Killing suspects returned to Waynesboro

Two men wanted in a Waynesboro killing rolled back into the city as prisoners Thursday, stirring tensions between City Hall and police over immigration policy.

Some city officials wanted to know why David Luna Sanchez, 21, charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Eduardo “Piku” Herrera, 52, earlier this summer, was still in town at the time.

An illegal immigrant from Mexico, Sanchez pleaded guilty roughly a year ago to beating Herrera with a baseball bat. Abeil Dominquez Vazquez, 18, another suspected illegal immigrant, also is charged in Herrera’s killing.

“We clearly heard from the chief of police that no call was made to ICE,” said City Councilman Mike Harris, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency tasked with enforcing immigration law. “You’re looking at a five- to 10-minute phone call to ICE. My question is, why are we not doing that?”

Waynesboro police Chief Doug Davis said that ICE officials had Sanchez’ name but he was unsure whether police provided it. He said law enforcement always has had the option to check status, but he would resist a mandate to do that, fearing it would increase the load on his already overworked department. He cited 44-percent budget cuts over the last three years.

“Our officers are already taking on some added responsibilities,” he said.

Police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Walker said focusing attention on dangerous criminals is the main goal.

“And obviously, we missed an opportunity with David” Sanchez, Walker said.

Harris, along with Councilman Bruce Allen, expressed concern that illegal immigrants have become a problem in the city, including in the crime-ridden apartment complex at 260 N. Commerce Ave., where Herrera was killed. Both councilmen said they support Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal to include state police in combating immigration problems across the state.

“These are things that are real and dangerous, and we need to be dealing with them straight up front,” said Harris, a former state police lieutenant. “I have nothing against immigration, as long as it’s done the legal way.”

McDonnell earlier this month requested a 287(g) agreement with the federal
government to shift some responsibility to state police to fight illegal immigration.

“We contemplate addressing those aliens who are engaged in major drug offenses or violent offenses such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and kidnapping, as well as DUI offenses,” he wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

While Waynesboro police collect fingerprints and information from serious criminal offenders, local authorities do not necessarily contact ICE to alert agents to cases involving illegal immigrants, Walker said.

“The reality was we would call [ICE] and they would say, ‘Thanks,’ ” he said. “And we wouldn’t hear anything more about it. There’s a reality, and there’s a way things ought to be.”

According to e-mails between City Manager Mike Hamp and City Council obtained by The News Virginian, ICE had Sanchez’ name at the time of the murder.

Sanchez, however, was never picked up by ICE. Agency officials said they could not provide specific information about Sanchez.

“ICE, I am told, is generally overwhelmed and cannot act on all reports expeditiously,” Hamp wrote. “Which is why only known, serious offenders are reported.”

Davis said officers check immigration status if they have a reason: When they are trying to learn about a person’s identity or address, for example.

“We just find that we don’t ask that often,” Davis said.

Davis said officers have worked to establish a good relationship with the immigrant population in the city but that fears over deportation can delay investigations.

He said a workplace fatality during construction of Martin’s was hindered when two illegal immigrant witnesses, who had done nothing wrong, evaded police for more than a week.

Michele Waslin, a senior policy analyst at the Immigration Policy Center, agreed that deputizing local police officers to enforce immigration issues can make community policing difficult.

“It detracts them from doing other work they’re supposed to do,” she said. “It can also prove to be expensive for a community because 287(g) doesn’t get money from the federal government.”

Waslin said programs such as ICE’s Secure Communities and the Law Enforcement Support Center already offer opportunities for local police to partner with federal agencies.

“We need to look at this practically,”she said. “It’s not going to solve the problems with immigration.”

Davis said he does not expect a policy change when it comes to inquiring about citizenship.

Allen said he does not support starting a witch hunt for illegal immigrants in the city. But he said allowing illegal immigrants to stay once discovered is “not fair to the people who are trying to follow the law and follow the rules.”

Davis said he believes immigrants in the community tend to be hardworking and law-abiding, but that controversies, particularly in Arizona, can skew perceptions.

The chief said that despite some public perceptions, Hispanics are not responsible for a significant portion of the crimes committed in Waynesboro. But Harris said a strict approach to removing illegal immigrants from the city might have saved Herrera’s life.

“I understand there are good folks, but there’s a process,” he said. “If you don’t want to do that, then as far as I’m concerned, we don’t want you.”

Seeking to create a joint task force between city and state police would be a first step toward adopting a tougher approach to immigration, Harris said.

“The federal agencies are swamped … and they are now saying, ‘Help us with this,’ and that is exactly what I think we need to do,” he said. “You can’t get away from Sanchez and the fact that he’s alleged to have committed murder.”

Ernestine Fobbs, an ICE spokeswoman, said cooperation with 287(g) would provide officers with training to handle the wide range of issues with illegal immigration.

“They still are under the jurisdiction of the [federal] agents in that particular area,” Fobbs said. “They can do some initial clearances in looking to see if they are here in the country illegally.”

Of the 128,345 criminal immigrants removed from the U.S. last year, nearly a third had committed crimes involving “dangerous drugs.”

Immigrants with traffic offenses ranked second at about 16 percent of those removed for those violations.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it removed a total of nearly 390,000 people from the country in 2009.

The Obama administration has made deporting immigrants who commit crimes a priority of its immigration enforcement policies, and Congress has tried to steer funding toward such arrests and deportations.

City Editor Tony Gonzalez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.