Submitted by: Donald Hank
Photo by Nancy Lane/handout/AP
Gov. Deval Patrick, left, Matthew Denice, top right, and Nicholas Guaman, bottom right
The stepfather of a Milford man who was dragged to death — allegedly by a drunken driving Ecuadoran illegal alien with an arrest record — wants Gov. Deval Patrick to know he doesn’t consider the get-tough policy pushed by Massachusetts sheriffs a “publicity stunt,” while information emerged late yesterday that a Brazilian arrested Monday in a Marshfield stabbing murder was previously picked up by local police who never notified immigration authorities.
“We believe our son would still be alive,” Michael Maloney, stepfather of dragging victim Matthew J. Denice, told the Herald outside the family’s Milford home yesterday. The Secure Communities program that Patrick rejected is common-sense law enforcement, Maloney said after learning of Patrick’s dismissal of strict immigration enforcement efforts as a “publicity stunt.”
“If Secure Communities were used, there’s a possibility that the prints would have gone back . . . and (immigration authorities) would have said, ‘This guy’s illegal, let’s get rid of him,’ ” Maloney said. “Anything we can do to save people’s lives is a step in the right direction . . . anything so that Matthew’s death wasn’t in vain.”
Authorities say Denice was dragged to death Aug. 20 by Nicholas Guaman, whose criminal record included three charges for driving without a license and another for roughing up a police officer. That case and others, including Monday’s murder of a woman in Marshfield allegedly by a Brazilian illegal immigrant, have touched off calls for Massachusetts to adopt the federal initiative that lets local cops submit foreign-national suspects’ fingerprints directly to immigration officials.
Immigration authorities revealed late yesterday that Marcelo Almeida, facing a murder charge in the stabbing death of Patricia Fernanda Teixera Frois on Monday in Marshfield, had prior contact with local police that might have revealed him as an illegal alien and led to his detention had Secure Communities been in place here.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Ross Feinstein said, “Though Mr. Almeida was previously encountered by local law enforcement in Scituate, Mass., ICE was never notified of his arrest or his unlawful presence in the United States.” Details on that incident weren’t immediately available last night. Feinstein noted that Secure Communities has helped ICE locate previously undetected illegal entrants. Within hours of Almeida’s apprehension in the Marshfield murder Monday, ICE determined he was not legally in the United States.
Patrick has refused to enroll the state in the program, saying the state already provides fingerprints to the FBI. Responding to three Bay State sheriffs’ trip to Washington, D.C., last week to negotiate their own deal with ICE, Patrick yesterday derided Secure Communities.
The program “doesn’t change any of our practices and is more than anything a publicity stunt,” Patrick said on WTKK. “Whether one federal agency can share information with another federal agency — they don’t need a governor to tell them to do that.”
Bristol Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, Plymouth Sheriff Joseph McDonald Jr. and Worcester Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis are heading to the State House today to discuss the deal they cut last week with federal authorities to share information, in an end run around Patrick’s rejection of Secure Communities. They’ve invited Patrick to their press conference, saying they’re ready for a high-noon immigration showdown. The Essex and Barnstable sheriffs also have endorsed the effort.
Hodgson called Patrick’s dismissive attitude “outrageous.”
“We’re not looking to grab headlines, we’re looking to grab criminals,” Hodgson said.
Illegal aliens have been involved in several recent high-profile cases:
Marcelo Almeida, a Brazilian man, was arrested Monday after a 24-year-old woman was stabbed to death in Marshfield. Cops arrested five-time drunken driver Eduardo Alementa Torres on a sixth OUI charge Saturday. Torres was living in Marlboro after a previous deportation. Ecuador native Nicholas Guaman is charged with vehicular homicide while under the influence of alcohol in the August death of Matthew J. Denice, 23, of Milford. Guaman allegedly hit Denice with a car and dragged him a quarter-mile, according to police. The bodies of a young mother and her 2-year-old son were found in a Dumpster in February, allegedly killed by housemate Luis Guaman, a native of Ecuador living illegally in Brockton, cops said. Guaman fled to Ecuador shortly after the crime.
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