Police Worry Immigrants’ Help in Cases Will Dry Up – washingtonpost.com
Of all the notable details in Montgomery County’s latest murder trial — a telltale sandwich left in a Chevy Chase refrigerator, a smoldering body 18 miles away, a delusional suspect who claimed that the slain man’s watch was about to explode — perhaps nothing stands out more than this: Detectives might not have cracked the case without the help of an immigrant day laborer they know only as Sam.
The case illustrates precisely the type of cooperation that might be diminished if police are asked to step up enforcement of immigration laws, some law enforcement officials said. The trial ended this month with the conviction of a Honduran immigrant in the slaying of a carpenter who had hired him.
“Without the cooperation of that day laborer, that murder goes unsolved,” Montgomery State’s Attorney John McCarthy said. “It’s that pure and simple.”
Also pure and simple – if the Honduran “immigrant” had not come here illegally, he would not have been available to his murderer, an “immigrant” whose legal status WaPo is careful not to mention. If everyone involved in this crime had been within the boundaries of the law, it would have been an entirely unremarkable case. As it is, it’s just another opportunity for the Washington Post to support people who deliberately flout our laws. Which, come to think of it, seems to be a pretty typical stance for the media to take.
