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AT readers don't need further proof that our border security is pathetic. But the case of Mexican illegal alien Tomas Martinez-Maldonado is particularly galling because of the total breakdown of the criminal justice and immigration enforcement systems that led Martinez-Maldonado to rape a 13-year-old girl on a Greyhound bus in Kansas.
Martinez-Maldonado was deported 10 times and voluntarily left the country another 9 times. He was prosecuted for illegal entry several times, serving several months in jail. But somehow, his repeated offenses never made it to the district attorney, who should have had him up on felony immigration charges. In fact, two of his illegal entry cases were dismissed.
Associated Press:
A status hearing in the rape case is scheduled for Jan. 10. Defense attorney Lisa Hamer declined to comment on the charge, but said, "criminal law and immigration definitely intersect and nowadays it should be the responsibility of every criminal defense attorney to know the possible ramifications in the immigration courts."
Nationwide, 52 percent of all federal prosecutions in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 were for entry or re-entry without legal permission and similar immigration violations, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
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