Last September, Raleigh, N.C., resident Jamar Beach was killed in a crash that was so violent he was decapitated. When Mexican national Neri Damian Cruz-Carmona pleaded guilty last week to felony hit-and-run, his mother, Cameo Robinson, made clear she knew her son did not have to die.
“He had no business here in the first place and he should not have been operating a vehicle,” said Beach’s mother. “He didn’t have a license. So therefore he’s being treated better than the citizen who’s been killed.”
Robinson has clear thoughts on what comes after the alien’s prison term ends.
“Now that he’s committed this horrendous crime, he definitely doesn’t deserve to be in America. Because if he wanted to be in America he would have come legally,” declared Robinson, who plans to press for deportation.
At the sentencing hearing, Cruz-Carmona’s attorney Woody Vann told the judge his client came to the U.S. “to try to make a better life for himself, to try to send money back to his family in Mexico,” but glossed over the fact his client had continued to violate the laws of the country he entered illegally.
Although the creative license used by the attorney failed to impress the court, which sentenced him to the maximum of 20-33 months in prison, the unpleasant reality for Jamar Beach’s family is that he could be released in 14 months.
This week, the Supreme Court affirmed in a 5-4 decision that the government has the authority to detain criminal aliens upon their release as their removal proceedings progress, so no sensible person would question that Cruz-Carmona can (and should) go directly from prison into ICE custody until his deportation.
The problem is that sensible people were not elected sheriff of Wake County, the jurisdiction into which Raleigh falls.
After pledging in his campaign last fall to sever ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), newly-elected Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker followed through on his promise shortly after he took office when he released 16 individuals under ICE detainers.
Baker, like other pro-sanctuary officials, contends his actions are designed to improve trust between law enforcement and the immigrant community.
But what will creating a sanctuary for illegal aliens do to inspire any trust in Americans like Cameo Robinson? She knows her son would be alive today if elected officials like Baker cared about enforcing the immigration laws of the U.S. and not just making themselves feel good.
Sheriff Baker may not be able to prevent Robinson from being at the prison gates when her son’s killer is released, but the question remains whether he will tell ICE when the killer is released?