The man accused of murdering two engaged South Boston doctors is now facing questions of deportation.
Boston Police confirmed that the suspect, Bampumin Texiera, had committed two previous crimes and is in the United States illegally. Following the release of this information were outcries of deportation.
Former Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral joined Margery Eagan and Jim Braude on Boston Public Radio to discuss the issue.
Cabral referenced her time as a prosecutor and how standards on immigrant crime deportation may have changed.
“When I was a prosecutor, the Feds had to show two crimes of moral turpitude. That was the standard. It didn’t matter so much between misdemeanor or felony, if the crime was a crime of moral turpitude. You could argue, aside from traffic violations, most crimes are crimes of moral turpitude,” Cabral said.
Cabral also noted that cases such as this are not as easy to prosecute as they may seem.
“There’s a reason they say hard cases make bad law. I am not defending this particular defendant or any of the horrible things he did, but hard cases do make bad law. Put Texiera aside and anyone else who has gotten a sentence of 364 days and people react differently to different types of crimes. Then you’re saying everybody should be deported,” Cabral said.
Cabral further alluded that to target immigrants like this may create larger problems for communities in the future.
“The bottom line is that you just don’t know. And unless you are willing to target whole populations and not just immigrants on some of this stuff as to how you’re going to proceed just on the off chance that someone who commits a crime once might be inclined to commit a more serious crime, then you end up essentially with a police state,” Cabral said.
Police have established that the suspect and the couple had no personal relationship and are still determining if the parties had any prior contact before the killings.
Dr. Lina Bolanos worked as a pediatric anesthesiologist at Mass. Eye and Ear while Dr. Richard S. Field was a doctor at the North Shore Pain Management. The couple were set to marry later this year.
The funeral service for the two doctors will be held this Friday at the Gate of Heaven church in the neighborhood where the couple lived.
Andrea Cabral is the former Sheriff of Suffolk County and Secretary of Public Safety. To hear their full conversation with Boston Public Radio, click on the audio player above.
