Como se llama?

This would be Thursday's post...

I had a young man today who was in jail. He is Mexican, and he has been here for four months. He was homeless and arrested for trespassing at a park he was previously told to stay away from. He was also arrested for being publicly intoxicated and for begging for money. Upon being arrested, he gave a fake name and was charged with that, too.

He had been in jail for 44 days. He was listed in the jail under a different name than the one he was arrested under. And he was arrested under a different name than he originally told the officer. So what the hell is his name? I have no idea.

Illegal Hispanic immigrants often will give a fake name upon being arrested. The State tries to do a record check before accepting their plea, but it is difficult to know whether the check you are running is really for the same person. So a guy whose real name is Jose Lima gets arrested. He tells the police his name is Jose Diaz. He is held in jail until his court date. He enters a guilty plea and his record is run. Nothing. He gets credit for time served and is released.

A month after getting out Jose Lima is arrested again. This time he gives his name as Miguel Diaz. He may or may not give the same date of birth. There is no record for a Miguel Diaz, so he goes free. Had the court known of his prior convictions, they might not let him go. But they don't know.

There are really only two ways that the right record will come up for an illegal Hispanic defendant. One is that the guy is honest and gives his real name. This certainly does happen often. Another is that the officer recognizes the guy and knows his name. This happens rarely.

With all the political talk about what to do with illegal immigrants, I am surprised that someone doesn't make an effort to have the ones who are committing crimes deported. I mean, the drunk and begging for money in the park is not really a big deal. But it happens with felonies, too. Illegal immigrants commit felonies, get probation, and are released. How is that even possible? How are we not at least deporting illegal immigrants who are committing felonies? I have no idea.

But Hispanics really get screwed by the law. As bad as black males have it, Hispanic males probably have it worse. I do my best to help them, but it is such a difficult battle. They have no idea what is going on. It's not like the most educated and wealthy Hispanics are sneaking over the border. We are dealing with a group that is largely uneducated and illiterate. When they get let out of jail and placed on probation, they have no idea what to do. They don't know who to report to. If they do know who to report to, the chances are that there is no one at that office who knows how to speak Spanish.

It's a mess. I don't know what the answers are, but we could start by not placing them on probation. Or, if we are going to do that, we need to have personnel in place who know how to speak Spanish.