In 1989 Marcel Cabrera, a French citizen from Algeria, moved to Louisville. Six years ago he was driving drunk and crashed, severely injuring his passenger. He "nursed her back to health and accepted responsibility for his crimes, pleading guilty to DUI, wanton endangerment and assault."
On July 7 he was returning to the U.S. from Canada and was stopped by federal agents who ran his record and took him into custody. "He has been held without bail since Aug. 17 at a maximum-security jail in Ullin, Ill., and the government is trying to deport him under a law that allows immigrants who are not naturalized citizens to be removed for violent offenses."
He has been here legally on a green card but "never found the time." He is fighting the deportation and twenty supporters have written to the immigration board on his behalf, including the woman who was injured in the crash who said "that if she -- the victim of his crime -- doesn't want Cabrera deported, then nobody should." She also said that this was an isolated incident but that's not exactly true. There haven't been other crashes but he has been arrested for other incidents involving alcohol and has been jailed for violating the terms of his probation.
Should DUI be considered a violent crime deserving of deportation? The judge in the original case gave him probation for five years rather than sending him to prison so why should he now be subject to deportation for the same offense?
Posted by marybeth at October 3, 2005 02:08 PM News