Juan Crow

[texaslawchick]

I came home last night and my (lily white) boyfriend nervously said, "Sweetheart, you know that I don't find ANYTHING about this law remotely funny. It's horrible, terrible, awful, and you know I wholeheartedly think that

Comments

Re: Other side?

[ext_105619]

So, I agree with you on most points. The one point where my opinion varies is the car wreck issue. In my case, after being hit, I chased the car down, and once I caught up, parked in such a way to block in the driver who hit me. I was furious and got out of the car to give him a piece of my mind... which, of course, he didn't understand. I called the police and 30 minutes later, the first officer showed up. She didn't speak Spanish, so we waited another 20 minutes for a second officer who did. These police were not impolite and treated Mr. hit-and-run just like anyone else. As it turns out, he had no driver's license, no registration, no insurance, nada. And he was driving a car at least as nice as, or nicer than mine. The police issued him a ticket for the original wreck and for the lack of license and insurance... but couldn't ticket him for the hit-and-run since I caught up with him. (True irony.)

Of course, I was still mad as hell. And madder when the police officers and I watched him get in his car and drive away. I asked them why they didn't address the fact he was clearly here illegally, and their response was, "Thank your Mayor for that. We can't even ask him if he's illegal."

Only because I had the stupidity to chase him down and the patience to wait for a police report was I able to pay a lower deductible for the damage. Otherwise, I would have been screwed. I followed up and went to court and absolutely nothing came of it. He never paid the fines, never reimbursed my insurance company for the damages, and never paid any consequences. He just disappeared. When I related the story to my friends, one out of every four had something similar happen to them or someone very close to them.

Now... take your sister's example. Were the police to arrive at the scene,
the driver wouldn't be getting back in that car. They'd be carted away to jail; the car would be impounded; and they'd be paying legal fees until the end of time. Now, I understand these are two very different offenses. However, these are our laws... and I can't help but think there's something wrong with some people being exempt from them.

Re: Other side?

[texaslawchick]

Wow. That's gutsy. I would have been terrified to chase a car down after having been hit. But would the cops have done any differently than they did had the person been here legally or been a citizen? It's not their role to enforce immigration laws, and plenty of regular people skip out on fines and payments. I know one person who recently paid inquired into his own record and discovered 8 unpaid violations from as far away as 8 years ago totaling up to $1200. He was born in the US, and actually has a very unpleasant view on immigration. If he ever were to get stopped again by the cops, he'd be hauled in on a arrest warrant. I suspect your guy would be too.

Again, I think that most immigrants tend to be hypber law abiding for fear of deportation, but there are of course bad apples in every group of people.