House Hearing Remembers Victims of Open Borders

The immigration hearing held Friday in Gastonburg, North Carolina, was notable for welcoming a victim of open borders to testify, namely Emily Moose. She was the mother of Scott Gardner, who was killed by a previously arrested drunk-driving illegal alien.

Scott was a teacher, baseball coach and father of two young children. Just before his death, he had been ordained as a deacon in the First Baptist Church. (See the family website of remembrance and activism at the Gardner Family Circle [1].)

The mother [2] of a Gaston County teacher who died in a July 2005 hit-and-run crash in Brunswick County caused by an illegal immigrant pleaded with the panel for a solution.

Scott Gardner was on vacation with his family when their car was struck by a truck driven by Ramiro Gallegos, who was intoxicated and had a history of drunken driving arrests.

Wife Tina Gardner remains in a vegetative state at a nursing home, her mother-in-law Emily Moose said Friday. The couple's two young children are effectively orphaned.

Gallegos was sentenced earlier this year to 14 to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of second-degree murder.

"If you break the law to get here, you're not going to respect the law once you're here," [Rep. Patrick] McHenry said.
[Using local law to stem illegals is just a stopgap, panel hears [3], News & Observer, 8/26/06]

Also attending the hearing was Rep. Sue Myrick [4], who introduced the Scott Gardner Act [5] on September 14, 2005. She was disturbed by the case, in which an illegal alien who had been arrested several times for DUI [6] was not deported and went on to destroy a young family.

Her bill requires that an illegal alien convicted of driving drunk [7] be automatically deported. The legislation was successfully added as an amendment [8] to the House immigration bill.

As Rep. Myrick stated when introducing the bill, "You're drunk, you're driving, you're illegal, you're deported, period." [9]

It is legislation that will absolutely save lives [10] if signed into law.