On March 30, 2007, in Virginia Beach, Va., a Mexican national named Alfredo Ramos slammed into the rear of a vehicle in which Allison Kuhnhardt, 17 and Tessa Tranchant, 16 were stopped, while waiting at a red light. Ramos, 22, was traveling at a high rate of speed and was drunk at the time. He actually had nearly a .24 blood-alcohol level and could barely see the police officers in front of him. The two high school students had to be cut from their crumpled car and both later died after being taken to the hospital. Ramos suffered only a busted lip.
Though an illegal alien, Alfredo Ramos had been living in Virginia Beach for quite a while and worked at local a Mexican restaurant known as Mi Casita. Ramos had been previously convicted of three separate charges of public intoxication, identity theft, and even a DUI, but continued to live in the area. He speaks only Spanish and required an interpreter at all of his court proceedings.
While Ramos had already been convicted of a DUI, Virginia Beach policy at the time, dictated that an illegal alien be convicted of three DUI's before police would report them to federal immigration authorities. Virginia Beach police have since taken a more active role in determining the citizenship of those they arrest.
Tessa Tranchant's brother Dylan had only been home from Iraq for two weeks, when his sister was killed. Dylan was tasked with identifying his little sister's body. The case gained national fame thanks to the reporting of Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.
Ramos was eventually sentenced to 24 years in prison on two counts of aggravated manslaughter. He will be deported upon completion of his sentence.
In 2008, I interviewed Ray Tranchant, Tessa’s dad. What follows is the text of that interview:
1)How are you and your family coping with this terrible loss?
It is the biggest challenge of my life. I have been through some hard but fun times being a retired Naval officer, Annapolis graduate, Aircraft Carrier aviator, public school teacher, and now College administrator. The challenges these career paths have taken me pale in comparison to losing a little girl.
If you have suffered a loss of someone close to you that is totally unexpected (death sometimes is more predictable with serious illnesses, age, or severe accidents), no matter what the reason, it is at first almost surreal.
My ex-wife Colette, Kelsey,15 and Dylan, 25 were swept with total emotion and grief immediately and I chose to compartmentalize and suppress my grief so that the task at hand (funeral arrangements, family, and my job) were taken care of. I suffer still, but need help from friends and God to cope. Colette still understandably breaks down a lot and Kelsey is angry about many things in life that I don’t think would have bothered her if her sister were still alive. Dylan moved away from the area and chose to go to a College in Washington D.C. about 200 miles from Virginia Beach. He is an artist and will undoubtedly express himself with music and drawings. All of us are undergoing Therapy and need various medications.
2) What kind of kid was Tessa?
Tessa was a free spirit, and had many gifts, like emotional intelligence. She was very attractive and was everyone’s friend (a social animal that got up at 4:00am in the morning to get ready for High School), a gifted Irish step dancer, and a good surfer, had a great voice, and tickled me with her laugh. She loved comedies; anything with Ben Stiller, Will Farrell, Dave Chappell, Mike Myers, and Borat.
When she smiled, my heart always skipped a beat. She was truly loved by everyone who spent any time with her.
She is buried next to her friend Ali Kunhardt in Princess Anne Memorial Park, next to a statue of an angel. I visit her every Friday, the night she was killed.
The crash site on Virginia Beach BLVD. continues to be a memorial by the community, it always has flowers, balloons, notes and pictures, and has for the past 1.5 years.
3) Are you angry with the local city governments for their role in allowing Ramos to stay in this country?
I am not angry but very disappointed that Ramos was not deported after two previous offenses. He admitted he was an illegal immigrant, admitted that he purchased a fake driver’s license from Florida, and nearly killed a Chesapeake, Virginia police officer with a head-on collision the second time he was arrested. Judge Whitehurst from Chesapeake gave him a fine and he walked. His roommate, a woman with a small baby who shared an apartment out of convenience with Ramos, said essentially that Ramos was not worried or fazed with the Whitehurst hearing and continued to come home drunk every night. Apparently he wasn’t worried about being deported or even the need to get sober, because he continued the same behavior, which ultimately killed Tessa and Ali.
I am disappointed at the way the municipalities, the Commonwealth, and the Federal Government interact with immigration issues. Enforcement varies from city to city and state to state, and all of the states that interact with ICE claim that they get no support once ICE is notified. Of course ICE want to do their job, but they are greatly outnumbered and don’t have the funds to integrate criminal databases to catch criminal illegal offenders. Some of the illegals have been quoted as saying, after receiving jail time and even deportation: “don’t worry. I’ll be back!†What kind of finger pointing, “not my job†system have we created, or let’s just say allowed to evolve into an unmanageable monster?
That’s why I’m interested in holding them all accountable with a law suit that would ultimately hold their feet to the fire and standardize these strung out policies.
How can we have sanctuary cities or mayors of these cities that take the law into their own hands?
Like the Mayor of San Francisco who endorsed two juvenile illegal immigrants with drug offenses to be flown back to Honduras by the Mayor’s administration? How can any man bypass federal law? Why aren’t the politicians serving time for violating federal law? Who can answer this for me? I thought this was America, one land, one set of rules.
After Tessa and Ali’s death many of the cities in Virginia changed their policy on asking the immigration status of people who are arrested. I am thankful for this, but it won’t bring back Tessa. I sure hope it helps others from losing their children.
4) Have the circumstances of your daughter's death been accurately reported by the media?
I think the media has done a good job reporting the facts. I think that FOX News, O’Reilly, Glen Beck on MSNBC, and Laura Ingram on FOX were very gracious in letting me tell our story. When the deaths happened, Virginia Beach seemed more worried about the mudslinging with O’Reilly than admitting that the system was broken and change needed to be on the horizon. Even the Governor of Virginia has not come out with a policy on illegal immigration.
However Virginia’s attorney general, who is elected and not appointed, has clarified the current law that allows local police departments to check and inquire about the immigration status of the arrestee. That is what it’s like in a state where bi-partisan politics prevent a compromise or a solution to many public problems.
5) Did you ever see Alfredo Ramos display any remorse for his crime?
And what would you say to him?
No and I have a feeling that is why Judge Shadrick gave him 40 years in prison.
6) How has this tragedy changed your life?
I am more compassionate with my fellow man, I walk and talk to God more often and with more conviction, and I try to look at the big picture more than I used to before the deaths. I try not to get bogged down with the small details that won’t matter in the long run, and finally, I see how fragile life really is.
7) Have you become active in the debate over illegal immigration?
I am on the Congressional Alien Criminal Task Force with Rep’s Drake, Cantor, Wittman and Forbes.
I have spoken on 3 national news shows about my views and hope to get more time.
8) Is there anything you would like to say to President Bush?
The Executive Branch, including the Attorney General, needs to enforce with clarity the current laws, which would require deportation of any illegal alien criminal.
They need to secure the borders with more than a structure. We secure (and I mean secure!) thousands of miles of top secret military installations in America (area 51 is a good example) with the most sophisticated electronics and sensors that allow the interceptors to pinpoint the intruders and concentrate air and ground assets to interdict swiftly.
Finally, Homeland security and ICE can provide digital fingerprint databases to municipalities so when any person, including a suspected illegal, can be fingerprinted then identified by face, alias, and criminal record. If it is an illegal and they have committed a crime, arrest and deport. Their ticket to America is over.
If theme parks like Bush Gardens, Williamsburg, can keep a digital fingerprint on file to verify your ticket, and entrance to the theme park is a fingerprint scan (they did this to 3.5 million visitors last year) I think the Government can do it as well!
9) What would you like to hear from candidates John McCain and Barack Obama?
That they will make an effort to stop the two major parties from bickering over the solution with a strong bi-partisan committee. Both parties are going to have to give and take.
One final thought. When the War is over, and some day it will be, what are we going to do with the upward of 100,000 troops that will be laid off just like the last Gulf War? The economy took a hiccup last time in the early 90’s. I propose that we move a great deal of these troops to our borders and gradually let them go until they were completely secure. Border patrol would certainly be a welcome place compared to Iraq, and the troop strength would not diminish in case of need again. Also, protecting America is a good mission.
End.
I want to take the opportunity to once again publicly thank Ray Tranchant for taking the time to talk with me about this most painful and senseless loss. I told Ray that I too am a dad, and it was tough for me to even write-out my questions to him. This story has deeply touched and angered me. This could happen to any family, anywhere in this country. Considering the obvious unwillingness of our elected officials to defend our border and remove illegal alien criminals from our cities, this type of tragedy will hit lots of folks.
The next time you hear someone make the claim that illegal immigration is a 'victim-less' crime...please remind them of these two girls. Â
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