Chicago DUI attorney comments on deportation, undocumented status, and DUI

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here and here about immigration issues and DUI. 

Still, the shrill cries for deportation of an undocumented person accused of DUI and the resulting death of a nun shouldn’t derail our justice system.

August 5, Washington, D.C.:

 Proponents of tougher immigration enforcement have seized on the case of a Bolivian man charged with killing a nun and critically injuring two others while driving drunk as a symbol of a badly broken immigration system.

Carlos A. Martinelly-Montano, 23, who entered the United States illegally at age 8 with his parents and sister, has been awaiting a deportation hearing after two convictions for drunken driving in 2007 and 2008. His case has been postponed three times -- and it is one of about 243,000 cases that are clogging immigration courts, according tostatistics compiled by Syracuse University.

Because of the backlog, it takes 15 months to conclude the average case. Martinelly-Montano's has dragged on for nearly two years.

immigrant advocates and groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving have said that this is a case about drunken driving, not illegal immigration. The nuns' order, the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia, has asked that the crash not be politicized.

But Martinelly-Montano has become Exhibit A in calls to stiffen immigration enforcement since his car swerved Sunday into the path of a vehicle carryingthree nuns who were on their way to a retreat in Prince William County. He told police he didn't remember the crash, according to the arrest warrant. Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert said he intends to ask a grand jury to return a second-degree murder indictment next month.

While the laws of this country need to be followed, there are plenty of citizens charged with DUI’s involving serious accidents and death.  There are also plenty of citizens charged with auto accidents involving serious accidents and death who weren’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol.