- NEWPORT - An almost inaudible
call to 911 late Saturday night [February 7] led to the arrest of two illegal
immigrants from Mexico who the Pend Oreille County Sheriff's Office has
been warning the federal government about for several months. Pend Oreille
County Sheriff Jerry Weeks is frustrated with the federal process and warns
that the bureaucracy could be endangering citizens.
-
- Since President George W. Bush signed the Homeland Security
Act of 2002 into affect on Nov. 25 of that year, Immigration and Naturalization
Services fell under the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security.
The INS has since become Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division
of the department.
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- Sheriff's Deputy Janet Reed said their efforts to get
ICE to arrest Candelario Silvestre Beltran-Munguai have been fruitless,
and he could have become a threat to residents of Pend Oreille County.
Further, if Beltran-Munguai would have caught wind he was being watched
by law enforcement he could have disappeared.
-
- Weeks said no matter where he has worked, which included
Texas and Alaska, illegal immigration has always been a problem. Confusion
still remains as to who has authority to arrest illegal immigrants, though
local law enforcement cannot. The U.S. Border Patrol can take people from
local jails once they are arrested for other crimes. The border patrol
also cleared the way for a second arrest of an illegal immigrant Sunday,
Reed said Beltran-Munguai, 43, called dispatch at about 10 p.m. Saturday,
speaking in broken English, asking for help. Dispatchers could not determine
what the problem was, but dispatched Sgt. Ron Froman and Deputy Glen Blakeslee
to the residence on Coyote Trail Road.
-
- When officers arrived, they found Beltran-Munguai intoxicated,
Froman said, speaking of a woman inside calling for help and blood inside
the residence. While a trooper remained with Beltran-Munguai, law enforcement
inspected the house to find nothing.
-
- Froman said Beltran-Munguai could have been on drugs,
and when they tried to interview him regarding his concerns, he became
hostile. Froman said the suspect had a number of different identifications
on him and once they determined who he was they found he had an extensive
history of violent offenses, spent time in federal prison, and had already
been sent out of the country once.
-
- "It turned out to be a real good catch," Froman
said. They also found a rifle and a sword-like knife with a 20-inch blade
that Beltran-Munguai had borrowed from a neighbor.
-
- Beltran-Munguai was arrested on third-degree assault
and obstructing an officer. Border patrol agents arrived on the scene and
assisted with the arrest.
-
- Reed said the department has been watching Beltran-Munguai
for nearly six months and has contacted immigration agencies about him.
-
- The sheriff's department used a ruse to detain Jose Domingo
Gutierrez, 34, a friend of Beltran-Munguai. Deputies told Gutierrez to
come visit his friend in jail and arrested him when he arrived.
-
- Weeks said since this particularly dangerous violent
offender was so difficult to nab, even with his whereabouts known, this
begs the question, "Is this happening with terrorists?
-
- "If homeland defense is supposed to be fixing these
problems, they need to work on INS some more," Weeks said.
-
- Weeks said the federal government needs to empower local
law enforcement to act in its place if they cannot handle these issues,
although many departments don't want to be responsible for illegal immigrants
due to lack of jail space.
-
- "It's disappointing," Weeks said. "They're
paying for a large agency that isn't working."
-
- - This story was first published 2/11/04.
-
- Copyright © 2004 Willenbrock Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
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