Illegal Immigrant Escapes Punishment

Imagine you were an illegal immigrant. Imagine you were caught driving drunk going the wrong way on I-43. Imagine you were charged with the following (spoken through an interpreter, because you don't speak English...at least not well enough for a valid court proceeding)

1. Operating without a valid license
2. Operating a motor vehicle without insurance
3. Reckless driving - endangering safety
4. Driving wrong way on a divided highway
5. Operating w/ PAC >=0.15
6. OWI
7. 2nd Degree recklessly endangering safety

One would think you'd be screwed, right? WRONG!!!

On July 21, Armando Rodriguez-Benitez, 35, was pulled over by authorities for driving with a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit while headed in the wrong direction on the I-43, the paper reported. An oncoming car was forced to intentionally crash into the median wall to avoid a head-on collision with the intoxicated man's car, according to the report.

The paper, citing online court records, reported that a county judge sentenced him to 11 months at a county jail with so-called Huber work release privileges, under a statute that allows some inmates to leave jail to maintain their employment while serving out their sentence.

Sheriff David Clarke (yes, I'm a HUGE fan of his) reacts:

"Why would we let an illegal immigrant out on work release to look for a job he's not supposed to have? He's in the country illegally," Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. said, according to a report by The Journal Sentinel.

I'm sorry, but what the HELL? An ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT has 7 charges filed against him, and the PROSECUTOR dismissed charges 1-5? And of course, this being Wisconsin, the "punishment" for the OWI, to which he pled guilty, is merely a fine. As for charge number 7, the sentence is as follows:

The Court sentenced the defendant to serve a term of IMPRISONMENT of 54 MONTHS in the Wisconsin State Prisons, with credit for 77 days time served. CONFINEMENT of 30 MONTHS and EXTENDED SUPERVISION of 24 MONTHS. The Court STAYED the sentence and placed the defendant on probation to the State Department of Corrections for a period of 3 YEARS. Conditions of probation include: -Serve 11 MONTHS in the House of Correction with work release privilege (emphasis in the original)

The man is here ILLEGALLY, has no valid license, is drunk and driving the wrong way on a highway causing an innocent party to crash, and he gets 11 MONTHS IN JAIL WITH WORK RELEASE PRIVILEGES?? Are you KIDDING me??? What are the chances you or I would receive the same sentence? What the hell was going through the minds of the prosecutor and judge?? Why in the world was the sentence suspended? How likely is it that he will in fact be deported after serving the so-called sentence? And what, for the love of GOD, don't people understand about the word ILLEGAL. Dude's not even supposed to be here, yet he gets the privilege of working while serving this pissant sentence?

Friends, it's no wonder we have such an ILLEGAL immigration problem. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.