Thank you for sharing this story. I live in a city the 4-year-old son of a Guatemalan undocumented immigrant was murdered and his body was found by sanitation workers in a trash can. Of course, discussion on the major newspaper's website tends toward, "it is all the mother's fault, she should watch her kid better because I am a perfect parent, and she shouldn't have been here in the first place." :roll:

Should read, "I live in a city where there 4-year-old son..."

When you choose to engage in illegal activities, to claim the protections everyday people get without risk comes at a risk because of your choices. If a John gets his money stolen or beaten up by a pimp, if he reports the crime against him he implicates. If a drug dealer gets robbed, by reporting the crime he implicates himself. And if an illegal immigrant reports a crime perpetrated against them, they also implicate themselves. In each case, those who victimized these people deserve arrest and prosecution - but then again, so do the people who entered into illegal activities by choice.

Thank you for covering this story. Hopefully the publicity will help. Thanks for providing that resource, I am going to post, crediting you of course.

Paz

Jesus, can you people read? She was married to a US citizen, and she has children who are citizens. Her only crime was divorcing an abusive asshole and remaining in the country where she lived, and where her children have citizenship.

Also, if you read the link, you'll see that her initial reporting of violence and arrest didn't go quite as simply and honorably as you seem to be assuming it did.

buffythewhite - that *might* hold water if an undocumented immigrant were reporting someone else for a somewhat-related crime in which they were also engaged (such as falsifying documents), but i am not sure *how* domestic violence or abuse period relates at all to the midemeanor crime of entering the country illegally. It's comeuppance if a drug dealer is stupid enough to call the cops on someone b/c someone stole his/her drugs s/he was gonna sell. Are you going to say that someone who commits check fraud ought to expect to have their head bashed in for no reason b/c they once committed check fraud?

I have a big problem with the way people are responding. I understand that she was here illegally, however, I don't understand why that alone denies her the right to not be harmed by anyone. I know that neither of you are flat-out saying that she deserved what she got, but you are somewhat implying that by making a case of illegal immigration out of a case of VIOLENCE. This reminds me of Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera fighting over the drunk driver who killed a young girl. Bill O'Reilly took the fact that the driver was an illegal immigrant and ran with it, no longer making it a case about drunk driving, but a case about immigration. Then, everyone forgot about those who were truly at loss and affected by the situation, THE VICTIM AND HER FAMILY. Obviously, our communities are not safe if two people can get away with assaulting someone based on the fact that they are an illegal immigrant. Whether or not our communities are safe is the main concern No, I don't believe that people who are not citizens have the right to just come over here to the United States (and I'm aware that some are forced to flee to the US). But I certainly DO NOT believe that those who do come here illegally should be at any greater risk of physical violence, or should have to worry more about their lives being in danger, than those of us who are US citizens.

She was married to a US citizen? Okay, didn't see that. But I still stand by my statement.

Buffy: You are correct that she appears to have been an illegal alien (though not necessarily an illegal immigrant, e.g. she may have immigrated legally but is now illegally remaining in the country.)

I am not a supporter of illegal immigrants in general. However, you're making entirely the wrong conclusion.

The cost to the country of allowing crime to continue unreported is MUCH higher than the cost to the country of allowing a small # of illegal aliens to remain. (the # only represents illegal aliens who would otherwise report crimes and don't for fear of getting caught)

I agree that there are certain situations where we are justified in treating citizens differently from non-citizens. But crime reporting is not one of them. It simply makes no sense.

Not incidentally, it's also not much of a deterrent anyway, because few people expect to be a victim of crime.

You don't have to lead a perfect life of absolute obedience in order to file a police report. It's in everybody's interest to limit the barriers against people reporting crimes.

If an undocumented immigrant refuses to report a violent crime, or testify in court against an offender, because they're worried about getting caught being undocumented, that allows the criminal to remain free and unpunished. That's bad. It makes everybody less safe.

It's a conflict of interest when police are asked to double as the INS. Their job is to protect people and remove the most harmful criminals from the streets. They want to prevent and solve crimes, and when immigrants' mouths are clapped shut by incidents like the above, everybody loses.

The cost to the country of allowing crime to continue unreported is MUCH higher than the cost to the country of allowing a small # of illegal aliens to remain.

Sailorman wins. End thread.

Oh, and um...

sorry if I didn't make this clear. There are obviously a lot of ethical reasons for supporting her right (and the right of other victims) to get relief. Even if the cost/benefit analysis were different, I'd ethically support pro-reporting measures anyway.

But the "anti-" argument is really about costs, so that's what i focused on.

One thing that I've never seen mentioned in mainstream reporting on this is that most of the people who are here "illegally" would have their papers completely in order if the US government took its asylum obligations seriously. Those fleeing persecution by US allies (the Central American client states, post-coup Haiti, Colombia, Mexico just to name a few) are almost always shown the door regardless of how severely they were persecuted. Meanwhile, anyone leaving Cuba — regardless of persecution history — is recognised as a refugee the minute they set foot on US soil. If the US government were to treat all refugees from persecution equally and stop propping up persecutor states, there would be a substantial drop in the number of people here "illegally", which, of course would mean that they would have to be paid minimum wage, and our business class doesn't like the sound of that.

oh c'mon! she was an illegal immigrant! we're wasting our tax dollars so that violent criminal scum like her can claim to have some kind of 'consideration' as a 'human being?' ha! don't make me laugh! next you're gonna be saying that jaywalkers should just be given a ticket instead of tortured and hanged!

while we're at it, whats up with these crazy women who think they have the right to an abortion? IF YOU DIDN'T WANT THE BABY, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN PREGNANT IN THE FIRST PLACE! very simple stuff people, cmon. if someones gonna have the nerve to be an illegal immigrant, they should face the consequences and give up their self evident right to life. anybody wanna go illegal-alien hunting with me next weekend?

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i wasn't as pissed off at seeing the comment itself as i was at KNOWING BEFOREHAND that someone was going to say something like that. how can someone have the intellectual capacity to appreciate this blog without realizing that anti-immigrant hysteria comes from the same sociopolitical oppression that creates sexism?

"I agree that there are certain situations where we are justified in treating citizens differently from non-citizens. But crime reporting is not one of them. It simply makes no sense."
But the point is that we are not treating them differently, we are treating them exactly the same. A US citizen that has committed a crime that comes to light while reporting a crime would is treated exactly the same way as an illegal immigrant who commits a crime is treated when reporting a crime. Yes, the crimes they may have committed may have been different, but they are still crimes, made by choice, that put them in the same boat - unable to fully call on law enforcement to protect them in all circumstances without incriminating themselves in the process. It is identical.

buffy, let me give an example. Suppose police finds a body of a murdered prostitute, and the only persons who can identify her last customers are women who were working on the same highway (or a street). There is 99% chance that any witness who comes out (if any) can be arrested for two months if not more (repeated offenders). Should police and prosecutors do it, or should they offer immunity to any possible witnesses for misdemeanors?

Another analogy: suppose that every car was equipped with a device recording speeds and positions, and any time someone would report a crime, police would inspect records of the device in his or her car to assess all possible speeding and parking tickets.

A US citizen that has committed a crime that comes to light while reporting a crime would is treated exactly the same way as an illegal immigrant who commits a crime is treated when reporting a crime.

Much like the rape victim who was jailed and denied ECP who we read about here a couple months ago.

Police should focus on the crime at hand, not on punishing the victim. In this case, the police officer thought she "acted" like an illegal immigrant, so it became about that, not about the assault. Now her assailants are free, while her little girls get to go into the foster system.

The woman's ex-husband is a cop. Adds an interesting, disturbing angle to the story.