CAN NATURALIZED CRIMINALS BE SUBJECT TO DEPORTATION?

(The following is written by Carlos and Esther Reyes whose son Ivan was shot and killed by fellow corrections guard Marco Antonio Gonzalez. Gonzalez was acquitted of the murder and later convicted on nine counts of aggravated assault resulting from a seven-hour standoff with law enforcement officers and is serving the remnants of a five-year sentence. This letter is written to Cameron County Republican Party chair Morgan Graham.)

By Carlos and Esther Reyes

Special to El Rrun-Rrun
We are encouraged to see that you took time from your busy schedule to listen to us and discuss what can be done to prevent such a thing from happening to anyone else’s child.

There were many things that went wrong in the system which resulted in our son’s death. We have learned that after our son’s death at the hands of his co-worker the Cameron County Sheriff’s Dept. has instituted a background check going back 10 years of all employees. 

This was done after it was learned that Gonzalez had documented treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction at Valley Baptist Hospital and this was not detected by the department.

We have learned that a Dr. Venegas was the physician who treated him and has that documentation. He was also treated for mental disability caused by his addiction.

As we said during our meeting, when Gonzalez arrived at the home of Monica Robles, he had already called her at about 2 a.m. in the morning and threatened that he would kill anyone who was there with her. 

That proof was collected by a communications tower in the area. One of the neighbors who was never called by the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office to testify told us that he had called her and told her to stay inside because there would be hell to pay (un desmadre).

The shooting of our son by Gonzalez was clearly premeditated since he carried four magazines loaded with 40 bullets each. When he shot Ivan, the forensic examiner testified that he could have survived had he received medical attention. However, when Monica tried to use the cell phone to call for medical assistance, he made her hang up and then followed him as he tried to leave the house and shot him on the head, killing him.

When her brother arrived and tried to call, Gonzalez fired twice and missed him.

Clearly, he was not acting in self-defense as his attorney Ernesto Gamez led the jury to believe.

We have also been told that he is still harboring thoughts of revenge against us after we interceded with the Parole Board to deny him conditional release. A person close to him has been told that we will pay after he gets out for having opposed his release.

This man continues to be a danger to the community and should not be released. Ideally, there should be a way to allow the state or federal government to deport him from this country. As we said before, he took an oath to obey the laws of this country and has not held up his promise. He also took an oath as a corrections officer to uphold the U.S. Constitution, an oath he clearly violated when he took the life of a fellow corrections officer.

We hope that through your efforts we can do something to prevent people like our son’s killer from being able to continue to terrorize our community and hurt innocent people. Toward that end, we stand ready to assist you in any way we can.