Man Charged With Killing Muslim Teenager Entered United States Illegally, Authorities Say

[Jose Garcia]

Source: The New York Times

A 22-year-old man accused of killing a Muslim teenager with a baseball bat in Virginia on Sunday is an undocumented immigrant who entered the United States illegally, federal authorities said on Tuesday.

The man, Darwin Martinez Torres, who was charged with murder in the death of Nabra Hassanen, 17, is believed to be from El Salvador, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said. The agency said it issued a so-called detainer on Monday with the Adult Detention Center in Fairfax, Va., where Mr. Torres is being held without bail, to keep him in custody in the event that he could be released.

ICE, which said it had no previous encounters with Mr. Torres, did not say when he came to the United States, how old he was at the time and whether he arrived with anyone else. Minors in El Salvador have fled that country in recent years, often traveling north through Mexico, to escape violent gangs. Under President Barack Obama, the White House expanded a humanitarian program to admit Central American refugees fleeing dangerous conditions.

The announcement by ICE came on a day that vigils for Ms. Hassanen were held in New York City, Washington and elsewhere, and as calls have mounted for the police in Fairfax County to charge Mr. Torres with a hate crime. While Ms. Hassanen was with a group of friends who were wearing Muslim head scarves and robes, the police in Fairfax County have said that the killing had resulted from a “road rage incident” and that no evidence had emerged to warrant a hate crime charge.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/us/muslim-girl-murder-virginia-illegal-immigrant.html

[keithbvadu2]

1. To republicans he has two things going for him.

To republicans he has two things going for him.

Killing a Muslim.

He is a 'Christian'.

[RhodeIslandOne]

4. If you are going to assume he is a Christian....

....you then therefore have to assume that millions of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America are also Christians. So what's "going for them"?

Such an odd comment.

[IronLionZion]

7. Not sure about the Christian part

since they clearly don't give a shit about Christian refugees and immigrants, or even native born Christians who have the wrong skin color.

Republicans support violence against black Christians, for example.

Asian and Latino Christians are still treated as perpetual foreigners even when multiple generations have lived in the US.

[keithbvadu2]

8. Republicans can use it both ways

"Christian'

and

'not the right kind of Christian'

It just depends on what is beneficial to them at the moment.

[Kleveland]

16. Not to mention the perp was an undocumented immigrant.

That could yield quite an odd spin....

[Shell_Seas]

2. I imagine that Republicans feel very conflicted about this...

[IronLionZion]

6. They'll have it both ways

They'll use this to support their claim on why it's important to screw over immigrants and racially profile people. Latinos are murderers. Brown people are perpetual foreigners. Etc.

And they will quietly support the hate crimes and murders of brown and Muslims victims. Trump will tweet nothing, as usual. Some of the more deplorable ones will boast of it openly as brown on brown crime. They'll continue to spew hatred to encourage more violence.

And they'll slip in a third one: this is proof that they need to buy more guns, for protection from crazed Latino murderers. And they never know when they will have to fight off a gang of lots of brown people high on drugs, so they need semi-automatics with high capacity magazines.

[Coventina]

9. Bingo! n/t

[Shell_Seas]

12. Depressing.

[Ligyron]

15. Yeah, but sensible gun control laws are an almost hopeless cause here in the USA.

Even the very sensible idea of doing background checks on people would be difficult to ever get passed. We lose votes by even bringing it up for discussion.

[christx30]

18. Most of what I've read is the usual:

"It’s just another young girl dead at the hand of someone who shouldn’t have been here in the first place."

[Honeycombe8]

3. Horrible thing to happen to this young woman. Horrible. She must have suffered

and been so frightened. He kidnapped her after hitting her with a baseball bat. A BAT!

And this guy...his pic shows he's a handsome young man. The world was his oyster. He was here in America, with free education and job opportunities. He could have been anything. But he went this way.

Tragic and horrible. So much violence these days. No one is safe.

[snooper2]

5. I guess we have different definitions of handsome

you can make a scarf out of the assholes eyebrows

[Sunlei]

11. yup, poor girl. the man 'raged' at the group with a bat, the girl was only one he could hit.

Then he took her away in his car and finished her off.

[hadEnuf]

10. The RW doesn't bother with consistancy in their hatred.

They will screech about this scumbag being illegal while in the same breath cheering that he did this to a "Muzzie who deserved it".

[muntrv]

13. Gee Trump, will you refer this to VICE (victims of immigrant crime enforcement)?

[Xipe Totec]

14. So much for extreme vetting

When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws immigrate.

[B2G]

17. He wasn't vetted. He was here illegally. nt

[Xipe Totec]

22. Precisely my point. nt

[christx30]

25. Point being, what, exactly?

Criminals coming across the border illegally, circumventing laws that check people to make sure they are not dangerous? What do you suggest be done to stop this from happening and get that vetting that would help?

[Xipe Totec]

26. The point is that no vetting can prevent criminals from entering the country

It only keeps law abiding people from entering the country. So extreme vetting is a stupid idea concocted by right wing nut jobs to prevent legal immigration under the guise of protecting the country.

Clear?

[christx30]

28. So zero controls over who comes in

and who stays out is better than some controls. We may not get all the bad guys, but might get people like this before they can do damage. Unless you think the US is better off with criminals like this.
The answer is that you keep it difficult to legally make it into the country. The law abiding people will wait and do it right. The criminals will jump across like this guy did. It shows they don't respect our laws. They aren't an asset to the country. They don't deserve any accommodation. We're better off without them. Immigration is great, if it's done legally.

[Nash Teeth]

19. One of Trump's bad hombres

I suppose.

[EL34x4]

30. Sure looks that way.

[cigsandcoffee]

20. Probably not the hate crime everyone seemed to think it was, then. n/t

[friendly_iconoclast]

21. Maybe it was- his undocumented status probably had nothing to do with it

[ck4829]

23. Yep, she was abducted and brutally murdered, but at least it wasn't a hate crime. Good to know.

[AngryAmish]

24. The asshole was Ms 13. Zeta class maniacs.

[Not Ruth]

27. Is that true?

It take a special kind of evil to kidnap and murder a child over an argument at McDonald's

[ck4829]

29. Wait, what? What exactly was the verbal argument?

As of Monday, the Fairfax County Police formally stated that there was no evidence Hassanen’s killing was a hate crime, and it is currently being investigated as a “road rage” incident. According to the Washington Post, Lt. Bryan Holland said, “There was no indication of any racial slurs or any back-and-forth other than a verbal argument.”

https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/6/22/15841650/nabra-hassanen-murder-islamophobia-hate-crime

So I guess Martinez is like the Hulk, when he gets really angry, he doesn't need an English translator anymore? Or did Nabra's high school provide her with the education on how to speak Salvadoran Spanish on a conversational level?

Hmm...