theunionleader.com
JAFFREY — Jorge Mora Ramirez' trespassing case remains in limbo for the time being, because the judge who heard it has been asked to hear similar cases coming out of Hudson in Nashua District Court.
Ramirez, 21, currently living in Waltham, Mass., is the illegal alien who was charged with criminal trespassing by New Ipswich police last April after federal authorities wouldn't take charge of him. The unprecedented use of New Hampshire's criminal trespassing law has attracted national attention, as many want to know whether local authorities are able to do that.
Ramirez' attorneys argued that the case should be dismissed because local police don't have the authority to enforce immigration law.
"This is a threshold issue," said Jaffrey-Peterborough District Court Judge L. Phillips Runyon III, who also questioned whether he had the right to determine if a person is in the country illegally.
"Is it really my role?" Runyon said, adding that he knows nothing about immigration law.
"But I have been asked to hear the Hudson cases, too. I am reluctant to issue a determination in this case before having heard the other cases."
That, Runyon said, could take several weeks.
A group of lawmakers, however, is readying a bill that will give local police the authority to charge illegal aliens with criminal trespass, regardless of what happens in the Ramirez case.
Posted by katie at July 13, 2005