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James Montoya<\/p>\nBy Colleen DeGuzman \/ The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n
In West Texas, a man was indicted in September for assaulting Manuel Chairez-Montes, fracturing the left side of his face. But before District Attorney Sarah Stogner could take the case to trial, Chairez-Montes, who was undocumented, was deported to Mexico.<\/p>\n
Now, the case is in limbo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adan Yanez Porras was charged in Ward County with aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, but Stogner said she can\u2019t prosecute the case without the victim\u2019s testimony. Stogner said he\u2019s applying for a U-Visa, which allows crime victims who are noncitizens to stay in the country for up to four years.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Porras has been out on bond for months. Stogner said he was released almost immediately after his indictment.<\/p>\n
Stogner, who also represents Loving and Reeves counties, said the case is one of the ripple effects of the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on immigration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes it harder for me to convict dangerous felons when \u2026 witnesses are getting deported, victims are getting deported, and the defendant or the perpetrator themselves are getting deported,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As President Donald Trump accelerates mass deportation efforts to \u201ckeep American communities safe,\u201d other Texas district attorneys say in some cases, it\u2019s doing the opposite by making it harder for them to prosecute people accused of violent crimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Texas, undocumented immigrants have reported staying home as much as possible to avoid being targeted by immigration officers or police, and only going out for essential trips like going to work or buying groceries. Some, according to the Houston Chronicle, have stopped going to church.\u00a0<\/p>\n
James Montoya<\/p>\n
El Paso District Attorney James Montoya said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids have stirred so much fear in the immigrant community that some have been reluctant to participate in prosecutions. He pointed to a 2023 murder case he took to trial this year.<\/p>\n
Montoya said a key witness in the case, someone he described as the \u201cfather figure\u201d of the victim, moved to Ohio after the crime and had been cooperating with Montoya\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But when the man learned that the case was set for trial in March \u2014 two months after Trump\u2019s return to the White House \u2014 he decided not to testify because he didn\u2019t want to come back to Texas, worried about being grabbed by immigration agents, Montoya said.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors couldn\u2019t guarantee that a subpoena to testify in court would protect him from being detained and deported, Montoya added. The defendant was found not guilty.<\/p>\n
As much as he needed the man as a witness, Montoya said he understood his fear. ICE has increasingly targeted immigrants when they arrive for court hearings or immigration appointments; ICE agents have arrested people at federal buildings in El Paso, immigration courts in San Antonio, and probation offices in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Montoya said ICE deportations and arrests may be impacting more criminal cases than prosecutors know about.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll just know, \u2018Hey, the person didn\u2019t show up for their court hearing, right?\u2019\u201d Montoya said. \u201cAnd so, did they not show up because they forgot? Did they not show up because they\u2019ve been deported? We don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ali Zakaria, an immigration lawyer in Houston, said the fear of deportation also means many undocumented immigrants may not call police when they\u2019re the victims of a crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives criminals impunity to do whatever they want to the immigrant community because they know immigrants may not go and file a complaint,\u201d Zakaria said. \u201cEven if they file a complaint and if the criminal is arrested, then that immigrant may not come to court and testify.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to courthouse arrests, ICE has been leaning on local law enforcement agencies to call them when they encounter undocumented immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In one case earlier this year, an undocumented Central American couple with their 4-year-old son in the backseat was pulled over by a police officer in Lubbock over an issue with their vehicle\u2019s license plate. Soon after, ICE agents arrived and took Jose Alvaro to a detention center.<\/p>\n
During The Texas Tribune Festival in November, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told an audience that ICE raids have affected nearly a dozen criminal cases his office was pursuing, including sexual assaults of children, because victims and witnesses were either deported or refused to participate in trials because they were undocumented.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat these raids have done, what the fear around them have done, has made it more difficult for me to prosecute violent offenders,\u201d Teare said. \u201cOur job is to see that justice is done for every member of our community, regardless of your documentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris County is part of the ICE region that has seen daily ICE arrests jump by about 30 percentage points from the last 18 months of the Biden administration to the first six months of Trump\u2019s second term, according to a Tribune analysis.<\/p>\n
Some of the people being arrested and deported are victims or witnesses of violent crimes, Teare said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Teare is trying a novel solution: his office began handing out \u201cwitness\/survivor identification cards\u201d to undocumented crime victims and witnesses earlier this year, which they can show to ICE or other law enforcement if they\u2019re detained or arrested.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Teare said the initiative was inspired by a homicide case in Pasadena. Two years ago, Carmelo Gonzalez, an undocumented Guatemalan man who lived in the Houston suburb, came home from work to a nightmare: He found his 11-year-old daughter\u2019s body in a trash bag, stuffed in a laundry hamper underneath his bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police said Maria Gonzalez had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.<\/p>\n
Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez, Gonzalez\u2019s neighbor, was charged with capital murder in connection with Maria\u2019s death and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Teare said Gonzalez is a key witness because he discovered his daughter\u2019s body.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Teare said the father was consumed by guilt because while he was at work that August day, he missed six calls and many texts from his daughter that said someone was in the house.<\/p>\n
A year after his daughter\u2019s death, Gonzalez was arrested in January and charged with drunk driving. Four days later, \u201che was on an airplane, on a tarmac, being sent back to El Salvador, a country he had never been to in his life,\u201d Teare said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just moments before the plane took off, Teare convinced ICE to release Gonzalez. Teare said he explained to them that Gonzales \u201cis the only living person that can tell the jury who this little girl was and be the voice that this little girl doesn\u2019t have.\u201c<\/p>\n
Gonzalez is still able to participate in the case but is now doing it from an ICE detention center.<\/p>\n