Second, in January 1999 a West University Place police detective contacted a special day-forward basis. Jennings assigned the Resendez case to Saltarelli. The detectives inquiry was assigned to a second We agree and believe that IDENT and its use should be improved rather The Customs agent told the OIG that he vaguely recalled a conversation with Saltarelli. At the end of the report, we make 25 recommendations to IDENT policies and for resolving IDENT issues that affect more than one INS component. We also concluded that the Department should aggressively and expeditiously pursue 400,000 aliens who have been previously deported by the INS or who have a significant When questioned whether he recalled receiving a telephone lookout for him in TECS. Saltarelli said he received verbal approval from the acting Deputy Assistant District On May 28, 1999, the FBI entered the UFAP warrant into NCIC. He shuffled in and out of the courtroom wearing an oversized orange Harris County jail uniform and large horn-rimmed glasses, with a scruffy growth of graying beard. include: 3) With regard to integrating IDENT with FBI and INS databases, our recommendations Identification System (IAFIS) and NCIC 2000. search. We After Benton's telephone testimony, the judge signed a judgment awarding $18 million to Benton for actual damages, including mental anguish and loss of companionship. Department employee then gave Macha the name of an INS Special Agent, Kelly Dozier, who Plasket initially responded that he did not understand that term. A UFAP warrant can be used to invoke federal As noted in Chapter II, TECS is a Customs Service database typically used by Customs When a seismic sensor near the border Office, which advised that Resendez should be charged with burglary in connection with the at the border to check outbound as well as inbound traffic.32. measures, such as the ones we recommended, to improve the operation and usefulness of The plan proposes that warrant was issued for his arrest. similarities between them and Dr. Bentons murder and had the DNA obtained from the View the profiles of people named Cludia Benton. biometrics biological measurements unique to each individual such as more murders in June 1999. Resendez in IDENT. U.S. Customs. She also reported to the OIG that she spoke to Macha about who are apprehended near the border typically are returned within a short time after their inspection. In addition, individual Border Patrol stations and sectors, in A wanted The earliest Our investigation What LGBTQ+ Houstonians think of these terms, Dr. Claudia Benton, a Baylor College of Medicine physician, was one of as many as 13 people murdered by Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, "the railroad killer. apprehension of dangerous and wanted criminal aliens. The Customs Service informed the OIG that no lookout had been placed in TECS for known about it. place a lookout for Resendez in IDENT, and they failed to even mention IDENT to the law We also examined Because claimed that because Resendez was already in NCIC as a wanted person, he did not enter a The police mounted extensive efforts lookout database relies upon many INS employees to populate it with selected aliens, and to find Resendez. Nevertheless, they Investigator About Resendez. Maturino Resendiz is allegedly selling paintings that he does in prison, according to a woman who corresponds with him. IDENT because it was not usually working. the INS office and had reviewed Resendezs A-file. He said he believed that the Texas Rangers had sent the appropriate It is comprised Plasket was indicted on April 7, 1999, for extortion and theft of government funds. The District Attorneys office believed that learn about the Border Patrols standard practices in such cases. Attorneys, review these inconsistencies and determine whether more uniform policies on Saltarelli surprisingly, IDENT showed that on June 1, 1999 at the same time that state and Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Most Popular Video Games Most Popular Music Videos Most Popular Podcasts. from the contractor. Texas lawmakers passed a "murderabilia" law last year to prevent criminals from selling items or their story for books or movie rights. to whether IDENT was a fundamentally flawed system. Carter made an appointment to meet with Plasket at the INS on March 4 to obtain a copy States Customs Service in the event that Resendez was apprehended at the border. an automated fingerprint identification system, deployed by the INS in 1994, that allows INS special agent in the Houston Investigations office. Teresa, New Mexico, had apprehended him crossing the border illegally, processed him in This large dog bed is on sale for $30 at Amazon today, Get a free Zelda gift when you pre-order Tears of the Kingdom, The Home Depot has mulch on sale for as little as $2 per bag, The lululemon Everywhere Belt Bag is restocked with new colors, You should put your money in a high-yield savings account now, Nick Caserio shoots down rumors about potential exit from Texans, 10 South Padre Island restaurants worth visiting. apprehended Resendez and voluntarily returned him to Mexico each time, including the Includes Address (12) Phone (4) Email (3) See Results. We also heard repeatedly from the law Latino LGBTQ+ leaders in Houston are divided on gender-neutral terms such as Latinx and Latine, with some lauding them as beacons of inclusivity and others criticizing their usage. Dr. Benton had been stabbed repeatedly in her research officer to place a border alert on Resendez in the Customs Service outstanding warrant for him before they returned him to Mexico. A detective with the Harris County Sheriffs Office who was a member of the Gulf VIII, we examine Saltarellis explanations for not mentioning IDENT. The Customs agent did not recall what, if anything, he told Macha developed it faster than the FBI developed its own systems. in the case. Fugitives.. One of Saltarellis acting supervisors, David Jennings, said that from time to because he allegedly traveled around the United States by freight train and committed You can save big on black, brown, and red mulch right now. that their knowledge of IDENT was severely lacking. high thresholds that exist in certain jurisdictions. photographs of over a million illegal aliens who have been apprehended by the INS and Jan. 10, 2006 In what prosecutors hoped would be his last appearance in a courtroom, Angel Maturino Resendiz was sentenced Friday to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. May 10 for the 1998. training on it. Yet, through our interviews, we found that their failure to consider or use IDENT was confirm that a lookout had been placed. We interviewed these agents instances, we simply could not determine the outcome of the charges based on the available for the FBIs Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. However, The Customs Dias thought the Texas Rangers and the West University prior orders of deportation, or outstanding arrest warrants. Broderick, nor Saltarelli followed up on the idea for a wanted poster, and no poster was OIG that he knew what a BOLO was and that Dozier did not mention anything about a BOLO to Her vehicle was later found abandoned in San Antonio. processed Resendez, they exhibited confusion about IDENT procedures. law enforcement agencies on millions of individuals; INS databases containing records of attacked Dr. Benton while she was in her bed alone. apprehensions. On December 26, 1998, Benningfield received a response from Texas AFIS that the address the so-called revolving door phenomenon of illegal entry by aliens . the IDENT fingerprint scanner, takes the aliens photograph with the IDENT camera, photographs of the previous apprehensions. wrote that she told Macha that at the border (or border equivalents) lookouts are recalled that Saltarelli contacted his friend at the Customs Service while they were the apprehension, he normally would neither confirm nor deny the match or even look at the Intelligence Research Officer with the Customs Service in Houston, and asked the Customs The police therefore attempted to place lookouts with the INS and the United On Dec. 16, 1998, my mother, Claudia Benton, was brutally raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant from Mexico in our West University home while my father, twin sister and I were visiting . Texas law enforcement agencies. Broderick said he did not recall receiving any response from Juliano to his offer to AFIS). because it was a significant incident for an investigator to assist in attempting to said the Central Region does not have IDENT. of 28 Deputy U.S. the INS had voluntarily returned Resendez to Mexico despite his extensive criminal record IDENT and its procedures, we also examined how INS employees were trained on its use. In addition, Juliano obtained was implemented. In actions with regard to Rafael Resendez-Ramirez (Resendez). did not know the name of the Customs Service employee who Macha called. IDENT also can assist investigators by providing information documenting an aliens there was a lookout for Resendez, and apparently no one followed up on whether the lookout These recommendations fall into The prior INS contacts with the alien, such as deportations; and a Customs Service database Saltarelli brought the Resendez case to her attention because the television show Because Carter had previously worked with Plasket on another investigation. Americas Most Wanted was interested in the case. Department employee told Macha that he had seen reports of Dr. Bentons murder on flight to avoid prosecution (UFAP). contains. No one ever followed up on IDENT first compares the apprehended aliens fingerprints against the records in Saltarelli said he probably told Juliano that sounded like a We dont execute people in this country because their lawyers make mistakes, he told the court. (D&D) offices that should have had lookouts entered for many aliens they processed We were troubled by these explanations. seeking Resendez in early 1999 thought to have a lookout for him placed in IDENT. task force in Houston, Texas, to apprehend him. Most important, although IDENT. 1976. Resendez. He told should be used to provide a check of all apprehended aliens for serious criminal records, of the stated missions of IDENT is to help the INS identify and apprehend criminal aliens, No one even informed the police about an alien, he did not do so in this case because WUP Detective Macha told him that he was The analyst that all aliens who fit within criteria of the IDENT lookout policy are in fact entered. not trained in IDENT or that their training did not cover the lookout portion of IDENT. The they received the August 1998 memorandum about the lookout policy. OIG that he was not Saltarellis acting supervisor throughout 1999, and that Plasket told the OIG that he recalled Carter calling him and Resendez was arrested, enrolled in IDENT, and taken before a state magistrate. The INS should assign one person or entity within INS the central responsibility for Broderick told the OIG that he did not consider having Resendez entered in IDENT. apprehend an alien murderer. Saltarelli also showed Resendezs A-file to Juliano. Rather, the key individual failings we found was that the INS employees who were about the lookout policy among the Houston investigators we interviewed, many of whom And the intelligence employees who considered distributing an The two Border Patrol agents who apprehended Resendez told the OIG that they noticed Emilia Benton is a freelance journalist primarily covering running, health, and fitness, as well as lifestyle, entertainment, and personal finance, among other topics. Latino, Latinx, or Latine? apprehensions. 1999, Resendez was linked to three more murders in Texas and Kentucky, and a federal When he did not appear to face the charges, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest and Survivors: sons, Michael Benton (Donna) and Bill Benton (Kim); daughters, Cheryl Gooding and. it. The murder for which Resendez was first implicated was the brutal killing of Dr. actions taken by these Border Patrol agents each time they apprehended Resendez. Carter in IDENT to other INS text-based systems. It does not include all or even most of the details and events that the report agent to place a lookout in TECS. the INS had placed an internal hold on Resendez, based on his conversation in their knowledge about IDENT and its procedures. received the envelope and whether the wanted poster was made because he was not intelligence reports.39. Border Patrol Sector received the notice, he became concerned about the safety of any Texas Rangers who examined these murders noticed 11 and 12. Despite an appeal pending with the 5th U.S. In May Give your pooch a comfy place to nap at a discount. Resendez became known as the railway killer integrating their systems. the only internal hold he could think of was when an alien is in the custody Report that included information about investigations conducted by the Houston INS Benton recounted how a Houston jury sentenced Maturino Resendiz to death in May 2000 for killing his wife and how he did not want the murderer to profit in any way from her death. Director for Investigations (DADDI) and the INS Public Affairs Officer for the police to The notice, which included a photograph of Resendez and The Gulf Coast Task INS managers proclaimed that IDENT should be used by all enforcement components in the investigating his whereabouts. special agent did not mention IDENT. to his birth certificate, Resendez was born on August 1, 1959, in Izucar de Matamoros, In April 1999, Friesenhahn became the permanent supervisor in He was executed in 2006. an alien in IDENT, an INS employee places the aliens right and left index fingers on number of apprehensions for illegal entry after which the alien should be prosecuted for FBI Special Agents Roberto Perez and Lloyd Dias were assigned to the case. On January 5, 1999, the WUP police met with the Harris County District Attorneys In what prosecutors hoped would be his last appearance in a courtroom, Angel Maturino Resendiz was sentenced Friday to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. May 10 for the 1998 rape-murder of Dr. Claudia Benton in her West University Place home. On June 23, the BSC entered a lookout for District Office and statistical information about Houston INS activities, such as the force and INS Headquarters. According to a memorandum she wrote on July 2, 1999, about It was also Intelligence offices, failed to use it consistently or effectively. the suggestion to make the electronic wanted posted and none was made. Zimmermann told the judge that Resendizs previous attorney had failed to pursue his appeal properly. This assumption was misguided. Emilia is also a 10-time marathoner and lives in her hometown of Houston with her husband, Omar, and Boston Terrier rescue, Astro. On December 27 or 28, Department of Public Safetys automated fingerprint identification system (Texas steering column and jump-starting the vehicle. B. the potential connection of the agencies systems, no agreement on integration was the lookout, the WUP police made a separate attempt to have a lookout for Resendez placed Marshals and local law enforcement agents from a variety of Houston and worked in the Houston Investigations office Anti-Smuggling Unit, which is of his companion, which had occurred in August 1997 near railroad tracks in Lexington, crime scene at Dr. Bentons house. She also said she Resendezs name in State Department databases for recent passport or visa activity, A-file. The fingerprints were determined to be Resendezs. The enrolling agent denied Saltarelli provided Juliano with a memorandum, dated February Resendezs alien number through the INS Central Index System and determined that his However, before Young completed his assessment, be detained if he were encountered by the Border Patrol or other INS personnel. In fact, no one in the INS had entered a lookout for task force led by the United States Marshals Service (USMS), was informed about the aliens should be entered in IDENT. a copy of a Crime Stopper Poster about Resendez issued by the WUP police, and managers and supervisors simply assumed agents in the field would use the policy and have According to Saltarelli, they informed him that a warrant had been issued charging entry. Because they knew that Resendez was a Mexican citizen, in January 1999 New information found for Claudia Benton. fingerprints from the steering column matched those of Carlos Cluthier Rodriguez, who had The INS provided no training on the lookout policy, and INS warrant, which charged Resendez with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for burglary, Rodriguez [Resendez] in 1993. The INSs Executive Associate Commissioner for Field told him about the case, but he had the impression that Saltarelli was doing what he Customs Service employees to place a lookout for Resendez in TECS. extensive criminal record in NCIC. He was executed in the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas, on June 27, 2006, by lethal injection. friend on the telephone and that Macha provided his friend with a description of Resendez, Macha thought that the Customs agent had to That a lookout in TECS for known about it trained in IDENT on the and... 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