Sometimes its good to be an illegal

Long story made short:

Saul Espinoza, 36, of Texas, is a US citizen who has been arrested several times in his life on theft and drug charges.

Joel Garza, 36, is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who has also been arrested several times on theft and drug charges. But he has managed to avoid some charges by being deported to Mexico instead. However, every time he is deported, he simply re-enters the USA shortly thereafter.

Does that sound fair? An illegal immigrant avoids justice for his crimes, while a US citizen cannot?

No, it's not fair, and that's probably why Mr. Espinoza and Señor Garza are the same man.

He deliberately invented the alias of "Joel Garza", the illegal alien, in order to avoid charges, and for awhile, it worked. Every time the US gave him a free bus ride south of the border, he would just head north again, and easily gain entry due to his US citizenship.

There's something pretty wrong with our justice system when illegal immigrants are not only tolerated, but treated more leniently than US citizens. And Espinoza is the only one I've ever heard of being caught - I strongly doubt that he has been the only one to use this particular scam.

And if that wasn't ridiculous enough, via Immigration Watchdog, I see that some reporters are putting a tragedy spin on this, claiming the US might again deport a US citizen.

And incredibly, Espinoza's attorney, Josue Martinez (presumably with a straight face), claims this was only "partially" his own fault:

"Immigration authorities believe he is in fact, that he is here without documentation," said attorney Josue Martinez, who represents Espinoza.

According to Martinez, the problem is partially Espinoza's own fault. Espinoza has been arrested several times for various theft and drug charges and in a couple of cases, he gave the court aliases and told them he was a Mexican national.

Patterico's Pontifications calls this "illegal by choice", and in the comments section, several people bring up the interesting possibility that technically, Espinoza might not be a US citizen anymore, since under the law you are allowed to publicly renounce your US citizenship if you are in a foreign country.



Interested in reading more? Click on any label below to read related articles, bookmark this site, or subscribe to my  RSS Feed