Rep. Kevin Yoder is taking steps to find out how Pablo Serrano-Vitorino, the man charged with four murders in Kansas City, Kansas, and one murder in Montgomery County, Missouri, was in the United States after being deported years before.
On Thursday, Yoder was on a call with Immigration and Customs Enforcement with Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer. Both sought answers to how Serrano-Vitorino was able to slip through the cracks in spite of multiple encounters with police. The Mexican national had a criminal record and was ticketed for not having a driver's license.
Local immigration attorney Michael Sharma-Crawford said, "He never necessarily had to be in custody of law enforcement. He got stopped, he got a ticket, he was allowed to leave, he went to court, he pled guilty and the court said, 'Go over to that machine and give us your fingerprints.'"
From there, Sharma-Crawford says that information goes to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and on to ICE. "So there's no way for an instant response under any circumstances for that detainer to lodge and there wouldn't have been anybody to serve because he wasn't in custody."
That answer is not good enough for Yoder, who said in a statement, "Because of that failure, ICE is overwhelmed in trying to detain and deport these criminals and mistakes are made. We can't make mistakes when lives are at stake."
The congressman attributes the breakdown to a government failure to secure its borders, going on to say, "That's why I'm going to continue to fight for a secure border to ensure the safety of innocent Americans in their lives and in their homes."
Meanwhile, Sharma-Crawford stressed, "We're not addressing the fox that's already in the hen house. It is an easy political sound bite, build a wall. But it completely ignores the situation."
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Dia Wall can be reached at dia.wall@kshb.com.
