JUN 04, 2019, 4:00 AM, SAN DIEGO — Marc X. Carlos of Marc Carlos Law, ACP was quoted several times in LA Times Online article titled, ‘LAPD officer was the ‘immigrant dream’ before his life changed at a Border Patrol checkpoint.’
Patara’s attorney, Marc Carlos, said prosecutors should have known his client had too much to lose to engage in smuggling. Patara had entered the U.S. on a visa and, after gaining citizenship, spent two years and thousands of dollars helping his wife legally emigrate from Mexico.
“I think it was an enormous waste of government resources to prosecute a man with no motive to engage in any sort of criminal activity,” Carlos said.
Border Patrol officials scoffed at any suggestion that Patara’s background should have made them question whether the case should have been presented to prosecutors.
“Mr. [Patara’s] position as a police officer does not change the fact that he was transporting two illegal aliens,” said Ralph DeSio, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in San Diego.
Whitney Z. Bernstein, a former federal public defender in San Diego who has litigated smuggling cases, said she was relieved to see prosecutors did not give Patara a pass because he is a police officer. But the fact that prosecutors charged him in spite of questions about his knowledge of the men’s immigration status illustrates the government’s overly aggressive stance on border prosecutions.
“This administration wants to prosecute border crimes, and that is what they are blindly prosecuting, seemingly without regard to the strength of their case,” she said.
Read the rest of the article online: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-mambasse-patara-human-smuggling-lapd-20190604-story.html
