Burning Atlanta

These stories are so common I don't even post all of them, just one here and there. I'm posting this one because of a couple of things that stood out.

Slime

If Luciano Melendres had been deported to Mexico following his 2006 arrest for driving drunk – or even if a judge last week hadn't suspended his six-month jail sentence and given him 12 months probation – Dacus Lamont Sims, 32, would be alive today.

"Why do they let this man constantly drive?" asked Joset Sims, the victim's sister. "If this gentleman is an illegal immigrant, and he was charged with DWI, why did they not deport him?"

When Melendres was arrested for the first offense in March 2006, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office had not yet instituted detainee screening to determine whether prisoners were in the U.S. illegally, resulting in his release. It is unclear whether the court was aware of his status as an illegal alien when it suspended his jail sentence last week and released him on probation.

The sheriff's new screening program identified more than 900 illegal immigrants passing through the jail between April and November last year. DWIs – the most common count – accounted for 190 of the arrests. Traffic violations, in second place, totaled 176 counts.

The victim's sister is EXACTLY correct, why wasn't this jerk deported? EVERY jail and law enforcement entity in this country should run an immigration check on everyone arrested and if that person is determined to be here without permission then they should be reported to ICE, and they should start deportation proceedings against them.