Police Gave Teen to INS, Latinos Say

Latino leaders expressed outrage Tuesday that a teenager arrested after failing to show a valid driver’s license or up-to-date car registration may be deported to her native Colombia.

Marcela Gomez Duque, 18, was stopped about 7 a.m. Monday and detained after she could not produce a driver’s license or registration for her Toyota Corolla, Anaheim Police spokesman Sgt. Rick Martinez said. Because she did not have adequate identification, police asked about her residency, Martinez said.

But Amin David, who heads the Latino rights organization Los Amigos of Orange County, said officers “took her to jail, knowing that she would have contact with INS officers.”

Luis Carrillo, Gomez Duque’s attorney, said the young woman has an 18-month-old daughter born in the United States and that several members of her family have been killed by paramilitary or guerrilla forces in Colombia, factors he said could help her seek asylum.

“If they pick up a suspect on a serious or violent felony, then of course, for the protection of the community, you would want law enforcement to determine if they are a resident of the community,” he said. Gomez Duque was driving to her job at a day-care center when she was pulled over, he said, accusing police of “picking on dark-skinned people.”

John Brechtel, the officer in charge of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Orange County, said Gomez Duque was fined $350 for the traffic offenses and will be interviewed by the INS at a detention facility in Westminster. It is not uncommon for people charged with motor vehicle offenses to be considered for deportation, he said.

Anaheim Police Sgt. Steve Whalen also said that such arrests “are not uncommon at all.” Not carrying a driver’s license or proper registration “is a misdemeanor crime,” he said.