After previous crimes, why wasn't illegal status detected?

We read recently that our cities would be losing populations if it were not for immigrants. But notice no one mentioned what kind. It other stories we hear about crime going up in cities. Well putting two and two together it add up to rising crime rates are the product of illegal immigration. If we want safe cities we need to urge all our elected officials, city level on up, to enforce the laws.

Anyone using false identity should be held till thier real identity can be determined. If they are found to be illegal then that should be enough to get them deported.

Maybe you should go to azcentral .com and read today's article concerning local deputies enforcing state and federal laws. Sheriff Arpaio has arrested 500 illegal aliens this year so far in the city of Phoenix. The citizens held their officials accountable, and as a result, there is a state law that makes it possible for local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws.Unfortunately, Hampton Roads has gained alot from cheap labor. The idea that Americans will not do certain jobs is absurd. Unless the citizens take a stand, this situation will only repeat itself.
Also for those who say this is just a drunk driving issue, I will have to disagree. I think it is an illegal issue as well aas a drunk driving issue. This guy was convicted of identity theft as well as not having a valid license. If an oridnary citizen is involved in this sort of accident, there is a remedy.

If a US citizen went over to another country and commited the same crimes this guy did, we would certinly be in boiling water, we would have been tried and punished to the fullest extent of thier laws and sent deported after we served our time. If you so much a litter, you should be sent back to wherever you came from.

First, I would not blam Meyera or the police. I would place blame on INS and definitely the Judge that allowed this guy to walk the streets regardless of his illegal status. The bottom line is this: If our country knew how to curtail illegal immigration, this man would have never set foot in Virginia. If he had not been in Virginia, he could not have had those many drinks that night in a Virginia Bar. If he had not been in Virginia, he could not have drove drunk down a Virginia road. If he had not ever had this opportunity to drive drunk down a Virginia road that night, two teenagers would still be alive. So who do we blame? It's a no-brainer - get it in gear USA, take control of this illegal immigrant problem - we are sick of it!

This is tragedy for the families involved but the fact is if our immigration laws were being enforced this would have never happened. You guys making excuses are doing just that - making excuses. You want to protect lawbreakers. You want to promote anarchy and lawlessness. What will you say when he kills again? Sure am glad we don't want to enforce our immigration laws. All of you promoting this lawlessness are just as guilty as Mr illegal is!

Ok folks here goes one more and trillion times! If you are in the US illegally, then you should by all means be deported! What a tragedy these families must endure. True it could have been a US citizen BUT it was not! Is it no wonder they all want to come to the US, they can actually get away with murder and reap all the benefits of the government in the meantime. Rednecks, bluenecks, whatever, it you break the law you must pay for it and on top of it if you don't belong here you should be deported back to your own country, the US has its fair share of drunk drivers already that are legal!

When our leaders refuse to protect their residents from established criminals, and one of these criminals predictably commits another crime, then we have both the criminals and the leaders to blame. Bill O'Reilly is right, our leaders are at fault.

Is it not important that Ramos frequently drives drunk and has prior charges against him? Is it not important that IF his PHONY id had been detected the first time that the 2 teens would still be alive? He intentionally undermined the government and did not have the decency to stay under the radar. I DO think his status was important in THIS case. Why not ask his status?- he didn't speak a word of English. My heart goes out to all people affected because this could have been avoided.

It's fine to feel that this is an immigration problem. It's just as fine to feel this is a DUI problem. It's both problems so both issues can be addressed. I guess where I'm confused is how Mr. Ramos proved is identity to the court when he was convicted. Please define 'false international drivers license.' Is that forged? Second, did the car have VA tags? Those are issued by the state and don't they have the responsiblity of ensuring the legality of the driver? Mr. Ramos worked at a restaurant. I thought all U.S. employers were required to do a cursory check of the legality of their employees. Aren't only certain documents authorized for this purpose? Is the International Drivers licencese allowed by itself? What other document was used? This situation with the two young ladies is tragic but it brings to light so many other issues that simply cannot be ignored. It's not hate, it's personal responsibility.

The article stated "Golden said Ramos presented an international driver's license to the Chesapeake officer who pulled him over for DUI. It was later found to be false, she said. The car he was driving was legally registered in Virginia under his name, she said."
Will someone educate me on the process? How can an illegal immigrant legally register his car?
If the car was legally registered under his name, how come no one in Chesapeake govt chased him and charged him for falsification of document. Need to revamp the laws with regards to International Driver's License. People having this type of license should be closely scrutinized before letting them drive in this country. If they get caught violating, deport their *** right away!!!
Mr. Michael Pinilla smartly quoted "Unfortunately, noone mentions the estimated $90-$140 billion a year immigrants pay in federal, state, and local taxes." Question, were they coming from illegal or legal immigrants?

It is true that the issue here is DUI and not illegal immigrants. It is true that if this man was given tougher fines when he was arrested for DUI in Chesapeake awhile back, he might not have been driving. But it is also true that because he was illegal, it was not done. So we ask the question why did this happen? No one knows. I believe in tougher fines for DUI for legal and illegal people residing in or visiting our country. See some of the tough fines in other countries especially Mexico against illegal immigrants. Our country, this state needs to have tougher policies on illegal immigrants as well. Remember 9/11 and how illegals got in? If any crime can be prevented, then it should be. This killing of those 2 girls could have been prevented. So I say, if Norfolk can pay the wife of the deceased police officer killed by a fellow police officer, then why not Va. Beach pay this family. I know, they were blacks and this situations involved whites and hispanics.

Give Myra Oberndorf & the city of Va Beach a break. I grew up in Va Beach & have lived in Tidewater all of my life. She has done a superb job. Stop bashing the city & ask, who employed this man & who allowed him to use their vehicle? The mayor is not expected to know if each individual is here illegally or not & with the privacy issue, some are probably afraid to inquire. I'm sure at least several people knew this man was here illegally. Those should be held accountable. If he was issued a driver's license and/or state id card - why not find out how issued it without him showing proof of citizenship? Billy O'Reilly is pointing the finger at the wrong individuals. If this man would have been sober would he still have run into the back of this car? If not, he would still be living here illegally. Makes you wounder if we'd still be having this discussion. The issue at hand is driving drunk. The citizenship is an entirely different issue, although still of great importance. Luv u Myra!

I think all illegal immigrants should be deported. They broke the law coming here in the first place. We have legal ways to get into this county where you have to abide by the same laws and pay the same taxes as everyone else. If you can't do that you don't need to live or work in this country! These girls would be alive if it was not for our government allowing this person to cont. To break our laws and stay here illegally! Asking if you are a citizen should be on all police paper work. Civil right violation my but, If your not a citizen or legal resident you have no civil rights here. I have to answer this questions to drive,work go to school etc. Never been offended. It's not asking what race you are. If you break the law the law enforcement should have these questions as standard when booking. Just like our US government tags us with a SSN at birth. If your illegal it shouldn't matter if your J walking, driving drunk or killing people your already breaking several of our laws!

I think all illegal immigrants should be deported. They broke the law coming here in the first place. We have legal ways to get into this county where you have to abide by the same laws and pay the same taxes as everyone else. If you can't do that you don't need to live or work in this country! These girls would be alive if it was not for our government allowing this person to cont. To break our laws and stay here illegally! Asking if you are a citizen should be on all police paper work. Civil right violation my but, If your not a citizen or legal resident you have no civil rights here. I have to answer this questions to drive,work go to school etc. Never been offended. It's not asking what race you are. If you break the law the law enforcement should have these questions as standard when booking. Just like our US government tags us with a SSN at birth. If your illegal it shouldn't matter if your J walking, driving drunk or killing people your already breaking several of our laws!

Think that it's a "drunk driving issue"? You'd better think again! All one has to do is google these words "illegal aliens, drunk driving" and you'll see that illegal aliens are fast-becoming one of the worst dangers on the highway with a drunk-driving accident rate worst that virtually every other demographic.
There is a cultural difference at work here and the illegals don't seem to care about our laws-which is exactly why they are here-they broke the law.
Read my blog on HamptonRoads.com where I have listed a long list of the problems that illegal aliens have caused this society-up to and including the execution of the men and women of law enforcement who are supposed to protect us.

If the English hadn't have landed in Jamestown in 1607 then the girls wouldn't have been here, not to mention the road, the cars, the alcohol, or the city for that matter. I mean, come on! Stop using this tragedy to forward anti-immigration viewpoints. It is sickening and a desecration to the dead. Let them lay in peace!

Any normal citizen, involved in any kind of traffic stop, would have had every record, for any infraction, dating back to library fines in kindergarten, pulled and enforced, to the letter of the law! Not repeat offenders or illegals or hardened criminals! I've been hearing of people convicted for a ninth DUI! I'd have been locked up after two! It's beginning to seem that our law enforcement & courts only go after US, the easier, normally law-abiding targets, rather than protecting us from the real bad guys... who hire lawyers. ..just my $0.02 worth.

folks, i just moved from the Chicago suburbs last fall to beautiful VB. Mentioned to friends back home that VB was 'untouched' by the illegals, which number in the hundreds of thousands back where i came from. I've never considered myself to be racist, or have a hateful bone in my body. served in the Army with men and woman of all nationalities. I love the fact that our country takes in a million people a year, from all over the world... but the masses of illegals in my old homebase really started to affect my family's quality of life for the worse; ER rooms full of illegals waiting for free service, overcrowded classrooms (those numbers given by the media don't reflect the children under 18), poor education because of the fact that our teachers have to 'teach down' to kids who don't fully understand the language, roads full of people, many without auto insurance, a spike in gang crimes... and the beat goes on.

The two comments that jump out at me from this article are:
"In Virginia Beach, police officers are not permitted to ask about a person's birthplace or legal status if the person is charged with a misdemeanor" and "Immigration status needs to be determined when the defendant is arrested and goes before a magistrate, the magistrate then would contact immigration officials if the defendant were determined to be in the United States unlawfully"
Let's face it Virginia Beach turns a blind eye and wants and need illegals to build stuff (town center), and clean hotel rooms at the ocean front and provide cheap labor to their restaraunts ...etc. Our political leaders and courts let us down. Sad but true and two young lives paid the price. Protecting it's citizens isn't high enuff on Virginia Beach's scope. The police are reactionary at best and need to take on a proactive approach - and city leaders need to give them the tools to do so.

John C. is right. As much of a problem as illegals in our country is becoming, this tragedy was due to drunk driving, not being an illegal citizen.

No, if he hadn't been drunk he wouldn't have killed those girls. Thomas P and others are right to point out that the usual cast of right wing extremists are trying to make this issue about illegal immigrants rather than drunk driving. You care nothing about the people affected by this tragedy. All you want to do is score points for your political agenda. What happens the next time one of you rednecks in a truck flies through a traffic light and kills someone? Will you seek to deport rednecks? Or is their crime less horrendous because they're "legal"? You people are a disease that was partly cut out last November. The next major surgery is scheduled for November 2008.

My heart goes out to the families of the two girls killed. My anger towards our government at all levels is indescribable. Due to political correctness and not enough people voicing concerns for our country do tragedies like this continue. Why was this person who was in our country not deported upon his first arrest? Chesapeake had the opportunity to save the lives of these two young girls, but they let the ball drop! Why did this judge just let him go? It does not matter if this man had a license or not, he would have still driven. Our tax money was used to issue tickets, arrest him, and then let him go. I don't know about anyone else, but I am tired of supporting people who chose to break the law as soon as they enter this country. If this was a legal citizen involved in this tragedy, that person would be in jail. Why do we continue to allow these law breakers get away with murder???

To compare someone having broken the law and illegally entering a country (any country) they don't belong in to being left handed or blue eyed or whatever is absurd. The fact is, if this man had not been in this country, those two girls would be alive today. Of course, they could just have easily been killed by a drunken U.S. citizen, but they weren't. It doesn't matter what country he's from. He doesn't belong here. We have enough trouble with this sort of thing without importing (especially illegally) other peoples problem cases. It could just as easily have been anyone reading this, all because some people don't want to offend anyone.

Thomas P. and all of the others that think this guys immigration status has nothing to do with this crime are wrong. Bottom line: If he hadn't been in the country, he would not (could not) have killed those girls.

A couple of young girls are dead because of drunk driving. The driver being an undocumented alien is no more important than if the driver had been left-handed ... unless you have a political agenda you want to push over the bodies of two dead teenagers.

It should not come as a surprise that the Cities turn a blind eye to the crime of being here illegaly. The jail in Virginia Beach was built by illegal immigrant labor allegedly, becasue it was cheaper (not because alack of legal resident labor) but cheap labor for companies who pay large campaign contributions. The highways are maintained with illegal immigrant labor allegedly, again cheaper labor. The politicians know who are employing these illegal immigrants and the employers should be civilly sued for their roll. When someone is wiling to break federal law, don't be surprised if they ignore state or local law. The attorney general should put into action what appears to only be campaign rhetoric, start going after the employers and city & state officials who allow these violators of the law to obtain employment!

I feel for what the families have to go through. I saw the piece on Fox News and I hope that they go after the Mayor of Virginia Beach for letting Virginia Beach be a Sanctuary for Illegal Immigrants...The should check all the Restaurants documents for Illegals. I like to know how he got the car without a driver license or social security number. How many more Americans have to die before our Government will do something? Our Government needs to protect the American People first not the other way around. What has happened to this country? Is it just for a vote? American needs to wake up or we will have this going on everyday. We need Laws that will Protect the American People not the other way around. May God Bless those two girls & rest In Peace!!

I got 6mo.s time in Va.Beach for not paying a parking ticket in MD. Because That lead too my licenses being suspended in VA.for not pay that ticket. Now they found out about a parking ticket for me,but did know about an illegal alien.Give me a break,it's all about the Benjamin's.Or maybe it's just horse of a different color!!

Two more Americans are dead because our government will not inforce current law. Go after the allien, the employer, and the cities that allowed this law-breaker to continue with his crimes. I feel sorry for all the people that think these people are not doing any harm to this country - including President Bush.

Here I am reading this article and I came to the conclusion that most people here are not right by judging this guy just because he is here illegally. We as a group should be judging here the drunk drivers....Not the immigrants... Every group has a bunch of bad apples and this guy is the bad apple of the illegal immigrants. There are a lot of these illegal immigrants here in the country that are doing a lot of good.... they are doing the jobs that none of the Americans want to do. Also there are a lot of drunk drivers that are American that don't get this kind of publicity just because they are Americans, just because they are here legally.....basically all I got from the media is that if you are here legal and pay taxes you can do whatever.....now my point of view for these drunk drivers (legal or illegal in the country is put them in jail for a long time because if the law is only going to suspend their license or any easy punishments they are going to do it again. the court sho