Judicial Watch Obtains
Booking File of Illegal
Immigrant Murder Suspect
Thursday, May 1, 2008
By Tom Fitton
Judicial Watch President
Pedro Espinoza
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Over the last few
weeks, I've covered the story of Pedro Espinoza, the illegal alien gang member
who allegedly killed high school student Jamiel Shaw on March 2nd. What
made this crime particularly offensive is the fact that Espinoza had been
released from a Culver City, California jail the day before the
murder.
Of course, all of
this has brought sanctuary policies, such as the LAPD's 'Special Order 40,'
under scrutiny once again. As you will recall, Special Order 40 illegally
prohibits police officers from inquiring about an individual?s immigration
status and contacting federal authorities about someone's immigration
status. (Judicial Watch has filed a
taxpayer lawsuit against the LAPD over Special Order 40. We are
scheduled to go to trial on June 30.)
Now defenders of
nonsensical and highly dangerous sanctuary policies claim Special Order 40 had
nothing to do with Shaw's death because he wasn't first arrested in L.A., but in
Culver City, on a weapons charge. Fair enough. So what about Culver
City?
Judicial Watch
recently filed an open records request with Culver City regarding the arrest of
Espinoza and the city's general policies regarding illegal aliens. And
just this week, we received Espinoza's official
booking records.
One thing
immediately jumps off the page. Espinoza lied about his place of birth,
claiming that he is a U.S. citizen from California' something that is
relatively easy to check. Obviously, as we have learned, Espinoza is an
illegal alien.
Judicial Watch also
obtained records regarding Culver
City's police policies toward illegals. First off, like Los Angeles,
an individual cannot be arrested for the sole crime of being in the country
illegally. Secondly, if an illegal alien is apprehended and charged with a
crime, 'there will be no need to notify immigration
authorities.
In other words, even
if Culver City police officers had determined Espinoza was here illegally, it
seems that it would not have mattered. Once Espinoza had been processed,
he would have been released onto the streets and federal immigration authorities
would have been none the wiser.
The bottom line from
all these records is that they reveal the importance of identifying (and
deporting) illegal alien lawbreakers so they don't hit the streets and gun down
innocent U.S. citizens.
Perhaps Jamiel
Shaw's father put it best, during a recent appearance before the Los Angeles
City Council: "If you're a gang member who is suspected of committing a
crime, why can't they check a database at the police station to see if you're
here illegally?"
Good question for
every police department in the
country.
Until next week…
Tom Fitton
President
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