Homeland Security would not release the names of the 1,231 and said the data wasn’t available to determine how many were being sought or why they were brought to an immigration judge.

Hall said he has no idea how many of those once booked in his jail are now on the run.

The sheriff said in the e-mail he received in June from DHS that the reason for releasing illegal immigrants on recognizance was for budget reasons.

Read DHS’ e-mail here.

Hall said because the federal government has to pay his department to house illegal immigrants, the fewer illegal immigrants are in jail, the less the government has to pay.

“It’s telling the American people even though when we catch an illegal, and if he hasn’t committed a heinous crime, that we’re gonna let him back in your society,” said radio host T.J. Graham, who has led several rallies against illegal immigration.

“You can’t blame them,” said Graham, referring to illegal immigrants. “I mean, if somebody’s going to let you out of jail, and you’re not from this country, what would you do?”

Hall is also concerned about the potential for illegal immigrants who commit minor crime to also commit major crimes. He pointed to cases such as Gustavo Garcia Reyes, an illegal alien whom the government failed to recognize as illegal. Reyes was arrested several times in Nashville for minor crimes, was let out of jail, got drunk and was convicted of causing a fatal accident.

That case helped launch the sheriff’s 287g program, which seeks to identify dangerous illegal immigrants. Hall fears if other illegals commit minor offenses, are released on recognizance and then commit violent crimes, the public won’t stand for it.

“When we have another crime committed by a person who was released on recognizance, (commits a crime) in a serious way, it usually brings attention to all of us. (People will say,) ‘Wait a minute? You had him? You released him?’” said Hall.

But a

Are you agreement with activists to fight ban of screening illegals in jail do they even believe an illegal should even be arrested for any crime or be jailed as Acorn is citing racial profiling and civil rights abuses in other words they do not want anybody either jailed or arrested no matter what crime they committed if they are illegal ?Civil rights organizations have acknowledged they face an uphill battle trying to stop an illegal immigrant screening program for jail inmates, following the county’s renewed partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But they vowed to continue their fight against the 287 (g) program, and also planned to start educating neighborhoods and groups about the effects it could have on people not behind bars.

“Even though it’s limited to detention facilities, there is a rippling effect in community,” said Belinda Escobosa Helzer, attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Orange County. “They tend to identify police officers as immigration officers. It disrupts the community trust which is needed for police officers to do their job on the street.”

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors extended its partnership with ICE last Tuesday, allowing sheriff’s custody specialists to screen inmates and place federal holds on them if they are suspected of being illegal immigrants.

Third District Supervisor Neil Derry said the program is designed to target criminals who happen to be illegal immigrants. He called the county’s need for the program “a matter of public safety.”

The ACLU submitted a letter to the president in August, demanding the program be terminated, citing racial profiling and civil rights abuses by law enforcement.

The letter was signed by more than 500 organizations, including ACORN, the California

http://www.sbsun.com/ci_13737077?source=most_emailed

What is Acorn position here?State investigators taking dozens of computers from ACORN office on Canal Street .Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has served a search warrant at the ACORN office at 2609 Canal Street, according to Tammi Arender Herring, a spokeswoman with the office. Investigators in khaki pants and polo shirts loaded several dozen computers and other electronic items into an SUV. They are also carrying records out of the building on handcarts.
The large office building sits at the corner of Dorgenois and Canal. ACORN staffers were given no notice that a search would be conducted today, Herring said.

“They have been extremely cooperative,” she said.

Michael DeMocker / The Times-PicayuneStephen Bradbury, the agency’s temporary administer, collects cards from the media as investigators with the State Attorney General’s Office seize computers on Friday.Early last month, Caldwell’s office issued subpoenas for records from ACORN’s New Orleans office, where the organization — now moving its national headquarters to Washington — has long been based.
Today’s search is an outgrowth of those subpoenas, which stemmed from an investigation by Caldwell’s office into the embezellement of ACORN funds by Dale Rathke, a brother of the organization’s founder, Wade Rathke, Herring said.

In a statement, ACORN’s attorney Pamela Marple said the group was told the raid was ordered because of reports that workers loyal to Beth Butler, the recently fired head of ACORN’s Louisiana branch, had been taking computer data and other items out of the office

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2009/11/attorney_general_serves_search.html

4.18. 2010 ;new york
People ,who are democracies including @ USA, need overall, reviewed, modified, updated for equitable treatments @ we the people as defined@US:ok?
4.18.Search Home > Answer a Question 2 Pr understand your concerns about the minimum wage which would make all thoughts on Comaprative Advantage moot, but we dont necessarily have to give them those kind of rights or anything. Remember the Transcontinental Railroad? Remember how great it was for our economy? Hiram M_democracy may redevelop Your Answer: the idea is controversial. see below if u may: world of democratic politics may follow equitable leadership@we people;theme is crippled by democra_devils:ok?::: FROM :MS Grape SOWGIRL EMOCRACY IN USA NEEDS DETOUR DEMOCRATIC EXPRESSWAY TO RETAIN LEADERSHIP @ GLOBAL DEMOCRACIES, SAID DR KAMAL K K ROY OF USASEE ELECTION ANNOUNEMENT FEc,us govt RECords & filed by the revdr kamal karna roy aka joseph geronimo jr, a global mobile clergy on vow of poverty, IRS rule : THE REV DR KAMAL KARNA ROY POOR LERGY & DECADES OLD ADMINISTRTOR OF WORLD OF GOD/S ANF RELIGIONS,CLERGY ON VOW OF POVERTY , REBEL GO LEADER OF POORS AND WEAKER PEOPLE IN NEW YORK & usA & GLOBE ;shall contest november 2010 elections for both u s senate seat & n y governor electoral race 2010 ,not to win or lose but to restore demand or weaker citizenry in new york, usa for leading electoral office, later positions were hijaked by rich and powerfuls for decades if not for centuries:see below: : 4 . 8 . 2010: criminal investigations were demanded by complaints DULY fileD on 4.7. 2020,( also see dock filing as below@ u s court), by the rev dr kamal karna roy aka joseph geronimo jr by the district attorney franklin county N Y S, new york 12951 & by u s attorney n d ny againt all iz kaml k roy, david aldrich, debbie zerrahn asst hhaat 14kiwassa road, saarnac lake, new york 12983, charles j noth attorney  hha, officials of harrietstown village ,town hall, 39 main st, saranac lake, ny 12983,& hud officials at 465 main st , buffalo , new york, et al to investigate corruptions & EVICTIONS AT HHA ON A/C APT 5G,KAMAL K ROY,TENANT @HHA, 14 KIWASSA ROAD, SARANAC LAKE,N Y 12983 GROUND REIGIOUS PERSECUTION ON DR ROY  : we thank WE THE PEOPLE OF USA, PURSUANT TO U S CONSTITUTION, u s congress, president Obama for enactment of healthcare overhaul reforms in usa and we hope that u s president shall sign the measure into law:::MR B H OBAMA, U S PRESIDENT ON DEFAULT, WEF 1.20.2009; WHY?Your Open QuestionShow me another » . 20. 2009SOS SOS:::3.16 .2010:::AS ON 3.16.2010 CIVIL COMPLAINTS HAS BEEN FILED IN THESUPREME COURT OF STATE OF NEW YORK BY TE REV DR KAMAL KARNA ROY AKA KAMAL ROY FOR CIVIL VIOLATIONS OF INFATINGTRUE EARNING OF KAMAL ROY SINCE APRIL 2008 & ONWARDS IN A RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION ON A LEADER OF AN INT’L TAX EXEMPT RELIGIOUS GR VIZ H I INT’L WORL RELIGIONS GROUP TAX EXEMPTED BY IRS, USA, SINCE NOV 1992 DR KAMAL ROY AS A STRATEGIST, VOLUNTEER OFFICER,ANNUAL EARNING $ 0.00, & SMALL EXPENSE A/C FOR CABLE /INTERNET COST. TELEPHONE COST:NO 518 89 5466 EXCLUSIVE USE FOR STRATEGIC WORK ON RELIGIONS (P P OF K ROY :518 637 8922 & FOR LISA ASST:637 6165 CAR USED FOR MOSTLY RELIGIOUS WORK & USE BY RESIDENT KAMAL ROY :::PRAYER in Courts include orders @ criminal/civil investigations as demanded in corruption issues at h h a , s/l, n y 12983 ;;;;;;oppressions continued on the rev dr kamal K Roy resident @ Harrietstown Housing Authoity @14 kiwassa road, S/ Lake, New York 12893: dr roy went to u s federal courts invarious jurisdictions of laws, as usa govt is a defendant & civil damages were prorated: & complaints were lawfully filed in diverse jurisdictions as justice is hard to get for a weaker petitioner, in the us d courts civil terms. dr kamal karna k roy moved USDc’s & new york state supreme court at franklin county @ n y for justice of somekind for violations.

Sept. 22, 2006, 7:41PM
Slain officer missed suspect’s gun in search

By MELANIE MARKLEY, JENNIFER LEAHY and ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The Houston police officer who was gunned down by a suspect Thursday after a routine traffic stop apparently missed the man’s weapon in a pat-down search, Capt. Dale Brown told reporters today.

Juan Leonardo Quintero, a 32-year-old illegal immigrant, has been charged with capital murder in the shooting death of Houston Police Officer Rodney Johnson.

Brown said Quintero apparently was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of his arrest.

Brown said that Quintero had a criminal history from 1995 to 1999, convicted for DWI, failure to stop and give information and indecency with a child. His driver’s license was suspended and he was deported to Mexico by immigration officials in 1999, Brown said.

Quintero has been working for a landscaping company in the Deer Park area and was driving a company Ford double-cab pickup when Johnson stopped him for speeding, Brown said.

Quintero, who apparently in the pickup with a co-worker and the two daughters of his common-law wife, was traveling 50 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone, he said. He had picked up the two girls from school and was taking them home, he said.

Johnson decided to arrest Quintero because he did not have any identification, Brown said. Although Johnson patted him down before handcuffing him, he apparently missed the 9-mm handgun he concealed under his waistband, he said.

Although Quintero was handcuffed behind his back, Brown said he apparently manipulated his handcuffed hands under his legs to the front of his body so he could fire his weapon. His hands were again behind his back when officers arrived, he said.

The suspect also fired at a wrecker driver who had been called to the scene by Johnson at the time of the arrest. The wrecker driver had spotted Johnson in apparent distress in the front seat of the car and was approaching the police car when the shot was fired. He retreated until officers arrived.

His wife, Theresa Quintero, said he has expressed concern about immigration officials and whether he should return to Mexico.

Theresa Quintero said in an interview today at their home near Hobby Airport that the couple has been married since 1997.

HPD’s Brown said records reflect no arrests for the suspect since 1999, but he said officers were still researching records.

Chief Harold Hurtt defended his policy against enforcing immigration laws, saying the situation points to the need for stronger enforcement at the border since Quintero had been deported.

“If the government would fulfill their responsibility of protecting the border, we probably would not be standing here today,” Hurtt said.

A Harris County prosecutor said in court this morning that, while seated in the back seat, the suspect pulled a 9 mm handgun from his waistband and shot Johnson in the face. The officer was able to push an emergency response button, alerting dispatch of a problem.

When other police arrived at the scene, Quintero remained in the back seat with the gun in his hand, the prosecutor said. Police found bullet casings inside the car.

Quintero kept his head down while waiting to be called before the judge. During a brief hearing, he answered “Yes” when asked whether he understood the charge against him.

Quintero has been charged with capital murder in the 248th District Court, said HPD spokesman John Cannon.

Cannon said the suspect gave “a full confession” to the shooting.

A source familiar with the scene said Johnson was shot four times through the plastic shield separating the front and rear seats. Johnson managed to push his emergency button before collapsing. The 12-year veteran of the department was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The suspect reportedly struggled as officers tried to move him to a different vehicle.

“They finally got him in the other car, but he was scratching and fighting and acting crazy, like he could win in a fight like that,” said Clara Rodriguez, who lives nearby.

Johnson, 40, was the first HPD officer killed in more than two years.

“He was very personable,” Hurtt said. “We will miss one of our true soldiers in Rodney Johnson.”

At least a dozen law enforcement vehicles cordoned off a large area at Randolph and Braniff where the light bar atop Johnson’s patrol car continued to flash long after the shooting. Temporary spotlights illuminated the scene into the evening as evidence technicians scoured the area. The owner of a nearby machine shop was called to the scene because bullets apparently pierced the wall of his building and investigators needed to get inside.

Before the suspect was taken to HPD headquarters, he was stripped of his clothes, which were placed in evidence bags, and dressed in a white jumpsuit. He was then taken downtown in the second of three patrol cars that left the scene shortly after 7 p.m.

‘It just breaks my heart’
As news of Johnson’s death spread, police officers gathered in small groups but said little. One HPD sergeant walked to a patrol car, took out his cell phone and made a quick phone call, taking a long drink of cold water from a bottle.

“Something real bad has happened by the airport,” he said.

Rodriguez said that she and her neighbors in the small subdivision between Telephone Road and Almeda Genoa knew Johnson well and that he was well-liked.

“He would always wave and smile when he saw me,” Rodriguez said. “He was a real nice guy. All he was trying to do was enforce the rules.”

Rodriguez said Johnson stopped her once for speeding when the speed limit was lowered on Telephone Road. She said he politely asked her to slow down and did not ticket her.

“He was just so very nice,” she said. “He was not ever mean. It just breaks my heart. I feel so very bad for his wife. He got up and went to work this morning, and this is what happened. This is what happened to one of the people who protects us, who truly took care of us.”

Johnson graduated from high school in Oakland, Calif., then enlisted in the Army, serving as an MP until he was honorably discharged in 1990. He served as a corrections officer for the Texas Department of Corrections (now the Texas Department of Criminal Justice) and as a Houston police jailer before attending the police academy and graduating in 1994.

Johnson was assigned to the southeast division that year and to the southeast gang task force in 1996. While on the task force he received two Lifesaving Awards from the department and one Medal of Valor from the state. He was married to Houston police officer Joslyn Johnson. They have three daughters and two sons between the ages of 14 and 19..

Paying taxes comes back to bite illegal immigrants

http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2009/05/30/ap/us/d98gmd6o0.txt

By IVAN MORENO
GREELEY, Colo. – Immigrant advocates say they’ve seen nothing like it before or since: A prosecutor looking for illegal immigrants seized thousands of confidential tax records from an income tax preparer popular with Hispanics in this northern Colorado city.

The October seizures led to identity theft and criminal impersonation charges against more than 70 people, and prosecutors allege that as many as 1,300 suspected illegal immigrants were working using false or stolen Social Security numbers.

But the American Civil Liberties Union said the documents of as many as 4,900 people were seized, many of them legal residents, and that the probe was the “equivalent of a house-by-house search of innocent homeowners in order to find a suspect believed to be somewhere in the neighborhood.”

Two judges have agreed, ruling that Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck had no probable cause to seize the records. Buck is appealing, however, and a ruling in his favor could open up a new avenue for prosecuting illegal immigrants.

The charges have been ironic for immigrants like Horacio Arturo Cervantes. The 42-year-old father of four from the Mexican state of Chihuahua said he had been honest about paying taxes, even though he was in the country illegally, because he was hoping for a path to U.S. citizenship.

Cervantes pleaded guilty to identity theft before the judges’ rulings, and now faces deportation. He said he pleaded because he wanted to get out of jail and try his chances in immigration court.

“I feel like I’m up in the air, not knowing what’s going on, just with a desire to stay here,” he said in an interview in Spanish. His next court date is June 23.

Buck’s investigation, dubbed Operation Numbers Game, marked the first time a prosecutor used tax records to charge illegal immigrants with identity theft, according to the ACLU and the Los Angeles-based National Immigration Law Center. Officials with both groups said they knew of no prosecutor who has tried it since.

Buck’s probe triggered a conundrum: The people charged allegedly are in the country illegally and were fraudulently using Social Security numbers. But the Internal Revenue Service requires them to pay taxes, and those records are confidential.

Buck declined to be interviewed for this article because of pending appeals. But in a February interview, he argued that “if you’re in this country illegally, and you’re working in this country illegally, there may be a requirement that you pay taxes but it’s kind of ridiculous.”

Buck has argued that the records aren’t confidential because they were seized not from the IRS but from the tax preparer.

The investigation started after a Texas man alerted Weld County authorities that his identity was being used. The suspect in that case told authorities he had filed his taxes with Amalia’s Translation and Tax Services, a business widely used by immigrants in Greeley, where one-third of the population is Hispanic.

To pay their taxes, Amalia Cerrillo’s customers used Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, which the IRS issues to people without Social Security numbers. Foreign nationals with U.S. investment income also use ITINs. Those charged in Operation Numbers Game allegedly used others’ Social Security numbers to work and their own ITINs to pay taxes.

ITIN filers had an income tax liability of $50 billion from 1996 to 2003, according to the latest IRS figures available. Former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson told Congress in 2006 that ITINs were “bringing taxpayers into the system.”

IRS spokeswoman Nancy Mathis said ITINs solely track tax returns and don’t convey or record immigration or work status. Nor do they give immigrants the right to work in the U.S.

Buck had said more identity theft cases were possible, and that prosecutors in other states were interested in his investigation, but Larimer County District Judge James Hiatt halted it in April. Ruling in favor of the ACLU, he said investigators violated privacy rights by seizing the tax documents and that their search was over-broad. Hiatt likened the search to taking medical records from a doctor’s office because one patient was a suspected drug user.

In a separate but similar case in March, Weld County District Judge James Hartmann Jr., called the search warrant “nothing more than an exploratory search based upon suspicion that some unknown person or persons” committed a crime.

Buck is appealing the rulings, and one of the appeals is before the state Supreme Court. While the cases he had pending were allowed to proceed, he has dismissed 30 of them without prejudice so far. The move gives him the option to file charges against the same people again if his appeals succeed.

However, a Supreme Court ruling in early May could be another setback to Buck’s investigation. The unani

Paying taxes comes back to bite illegal immigrants

GREELEY, Colo.

Immigrant advocates say they’ve seen nothing like it before or since: A prosecutor looking for illegal immigrants seized thousands of confidential tax records from an income tax preparer popular with Hispanics in this northern Colorado city.

The October seizures led to identity theft and criminal impersonation charges against more than 70 people, and prosecutors allege that as many as 1,300 suspected illegal immigrants were working using false or stolen Social Security numbers.

But the American Civil Liberties Union said the documents of as many as 4,900 people were seized, many of them legal residents, and that the probe was the “equivalent of a house-by-house search of innocent homeowners in order to find a suspect believed to be somewhere in the neighborhood.”

Two judges have agreed, ruling that Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck had no probable cause to seize the records. Buck is appealing, however, and a ruling in his favor could open up a new avenue for prosecuting illegal immigrants.

The charges have been ironic for immigrants like Horacio Arturo Cervantes. The 42-year-old father of four from the Mexican state of Chihuahua said he had been honest about paying taxes, even though he was in the country illegally, because he was hoping for a path to U.S. citizenship.

Cervantes pleaded guilty to identity theft before the judges’ rulings, and now faces deportation. He said he pleaded because he wanted to get out of jail and try his chances in immigration court.

“I feel like I’m up in the air, not knowing what’s going on, just with a desire to stay here,” he said in an interview in Spanish. His next court date is June 23.

Buck’s investigation, dubbed Operation Numbers Game, marked the first time a prosecutor used tax records to charge illegal immigrants with identity theft, according to the ACLU and the Los Angeles-based National Immigration Law Center. Officials with both groups said they knew of no prosecutor who has tried it since.

Buck’s probe triggered a conundrum: The people charged allegedly are in the country illegally and were fraudulently using Social Security numbers. But the Internal Revenue Service requires them to pay taxes, and those records are confidential.

Buck declined to be interviewed for this article because of pending appeals. But in a February interview, he argued that “if you’re in this country illegally, and you’re working in this country illegally, there may be a requirement that you pay taxes but it’s kind of ridiculous.”

Buck has argued that the records aren’t confidential because they were seized not from the IRS but from the tax preparer.

The investigation started after a Texas man alerted Weld County authorities that his identity was being used. The suspect in that case told authorities he had filed his taxes with Amalia’s Translation and Tax Services, a business widely used by immigrants in Greeley, where one-third of the population is Hispanic.

To pay their taxes, Amalia Cerrillo’s customers used Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, which the IRS issues to people without Social Security numbers. Foreign nationals with U.S. investment income also use ITINs. Those charged in Operation Numbers Game allegedly used others’ Social Security numbers to work and their own ITINs to pay taxes.

ITIN filers had an income tax liability of $50 billion from 1996 to 2003, according to the latest IRS figures available. Former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson told Congress in 2006 that ITINs were “bringing taxpayers into the system.”

IRS spokeswoman Nancy Mathis said ITINs solely track tax returns and don’t convey or record immigration or work status. Nor do they give immigrants the right to work in the U.S.

Buck had said more identity theft cases were possible, and that prosecutors in other states were interested in his investigation, but Larimer County District Judge James Hiatt halted it in April. Ruling in favor of the ACLU, he said investigators violated privacy rights by seizing the tax documents and that their search was over-broad. Hiatt likened the search to taking medical records from a doctor’s office because one patient was a suspected drug user.

In a separate but similar case in March, Weld County District Judge James Hartmann Jr., called the search warrant “nothing more than an exploratory search based upon suspicion that some unknown person or persons” committed a crime.

Buck is appealing the rulings, and one of the appeals is before the state Supreme Court. While the cases he had pending were allowed to proceed, he has dismissed 30 of them without prejudice so far. The move gives him the option to file charges against the same people again if his appeals succeed.

However, a Supreme Court ruling in early May could be another setback to Buck’s investigation. The unanimous ruling said undocumented workers can be considered identity thieves only i

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/wire/article/222314/

Three men who allegedly stormed into a West Side Denny’s over the weekend and killed a 34-year-old cook were in the United States illegally, and one had been deported less than a year ago after an arrest.
Pablo Ortiz, who police say is a member of the notorious Salvadoran gang MS-13, was arrested in Albuquerque in May 2008 on suspicion of DWI. After a judge found him guilty, Ortiz spent 46 days at the Metropolitan Detention Center. He was released on July 7.
About a month later, Ortiz “agreed to participate in a voluntary deportation program,” Police Chief Ray Schultz told the Journal.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “put him on a plane and sent him back to El Salvador” in August of 2008, the chief said. “Some time in the next few months, he sneaked back into the country.”
Federal officials also confirmed that two other suspects in the Denny’s shooting are here illegally, but it is unclear whether 22-year-old Marvin Lopez-Aguilar and 25-year-old Francisco Melgar had previously been deported to El Salvador.
Ortiz and Lopez-Aguilar remained jailed at the MDC late Tuesday on no-bond holds.
They are charged with murder in the killing of Denny’s cook Stephanie Anderson and more than 40 other felony counts.
Authorities were still searching for Melgar, who faces the same charges.
Police say Melgar and Ortiz are MS-13 gang members.
Melgar has twice been arrested on suspicion of DWI in Bernalillo County, court records show. In 2006, his charge was dismissed by prosecutors due to lack of discovery.
He was arrested again in February of 2009 and is due to appear on that charge before a Metropolitan Court judge on Thursday.
On both occasions, Melgar was released from the West Side jail on his own recognizance under court order, jail Capt. Heather Lough said. Officials could not determine Tuesday whether Melgar had immigration holds at the time of his two arrests, although Lough said it is unlikely.
“If he had had immigration holds, he would not have been released,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not provide details of the three men’s immigration status on Tuesday.
“They do have detainers because they are in the country illegally,” ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa wrote in an e-mail response to Journal questions.
Zamarripa said the detainers were placed on Ortiz and Lopez-Aguilar after their arrests on Saturday.
Schultz said in the case of Ortiz’s May 2008 arrest, the officer who pulled him over did not contact federal authorities because the officer did not believe his immigration status was pertinent to the DWI investigation.
He did not know the details of Melgar’s arrests.
Determining when police officers should call federal immigration officers has been a hotly debated topic among elected officials, community leaders and the public.
Albuquerque police issued a policy for its officers, and then was forced to reissue it after complaints about what it meant.
The current policy reads: “Officers shall not inquire about or seek proof of a person’s immigration status, unless the person is in custody or is a suspect in a criminal investigation for a nonimmigration criminal violation and the immigration status of the person or suspect is pertinent to the criminal investigation.”
Moreover, ICE agents regularly check the immigration status of all those booked into the West Side jail, whether APD officers call them or not.
The chief reiterated that Albuquerque is not a “sanctuary city,” as some critics have alleged. “This is an immigrant-friendly city. We work with all federal partners to keep the citizens of this city safe.”

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/242222257325newsstate06-24-09.htm

This is an immigrant-friendly city. We work with all federal partners to keep the citizens of this city safe well it seems that statement is not a-tall true-