They really are coming after us
A federal judge has blocked Prince William County's pursuit of information on the more than 4,000 criminal illegal immigrants the county has turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement since implementing its controversial crackdown in 2007.
An illegal immigrant who fatally struck a Benedictine nun while driving drunk was found guilty in Prince William County on Monday of felony murder — a case that sparked outrage in a county at the forefront of debates on local enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Prince William County on Thursday filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding the release of records related to the status of more than 4,000 criminal illegal immigrants that the county has detained and transferred to the Department of Homeland Security since 2008.
Prince William County on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security demanding the release of records related to the status of criminal illegal immigrants the county has detained and transferred to the agency since 2008.
On Aug. 1, 2010, a drunken driver named Carlos Montano purportedly crashed into a car carrying three nuns in Prince William County, Va., killing one and severely injuring the other two. This was not his first brush with the law - he had been arrested twice on drunken-driving charges before this fatal crash.
The silence from Maryland's political leadership was deafening when the news broke that Carlos Montano, an illegal alien, was arrested in Virginia for crashing into and killing an innocent Catholic nun while driving under the influence ("Suspect in fatal accident an illegal," Page 1, Aug. 3).
After a Catholic nun's death earlier this month in a drunken-driving crash that police say was caused by a repeat-offender illegal immigrant, a key lawmaker wants the federal government to start detaining and deporting every illegal immigrant who commits a drunken-driving offense.
New guidance telling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to focus on apprehending terrorists and criminals has many of ICE's rank-and-file agents wondering who then is responsible for tracking down and detaining the millions of other illegal border-crossers and fugitive aliens now in the country.
In Arizona, the shooting death of a rancher blew the lid off simmering anger over border security and helped solidify support for a tough new immigration law. A similar eruption threatens in Virginia following the death of a Catholic nun in a car accident involving a man in the country illegally and accused of drunken driving.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has demanded a review of why federal immigration authorities released an illegal immigrant after a drunken-driving arrest in 2008 and who now has been charged with manslaughter stemming for a suspected drunken-driving crash that killed a Catholic nun this weekend.
UPDATED: The Virginia man suspected in a drunken-driving crash that killed a Catholic nun in Prince William County this weekend is an illegal immigrant and repeat offender who was awaiting deportation and whom federal immigration authorities had released pending further proceedings, police said Monday.
Officer Luis Zamora testified that Martinelly Montano admitted he had been drinking and authorities found numerous empty cans of Coors Light in the man's car.
"If you don't require it, they're not going to do it," he said of officers' checking immigration status.
