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Hard numbers: Illegal alien drunk drivers in North Carolina
michellemalkin.com ^ | April 19, 2008 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008 4:30:35 PM by Free ThinkerNY

Hard numbers: Illegal alien drunk drivers in North Carolina

By Michelle Malkin • April 19, 2008

WRAL reports on a new statistical breakdown of illegal alien drunk drivers in North Carolina. It’s a blood-pressure-raising look at the deadly revolving door, catch-and-release, the deportation abyss, and the danger of sanctuary policies embraced by those sworn to defend and protect the public:

Seven-year-old Marcus Lassiter won’t see his eighth birthday. George Smith was on his morning commute to Duke University but never made it to work. Betty Coates might struggle with daily tasks for the rest of her life.

Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell sees a pattern among the cases of these victims of drunken driving: Each accused driver was in the United States illegally.

Bizzell pointed to Hipolito Hernandez, an illegal immigrant who faces second-degree murder charges in the hit-and-run that killed Marcus last Sunday.

“This case here is a prime example of the justice system letting the people down,” Bizzell said.

Nearly 300 illegal immigrants were convicted on driving-while-impaired charges and placed in North Carolina prisons in 2007.

Hispanics also account for 18 percent of drunken-driving arrests, while making up less than 7 percent of the state’s population, according to a study from the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center aired in WRAL’s documentary “Focal Point: Crossing the Line.”

The study also showed that Hispanics involved in car crashes were 2.5 times more likely to be drunk than white drivers and three times more likely to be drunk than black drivers.

In the three cases listed above, each of the accused drunken drivers had extensive contact with the judicial system – but had managed to elude the immigration system until these incidents.

Johnston County is lucky to have a law enforcement leader who refuses to capitulate to open-borders hectoring and propaganda. He gets it:

Latino advocacy groups often urge the public to step back from the emotion over immigration and focus on the individual crimes.

Advocates admit that drunk driving is a problem within the Hispanic community and have aired public-service ads to combat the problem.

Drunk driving is also the No. 1 killer of young Hispanic men, according to the UNC study.

Bizzell said the tragedy is that deaths such as Marcus’ and debilitating injuries such as Coates’ are preventable.

“This isn’t about race. This isn’t about Mexico versus the United States,” Bizzell said. “It’s about a drunk Mexican that’s illegal, driving drunk, no operator’s license, stolen vehicle, killing a little 7-year-old boy.”