High-profile arrests of people from other countries, some of unclear immigration status, are fueling anti-illegal immigration group concerns that the Washington region is a haven for illegal immigrants. Pro-immigrant activists, meanwhile, say the claims are transparent attempts to link immigrants to crime.
Last week, Manuel De Jesus Gonzalez-Geronimo, a 31-year-old Guatemalan who said he was residing in Hyattsville without papers turned himself in for a hit-and-run crash on Route 29 in Burtonsville that killed two construction workers and injured three others.
Last Saturday, two Hispanic suspects in the grisly New Jersey schoolyard murders of three people and wounding of a fourth were arrested in the Washington area.
On Tuesday, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Mike Gilhooly said he could not confirm the immigration status of one of them, a 16-year-old arrested in Woodbridge, but that ICE is working with local authorities on it.
“My comment is that Maryland in particular is becoming a sanctuary,” Brad Botwin, founder of the anti-illegal immigration group “Help Save Maryland,” told the Examiner.
“Why do they keep picking people up here? It’s very disconcerting that we keep being in the press even if these crimes don’t take place here, there’s a reason people are coming here.”
But immigrant advocacy groups question the intentions of people who cite the high-profile crime arrests of immigrants.
“Regarding the comments, I do believe its people who have an outside agenda and who want to link the immigrant community with crime,” Gustavo Torres, executive director of pro-immigrant CASA of Maryland, said.
Torres referenced a study by the Immigration Policy Center that says immigrants commit crimes far less frequently than American-born people.
The study said the incarceration rate of men aged 18-39 born in the United States is five times greater than foreign-born men in the same age group.
Omar Lemos, 27, a Silver Spring resident from El Salvador, said he is upset whenever he hears about an undocumented immigrant committing a crime.
“It’s ugly, because people don’t realize the action of one person hurts the image of so many people,” Lemos said.
