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Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Immigration Agency Targets Gang Members
By T.J. Wilham
Journal Staff Writer
The top Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent said gang members who come back and forth across the border will receive "special focus" from his agency.
John Morton, assistant Homeland Security secretary for immigration and customs, was in Albuquerque on Tuesday to sign an agreement with the head of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The agreement calls for both agencies to share information on investigations.
Federal law enforcement officials are in Albuquerque for a summit on firearms trafficking.
After the signing, Morton addressed the recent Denny's shooting and robbery that left cook Stephanie Anderson, 34, dead. One of the suspects in that case made it back to Albuquerque after having been deported.
"The truth of the matter is there are people who come into this country and who want to do us harm," Morton said. "Those people we need to identify and remove them, and if they come back again, identify them and prosecute them."
Anderson was shot to death when as many as four armed men stormed the packed restaurant on the morning of June 20 in a robbery attempt. Police captured two suspects, Pablo Ortiz, 32, and Marvin Lopez-Aguilar, 22.
Francisco Melgar, 25, remains at-large.
Police believe all three were members of the notorious Salvadoran gang MS-13 and were in the country illegally.
Ortiz was deported in August after being arrested on drunken driving charges and spending 46 days in jail. But he somehow made his way back to Albuquerque, and ICE officials haven't figured out how.
"Rest assured, gang members in particular are going to get special focus, and we are going to spend a lot of time and effort on it," Morton said. "Obviously people use false identities. That is a common problem we face. If you are a criminal and have been deported before, and you want to come back in, you are going to spend a lot of time not getting caught on your way back in."
Morton said his agency is in the process of implementing a new program that will help jails across the country easily identify illegal immigrants who use false identities.
ICE agents already go over jail booking records daily to check for illegal immigrants. But the system isn't perfect. Illegal immigrants who use false identities could get overlooked.
Under the new program, every inmate who is fingerprinted will automatically have their prints run through ICE's database to determine their immigration status. The system, part of a $1.4 billion budget allocation from Congress, is already in 60 jails. ICE hopes to have it in every jail by 2012.
Metropolitan Detention Center officials said they haven't been told when they will receive the system.
Not everyone booked into MDC is fingerprinted. Correctional officers take fingerprints only from suspects arrested for felonies and high misdemeanors, such as DWI and aggravated battery.
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