Alabama judge orders Hispanic defendants to leave the state

[quaoar]

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/114276351750840.xml&coll=2

JEFF HANSEN, KELLI HEWETT TAYLOR and DAWN KENT
News staff writers

Illegal Hispanic immigrants booked on minor offenses in Hoover last year were often put in jail without bond and ordered to leave the country by Jefferson County District Judge Robert Cahill, who is not an immigration judge.

Hoover officials call their actions good policing. They and Cahill say they have no arrangement to target Hispanics arrested in Hoover, a city coping with its uneasy role as a hub for Hispanic day labor.

But advocates and other legal experts question the practices that elevate misdemeanor cases like jaywalking to include felony charges and deportation.


Last year Jefferson and Shelby counties had at least 48 cases where Hispanics stopped for misdemeanors were found with false identification cards and charged with felony criminal possession of a forged instrument. In 25 of those cases, county district judges ordered that no bond be allowed, which meant defendants could not leave jail. Twenty-three of those 25 no-bond cases were Hispanics arrested by Hoover police.

< snip >

Cahill, for example, ordered Leopoldo Chipahua-Gomez, who was 19 and said he worked at the Bottega Italian restaurant, "to leave Alabama and not return," a Jefferson County court file shows. He ordered J. Carmen Pacheco-Villa, who was 38 and said he worked at the Birmingham Country Club, to "leave Alabama and USA." And he ordered Gustavo Flores, 32, no occupation listed, to "leave Alabama and go to Mexico."

[long_green]

1. it's crazy

How many illegal Spanish-speaking workers do you think that judge comes across in his daily life? You probably can't count them. He may be a member of that country club that employed the person he told to leave "Alabama and the USA." Do you think it out of the realm of possibility that he directly employs one or two? I sure don't.
What a wonderful message. "Work like a mule for next to no money and absolutely no benefits but if you even look at us cross-eyed we'll throw you back to Mexico. If you're lucky (a reference to detention without bond)."

[Chipper Chat]

2. Alabama's indigenous American Indian population

should rise up and kick all the european white squatters out of the state!

[nosmokes]

3. alabama's indigenous population was mostly forced into

oklahoma and arkansas a 125 years or so back. you may recall the "trail of tears', another shining moment in american generosity, fair play and christian charity *cough*.

[Chipper Chat]

4. Yes.

I have relation in Talequah.