Anger toward immigration policies rises as police say the man, who had a long arrest record and was in the country illegally, was allowed to roam freely because of state and federal policies.
California police are investigating the rape and bludgeoning death of a 64-year-old Air Force veteran, and police are saying it’s state and federal policies that have allowed the two illegal immigrants accused of committing the crime to roam freely despite a long rap sheet.
Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin called it a “national issue” that “starts with [the administration and their policies, he said according to a Fox News report.
The attack killed Marilyn Pharis, 64, an Air Force veteran back on July 24. Martin said that the governor and the legislature is to blame for allowing the man to roam freely despite his arrest record and immigration status.
Pharis was apparently asleep in her Santa Maria home after working the night shift at an office that serves as a satellite to Vandenberg Air Force Base when two men broke in at around 9:45 a.m. They bashed her with a claw hammer and then strangled and raped her with a “foreign object,” according to the report. They then left her to die. Pharis was able to call 911, but she eventually passed away in the hospital.
Police have arrested two men: 29-year-old Victor Aureliano Martinez Ramirez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who has been arrested six times in just 15 months for violent crimes and drug charges, and 20-year-old Joe Fernando Villagomez.
Ramirez had been arrested just eight days earlier, according to the report.
The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement had declined to issue an immigration detainer leader to deportation for Ramirez after his most recent arrest because a review of his case history had indicated no prior deportations or felony convictions. However, ICE did in fact do so back in May 2014 when he was arrested then. But even though they had asked police to be notified of his release, the police did so without notice, they argue.
