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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Illegal immigrant left for days in Arkansas jail without food or water
FAYETTEVILLE — A woman being held as an illegal immigrant spent four days forgotten in an isolated holding cell at a courthouse with no food, water, or toilet, authorities and the woman said.
...
Bailiff Jarrod Hankins put her in the cell to await transport to jail, and she was forgotten. Because of heavy snow, few staff members were in the courthouse to hear her cries and pounding later Thursday or on Friday and through the weekend.
Torres-Flores wasn't found until Monday morning when Hankins opened the door. She was treated at a hospital and allowed to go home.
...
The cell had two benches, a metal table and a light that Torres-Flores could not turn off. She slept using a shoe to cushion her head, she told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, with 14-year-old daughter Adriana acting as an interpreter.
"She was feeling like she was going to die," Adriana said. "She had to use the bathroom on the floor."
...
Torres-Flores' trial is set for April 1, and she faces deportation by federal immigration authorities.
Hat tip: Lew Rockwell's blog.
A previous Shotgun post on the treatment of illegal immigrants can be found here.
UPDATE:
The New York Times version of this story can be found here.
“Everybody is backing away from it as fast as they can,” [Torres-Flores' immigration lawyer] said. “Frankly, that’s how they treat Hispanics down here. They treat Hispanics like cattle, like less than human.”
Posted by Terrence Watson on March 11, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
America is a mean and heartless country which deliberately victimizes the poor and the weak and especially women.
It is good that you folks have finally begun to publicize some of this horror.
Would you please now publish the terrible reports of the torture in Iraq, no not Saddaam's wood chipper; the American attrocities, women's panties on the male prisoner's heads.
You're finally getting the Western Standard whipped into shape and starting to get into some really important main stream media type work.
Congrats!
Posted by: Conrad-USA | 11-Mar-08 7:36:01 PM
Conrad,
1) If this is true and intentional, the person responsible should be fired.
2) If this is true and accidental, then their procedures need to be reviewed at the very least.
3) If this is not true, I wouldn't be surprised.
4) If this is true and not policy, only a bigot would hold a whole country of 300 million as somehow inherently evil.
I expect it's 2 and I expect 4 to post here at any moment.
Posted by: h2o273kk9 | 11-Mar-08 7:42:41 PM
h20,
Good run down. According to the article, it was an accident.
Conrad,
I love the United States, probably even more than I love Canada. I wasn't posting this as an indictment of the U.S. or of Americans generally, but you have to admit this was a messed up situation, and something wrong was done to this woman.
At the same time, the sense I've gotten from some people is that illegal immigrants shouldn't have any rights, and are lucky just not to be shot on sight. I hope that sentiment isn't widespread in America (and I don't think it is) but some people do seem to feel that way.
Well, here we go: the woman wasn't shot on sight, but she did go through something horrible. Does she deserve better, despite the fact that she entered the country illegally?
Best,
Terrence
Posted by: Terrence Watson | 11-Mar-08 8:30:50 PM
I can't say I'm all that moved by her plight. As someone who would happily immigrate legally to the United States - but finds the country flooded by illegal aliens, chain immigrants, and "diversity" immigrants, I can't say that I feel all that bad for the people who get breaks under the current system.
After all, given this, the odds are that she'll parlay this into being allowed to stay, rather than being deported. Indeed, given that illegal aliens who are victims of crimes get visas and that this clearly was a crime, whether negligence or whatever, I can't say that I feel bad for her at all.
More to the point - I despise illegal aliens and, therefore, could care less what happens to them. The best that can be said is that I don't wish them any specific harm.
Posted by: Adam Yoshida | 11-Mar-08 9:51:16 PM
Sorry but this is an American issue. If the facts are true, then their authorities can deal with it. Frankly I have no tears to shed for illegals regardless.
Posted by: Alain | 11-Mar-08 9:51:47 PM
For once I agree with Conrad. You seem to have an agenda. This and the post about children in detention are sensational. You say it was an accident, but the title implies otherwise.
Posted by: dp | 11-Mar-08 10:12:21 PM
Dp,
What's false or misleading about the title?
Best,
Terrence
Posted by: Terrence Watson | 11-Mar-08 11:00:37 PM
"Keep the name Tyler Evans in mind as you watch the Senate amnesty extravaganza this week. He was a four-year-old boy killed by a drunk-driving illegal alien last August. The driver, Christian Javier Sanchez-Rubio, was a Mexican too inebriated to keep his vehicle in the right lane and as a result, an innocent little boy is dead and a loving family is devastated."
http://tylerleeevans11201.org/
Posted by: DJ | 11-Mar-08 11:41:27 PM
"“A New York construction worker was charged with murder Monday in the death of actress Adrienne Shelly, which was originally ruled a suicide.”
As I write this, there are 371 stories written about the accused murderer, Diego Pillco, according to Google search–almost all of them refer to him as a “construction worker” or “teenager.” (here)
When I first heard about the tragedy on the news yesterday, I could tell by the intentionally vague description of Pillco that he was most likely an illegal immigrant…a fact the MSM is always neglect to mention.
The Arizona Republic managed to call him an “undocumented immigrant” but only The Conservative Voice told the truth:
DIEGO PILLCO IS AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT!!
An illegal immigrant who (allegedly) killed an American woman after she complained about the noise he was making…but we don’t have a problem with illegal immigation, right?"
Posted by: DJ | 11-Mar-08 11:45:14 PM
"A Peruvian national in the U.S. illegally and who was previously charged with raping a 5-year-old pleaded not guilty Friday in the execution-style slayings of three young college students a day after surrendering to Mayor Cory Booker.
Jose Carranza, 28, who also goes by the alias Jose La Chira, entered his plea before Essex County Superior Court Judge Michael Casale. A second suspect, a 15-year-old boy, has been held pending a detention hearing. Authorities were seeking to have him tried as an adult...
FOX News has learned Carranza, who has a fake Social Security number, had been arrested on charges of raping a 5-year-old and then threatening the child and parents. In that case he faced a 31-count indictment.
In another, he was arrested on assault charges stemming from a bar fight.
Immigration officials apparently were aware of Carranza's illegal status since his prior arrests, according to Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura."
Posted by: DJ | 11-Mar-08 11:49:08 PM
Break out the violin another criminal has been done wrong.
I'll bet she stays home now.
I'll bet if we treated illegal aliens like the criminals they are, far fewer would risk coming where they clearly do not belong.
Posted by: John West | 11-Mar-08 11:57:48 PM
Conrad wrote: “America is a mean and heartless country which deliberately victimizes the poor and the weak and especially women.”
Yes, I agree women are much better off in places like Iran. You have proof that women suffer especially in the U.S., I presume? May we see it please?
Conrad wrote: “It is good that you folks have finally begun to publicize some of this horror.”
Yet if they were to print a story about a similar blunder in another part of the world, they would be considered racist and culturally insensitive.
Conrad wrote: “Would you please now publish the terrible reports of the torture in Iraq, no not Saddaam's wood chipper; the American attrocities, women's panties on the male prisoner's heads.”
And why should the American “tortures” be given pre-eminence over the horrors of the previous regime? You’re not pushing an agenda, by any chance?
Conrad wrote: “You're finally getting the Western Standard whipped into shape and starting to get into some really important main stream media type work.”
They do not need your word to know what they are doing is important. Honestly, get over yourself.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 12-Mar-08 7:20:07 AM
Terrence wrote: "Well, here we go: the woman wasn't shot on sight, but she did go through something horrible. Does she deserve better, despite the fact that she entered the country illegally?"
Does she DESERVE better? No. In order to deserve something you have to earn it, and she has earned nothing but legal sanctions. Is she LEGALLY ENTITLED to better. Yes, under the law. I would not entertain a lawsuit from her, however; she was embarrassed and thirsty for a few days, not deprived of material goods or wages. And guess who paid for her treatment at the hospital?
Note that deservedness and entitlement are two separate things.
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 12-Mar-08 7:23:50 AM
Shane I enjoy your posts very much, your a great addition to this blog, but I believe Conrad was being tongue in cheek with his post here.
Being an American himself I think he took this thread as a bash to his country.
Posted by: deepblue | 12-Mar-08 7:38:12 AM
>"A woman being held as an illegal immigrant spent four days forgotten in an isolated holding cell at a courthouse with no food, water, or toilet, authorities and the woman said."
Some women pay big money for that kind of diet regime.
Of course, when you aren't partaking of food or water the toilet is superfluous.
Posted by: Speller | 12-Mar-08 7:39:40 AM
if you look at NY times article ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/us/12jail.html?em&ex=1205467200&en=4d1adb2a518ac936&ei=5087%0A )
you see that this woman was 38 years old, and she had been living here for 19 years... for those of you who are too dense to calculate, that's when she was 9 years old... and not by choice. She's just as a human being as you are... the comments that some of the people here are giving is absolutely disgusting. karma's a bitch, it'll come back.
Posted by: Nobody | 12-Mar-08 7:41:11 AM
In addition to my previous post I should have mentioned that what prbably ranked on this woman the most was being forgotten for 4 days.
Woman hate being ignored the most.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
Posted by: Speller | 12-Mar-08 7:42:15 AM
>"you see that this woman was 38 years old, and she had been living here for 19 years... for those of you who are too dense to calculate, that's when she was 9 years old..."
LOL
Posted by: Speller | 12-Mar-08 7:45:04 AM
good job, go and take your sexist filth elsewhere, see if that'll get you laid.
I like how the anti-human rights individuals often infuse their rhetoric with misogyny.
and for the person above who said 'i have no sympathy for this woman' as I said Karma's a bitch. I'd like to see how you feel if your 9 years old, taken to a foreign country because of desperate situations, there you're treated like an animal and prevented from getting education and constantly faced with racism and sexism, left in a cycle of poverty and forced to rely on desperate means to provide for your children, imprisoned when trying to make ends meet (when what you were doing was at most harmful to the morons at the RIAA who are getting their money's worth from suing college students), and then left to die from starvation and dehydration in a small cube-- and then some idiot says they feel no pain at your suffering.
For the one who said to deserve something it must be earned: why don't you start earning the value of being considered a human being.
Children of Adam are members of one body
Who are created from the same origin;
If one member, one limb is in pain,
the other members cannot be at peace.
You who feel no pain at the suffering of others
It is not fitting for you to be called human.
Posted by: nobody | 12-Mar-08 7:54:40 AM
Nobody
"you see that this woman was 38 years old, and she had been living here for 19 years... for those of you who are too dense to calculate, that's when she was 9 years old... and not by choice. "
38 - 19 = 19. Hence, that would make her emancipated.
Be careful using ad hominem epithets like "too dense". It can come back and bite you.
Posted by: h2o273kk9 | 12-Mar-08 7:57:34 AM
20+20=40
19+19=38
Is your calculator broken.
Do you need a computer or did you leave you abacus at home today?
Who's dense now?
Nobody.
Posted by: Speller | 12-Mar-08 7:58:21 AM
Nobody wrote: "you see that this woman was 38 years old, and she had been living here for 19 years... for those of you who are too dense to calculate, that's when she was 9 years old..."
Once again, liberals prove their freewheeling ineptitude when it comes to two of the most important subjects required in public policy: history and math. Come to think of it, aren't those the two subjects most integral to the prediction of trends like, say, global warming?
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 12-Mar-08 8:01:16 AM
Nobody wrote: “good job, go and take your sexist filth elsewhere, see if that'll get you laid.”
How do you know he already isn’t getting some? I mean, just because he isn’t getting any from YOU…
Nobody wrote: “I like how the anti-human rights individuals often infuse their rhetoric with misogyny.”
Liar, liar! Pants on fire!
Nobody wrote: “and for the person above who said 'i have no sympathy for this woman' as I said Karma's a bitch. I'd like to see how you feel if your 9 years old, taken to a foreign country because of desperate situations, [blah, blah, blah…]
She was 19, asshole. I can’t believe how much you suck.
Nobody wrote: “For the one who said to deserve something it must be earned: why don't you start earning the value of being considered a human being.”
Considered by who, you? Why is your consideration worth earning? I don't need your permission to exist, and the law already recognizes my status as a human, NOT subject to revocation by you or anyone else. You wouldn't happen to be related to another sunshine boy named Adolf Hitler, would you?
“It is better to keep one’s mouth shut, and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Posted by: Shane Matthews | 12-Mar-08 8:08:48 AM
H20 said. "4) If this is true and not policy, only a bigot would hold a whole country of 300 million as somehow inherently evil."
And I agree on that point. Maybe have an offline chat with Philanthropist about this. I had a tough time selling him on that idea, after his comment about another prisoner story.
Philanthropist: "Not my problem. Iranians are savages."
10-Mar-08 11:23:28 PM"
Posted by: Pattern Recognition | 12-Mar-08 8:10:51 AM
This blog has lost its way. 24+ posts on a tragic but ultimately trivial story.
Posted by: Epsilon | 12-Mar-08 9:16:16 AM
Idunno Epsilon. From a purely drawing-in-broad-spectrum-traffic POV it may have Found its way. Back when it had it's 'way', the magazine went out of print. That had to suck for someone.
It's the 588,069th most popular site on the web, and that only sounds bad until you find out that three months ago it was 115,769 slots lower. And their overall percentage reach is up 38% from 0.0002% to 0.0004%. 115,769 sites became less popular than this one in the last three months. To tap a meme here, imagine a landslide of dead websites a la that 300 movie.
If your banker said your portfolio were up 38% would you say they had lost their way? Maybe you're just not getting your way. Sorry if that sounds mean, but it's how Supernanny would put it.
Posted by: Pattern Recognition | 12-Mar-08 9:42:29 AM
From the "David Archuleta, Ayn Rand and Joey Buttafuoco" Thread
>"This article is representative of I why I have quit reading Western Standard blogs. Sorry I bothered logging on today.
Epsi
Posted by: Epsilon | 7-Mar-08 1:00:58 PM
Today
>"This blog has lost its way. 24+ posts on a tragic but ultimately trivial story."
Posted by: Epsilon | 12-Mar-08 9:16:16 AM
I know you "quit" 2 or 3 times before.
Why don't you put us all out of your misery?
Posted by: Speller | 12-Mar-08 10:09:22 AM
Epsilon -
I missed you (and many others). Where did you go? Really, where?
Posted by: Conrad-USA | 12-Mar-08 12:00:05 PM
H20 said. "4) If this is true and not policy, only a bigot would hold a whole country of 300 million as somehow inherently evil."
Funny, no one called Daniel Goldhagen a bigot. Wonder why?
Posted by: DJ | 12-Mar-08 2:01:49 PM
DJ,
Um, not to quibble, but it was German policy.
Still, I think you are right that if he was pointing his finger at every German as somehow evil because of what their gov't did in their name, well, yes he is a bigot.
That is not to let off the hook the very large number who did know and relished in it. They deserve their label.
Posted by: h2o273kk9 | 12-Mar-08 2:37:44 PM
Please invetigate accordingly as it's known that msot illegal aliens lie in order to foster sympathy.
Posted by: Joe Joe | 13-Mar-08 12:04:19 PM
Right you are joe joe. Every single refugee in Canada uses the word torture. If they lose an appeal, they bring out the real juicy stuff, like female circumcision, or forced marriage.
It's just like Maritimers applying for EI. They all know the key words. Dangerous work conditions, replaced by bosses nephew, cigar smoke hurt my eyes.
Workers Compensation hears the same tune. Low back pain, soft tissue injury, carpal tunnel syndrome.
My favourite; What, don't you hire minorities?
Posted by: dp | 13-Mar-08 12:20:54 PM
dp, "Every single refugee in Canada uses the word torture."
Nope. Every single refugee on Canada used the word persecution. Some refugees may use the word torture and then see their status changed FROM refugee to an entirely new category...
We follow the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Convention Refugee status only addresses risk of persecution.
The RPD has a separate category called "Persons in Need of Protection" to protect people at risk of torture, death, or cruel and unusual punishment.
"The RPD's role is to determine which claimants are Convention refugees or persons in need of protection."
http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/media/infosheets/rpdfacts_e.htm
That took me all of 48 seconds of Googling and 12 seconds of reading to confirm. I recommend it. Had Zebulon Pike done the same he might not have repeatedly claimed to be named after the guy who died two days before ZP says he was supposed to have burnt Toronto to the ground.
Posted by: Pattern Recognition | 13-Mar-08 1:07:10 PM
I recommend more than 12 seconds of research. This site has absolutely no record of what refugees actually claim as a reason they need to be protected. It has no mechanism for tracking such information. I base my statement on high profile deportation attempts.
I made an unsubstantiated remark. I'm allowed to do that. Your rebuttal was also unsubstantiated. Please check the superiority complex at the door.
Posted by: dp | 13-Mar-08 1:26:30 PM
Extreme predeterminers like 'all', 'every', and 'none', paired with strong indicatives like 'are' are [here it comes] always suspicious.
Compare 1: All of your comments are sloppy.
To 2: Many of your comments seem sloppy.
In 1, all you need to do is find a single unsloppy comment to prove the entire statement false and statement 1 smashes like glass.
2 is harder to debate because 'many' can be subjective, and 'seem' can be subjective too. Statement 2 absorbs like water.
Posted by: Pattern Recognition | 13-Mar-08 1:48:51 PM
PR
"Extreme predeterminers like 'all', 'every', and 'none', paired with strong indicatives like 'are' are [here it comes] always suspicious."
Extreme predeterminers like ... OFTEN SEEM suspicious.
I learn fast.
Posted by: h2o273kk9 | 13-Mar-08 1:57:46 PM
Please don't encourage the alleged little turd.
Posted by: dp | 13-Mar-08 1:59:49 PM
That's where the [here it comes] was supposed to set up a pause for a self-serving example/illustration. This stuff generally sounds better when you read it out loud.
dp, good use of 'alleged'. I forgot to ask, is dp a play on the old D.P. moniker native-borns used to slap on kids who steamed over from the old country?
Posted by: Pattern Recognition | 13-Mar-08 2:08:43 PM
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