Immigration, Crime Debates Entwined

In Prince William, Attention Over Legal Status Is Growing

With a single sentence in a news release, a slaying in Prince William County gained high-profile treatment this week, not because of how the crime was committed, but because of who police say did it: a twice-deported illegal immigrant.

What was not mentioned before -- a suspect's legal status -- is now un-ignorable in a county that is leading the charge against illegal immigration.

The homicide slipped into a blog headline yesterday: "Another resident dies at the hands of an illegal alien." It also created piles of paperwork for police officers who were told to research other alleged crimes by illegal immigrants. And, perhaps most telling, a drunken fight between two men that left one dead was the subject of a news conference yesterday held by the county's top law enforcement officials -- one that they said wouldn't have been held except for the current atmosphere.

"The public's become more aware, more concerned about the problem," Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert said. "It's more on the forefront."

As a person's legal status has seeped into the daily debate in a county that passed a tough resolution this summer to deny services to illegal immigrants, it seemed only logical to mention that Christian Molina, 30, was deported twice before he was charged with murder, said First Sgt. Kim Chinn, a police spokeswoman. The news release Wednesday said he was deported in 2003 and 2005.

"We're getting asked by the media anyway," Chinn said. "We're just going to go ahead and put it out there" if the department knows the person's legal status and if it knows whether the person has been deported.

Checking the legal status of people facing serious charges is not new -- police have been doing it for years and have placed 364 people in the deportation process over the past 3 1/2 years. But at the news conference, authorities pointed to three cases in which an illegal immigrant was a suspect in a violent crime in the past week. Mug shots were taped on the wall.

One was a rape case in which the man is thought to have fled to El Salvador. In another, two teenagers were walking in Woodbridge when two Hispanic men are alleged to have stopped them, assaulted the man and sexually assaulted the woman. One of those men was deported in the past, police said. In the latest case, Molina, also known as Jose Maximino Flores-Perales, is charged with strangling Ronald D. Hollingsworth, 51, Sunday night in a drunken fight.

During his arrest, Molina gave police a fake name, but a fingerprint analysis revealed his identity and his lack of legal standing in the country, authorities said. His law enforcement history showed a series of incidents in Texas, starting with an allegation of marijuana possession in 2000, they said. His second deportation came after he was convicted of aggravated robbery in January 2004 in San Antonio.

The three cases point to the complexities that police in enforcing a local resolution that calls for officers to check immigration status.

On Sept. 18, Chief Charlie T. Deane, who cautioned the board about the resolution's effect on the relationship between law enforcement and the Latino community, will present his plan for meeting the mandate. New technology will help officials better identify illegal immigrants, but the solution extends beyond deportation, as evident in the recent cases, he said.