Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Charges against immigrants dropped

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 7, 2007

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The mayor of Hazleton has long cited the May 2006 shooting death of a 29-year-old city man as the impetus for pushing one of the nation's strictest community crackdowns on illegal immigrants.

But on Friday, prosecutors dropped homicide charges against the two illegal immigrants accused of shooting Derek Kichline - depriving Mayor Lou Barletta of one of his key arguments for kicking illegal immigrants out of Hazleton.

Barletta's critics quickly pointed to the decision as evidence that the mayor jumped to conclusions when he accused illegal immigrants of wrecking his northeastern Pennsylvania city of more than 30, 000.

"This dismissal of charges adds to the long list of discredited claims Barletta has made in the course of demonizing undocumented immigrants for allegedly destroying Hazleton, " said Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.

Barletta called Walczak's statement "repulsive."

"Derek Kichline's family and friends will never see justice for his death, " Barletta said. "The fact that the ACLU celebrates this and turns it into a public relations spectacle is disgusting and Mr. Walczak should be ashamed of himself."

Barletta repeatedly said that Kichline's slaying spurred him to propose the Illegal Immigration Relief Act. Though he also said illegal immigrants were caught dealing drugs and committing other crimes, and were a burden to police, schools and hospitals, the slaying was "the one that broke the camel's back, " he said.

Law is challenged

Prosecutors had accused Juan Romero and Pedro Cabrera of walking up to Kichline in front of his home just before midnight on May 10, 2006, and shooting him in the head as his horrified girlfriend looked on. No motive for the slaying was given.

The law, approved by City Council last summer and copied by towns and cities around the nation, would penalize landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and businesses that hire them.

The ACLU has sued in federal court to overturn the illegal immigration law, saying it tramples on the federal government's exclusive power to regulate immigration. A federal judge presided over a nine-day trial over the laws and is expected to rule on its constitutionality later this summer.

Luzerne County prosecutors said they abandoned the case against Romero and Cabrera because key witnesses were either unavailable or unreliable, not because they were convinced of Romero's and Cabrera's innocence.

Romero and Cabrera will continue to be jailed pending their deportation to the Dominican Republic. "They will not be free to walk the streets of Luzerne County, " Assistant District Attorney Mike Vough said.

[Last modified July 7, 2007, 01:18:33]